The Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora hotel near Alcalá has won the “Best Resort” in Spain award in the fourth edition of the Condé Nast Traveller Prize. The prestigious award recognizes the touristic excellence of the resort, and is determined by public vote.

The hotel’s General Director, Carlos Martins, said that the award “endorses the Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora’s efforts to achieve the highest standards of quality and luxury service, as well as the value of its leisure offer, excellent gastronomy and well-being of the resort”.   ... Read more...

I have added a new page for property for sale direct from owners. The page (HERE) is under the Owning Property tab at the top, with a sub-menu for the individual properties, each of which has its own page. I’ve started with the spectacular villa in Lanzarote about which I posted the other day, and will add some further properties over the next few days as time allows.   ... Read more...

A new website, www.teleferico-teide.com, is now available for the Teide cable car. It will, however, provide much more, including allowing visitors to make reservations and buy tickets online, as well as arranging permits to climb to the summit, including an overnight stay at the Altavista Refuge. In addition, it has heaps of information about all aspects of the national park  to make a visit as informed as it can be, with walking route guides, climate and botanical information, advice, webcams, an image gallery, etc. A super resource.

The body of a woman between 50 and 60 was found yesterday by Granadilla Policía Local in her home in Paseo del Atlántico in El Médano. Although initial investigations did not indicate any violence to her body, the Guardia Civil has not ruled out the possibility of foul play since the property was found in significant disorder, as if someone had been searching for something. The family of the dead woman, who was known as Teresa, a well-liked local seamstress, had alerted the authorities that she had not been seen for a few days. Police are investigating the poor woman’s death.

The Policía Nacional and Guardia Civil, together with the UK Border Agency, have broken up a people-smuggling ring dedicated to getting Iranians into the UK via the Canaries. Twenty two individuals have been arrested, thirteen in Tenerife, six in Madrid, and three in Fuerteventura.

Making the announcement, the Ministerio de Interior said that the group moved entire families at a cost of €20,000 per person, less for children. In policies similar to airlines, children under two travelled free. The families were hidden in buses or lorries to cross the Turkey-Greece border, or were provided with airline tickets based on false documents. The Canaries was an integral part of the route, and the immigrants, whom the traffickers called “animals, sheep or the herd”, were tutored in how to behave at the British border in order to acquire legal residence, most notably in how to allege fear of torture and persecution in Iran.   ... Read more...

I can’t remotely pretend that I’ve ever heard of Pitbull, apart from in the context of a dangerous dog, but apparently he’s an internationally famous American rap star of Cuban origin… and he is giving a concert in Golf Costa Adeje on Saturday, 23 June as part of his Planet Pit World Tour, which will also see him perform in Gran Canaria on the 22nd.   ... Read more...

A 36-year-old French woman is seriously ill in hospital with head injuries after falling six metres from a hotel in San Eugenio just before 9pm last evening.  Emergency services were called out with reports that she had fallen, and after stabilizing her at the scene, the paramedics transferred her to hospital.

Update 6pm: As Phil posted in the comments below, the crash was between a taxi and a bus. Six were injured, five not seriously, but one was gravely hurt. All six were transferred to hospital, three to Hospiten Sur and three to Hospital Costa Adeje.

Original post:  Trafico is reporting in the last half hour (around 1 o’clock) a bad traffic accident at the entrance to Playa de la Arena. Bare reports right now, but a bus seems to have been involved, and there are casualties, some foreigners, being attended to on the ground. Details later as they come.

Update 21 April: Sanidad has given the all clear for water to be consumed in all the municipalities affected by yesterday’s diesel spill in north Tenerife. All the tests have apparently now been completed and Sanidad says that water can now be used for cooking and personal hygiene and, most importantly, for drinking. The municipalities that had been affected were Santa Úrsula, La Victoria de Acentejo, La Matanza de Acentejo, El Sauzal, Tacoronte, La Laguna and Santa Cruz.   ... Read more...