Tenerife Magazine’s round up of some of the most interesting news stories of the week in Tenerife.
No Homes, No Food
The political situation regarding the residents of the small coastal community of Cho Vito took a turn for the worse this week when some residents began a hunger strike protest in Plaza Candelaria in Santa Cruz.
The six hunger strikers, representing the community, insist they will not eat again until the government stops destroying the little community which fell foul of the Ley de Costas; a law that seems to be causing as much havoc as good all over Spain. Twenty homes were destroyed in Cho Vito in October 2008 and the threatened demolition of the remaining buildings has made Cho Vito a political hot potato.
The mayor of Candelaria where Cho Vito is (was) located has assured residents that they wont end up homeless, and has asked them to give up the strike until the fate of the last few houses in Cho Vito is decided at a meeting on 20 September. However, unlike their houses, the strikers are standing firm and refusing to give up their protest unless their homes are left alone.
The Wild Bunch
Events on Tenerife’s neighbour La Gomera have illustrated that abandoning unwanted dogs in wild is not only a cowardly and cruel act, it can also result in devastating consequences. A pack of abandoned dogs have killed at least 50 goats and sheep since the beginning of the year, with twenty being slaughtered in the last two months. Some farmers have reporrted finding mauled livestock every day and accusations are being made against the authorities for not taking strong enough action to solve the problem of the wild dogs. Clearly the real villains here are the hunters who abandon dogs in the first place. As some hunters are also farmers there’s an ironic possibilty that their actions have might just have come back to bite them.
New Kid on the Block
A decade ago much of it didn’t even exist, but in the first six months of 2010 as the new number one destination on the island, Costa Adeje attracted a whopping great 35% of all of Tenerife’s visitors. Costa Adeje was just ahead of neighbours and rivals Arona, home to the tourist hotspots of Playa de las Américas and Los Cristianos.
Interestingly some of the biggest increases in visitors have been to four and five star hotels, which have reported a 10% rise compared to the same period last year.
In related news, ASHOTEL reported that the recent Spanish Superstar Singer Alejandro Sanz’s concert in Adeje had resulted in 90% hotel occupancy in the area in the days around his performance. This prompted cries for more concerts from big name stars from some, whilst others including Ricardo Cáceres, director of Hotel Villa Cortes where Sanz stayed, exercised caution, pointing out that concerts like this only resulted in hotels being filled for a couple of nights. Still, it’s positive news for tourism on Tenerife whichever way you look at it.
Careful Canarians
A report carried out by the Center for Strategic Studies recently discovered that when it came to forking out for leisure, entertainment and cultural activities, residents of the Canary Islands were some of the most tight-fisted in Spain. Canarians spend on average €148 a year on having fun (not good news if you’ve just opened a bar in a traditional area), the third lowest spenders in Spain. The biggest spenders were people in Navarra who shelled out €1004 per year ““ that’s clearly the place to go for culture and cocktails. Looks as though Tenerife shares more than just its flag with Scotland.
And finally the TIT (This Is Tenerife) of the week award goes to… the planners of coastal development in El Sauzal
This is just so Tenerife that if it was anywhere else you’d swear it was made up.
The Coastal Department of the Medio Ambiente, Canarian Government and El Sauzal Council have invested six million euros improving the coastal areas of El Sauzal in an attempt to make the stunning coastline more of a draw to visitors.
So far around 400 illegal buildings have been demolished, a pedestrian promenade running for 1.5 miles has been created and a small car park has been built.
But here’s the punchline. Anyone wanting to enjoy the area can only get to it on foot. The access road was destroyed along with the illegal buildings, so at the moment getting there involves a twenty minute hike from the nearest road.
A car park with no road leading to it. Even on an island that is officially surreal that takes some beating.
