The Tenerife Symphony Orchestra will be presenting a concert in south Tenerife once again in its third chamber music cycle. The performance is on 20 June at 8.30pm in the Valle San Lorenzo cultural centre. Entry to the concert is free, and those who attend will hear the following programme:

Update 18 June: A promise given yesterday by the Tenerife Cabildo that it will provide the abattoir with €200,000 to clear the backlog of workers’ wages has been met with total scepticism. The abattoir workers say they are not convinced by the promise and that the strike will continue if May’s wages are not in place by the 27th of June. The Cabildo minister for Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca, José Joaquín Bethencourt, says that the strike is unjustified because the payment will be made very soon – depending on bank negotiations. Rubén Bonilla, member of the abattoir’s works committee, however, says that the Cabildo has already “guaranteed” the payment previously – and that the employees were still waiting for it, and so they had no faith in the Cabildo’s ability or willingness to pay.

That lack of faith is understandable, indeed, since Sr Bethencourt’s vague promise of money “soon” was accompanied by the equally vague comment that the future of the abattoir would have to be “discussed” because “one has to adapt to current circumstances”. Sr Bethencourt blamed the abattoir workers for their “astronomical” pay demands and said that they should be reasonable given the exigencies of the market, which have resulted in low profit margins and reduced consumption. Unions say that these “sky high wage negotiations” saw rises in workers’ income from €600 to up to a maximum of €1,000 per month – €12,000 or so per annum. I’m not sure how many would agree with the Cabildo that this is unreasonable, particularly when we see Canarian municipal politicians’ salaries in the tens of thousands  - accompanied by claims recently that it’s not enough and that “if you pay peanuts you get monkeys”.

One would have hoped that in the current circumstances – i.e. in the middle of the second decade of the 21st century, even in economically hard times and in a remote corner of Europe – the concept of a decent day’s pay – or even any pay - for a decent day’s work was a concept recognized to be as natural and normal as the sun in the sky. Apparently not. Workers say they’ll lift the strike and return to work when they see money in the bank. I for one don’t blame them.

Original post 15 June: The 42 employees in the Matadero Insular, Tenerife’s only abattoir in La Laguna, have gone on indefinite strike because they have not been paid since January. The workers say that when they failed to be paid in May, and were then told that June’s extra payment was not going to be made – and indeed that there was no money to pay them for the rest of the year – it was the straw that broke the camel’s back and so they decided, in desperation, to call the strike.

The island’s abattoir workers are hardly coining it in, earning less than €1,000 a month, and without even those wages coming in for the last four and a half months they are in dire straits, many of them now fearing eviction because they have got behind with their mortgages. A major part of the problem seems to be that the abattoir is dependent on the Cabildo, and there is no public money. Privatization is a possibility, but sources say that with meat prices so low there is little commercial appetite for such a business. Meanwhile, the fresh meat shelves could start looking quite thin.

Those who know me have all heard about the Corner family, comprising Mr & Mrs C, and Miss & Master C, and the Rose family who live in the original cottage wall under an ancient rose bush that has refused all efforts to dislodge it, and also Joe Smallweed, the cross lizard with the brightest coat imaginable (hence Joseph of the dreamcoat and Smallweed, the little ball of bitterness, from Dickens’ Bleak House). Many are also familiar with the giant lagarto of El Hierro …

but none of them come close to the largest lizard in the Canaries, which is found in Gran Canaria. Some building works have uncovered a whole tribe of them, and the local Ayuntamiento has authorized their transfer to an area where their survival will be guaranteed. Some 500 have been moved to fincas with walls and orchards full of fruit trees … paradise for lizards! I don’t have permission to post the photo, but have a look HERE! Simply amazing. There’s also a video above of the GC lizard.

Update 17 June: And now, the sunbed issue is in the Courts. Councillor José Antonio Reverón (not the former mayor, who is José Alberto González Reverón) had just finished testifying in the Caso Arona (the latest in which scandal saw some 20-odd senior Arona Ayuntamiento officials have their corruption case trials confirmed and their appeals rejected just the other day), when he put what we might call the sunbeds case in the hands of the public prosecutor with a denuncia for corruption. Some are now just totting up the numbers of corruption cases in the Courts involving the Arona authorities. The sunbeds case is now popularly known as Caso Arona 5 …

Update 14 June: And so it continues. After sectioning off a part of the beach for private sunbed users, a move that subsequently saw rapid backtracking amidst allegations that the sunbed concession had repeatedly been deemed illegal, it now seems that this summer will find Arona’s Los Cristianos and Troya beaches without any sunbeds or umbrellas at all.

Apart from the questionable contracts, it appears that no money has been coming in to the council from the concession for over a year, leaving a financial hole in the council’s coffers of, in total when all services are taken into account, around €2,000,000. Moreover, the Ayuntamiento’s General Secretary confirmed that when the current contract expired – at the beginning of 2012 – the contract required the sunbeds to be removed.

The municipal legal chief says that the whole thing must now be put out to public tender according to recognized procedures, and insisted that the council brings to an end the current “irregular situation”, a situation evidenced by numerous reports issued since early 2011. With just a week or so now to go before the summer period formally starts, the chaos on Arona’s beaches shows no sign of improving. If anything, it is just getting worse and worse.

Update 29 April: Is Arona to be condemned for ever to live in the shadow of incompetence and maybe even worse? After the fiasco of the sectioned-off beach for the concessiary to exploit, it now appears that the contracting service of the Ayuntamiento has warned the environment department at least 26 times that, on the basis of technical reports, seasonal services on Los Cristianos and Troya beaches, and the sunbed concession on Playa de las Vistas, should be suspended because they are being run illegally. A report from the municipal Contratación service dated 25 March is categorical: “Since 7 February 2011 there have been 26 warnings that there is no legal basis for the provision of such unauthorized services and they should be ordered to be suspended”. And of course the lifguards …

What does it take … ?

Update 18 April: It seems that the Ayuntamiento is having second thoughts about putting up notices about “exclusive use” of parts of Playa de las Vistas because they are “rather aggressive”. Concejal de Medio Ambiente, Antonio Sosa, said that the council was now seeking alternatives to the notices, but not to the rule itself, because “that is specified in the conditions drawn up by the Ayuntamiento”. While announcing this, Sr Sosa also confirmed that his department had spoken with the Dept of Costas: it was a formal matter, he said, to which a solution is being sought. Why do I get the distinct feeling that Arona has overstepped the mark here, and that it’s more than just an issue about “notices”?

Original post 17 April: Arona Ayuntamiento has reserved a section of Playa de las Vistas for those who want to hire sunbeds and sun umbrellas from the resident concessionary company. The general public will no longer be able to use it without paying for a sunbed, and anyone who just wants to put down a towel will have to use the non-reserved part of the beach. These areas are expected to become rather packed in the height of summer, and criticism of the council’s move is widespread.

Despite such criticism, however, signs in both Spanish and English will soon bear witness to the privileged section reserved for those who are prepared to pay for sunbeds, and expressly prohibit leaving a towel or other belongings on the beach. Arona says the service is profitable, raising 1.3 million Euros a year for the concession less just 110,000 paid to Costas. That’s good for the council, of course, but not so good for the many people who actually want to use the beaches without being charged for the privilege.

Tenerife has its own bonfire night, on the eve of the annual midsummer fiesta of San Juan Bautista (St John the Baptist). On St John’s Eve, 23 June, Tenerife is lit up with bonfires and fireworks, and many visitors often think that a summer fire has started early. It will be no different this year, so expect to see plenty of smoke swirling above the hills throughout on Sunday.

The celebrations are far from restricted to the inland villages, however, with fires and parties on many beaches – particularly popular ones are held in El Médano and Los Cristianos, but the most spectacular will again be the celebration at the fiesta’s namesake beach, Playa San Juan. If you are near one, you might even see some people jumping over the flames three times, a rite considered to be purifying and lucky, representing a burning away of the leaper’s problems.

In Guía de Isora, the 24th, San Juan Bautista’s Day itself is a public holiday, but the largest actual celebration takes place in Puerto de la Cruz, where goat keepers from the hills above the town bring their flocks down to the coast to bathe them in the sea in the early morning. This Baño de Cabras (bathing of the goats) is a tradition that is said to date back to pre-Hispanic times, making the animals literal scapegoats whose purification in the waters will bring good fortune on their keepers and the local community.

Wherever you celebrate la Noche or el Día de San Juan, I hope you have a great and safe time.

For more information in English see Don Quijote.org

Update 16 June: The Canarian Government is to allocate €15,000,000 to enable the TF1 extension between Adeje and Las Manchas in Santiago del Teide to be completed, the Tenerife Cabildo Roads Minister, José Luis Delgado, has confirmed. The money will come from increased borrowing which will be approved by the national government before the end of June, an approval which would release some €200,000,000 in total increased debt to the Canaries. Sr Delgado said that he was confident that 2014′s budget would allocate a further €15,000,000 for the project so that the road should be open to traffic at the beginning of 2015.

Update 19 April: The Canarian Government’s Public Works minister, Domingo Berriel, has said that the motorway extension between Adeje and Santiago del Teide is too important and strategic a project for the economic development of the island to be allowed to lapse, and that it will go ahead this year despite the cuts in public funding. His comments were backed up by Tenerife Cabildo Vice President Carlos Alonso, who confirmed that the Public Works Department would find some formula over the next few weeks to allow the works to be resumed. Two possibilities that seem promising are to finance works under regional deficit, or to increase the aval conditions to provide better guarantees for contractors to continue. However they do it, they’re looking at works resuming “in a few weeks”.

Update 17 March: In January, works were “just waiting for a signature”, but now, in bad news for our infrastructure and our employment statistics, the TF1 extension and connection between Adeje and Santiago del Teide is officially paralysed. All that will be done for the foreseeable future is the placement of a bridge underneath the village of Tejina. Apart from this, the nine subcontractors of UTE Adeje-Santiago del Teide are collecting plant and material because, in their own words, “the chief of works has said that it’s finished”.

The announcement was made by Agroexcavaciones Prieto and González Casañas, two of the businesses affected. Benjamin Prieto, owner of the excavation company, said that the cessation of works in respect of the most important road infrastructure in Tenerife could leave some 200 workers out of a job, and added that they had been given to understand that the works would not go further because of the lack of funds, and had been told only to stop, with no information about when works might resume. González Casañas confirmed that “they are blocking the exits and handing over materials”.

The problem lies in the cuts in funding from Madrid to the Canaries for its road investment. Described as brutal, 2013′s funding was reduced by 74% from 207 to 54 million Euros. Mayor of Guía de Isora Pedro Martín, however, said that despite the cuts, the works could go ahead given the right priorities being drawn up by the regional Parliament. He described the lack of funds for the extension to be finished as “nonsensical”.

Update 31 January 2013: Works on the TF1 extension between Adeje and Santiago del Teide have been practically paralysed since September for the lack of a signature. So says Tenerife Cabildo consejero de Carreteras José Luis Delgado, who stressed that the stretch is almost finished, but that the installation of its two bridges is stuck for the want of authorization to begin which just needs the Canarian Government’s consejero de Obras Públicas, Domingo Berriel, to put pen to paper.

Delgado said that the papers in question had been on Berriel’s desk since September, and if money was what was really behind the delay, the works so far had cost over €150 million and would only require a further €20 million to complete. Money does seem to be the issue, indeed, since the Canarian Government’s budget for this year’s allocates only €100.000 for the ring road, an allocation that Delgado classed as “insufficient”, and an amount that might not even cover security, let alone works.

Update 3 September: Although there was doubt earlier in the year, the Canarian Government has now formally committed itself to providing funds to finish the motorway extension between Armeñime and Santiago del Teide. The works, which have been paralysed, originally had a completion date of the end of 2013, and the Cabildo says that the Government’s commitment makes that deadline feasible again. This is also when the motorway connection between Icod de Los Vinos and El Tanque comes into use, and so the dream of the Tenerife ring road is back on once again.

Original post 2 April:  The completion of the Adeje to Santiago del Teide extension of the TF1 is in doubt after national Government cuts of 64% for road projects in Tenerife. Works on several other roads are also up in the air, the Canarian Government minister for public works, Domingo Berriel, has announced.

Apart from road users, of course, among the most affected will be the actual contractors who were allocated the projects, and who the Government now fears will seek compensation for the loss of some 130 million Euros in 2012 alone – the projects were due to run to 2017.

Apart from the TF1 extension, other road works affected by the cuts include the third carriageway between Güímar and Santa Cruz, the TF1 extension between Santiago del Teide and Icod and then on to El Tanque. North Tenerife is also affected in respect of the Via Litoral in Santa Cruz, and works on the TF5 between Ofra and El Chorrillo, and Padre Anchieta to Los Rodeos.

Sr Berriel said that the regional Government was studying the possibility of an appeal to the Supreme Court or even the Constitutional Court to contest the decision for breach of agreement.

Update 23 January 2012: The President of the Canaries, Paulino Rivero, has said that the TF1 extension between Adeje and Santiago del Teide, which forms part of the island ring road, will be finished in December this year, and open to traffic probably in the first quarter of 2013. The extension will be two lanes in either direction between Armeñime (Adeje) and Tejina (Guía de Isora) and to the new port at Fonsalía, and a three lane “chicken run” between Tejina and Santiago del Teide.

Original post 13 September 2010: It was quite impressive watching it on TV as the huge drill broke through the wall of rock in the presence of the President of the Canaries, Paulino Rivero. The “tunel del Bicho” is part of the extension of the TF1, and it connects the two fronts of the work currently making good progress in Santiago del Teide and Adeje.

The tunnel, near Arguayo, has taken 10 months to excavate and is just over a kilometer long. It will reduce the journey time between the two municipalities by 17 minutes. It has cost 30 million Euros, slightly over 20% of the entire cost of the motorway link, which will eventually form part of the ring road around the whole island.

Around 90% of the route of the present section is now excavated, and the connection for the road down to the new port at Fonsalía will start shortly. ABC

Update 16 June 2013: Loro Parque has sadly announced that Vicky, the baby orca born last August, has died. The cause of her sudden death is still unknown, but vets and experts are working to find out the cause. They had noticed a change of behaviour over the past few days, it seems, and brought in outside specialists, including the chief vet from Sea World in the USA. Loro Parque says it is very sad indeed to lose Vicky, just 10 months old, and a playful and intelligent animal who won the hearts of the entire Loro Parque team and the visitors who saw her during her life. 

Original post 17 August 2012: Loro Parque is delighted to announce the birth of a new orca, only the second ever born in Spain, and an indication, says the park, of the well-being of the mammals in the Parque. Mum Kohana is 10 years old and this is her second baby, who weighed in at 152 kilos after a 2-hour labour assisted by Loro Parque vets, biologists and trainers. Moments after being born, the new arrival swam instinctively to the surface to take its first breath. It is said to be strong, and very energetic, and makes everyone associated with the Parque very happy, said Miguel Díaz, chief orca trainer.

copyright Sir Old Golfer

Update 16 June: There was a real turnout for the triathlon this morning by the looks of it, and there are some fantastic photos of the event HERE - thanks to Sir Old Golfer Bill for the link, and for the above photo too. Fantastic images which really bring it all to life.

It’s for hardcore athletes all right, but it’s also a great spectacle for the less energetic! The annual El Médano triathlon takes place on 16 June from 9am, with several hundred taking part and, no doubt, just as many if not more lining the routes to watch the 1.5 km swim, followed by a 40 km cycle race, and ending with a 10 km foot race. Gruelling is not the word! For further details, the official website is HERE.

Update 16 June: As I said in the last post on 2 June, the new law is under attack. And to give an idea of the type of attack it’s under, today the national government minister for Industry, Energy and Tourism, and president of the Canarian PP (conservative party), José Manuel Soria, himself a Canarian, has laid into it in the strongest terms. It’s a “fraud” for the tourism sector and the Canaries themselves, he said.

Referring to the eastern province’s claims that the Tenerife hotel sector was being favoured over that of Gran Canaria, Sr Soria said that the law wasn’t a fraud that shows preference to one part of the Canaries over another, but in a far wider sense it was a fraud in respect of the archipelago as a whole. In terms of the law’s very title, which includes the word modernization, he said that there is nothing more opposed to modernization than the establishment of obstacles and restrictions in the tourism sector.

He expressed the opinion, too, that each island, through its Cabildo, should be allowed to determine its own tourism priorities and promotions, “without the “guardianship” of any regional administration. Sr Soria reminded the conference of the regional PP that 2013 was the year in which the Cabildos, democratically elected, celebrated their centenary: what’s with the Canarian Government’s obsession and mistrust about the powers and jurisdiction of the Cabildos, he asked. Sr Soria closed by asking the Canarian Government to reflect on the enormous damage such anti-competitive laws can do, and insisted that what the islands needed was the best hotels for tourists themselves to decide where they want to stay.

I think many will agree with him, though it should be noted that he himself is still talking in terms of hotels. It should also be borne in mind that there is not the best of historical blood between him and Canarian President Paulino Rivero. None the less, it’s good to hear a voice, albeit a Canarian one, speaking from the national seat of power. This is Madrid calling …

Update 2 June:  The ink is hardly dry on the paper, and I’ve not yet even had a chance to settle down to look at the clauses in detail, but already the new law is under attack. There are the usual interest groups seeing the legislation wrongheaded in almost every way from favouritism for Tenerife province over that of Las Palmas, to restrictive practices, violations of EU law, etc. The debate on this will rumble on and on, I suspect, and some argue that the law will hardly last a year before it has to be redrafted.

In my own opinion, the law is indeed clearly restrictive. Whether this is permissible within the terms of the EU seems clear – it is. That at least is the current opinion of many if not most judges here and two previous EU rulings. Whether it’s legally valid, though, is for me less of an issue than whether it’s effective. It seems to me that the restrictions are still so great, and the focus on hotel accommodation so marked, that the authorities really haven’t got the measure of their own market, and are failing significantly in understanding that what really matters is not the Canaries, but what tourists want.

This is the view, too, of Sergio Moreno of the Instituto Universitario de Turismo y Desarrollo Económico Sostenible (Tides). He says that this legislation is based on an important conceptual failure because the government is focusing the debate on the territory rather than the tourists. Sr Moreno argues that the whole controversy about numbers of stars – a detailed debate over whether 4* hotels should be allowed in addition to 5* ones ending in the decision that they were not allowed as newbuilds but allowed as renovation projects – was pretty senseless since it is services offered, rather than number of stars, that is the real indication of quality.

I can do no better than repeat his conclusion: what is important is not the territory itself, but the industry’s own adaptation to tourists, and to do this, you have to specialize. You can have a 5* hotel all you like but if it isn’t following and adapting to the market of the moment, its stars are of no value whatsoever.

Update 3.30pm: Sorry this is all bitty, but I’m rushed off my feet at present. HERE is the new law, now published. HERE is the process it has gone through.

Update 29 May: As expected, the new tourism legislation was approved yesterday. I will post details as soon as possible …

Update 24 May: The Canarian government yesterday approved clauses for the new law so as to provide a framework within which more than 5,000 villas in the Canaries that are currently residential will be able to be used touristically; moreover, their plots will be reclassified at Government level, thus bypassing where necessary individual Cabildo restrictions and Ayuntamiento land usage designations. The law will also considerably reduce the “coastal band” for villa legitimacy: the Government had been aiming for a 500m exlusion area but this has now been reduced to 200m, and even further to 100m if in a clifftop area. Lanzarote, which is where around half of the properties affected are located, is likely to benefit especially from the measure.

The final debate on the legislation is scheduled to take place this coming Tuesday. This is something that Alotca has lobbied actively for, and continued to negotiate about even though much of the work was carried out in the background. Although we’ll have to wait until at least Tuesday for the final detail, needless to say we are absolutely delighted with this news.

Update 11 April:  The new law is still mired in Parliament. Today we’ve learned that the Canarian Socialist and nationalist groups will be presenting separate amendments to the Bill.  The main reason for posting something of such little immediate import is to show the two main issues that are causing problems right now … and neither is concerned with the matters that would concern most readers here, I imagine. The first is the nature of the role of Cabildos and Ayuntamientos in modernisation plans, and the other is that of the categories permitted in newly created tourist establishments. There is also dispute over whether to include 4* establishments in the moratorium. There is still no sign of when this will be translated into law.

Update 7 February 2013: The moratorium will be, as I posted below last September, enshrined in law and “indefinite” once the new law comes into force. The legislation passed its first parliamentary process yesterday, with the total rejection of all opposition amendments. The opposition, and amendments, had argued that the new legislation was interventionist, and ignored completely island cabildos and local Ayuntamientos. All such arguments were dismissed. Environment and Regional Policy Minister Domingo Berriel said that this was going to be a permanent law to regulate the growth of the tourism sector, and that any problems in its imposition would, as was the case with any law, be dealt with in the normal  course of events and in the normal manner. “Call this interventionist if you like”, said Sr Berriel, “but this strategic activity must be regulated”. Sr Berriel confirmed that the new law will act to correct residentialism, something that had been very negative for tourist areas. The word  he uses is “reconducir”. I’ve translated “act to correct”, but could equally have used “redirect”. Once again it is far from clear what the government has in mind in this respect, which is of such great interest to those who own property of any type in tourist areas. I’ve posted previously on other measures in the bill, so won’t repeat them here, but it’s worth mentioning that Sr Berriel insisted that no more land would be classified for tourist use, “because there is enough available”. The bill now continues its way through Parliament, with the first hurdle cleared.

Original post 22 September 2012: The Canarian Government has sent the draft new tourism law, the Ley de Renovación y Modernización Turística de Canarias, to the Consultative Committee for consultation. I haven’t seen the full draft yet myself, but the Government has asked for a speedy response: as we know, the new law must be on the statute books in December at the latest because the touristic moratorium was extended in May only until the end of the year. What the Government has formally announced at this point, though, is that the law has as a primary objective the renovation and modernization of touristic urbanizations, areas and products; the diversification of its touristic offer; and authorizations in 2013 and 2014 for 5* hotels in Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.  Once this period is over, new licences will be considered for establishments under 5* as long as they provide luxury places tied to renovation projects or replace obsolete beds. Construction team employment must significantly favour those who are registered as unemployed. Existing restrictions outside of these criteria are to be maintained indefinitely. Recognizing the criticism of this stance in some quarters, the Government says that whether people agree with this or not, this is the Government’s model and decision, and that the new law does away with the need to keep renewing the existing touristic moratorium which can now be considered to be enshrined in law. The fundamental objects of the legislation are:

• to manage and organize the growth of the touristic offer, tying this to quality improvement both in terms of renovation and new build
• to increase quality levels and the category of touristic establishments
• to avoid, and if appropriate, redirect the residentialisation of touristic areas
• to provide the Government with effective juridical mechanisms to incentivise and, as appropriate, ensure compliance with conservation, renovation and effective use requirements
• to restore the image of touristic areas

The new law envisages the possibility of touristic licences being awarded in Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote only for:

• the renovation of existing touristic establishments
• the implementation of touristic places based on rights deriving from renovation projects
• hotels on approved urban non-touristic land (suelo urbano consolidado) and rural hotels
• hotels of a minimum 5* category
• non-hotel accommodation where planning rules expressly permit, or do not prohibit, it, with a minimum 5* category in respect of apartments
• specialist accommodation establishments

The new plans will complement, and in some cases replace, existing urban designations in order to make urban renovation more viable. They will also include new formats in touristic organization such as the condominium – based on the American model – and touristic villas, the latter being at least 500 metres from the coast, of a density of between 10 and 40 units per hectare depending on overall plot size, and which do not exceed 20% of the surface area concerned. In addition, a procedure is envisaged to regularize and authorize accommodation establishments which have existing licences from before Ley 19/2003, and which comply with all requirements necessary to be considered touristic establishments. With regard to incentives for renovation, the law includes measures for financial incentives and additional places – up to 50% for hotels and 25% for apartments, except where:

• the category will be lower than 3*
• the conversion is from a hotel to a non-hotel establishment
• when the conversion is from a non-hotel to a hotel establishment that does not convert the regimen of horizontal property to one of ordinary ownership or co-ownership

The recent open day to the Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos for International Museum Day was a great success, and now the the museum has announced a further two open days on Friday and Saturday, 21 and 22 June, in honour of the official start of summer on the 21st. Entry to the planetarium itself, the attraction that evokes the most enthusiasm, will also again be free. What with the IAC observatory open days being held on the same weekend for the same purpose, it’s the starriest summer weekend imaginable!