Costa Tropical Blog

Driving up into the old town of Salobreña isn’t as much fun as it used to be especially when you go up one of the streets to find it blocked off. There you are, half way up the hill into the old town, weaving your way round the tight corners, when suddenly in front of you the road has diggers and men laying new pipes. Where was the diversion sign? OK, that in itself is a pretty silly question in this part of the world. Now you are stuck in a one way system with no way out other than to back right the way down. Many of the works now taking place in the old town are for new piping and in eliminating the overhead cabling attached to what seems every building and street corner. The Council admit that while this work is being done it is going to create quite a few ‘annoyances’ for the residents although they are endeavouring to keep this to a minimum. They ask for the understanding and collaboration of the residents and Olga Garcia, Urban Department, has said that throughout the schedule of works they will try to give out precise information which will hopefully help let us know about the changes in direction of the streets and a minibus will be put into operation to help the residents. Unfortunately, as with most information that comes out from the Council, it is often far too late to be of any practical use and we would advise those new to Salobreña or visiting the town to stick to foot patrols around the upper town! (unless you fancy yourself as the next Fernando Alonso reversing down the narrow streets of Salobreña).

Calling all animal lovers in Motril. A new association for the Protection of Animals and Wildlife (APAF) has been formed in Motril. In conjunction with the Environment Department who are subsidising the APAF website http://www.apaf.org.es The new offices and animal centre will be in front of the Vivero Municipal in Puntalon where at the moment stray animals are taken by the Deputacion de Granada. However, it is still early days and the APAF have yet to finalise the set- up of the animal centre. The APAF will have a resident vet and animals will be treated, chipped and castrated before they are found new homes. If you are looking for a new pet they are putting photos and details of animals available for adoption onto their website (they already have a few photos of cats and dogs) and the website also has other general information about the association. When pets have been re-homed there will be home checks made at various intervals by the association staff. Once the centre is up and running we will get back to you with a full report.

Salobrena has just won an award, the Seal of Quality for Smaller Historical Centres. Two years ago the European Union started up the Network of Historical Centres and Salobreña has now fulfilled the required criteria.  The Mayor, Jesus Avenlino Menéndez, says that this is not just about the castle, although this forms a large part of the historical value to Salobreña, but also the diverse establishments, monuments and local gastronomy to be found in and around the town.  The Mayor hopes that this Seal of Quality will help promote Salobreña throughout the rest of Europe as a touristic destination and at future travel fairs at which they participate.

Salobrena Council is going digital and has started a new initiative to try and save on the thousands of kilos of paper that are generated yearly by their staff. Someone at the council has been number crunching and has proudly announced that 20% of its paper consumption can be saved by using electronic mail to send and receive information. Welcome to the twenty first
century Salobreña! Gustavo Aybar from the Environment Department says that not only will they save paper and money but they will also be able to manage the flow of documentation more quickly and efficiently. They will also be getting to grips with an intranet system at the council offices to exchange documents and assist with all their internal communications.

Mobile telephone abuse has hit Motril. Skirt wearers at Alcampo beware! A Motril man has recently landed himself in front of a judge for taking photos on his mobile telephone underneath the skirts of women at the Alcampo supermarket and then sending them on to his friends. Harmless fun some might think but the judge took exception to this man’s antics and the photography of women’s ‘intimate areas’ and fined him 1,800 euros and gave him a one year prison sentence, also ordering that the mobile telephone in question be destroyed. One woman who caught the offender in action underneath her skirt denounced the poor deprived individual and he also had to pay her an amount of 2,000 euros for the ‘moral damages’ he had caused her.

Is this the way to Almeria? Well, possibly…. what we do know is that it is definitely part of the Motril phase of the autovia! Residents in the pueblos of Las Ventillas and Puntalon to the northeast of Motril have, over the past year, been dismantling their plastic tunnels and abandoning their smallholdings in the wake of the relentless onslaught of the autovia. Perhaps relentless is a little harsh, let’s just say inevitable. After all, the ‘long awaited’ autovia has been ‘planned’ in one form or another for many years. I understand it’s more of a case of ‘we need it, but not in my back/front yard’. So it seems a decision has been made by someone, somewhere and as with all such decisions there are bound to be winners and losers. In the first instance the losers will be the farmers who have lost their plastics, their rustic cortijos and smallholdings. Then there is the environmental impact.

Sitting east of Las Zorreras and south of Los Tablones used to be a lush, fertile valley with many different plantations attracting a whole host of wildlife. I regularly used to watch, cranes, herons and even an eagle or buzzard from time to time. Now, however, things are starting to look quite different as a huge brown scar cuts across the landscape towards Puntalon and on up into the hills north of Torrenueva. Those of you who regularly travel through Puntalon and on up towards La Garnatilla may have noticed structural works being carried out in the field north of the Nora packing station. This is because the autovia will pass over this road amongst others. The winners, no doubt, are the residents of Torrenueva happy to finally see preliminary work starting on what will essentially be the bypass they and many others have been waiting for. Other winners will be the tourism industry and the commercial sector as the autovia will provide far better transport access in and out of Motril (what, no more cones?!). This, in turn, should also help to provide more jobs for the area (for the unemployed cone men and the like) and potentially provide a substantial boost for the local economy. For this reason, Carlos Rojas, the Mayor of Motril, has vowed to keep the autovia development on track by making sure the constructors stay within the appropriate time framework and if they don´t, to ask the relevant difficult questions at central government level. There is also speculation amongst estate agents that the value of properties within the immediate vicinity of the autovia, i.e. within easy reach of the access roads, could increase by at least 25%. Incidentally, if any creative soul out there can come up with alternative lyrics for ‘This is the way to Amarillo’ but using Almeria and autovia we would love to hear from you!

Did you know that Motril was at one time the sugar capital of the world and that today the only pre-industrial sugar museum in Europe is here in Motril? Opened in October 2004 the Museo Preindustrial de la Caña de Azucar is built on the site of the remains of the La Palma sugar refinery house discovered in 1990 during excavation work at the rear of the Casa de la Palma building. The museum documents the history of sugar refinery spanning some 10,000 years. Indeed the earliest reference to sugar production in the Motril area is 10^th century, however it wasn’t until the 16^th-18^th centuries that production boomed.

The La Palma Sugar House dates from the 1540s to around 1787 and the sugar production process remained virtually unchanged for 200 hundred years. Mass production of sugar began in the 1570s. Each sugar house (there were 11 in the Motril area at its peak) employed 200-300 people for processing and up to 500 people for sugar cane harvesting. Sugar from Motril was shipped worldwide from Almuñecar and Malaga, making Motril the sugar capital of the world. In 1654 the La Palma Sugar House alone was producing the equivalent of 822 tons of sugar.

Sugar refining was big business and there were strict rules of access to the precious sugar cane plantations. Anyone caught trespassing, even if not cutting the sugar cane, would be imprisoned and fined. Those who could not afford to pay were beaten on the back with a cane.

By 1657 the commercial value of the sugar trade was such that the town of Motril was able to buy the title of city and therefore have its own mayor and town council independent of Granada. The wealth generated by the sugar trade also attracted pirates between the 15^th-18^th century so watch towers and fortifications were built along the coast, one known as Torre de la Vela still survives today.

However, all this wealth and prosperity came at a price. The sugar refineries needed wood to fuel their furnaces but this led to mass deforestation. A single sugar house consumed 300 cart loads of wood in a season. This mass deforestation had a substantial impact on the local environment, destroying some 20 million square metres of forest land, transforming the landscape, the effects of which are still in evidence today.

The cutting down of the trees also meant increased flooding to the low lying plantations and it was this, and the lack of sustainable wood fuel, that led to the decline in the pre-industrial sugar industry. By 1673 only 3 of the original 11 refineries were left. It was not until the mid 19^th century that steam driven machines returned Motril to its position as the sugar capital. Evidence of these 19^th century sugar refineries can be seen in the shape of the brick chimney stacks.

To find out more, or if you simply want something to do when the weather is not so good, I recommend The Museo Preindustrial de la Caña de Azucar. It is behind the La Palma UNED College opposite the Dani supermarket. The museum is wheelchair friendly and has an information centre with literature in English, German, French and Spanish. The helpful staff speak English and can give guided tours. There is a full working reproduction of a water powered twin roller sugar house refinery, original artifacts and other static exhibits. The Museum is open Tue-Sun 10am to 1.30pm and 5pm to 8.30pm, entrance €2. Tel: 958 822 206 or online at www.motril.es/museodelazucar.htm (English, German, French & Spanish).

Playa Granada beach area and the Los Moriscos golf course are most certainly two of Motril´s most important assets for future tourism. The Mayor of Motril has recently been to the FITUR tourism show in Madrid talking up Motril´s potential as an area of interest to the Spanish and foreigners alike. Motril Tourist Office have reported that, in the first two months of 2007, the number of tourists visiting the office has doubled to 5,200. This really isn´t surprising when you consider that the tourist office relocated in April 2006 and that you should have received a medal if you had managed to locate the old one tucked away in the backstreets of the town. It should also be noted that 9 out of 10 people who visited the tourist office were Spanish.

During the summer months the population on the Costa Tropical area doubles or triples with the flood of tourists visiting the area who are mainly Spanish. We don´t need more tourists in the summer months, what we need is tourists between October and May annually.

Let´s set a scenario here … you have a two bedroom apartment you wish to rent out, it´s newly built, has all mod cons, a large communal swimming pool and only a 2 minute walk from the Los Moriscos golf club and Playa Granada beach. You have everything you think you need for a property with good all year round rental potential … except there is one fatal flaw, no tourists between October and May. Your communal swimming pool is only open between mid-June to mid-September, the golf course is unable to take bookings further than a two day period in advance (website currently only in Spanish), there are no shops open in the area to walk to (the building opposite the golf club entrance was put up 2 years ago and is meant to have small shops, where are they?), you need a car to get out and about although there is a bus service. The Los Moriscos golf course put up its prices in August 2006 when it became 18 holes and it is now as expensive to play a round of golf there as it is on the Costa del Sol. These huge communal swimming pools are fenced off for 9 months of the year but are kept in fully functioning order all year round. Regulations require life guards to be on duty during pool opening periods, for larger pools this might mean 2 lifeguards have to be in attendance and perhaps while only a handful of people are using it.

The problem is that the majority of owners in the Playa Granada beach/golf area are Spanish and only visit their properties over the summer months. They are simply not interested to pay for the pool to be opened all year round when they are not in residence and for the benefit of a few people who wish to rent their properties throughout the year. Only a half hour drive westwards on the coast and you will find rental properties with pools open all year round and with shops and bars in walking distance.

So …there is a good possibility that the new ´pueblo´ that will house 20,000 inhabitants on Playa Granada beach will actually be a ghost town every year between October and May. Has the Mayor really been fully briefed on Motril´s tourist potential and its current shortcomings?

The Costa Tropical de Granada might not be the first place that comes to mind when considering a venue for a kite-boarding holiday, but during the winter months of November to March I urge you to reconsider.

Why? Well as we all know the key element of kiting is wind which, in my experience, is plentiful between November and March on the Costa Tropical. This is probably why I regularly see locals taking to the water at Almunecar, Salobrena and Motril. Don’t worry there is plenty of clear blue Mediterranean sea to go round and apart from the occasional dog walker the beaches are all but empty.

Combine this plentiful wind with sun and the cheaper rental accommodation available as it is the off season, there are even special rates for a one month stay or longer, then it is a no brainer! When the wind isn’t blowing you can always visit the sights, without the summer crowds, or simply sit on the beach in the sun.

If the usual tourist bit is not your scene then there’s the fact that the ski slopes of the Sierra Nevada are just 90 minutes away. So if you get bored of the beach and the sea you can go kite-boarding in the snow, perfect!

Walking & cycling in the Costa tropical is a world away from the roads, lanes, footpaths & cycle-paths in the UK. The terrain in these parts is quite varied and thus caters for a range of abilities from the flat esplanades on the sea front to the seriously challenging climbs in the Alpujarras.

The weather, too, is consistently sunnier, warmer and drier. Lovely though this warm weather might be, however in my experience, this has significant implications for forward planning on the part of the walker / cyclist.

Firstly, one needs to take refreshment seriously. Now whether that means stopping at local bars, carrying water bottles or camel-backs that’s up to you but it is nonetheless essential.

Secondly, whatever your ability, walking / cycling in this environment has implications for both clothing and sun protection. Even if you are going for a leisurely walk / cycle along the seafront please be aware that you will require some form of sun protection and wear comfortable, if not breathable, clothing.

However, if you are planning to make your way towards the peaks you need to be prepared for a possible sudden change in climate and / or temperature. I regularly take spare clothing and / or some weatherproof gear along with me on my trips up into the mountains.

Why go to the trouble of walking / cycling up steep hills when you are on a relaxing holiday? Well there’s the sense of satisfaction and personal achievement plus the magnificent views that you can stop and savor as you go.

As a cyclist and walker you are very aware of the natural world around you, the smells, sounds and sights that you can’t get in a car or bus. However in my opinion, by far the best way to explore your local environment within the Costa Tropical region is by bike.