Montesinos | This Is Torrevieja - Torrevieja news and events

WEEKLY DIGEST – 1 SEPTEMBER 2014

LAND AHOY

The Cartagena based yacht 'Carmen' skippered by Joseph Coello claimed victory on handicap in the 50th edition of the Cruise from Torrevieja to Cabo Roig in which twenty boats took part last Tuesday morning. The Murcia boat ‘Malice' out of San Pedro was the first to cross the finish line taking one hour and twenty-seven minutes to complete the 10.5 nautical miles. 'Carmen' finished 2nd while in 3rd place was the Norwegian yacht 'Apex' sailed by Ole-jan Midttun.

COLOURFUL BIRTHDAY

'Petita', the most famous elephant in Terra Natura Benidorm, celebrated his 42nd birthday on Saturday with a colorful Hindu battle. The elephant sprang to fame when he was disowned by his herd as he was considered to be "ugly". According to Terra Natura, Saturday's party was the only 'Holi' festival in Valencia to commemorate the birthday of an elephant.

COURTEOUS BRITS

A recent survey by holiday site Tavelzoo shows that BRITISH tourists are thought of as the heaviest drinkers while on holiday. The Spanish are said to be the most likeable travellers, with the French ranked as the least popular. Almost half of Spanish respondents claimed UK travellers are the least generous when abroad, but the Germans think they are humorous, courteous and helpful.

DRUG CLEANUP

The authorities in Ecuador seized 7.8 tons of liquid drugs, assumed to form the ingredients of cocaine, disguised as disinfectant and heading to Spain. The company responsible for the cargo declared 7,000 litres of the fake disinfectant, bound for Valencia.

NO FLYBE

Airline Flybe will not be extending its routes from Exeter to Spain and Portugal in the winter, with the last flights to Alicante, Faro, Malaga and Palma scheduled for the 30th of September, 2014.

LIPSTICK BEAUTY

Beauty Queen Patricia Yurena Rodríguez, crowned Miss Spain in both 2008 and 2013, has been praised for opening up about her sexuality, by posting an intimate picture of herself with her girlfriend, singer and DJ Vanesa Cortes, on Instagram. Now the only known openly gay beauty queen, both gay and women's groups have praised her actions.

IRISH TEENAGER HELD

An Irish teenager is in custody on an attempted murder charge after a street fight on the Costa del Sol. The 17-year-old was part of a group of Irish holidaymakers who got into a row over a girl during a night out in Puerto Banus. His brother allegedly punched a friend unconscious before the teenager kicked him in the head as he lay on the ground

BACK IN RING

MATTHEW MACKLIN, the Marbella based boxer, whose proposed fight against Argentine fighter, Jorge Sebastien Heiland in a WBC eliminator on August 30 was postponed after his trainer, Jamie Moore, was shot in Marbella, is set to return to the ring on September 27, on the Felix Sturm - Paul Smith WBA middleweight ‘Super' title fight undercard in Kiel, Germany. His opponent is as yet unnamed.

COUNTRY PURSUITS

POLICE have uncovered a marihuana plantation in a private bullring in the Almogía area of Malaga! The ‘plaza de toros' is located within the grounds of a country estate in Los Pilones. It had effectively been converted into an enormous greenhouse housing hundreds of marihuana plants, with plastic sheeting covering the arena.

NO LOGO

A second protest has been organised against fashion designer Roberto Cavalli, who is using a sacred Islamic symbol in his products. The demonstration will take place on the 8th of September, with the hashtag #TakeOffJustLogo being used on social network sites to highlight the complaints of the members and supporters of the Islamic community.

STUPID IS

A 51 year old Belgian resident of the Girona town of Empuriabrava was seriously injured this week, when he stood under the path of a fire fighting plane, which dropped 1,500 litres of water onto him. Police believe that the man was attempting an extreme version of a stunt known as the “Ice Bucket Challenge”, which was being filmed by another person. The aircraft was dropping its load prior to landing, having been involved in fire fighting duties.

TURTLE RISK

The body of a two-metre long turtle was found near the beach in Huelva this week, showing signs of decomposition. One of the largest breeds of turtles, the species faces an increased threat of extinction, a state which has been declared as “imminent”. Eating the daily equivalent of their own weight, overfishing poses a risk to their food supplies, as does the increasing threat of pollution from engine oil and vessel strikes. They are also prone to digesting waste products in the sea, such as plastic bags which they mistake for jellyfish, being caught in fishing nets and face an increase problem in finding safe places to lay their eggs.

GARDENS AT RISK

Residents of Alicante have complained to the city council about the neglect currently being experienced by the centre's parks and gardens. They say that the shrubs and trees in La Rambla haven't been pruned for 3 months while a lack of irrigation is putting the plants at risk in the green spaces of el jardín del Portal de Elche and la plaza de Gabriel Miró.

TUNNEL VISION

National Police Officers in Elche discovered a tunnel last week, 150 feet long, eight feet deep and two by two meters wide, running from a house in la calle Calderón de la Barca to the vicinity of the Banco Popular in an adjoining street. Although no arrests have yet been made they are currently scrutinizing tapes from the security cameras of a nearby bar where the alleged tunnellers regularly ate.

AGE CONCERN

Age Concern re-opens today after the summer break and they are in need of more volunteers. for the day Centre in La Siesta and their shops in Los Montesinos and Torrevieja. Additionally, they need volunteers to join the Residential Home Visiting Team and to act as Be-Frienders to elderly and lonely people in the Playa Flamenca, Quesada and Torrevieja areas. Call 96 678 6887 for information.

NO NO

Both Spain and Belgium would block an independent Scotland's application to join the European Union, a former president of the EU's finance council has predicted. Ruairi Quinn, an Irish politician, said the secessionist movements in both countries meant it was "highly probable" their parliaments would vote against Scotland joining.

COSTA GOURMET

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that Homo sapiens in Spain ate snails around 30,000 years ago, 10,000 years before the French, whose escargot dish is now celebrated. Excavation at the Cova de la Barriada, Benidorm, say that the shells were found near human constructs believed to have been used for cooking, evidence that they were a part of human diet during the period.

GANG BANG

Police in Mallorca have dismantled a Bulgarian prostitution network operating on the island. A total of 12 people, eleven Bulgarians one Spaniard, were detained on the island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean, after an eight-month investigation. Bulgarian women gave their clients drugs in order to rob them, Spanish Terra Network's online news service reports.

BOARD NOW

The planning department of Torrevieja town hall has issued notice of around 120 illegal advertising billboards which it aims to demolish. Warnings were issued in both Torrevieja and Orihuela that these boards, most of which are on public land and lack authority and insurance, would be removed.

WORLD HERITAGE SITE

El castillo de Almirra, 50km inland from Benidorm, is to become the first site declared to be a World Heritage site of special historical significance by even though it is currently being rebuilt. The castle was the site where the crucial pact was made between Aragon and Castile which drew the boundaries between the two realms. It was also the location where, in 1244, an agreement between King James I and the then Prince Alfonso of Castile, gave birth to the former Kingdom of Valencia.

A POLITICAL LOT

After enjoying a two-month holiday, deputies sitting in Les Corts resume their parliamentary duties on 16 September, with the general policy debate, one of the most important events of the new session, almost two weeks after Valencia's schoolchildren returned to their duties.

ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE

The courts in Torrevieja are investigating ex-councillor José Manuel Pizana, who may face charges of forgery, in relation with a case which was shelved in which the Partido Popular held an election rally in an unauthorized building. The politician testified that he was not at the meeting where the arrangements for the rally were made, but the certified minutes state that he attended.

INCOME TWEETS

Twitter´s Spanish subsidiary is coming under fire for being the latest multinational company to shift taxable operations to Ireland, thus avoiding paying into Spain´s economy. Having earned around a million euro, the profit declared by Twitter in Spain is just over 26,000 euro. Globally, the company is expected to earn the equivalent of a billion euro this year.

PILOT OVER HERE

The pilot of a Spanish fire fighting plane, a 43 year old Chilean national, which dropped 1,500 litres of water onto a 51 year old Belgian national as part of a prank has been charged by the police with gross negligence injury. The main hypothesis is that the pilot and the victim had agreed to carry out the dangerous move, in order to film the event and post the video on YouTube as an extreme Ice Bucket Challenge.

NEW AECC CENTRE

The Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer , AECC, will open a new centre on the Orihuela Costa on the 5th of September, with the provincial president, Pablo Enríquez Valens, attending the opening. The centre will deal with both Spanish and foreign residents, and will work closely with the centre in Torrevieja, just a short distance away.

GOOD CAR-MA

Car make General Motors has begun assembling their the Opel Mokka sub-compact SUV in their Spanish plant at Figueruelas this week, a model that had previously been manufactured exclusively in South Korea.

FADING AWAY

Although the summer temperatures in Spain may have exceeded many previous records, there is an apparent and unexpected benefit to some visitors to the country as cyclists taking part in the Vuelta a España, the tour of Spain competition, are said to be losing 10 pounds in weight each day, despite having to drink 12 bottles of water each day.

GENEROUS VISITORS

In the first 7 months of the year, foreign tourists spent 34.497 billion euro in Spain, a 7% increase over last year, with British tourists leading the way having handed over 6.812 billion euro, a rise of 7.1%. The average daily spend per tourist stood at 109 euro, increasing by 0.4% year-on-year, with the overall spend being 950 euro, around the same as last year.

FEELING DEFLATED

Deflation in Spain deepened more than expected in August, with consumer prices falling by 0.5%, compared to 0.3% in July. Analysts had anticipated a 0.2% drop in August, sparking fears over deflationary pressure in the euro zone's fourth largest economy.