I spent late yesterday afternoon catching up on what has been happening around the islands and below are a few interesting snippets.
Shock news from Madrid on Canarian holiday
While the Canary Islands were celebrating and enjoying the bank holiday weekend of yesterday’s Dia de Canarias, the Canarian show of national/regional pride within a Spanish state which ‘conquista-ed’ the archipelago about 500 years ago, there was the shock announcement of the Madrid Ministry for the Environment that they’ll have no objections to dangerous oil exploration by the Spanish multi-national company REPSOL. This oil company is one of the very largest in the world and wants to drill for oil just less than 60 kms east off the Canary islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
There has been massive protest by the Canarian people and their government against such oil drilling and prospecting which the Spanish Ministry for the Environment now has supported – down to depths of between 800 and 5.000 metres. Some of the area affected is just 40 miles east of the popular holiday islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
For Full story and to go to Petition see Willie La Gomera
Los Cristianos Market
Whilst I personally hate the Los Cristianos Sunday Market or in fact any market of this type, I was horrified to read that it was temporarily closed as for many tourists it is much of an attraction as Teide! There does however seem to be some confusion as to whether it will open this weekend or whether the closure will be longer. Just a couple of the many reports that are currently circulating. Canarian Weekly and Janet Anscombe
Madrid gives Canaries a sea plane to fight summer forest fires
It has been confirmed that we will have a “fire plane” this summer, as last. It will be stationed once again in La Gomera, and will be in the islands between 1 July and 30 October. The announcement was made after meetings between island authorities, the Canarian Government, and Madrid. Source Janet Anscombe
Three companies ‘interested’ in providing new ferry
The ‘interior ferry line’ ceased operations over a year ago despite having been declared an ‘obligatory public service’ by the Canarian government some years previously. Months of rumours and fruitless waiting for the re-opening of the ferry service between the ports of Valle Gran Rey, Playa de Santiago and San Sebastian on La Gomera and Los Cristianos on Tenerife have passed and then there was silence…
The Canarian government minister responsible for transport Domingo Berriel was quoted as saying that thanks to his government’s agreed increase in the subsidies for resident’s tickets to 75% of the price on the connection between the three La Gomera ports, the ball was now in the ferry companies’ court to make applications to provide the service.
Berriel revealed that ”all the ferry companies” had shown an interest in providing the service. In reality ”all” can only mean three companies, i.e. Fred. Olsen Express, Naviera Armas and the former Garajonay Expres. 
He also stated that the further connection from any of the three Gomeran ports to Los Cristianos will be subsidised with 50% of the ticket price for passengers resident in the Canary Islands. He added that to renew or maintain the status of the line being an ‘obligatory public service’ was ”very complicated” because the Spanish state maintained that there were alternatives to travel on land.
The ferry route had been operated by three different companies over the years and attracted 150.000 passengers per year on average before it ceased operating about 15 months ago.
It is worth remembering that by the now sorely missed ferry service it just took just about 30 minutes to travel from Valle Gran Rey to the capital San Sebastian, while the public bus needs about 110 minutes to get there. The route by sea would also reduce the amount of traffic that has to pass through the centre of the national park now.
Let’s hope that ‘mañana’ something more tangible will emerge and not just politicians stating the obvious, but ‘mañana’ could take a long time to arrive here, I fear. Source Willie La Gomera
And from my friend Peter at Tenerife Forum.Org.Es
In the Canaries, we tend to get more than our fair share of scams and fraudulent individuals possibly due to it being a popular tourist destination coupled with unwitting tourists who simply visit to have some relaxation and a jolly good time.
Unfortunately, some unscrupulous individuals view it as an incredible opportunity to profit without having any sense of decency and in many cases, will even boast to others about how smart they were to rip off their victims, but I digress.
In-Tenerife.net – The Low-down
We’ve been monitoring a website by the name of In-Tenerife.net for a while now which was initiated by their Facebook page stealing content from our page without attributing any credit to us or the image owners.
On closer inspection, we soon discovered that nearly all the content on their main site had been stolen, including some from acquaintances who run reputable blogs about Tenerife. They in turn tried to contact the site owner to request removal of the stolen content but the owner refused to respond to their requests.
I went ahead and filed a report to Google on the grounds of plagiarism to which I got a positive response and I also encouraged the other parties to do the same. It’s not uncommon for Google to remove a site from their index completely if multiple requests are validated.
In-Tenerife.net Property Scam Section
What makes this whole story even more intriguing is that in the backend (admin section) of the site, the owner obviously has plans for a property business which should immediately raise a red flag judging by the way it has been approached. Once again, here’s the link to the hidden section, but another screenshot is necessary just in case it gets edited. Scam Property Section
In-Tenerife.net Content Theft List
Listed below are just some of the sites affected by the content theft and I’m sure many are blissfully unaware of it.
Spain-Holiday.com Real Tenerife Island Drives Spain.Info DailyMail Telegraph Todo Tenerife Royal Garden Villas
The above article just highlights some of the information, if you think you have been ripped off then read the whole story at Scam Alert
Step Through the Looking Glass and read the Red Queen Musings
Filed under: News and Views Tagged: South Tenerife, Tenerife Daily News