Tenerife Magazine’s round up of some of the most interesting news stories of the week in Tenerife.
Garachico Will be a Port Again
Just over 300 years after losing its port to the lava that engulfed the pretty north western town’s harbour in 1706, Garachico will welcome visitors from the sea. The official opening of the town’s shiny new port is set to take place on May 12 and will be celebrated by a weekend of events. Let’s hope nature doesn’t spoil the party this time.
Loro Parque is 40 Years Old
Well not quite, but it will be on December 17 this year. To celebrate the anniversary, the park will be updating some of its attractions and adding a few more. First up was the revamp of the parrot show this week. Artificial trees and a sexy new lighting system has been added to help transport visitors from the current Moorish environment into a jungle atmosphere. Three new attractions due to be introduced before the park’s birthday party will be a new lizard and reptile area; an environmental classroom ““ the details of which is not clear except it will be ‘unique’ – and a brand new enclosure populated by various animals that are indigenous to South America. Among the inmates will be giant anteaters; not the best news for any ant colonies in the vicinity.
Definitely More Ketchup than Salsa
A big congratulations to our friend, the author and travel writer Joe Cawley whose book More Ketchup Than Salsa, a laugh-out-loud account of life as a British bar owner on Tenerife, knocked An Idiot Abroad off the number one spot for travel on Amazon Kindle books.
“Amazon update the rankings every hour, so it might not stay there for that long,” says Joe. “But it’s still great to get Tenerife to number one.”
We couldn’t agree more. The good news for fans of the painfully funny account of life and work amongst the bar flies of one of Tenerife’s most popular resorts is that there will be more lashings of ketchup very soon. Joe is currently penning the finishing touches to the follow-up which should be on sale from early July.
Tenerife Comes into the 20th Century
At last one Tenerife municipality is boldly going where no others have gone before (but where other parts of Europe have been for many years). La Laguna is installing devices on its pedestrian crossings to photograph drivers who run red lights having discovered that their introduction reduced accidents by up to 60% in Madrid. Although they are a bit late in arriving at this particular party it’s an advancement that should be applauded. Maybe next someone will ‘discover’ that having ‘no park’ zones on either side of the crossing will cut out most of the other 40% of accidents. However, before that there will be the process of using a red squirrel wearing a blue jacket and yellow pants and then a green cross code man to educate Tenerife’s residents about road safety.
And finally the TIT (This Is Tenerife) of the week award goes to”¦ Polluted Water in the North of Tenerife
Residents in the northern municipalities between Santa Ursula and Santa Cruz were warned not to touch their water at the end of the last week (by a man in a van with a loudspeaker) after it was discovered water supplies heading to the capital from the upper reaches of the La Orotava Valley had been contaminated. The source of the contamination was said to be around three to five litres of oil that had leaked from a car on a section of private land that the water channel passed through (although there was some scepticism that this amount of oil could have led to such a level of contamination). It’s claimed that the culprit, whilst trying to fix an engine, managed to break both engine and water pipe, resulting in the water being contaminated. There’s no confirmation that the man’s name was Señor Alubia (really bad joke).
Local outrage was heightened by the fact that samples of the contaminated water had to be sent to Gran Canaria to be analysed: A) because it slowed the process down, delaying when residents were told their water was safe for consumption again and B) because it really annoys Tinerfeños when their island neighbours and rivals can do something they can’t.
