Janet Anscombe

As of yesterday, Callao Salvaje and Playa Paraíso have been adopted by Adeje after a wait of 40 years in the case of Callao Salvaje and 20 in that of Playa Paraiso. From now, the two towns will enjoy all Adeje’s services alongside the rest of the municipal area, whether rubbish collection or water supply, as well as street cleaning and garden work.

The only part of the entire area that is not fully adopted yet is a plot of some 10,000 square metres in Callao Salvaje destined for a green area, where there remains a legal case outstanding against the promoter. Adeje mayor José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga said, however, that the matter was more a formality than substantive.

Spanair ceased trading as of last night, and the company website is showing the following text HERE for any travellers affected:

As of today, 27 January 2012, Spanair has ceased its operations and therefore, given these exceptional circumstances, all our flights from today are cancelled.

If you have a ticket for the next few days or weeks, you have varios alternatives:

a- if you paid with a credit card, notify the card company for a refund
b- if you have cancellation insurance, contact the insurers to establish the cover you have
c- if you bought a tickt through a travel agency, you will need to contact them.
d- If you have a Spanair ticket for a different airline, your flight is, in principle, guaranteed. We ask that you confirm with the relevant airline.
e- Spanair, in co-ordination with the Cataluñan regional government, has arrived at an agreement with Vueling, Iberia and Air Europa for passengers travelling over the next three days to have a special tariff as follows:

- Domestic flights to the Balearics €60
- Flights to the Canaries €90
- International flights €100

f- In any other case, and to reclaim fares, you will need to submit a claim through one of the following channels:

· Spain sales offices
· AENA desks in the relevant airports
· Tourism offices in the relevant airports
. Cataluñan consumer agency

- Spanair is in permanent contact with the Spanish areronautic authorities and airports where the company operates flights to resolve this situation.

- Spanair Centre (900.13.14.15 – from outside of Spain +34 971 916 047) and airport sales desks will remain open to attend to clients.

- For updated information please consult our website www.spanair.com

- Spanair apologises for any inconvenience to those affected.

Meanwhile, a website, www.afectadosspanair.com, has been set up to help people reclaim help if they have been affected. I have no idea who set it up but the notice on its single page says this is someone who has reunited Spanair-affected people with money before, with legal help where necessary. The single page will, it says, shortly become a forum for those affected by Spanair going into administration.

Update 26 January 2012: The President of the Canaries, Paulino Rivero, has visited the new Garachico port and expressed his satisfaction at the way the works have progressed. The port will have two docks, one for fishing and another for sports with the capacity to moor 40 boats. It will also have facilities for commercial maritime lines. The works are currently being finished, with the port expected to be in operation from June.

Above is a superb video of the entire works since August 2009 to date. It looks lovely now, and shows how much work has gone into it over the last two and a bit years. The storm damage I posted about below can be seen at around 3 minutes.

Original post 23 October 2009: Waves up up to 8 metres have damaged part of the breakwater in the new Garachico port, which is still under construction. The strong swell began lashing the coast in the early hours of yesterday morning and continued through to the afternoon, with water breaking through and reaching tens of metres inland. Chief engineer Rafael Aznar said, however, that he was generally satisfied at the wall’s performance after the waves were double the strength of those expected. Repair works are expected to take a few weeks. The works on the new port, intended for sports, fishing and touristic uses, should be completed by the end of 2011.  El Dia

Arona has opened a new Citizen Attention Office (OAC) in Los Cristianos for people who can’t speak Spanish. The office is multi-lingual, and allows municipal business to be conducted as in any other OAC. The office is open from 8am to 2pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and from 8am to 6pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is located in the La Montañeta area of the town, in local 7a bajo, Edf Verodal, Calle Roque de Jama. This isn’t easy to describe, but is near the Unelco office and the Ritmania Dance School. If you click HERE, hopefully it will bring up the street map with Calle Roque de Jama marked.

Bomberos rescued a five-month pregnant woman yesterday afternoon after her car left the road and ended up in the Barranco del Infierno in Adeje. The woman was trapped in her car and needed to be freed, after which she was transferred to Hospitén Sur. Mother and unborn baby are both said to be fine.

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 23 January: This is just an update to say that the silence from official quarters on the subject of this proposed meeting is deafening! I have not heard anything more about it, and needless to say, if I knew, I would hardly keep the information to myself, so please don’t expend any effort in contacting me to see if I have any news. I will post the information here the minute I have anything to say.

Update 15 December: There is a public meeting planned for the second half of January in the south of Tenerife. Attending will be the Government tourism department, the chief of the inspection team, and other senior officials of the department. I will post details of this meeting as soon as I have them. Please note that if there is no update it is because I do not have any information to post, so please do not contact me for any details.

Update 14 December: I think that with the absence of any communication about tomorrow’s meeting, we have no choice but to assume it will not now take place. The general view seems to be that they became aware of what they were about to face, and pulled out. The two main lawyers who were co-ordinating the meeting in the south (which doesn’t seem to have crossed Turismo’s mind apart from as a cash cow) say they intend to hold the meeting regardless, but at this stage, we have to assume it will be on a different day. I will update as soon as I know.

Update 9 December: I have just had confirmation that Turismo has been given one last chance to clarify their position, but that in the event that they fail or refuse to attend the meeting, the local lawyers involved in the issue, and who are lobbying the Government to change the law, are going to hold the meeting anyway. I’ll update with further details asap.

Original post 26 November: I’m posting this in addition to THIS in case it gets missed in the long illegal letting thread.

There is to be a public meeting on the 15th December in south Tenerife. It is being held by the Minister of Tourism and the Inspectorate as the public information part of the Government campaign against illegal letting. I will confirm the time and place as soon as possible, but can say for the moment that it will be in the general Adeje area.

It is important that people attend not just to hear from the horses’ mouths the information as it appears in these posts, but also to convey to the Authorities the strength of feeling against the enforcement of this legislation. This will not intrinsically have any real or immediate effect, but will be useful background to the lobbying efforts to persuade the Government to rescind or amend the law. The public meeting will be held in Spanish, but an English translator will be present.

The Guardian has picked the five best places to live … and Santa Cruz is one of the five!

It says:

Yes, Tenerife. But not that Tenerife. As if. No, this is The Other Tenerife. The capital bears no relation to the island more familiar to Brits. Turn a few corners on the coast road and it’s like, well, Spain. Santa Cruz is magnificently, sexily exotic. Its neighbourhoods mostly date from the 1890s to the 1930s, all pastels and gin slings, though the long-lost recent economic boom has left its mark, too, with a new art gallery and public square by architects Herzog & De Meuron, and the obligatory “thing” (Is it a bird? Is it a plane?) by Santiago Calatrava. The tourist-free city is big enough not to be dull, small enough to be manageable – about the size of Leicester, only, alas, without its charms, although Santa Cruz does have bright placitas filled with orange trees and dark, drowsy coffee bars full of old men playing dominos, as well as a brilliant food market, Nuestra Señora de Africa. And when it all gets too much, there’s a series of great beaches (the Las Teresitas being perhaps the best), a great coastline for swooning driving, and mountains for hiking. Guardian

A 60-year-old woman is in hospital tonight after falling into the sea from a ferry in Los Cristianos harbour at 8pm this evening. The woman was travelling on the Volcán de Taburiente ferry when, for reasons which are still unexplained, she fell overboard. She was rescued within minutes by a lifeboat and brought to the jetty where paramedics were already waiting for her. She was treated and stabilized at the scene and then transferred to Hospitén Sur where she is said to be suffering from the effects of her near drowning, and to have received various cuts, but is, otherwise, mercifully not in a serious condition.

Loro Parque has two rather special new inhabitants – white Bengal tiger cubs. The cubs, a male and female called Yangyu and Linmao, are just a year old and have come from the Guangzhou Panyu Xiangjiang Safari Park in China. They can already be seen by the public in their specially designed enclosure, surrounded by vegetation, and a waterfall and lake for their exclusive use.

The cubs are settling in gradually, and are said to be extremely curious about their surroundings, exploring it all minutely, and taking long siestas. There is a series of photos of the pair of gorgeous cubs HERE. More information from Loro Parque HERE (there’s an English option top right), and thanks to them for the above photo.