almerimartoday

According to the article here on the Ideal site there is likely to be a protest in El Ejido this coming Saturday, 11 September. The date is significant as it is the local bank holiday that takes place to celebrate the independence of El Ejido from Dalias.

The article says that the protesters would like the mayor to resign in advance of the local elections scheduled for next year.

As most people reading the site probably know the mayor has been accused of being part of an alleged corruption scandal that hit El Ejido council last year. He is currently out of jail after paying bail of 300,000 euros and is waiting for the case to go to trial. 

The local newspaper that is run by the council, La Voz de El Ejido, has started publishing again after their regular summer break in August.

The top article here today on their website is that the El Ejido council has approved the work to build a new school in Almerimar. Approval was given last Thursday, the school will have places for 400 pupils and the building work will cost over 2m euros.The building work is supposed to take 11 months.

According to the article here on the Ideal site firemen were called to a second fire in less than a month at a recycling plant close to El Ejido less than 10km from Almerimar last night.

The first fire started on 7 August 2010 and took a long time to put out. The one yesterday was spotted at 5:30pm and by 9pm the firemen had been able to control the focus of the fire but not put out all of the flames.

The Circulo in El Ejido which in the past has been the venue for the El Ejido Jazz and Modern Music Festival is about to undergo some major renovation according to the article here on the Ideal site.

The plan is to build a Consum supermarket on the current ground floor terrace and relocate the terrace up to the first floor.

The work starts next week, will cost approximately 1.6m euros and should be finished by Christmas 2011.

I remember the Circulo as a great venue for gigs. However it was starting to look a little run down so I think this modernisation is a good thing.

One of the best gigs there was a guy called Graham Foster. If you are interested you can listen to or download his music from his own site here.

Duiring the summer months the council run night buses between El Ejido, Almerimar and other places nearby along the coast.

The article here on the Ideal site says that more than 3,300 people used the buses this year. Sightly less than last summer. 

I was looking out of the window a couple of minutes ago when I was putting the telly on and I saw a great sunset. It is a nice contrast to the hotel picture from earlier today.

As you can see now that the days are getting shorter the sunset is moving back closer to the Bahía San Miguel rather than over the Sierra Nevada mountains.

I hope you enjoy the picture.

When I was driving past the golf hotel yesterday I noticed that they were making good progress on the facade of the building and on the stairwells and lifts.

So I took a picture of the hotel from our window this morning.

The photo above is a smaller version of the picture I took. I transferred the photo to my PC and zoomed in on the hotel.

Read More to see a closer up version of the hotel and an even closer image that shows the new roof line that will match the design of the existing part of the building.

The article here on the Ideal site has details in Spanish of plans to improve roads in San Agustin, Los Norias, Balerma, La Aldeilla and El Ejido north and south.

Over 1.5 million euros is being spent so why isn´t anything being done about Calle Alcor in Almerimar? The state of this road is a disgrace.

The article here on the Ideal site is having a pop at the mayor of El Ejido for there being no hotels built in Almerimar since the 3 towers were knocked down and the camp site taken away.

Around 10 & 5 years ago there were promises of a Spa hotel and a Sheraton hotel but nothing has happened.

This is said to be having a detrimental effect on businesses in the Almerimar area.

Last night over 20 of us went for a visit to the Clisol greenhouses on the cliff above Almerimar. Once again Lola Gómez Ferrón gave us a fascinating insight into how the greenhouses are run. Thanks to Lola who is showing us some interesting white peppers in the photo above.

Read More for details.

We have not long got back from the Clisol greenhouse visit this evening and I have uploaded the photos and 3 videos.

I will write a longer story about the event when I get the chance. In the meantime as a taster here is a video of Lola, our guide for the evening (not suitable for dial up users or pay as you go usb modem users as it is almost 40 MB in size).

The latest edition of the Mojacar Magazine is now available online here.

On pages 27 & 28 there is an article about our last visit to a greenhouse along with an invite for people to join us on our visit tomorrow. Click on the image above (thn click again to enlarger the image) to see the article.

If you would like to join us on our greenhouse visit tomorrow evening please get in touch soon.

The article here on the Euro Weekly News site says "A MAN has been sentenced to two years in prison for fraud in the sale of a property in El Ejido. In November 2004, a private sale was registered and in the contract it was stipulated that the property was free of debts. The price was 72,121 euros of which half were paid when the contract was signed and the rest would be paid when the deeds were handed over, which was to occur one year later and which has never occurred.

The buyer found later that despite the claim that it was free of debts, there were two mortgages on the property, one of which was increased by the accused after the contract of sale and purchase had been signed.

He will have to pay the buyer 30,060 euros, plus the legal fees."

Jacqui and I had a practice round of golf today and while playing I took a few snaps of progress on the golf hotel.

As you can see they are putting the cladding on the side of the hotel closest to the main road in and out of Almerimar.  This is the part that they have rebuilt from scratch.

They have also stripped off all the tiles from the part of the hotel that was left standing. They are now relaying the roof tiles with a mixture of old and new ones so they blend in together.

There is still a long way to go but at least they are making reasonable progress. I saw quite a lot of workmen there today which is a good sign.

Read More to see a couple more pictures.

Omne of our readers, Ray, has just pointed out the article here on the Euro Weekly News site about some shoplifters chased through Almerimar.

More fun and games at El Ejido council with the mayor now out of jail.

You can read more details here on the Euro Weekly News site.

One of our registered members, hilda, has been in touch asking about TDT reception in Almerimar and in particular in Laguna Beach.

I know we had problems at first in the Mirador de Golf area of Almerimar backing on to the cliff but they have now resolved the problems here so we get pretty good reception for Spanish digital tv. 

Anyone  know what reception is like at Laguna Beach?

PS One useful feature of TDT is the original language option which enables sound in English on some programmes on Spanish tv. See here for more details.

PROMAR, Program of Recovery of Marine Fauna, has started up a campaign called ' We conserve our beaches, we protect the fauna marina´ according to the article here on the Ideal site.

From Friday until Sunday, three places on the coast close to El Ejido will have information points where volunteers will inform people about the risks and dangers to marine fauna. 

UPDATED: To include details from La Voz de El Ejido.

According to the article here on the Ideal site (in Spanish) the school will have 450 infant and primary school places and the company to build it is from Jaén.

In total there will be 6 infant classrooms and 12 primary classrooms.

The building of the school will be co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

The work on the school has yet to start and the article has no mention of when work will start.

However there is information in another article here on the La Voz de El Ejido site that it will cost 2.483.196,54 euros, will take 11 months to build, will be completed in two phases (first 3 infant classrooms and 7 primary classrooms, then more classrooms plus a library, IT classroom plus other central facilities) and will be ready for the 2011/2012 academic year.

Following the mayor of El Ejido being released on bail, two other people allegedly involved in the corruption scandal have been released on bail of 600,000 each according to the article here on the Ideal site.

A couple of people have asked about the mossie situation in Almerimar.

Touch wood the number of mossies has reduced dramatically and I don´t remember seeing any on the golf course for a while now. There is the occasional fly but not many mossies.

I think Jacqui might have had one or two mossie bites over the last few weeks but we don´t know if they were from the golf course. I don´t think I have had any mossie bites for a while now thank goodness.

I was wondering whether anyone knows of people who run day trips sailing out of Almerimar.

I have just had someone who is staying in Almerimar in August contact me saying "I know myself and my friends would love to spend a day sailing and maybe learn something about it."

If you know of anyone who does this sort of thing please can you drop me an email or send me a private message with details that I can pass on to the person who asked about this.

From the article here on the Ideal site it looks like the proposed state infants school in Almerimar is going to be delayed again.

It was announced in May that it would be open in September this year but it looks like there is little chance of this happening as we have yet to see work started.

The new clubhouse now has a working clock. I took this photo at Friday golf yesterday.

The article here on the a Voz de El Ejido site has details (in Spanish) about the wheelchair access to the beaches in Almerimar and Balerma that is being provided this summer.

Marion has already told us about how good the people are on the Almerimar beach as she has used the facilities while she has been recovering from her skiing accident.

El Corte Inglés taking rooms for staff for the opening of their new complex in El Ejido has helped improve the figures. The article here on the Voz de El Ejido has more details (in Spanish).

We played a lovely round of golf this afty with Richard and Ingrid.

While playing we noticed that they were taking down one of the cranes from where they are refurbishing the hotel. Also, all the windows of the bar of the clubhouse have been cleaned and furniture installed on the terrace.

Read More to see a couple more pictures.

Just back from running an early morning errand in the marina. On the way I noticed that there are signs up for a seafood from Galicia event which will take place from 13th to 18th July 2010.

I am guessing that the tent will be put up on the car park next to the rugby pitch again.

If I get a chance I will see whether I can dig out some further information about this from last year.

Just noticed the story here (in Spanish) on the town hall website say the Q quality flags are back on the beaches in Almerimar.

Here is a link to an article in English about what Q quality is about .

 

Read More to see a few more images.

We are busy uploading videos from the night to youtube and will let you know when they are available.

Also, see here in the Gallery for all 55 photos from Spain´s World Cup win.

We will write a bit more once we have recovered.

The article here on the La Voz de El Ejido site provides some detail of the summer events in the area for this year. They were announced yesterday.

It will include 12 nights of music at the Castle at Guardias Viejas including 4 from local groups. One of which is Minia and the Pipes who I have seen and I know are great (you can see them on our Video page). This year, for the first time, there will be an entry fee of 2 euros a person for the concerts at the castle with all money going to the group.

No doubt I will be receiveing full details via email sometime soon so I will add details of the events to the Events page in due course.

It really has hotted up here in Almerimar in the last few days. Summer is definitely with us.

It is already mid-20s in the shade on our terrace before 10am in the morning. Also, the overnight temperatures are warming up as well. It was still in the low 20s in the shade on the terrace when we went to bed last night. 

 

 

We were out shopping at Copo earlier today and on the way home as we were coming down the hill into Almerimar we saw a big crane over by the new clubhouse. I wondered what was going on so I drove there and took a couple of photos with my phone.

As you can see they are using the crane to lift a number of palm trees into place in the garden area around the clubhouse.

They were also putting tarmac down on the road near the parking area in front of the clubhouse as well.

It really does look like this time they might meet the latest stated opening date of sometime in July 2010 all being well. 

This week the local gas supplier (Natural Gas) is doing safety checks on gas installations in Almerimar. They are sending guys around who are going from door to door doing a check that lasts around 10 minutes. You then have to sign to confirm that the check has been done.

We had a sign up in our apartments saying that they are going to check our block between 9-12 today.

They then take a one-off extra payment from you of around 30 euros.

So don´t be surprised if you get a knock on your door this week or a card in your letter box or under your door trying to arrange a time for a visit.

Summer is definitely with us now. The council has announced that the summer night buses linking Almerimar to El Ejido and surrounding areas are now starting up again. See here on the Ideal site for more details.

I took a few photos while playing in the Friday golf competition today. As you can see from the photos above they are starting to build the facade for the hotel on the clubhouse side of the building. Also, they have started planting trees in the garden of the clubhouse.

Read More to see a few more pictures.

I was talking the other day about how there are people trying to import drugs in Spain  along the coast of Andalucía.

Some people caught in 2007 have now been sentenced according to the article here on the Ideal site.

The article here on the Ideal site has more information (in Spanish).

Although the story here on the Typically Spanish site doesn´t mention Almerimar I know that there have been some problems with an Aifos development in the town here as well.

The article here on the La Voz de El Ejido site explains that 35 first aiders will be available on the beaches in the area governed by El Ejido (including Almerimar) between 12 noon and 8pm until 15 September 2010 to assist people on the beach.

I was walking home from doing some computer work for someone here in Almerimar this morning and noticed that the cranes were back out putting up the cladding on the AR Almerimar golf hotel.

As you can see from the photo above they are now putting up the cladding on the wall backing on to the pyramid and the new clubhouse.

Read More to see a couple more pictures including one showing how the cladding has been complted on the wall facing Mercadona.

When we were playing in the golf competition today I noticed a Spain flag flying over the work on the AR Almerimar Golf hotel.

I am not sure whether this is because the building has topped out as the flag is on the highest part of the rebuilt structure. Alternatively it might just be that the workmen are supporting Spain in their match this evening.

The good news is that there still appears to be lots of people working on the the golf hotel and the grounds for the new clubhouse.

The Typically Spanish site has a brief story here about the local mayor.

 

As you can see we had two items in the Roquetas and Almerimar Sol Times this week.The second part of the Has Ooft story (click on the image above to see a larger version) plus golf results from our regular Friday competition and the Bahía San Miguel golf competition at Almerimar last weekend.

You can read the whole paper online here.

For those people that like a good bacon sarnie back bacon can be a rare commodity in the Almerimar area. Most of the bacon sold around here is streaky bacon.

Mercadona sometimes stocks it but it is not always available.

Earlier in the week Jacqui returned from shopping at Lidl with some back bacon that they had now started to stock. So we now have two places to satisfy my occasional urge for a bacon buttie.

Bail was 300,000 euros and he will return to the town hall in 3 days.

The full story here (in Spanish) on the Ideal site.

We had a couple of 1 second power glitches overnight. I know because the phone beeped at around 3am and 4am and woke me up. Also, the time on our microwave was wrong but all of the other electric clocks in the house were ok. This always seems to happen if we have power gliches rather than an outage of more than a few seconds. I don´t know why. Perhaps someone could explain why the microwave is more sensitive than the oven and bedside clocks?

When we got up this morning we found that our phone and broadband was not working. I phoned Movistar (Telefonica has been rebranded) from my mobile on 1004 and they said it was a general fault in our area.

Within a couple of minutes our broadband has been restored but the phone is still not working. For me this is better than the other way around. I guess they will restore the phone line soon all being well.

So depending on what happens today we may have to switch over to our pay as you go 3G USB modem and only provide limited support for the site plus our PC support and website customers today.

Just back from picking up the list for Friday golf and buying the bottles. While passing Mercadona I noticed that at long last there is some serious work going on refurbishing the part of the Almerimar Golf hotel that wasn´t demolished. The new facade looks quite nice.

Work seems to be continuing well on various parts of the refurbishment. It is amazing what a bit of EU funding can do for a project.

According to the article here on the Ideal site it looks like the ugly rubbish dump areas close to the Puntas Entinas nature reserve and the AR Hotel are going to be removed.

I feel that this is a good thing as they are not very nice to look at and are close to areas used by tourists. However, I feel we do need somewhere in Almerimar for non-domestic rubbish to be deposited and collected. At the moment too many people just dump stuff next to the normal rubbish bins and that is not very nice to look at either.

The latest edition of the Roquetas and Almerimar version of the Sol Times was published yesterday, 9 June 2010. We were asked to write something about What´s On in Almerimar.

If you click on the image above you can see a larger image of the article.

You can pick up a copy of the paper here in Almerimar or if you prefer you can read it online on the Sol Times site. All 4 different editions of the paper can be seen on the site.