There were 5 entries this year’s Los Gigantes carnival 2010 poster competition. The theme is “Africa” and the winning entry was painted by artist Rodolfo Jorge Gutierrez.

Juan Gorrín, The mayor of Santiago del Teide, appeared in court yesterday and was questioned for two hours about the landslide on Los Gigantes beach last November which killed two women.

The mayor may face criminal charges over the incident. Relatives of one of the victims heckled the mayor as he arrived and put up posters saying the tragedy ‘was not an accident but a crime’.

Today the beach remains closed to the public and local business on the beach road are still suffering from lack of business due to the closure.

Work is ongoing and financed by the Canarian Government to determine the safety of the cliff.

The mayor of Santiago del Teide, Juan Damián Gorrín Ramos, reported that after meetings with the Island Council improvement work will begin on the TF-82 at Tamaimo.

A petition of hundreds of signatures was collected from residents and road users seeking urgent action after continuous landslides put lives at risk.

Article from Tenerife News
‘The train now leaving for Fonsalia’….. words which will eventually come true.

As promised, Tenerife Cabildo has approved a plan which will extend the proposed train of the south to Fonsalia (the small village between Alcala and San Juan).

The idea received cross-party support last March and the formal document has now been approved. It will go out for public consultation for 70 days and also to the various public administrations.

Four alternative routes at a cost of 307 million Euros were studied. Including five kilometres of tunnels and one and a half viaducts.

The train service will eventually unite Fonsalia with Santa cruz with the journey time taking 52 minutes.
The trains will run every 15 minutes and will be capable of reaching speeds of 220kms an hour.

Santiago del Teide’s local police force now has six new officers. The new recruits were sworn in earlier this week.

The six new members took up their posts formally on Monday and were introduced to the public at a ceremony led by the town’s mayor.

Santiago’s police force now has 20 officers.

Work has started clearing loose stones and rubble from the cliff on the beach road in Los Gigantes.

The beach road was closed to the public a few weeks ago when more smaller rock falls occurred.

The results of the work will form part of a geotechnical study to decide how best to protect the beach from further rock falls.

There are bargains galore to be had as the winter sales begin today.

The date was announced last month by the Dirección General de Comercio, and has the backing of all the islands’ commissions, businesses, unions and consumer associations.

The chosen date was aimed at starting the sales as soon as possible after Kings’ Day on the 6th Jan, to give businesses the best possible chance of success. However a consumer group’s survey shows that people will be spending less than in previous years, with the average expenditure at 88 Euros per person. Items purchased will be essential items not impulvise purchases. The sales will finish on 6th March.

The Summer Sales will be from 1 July to 31 August.

The MSC Splendida, the biggest ship ever built in Europe, docked in Santa Cruz during the New Year festivities as part of an 11-day cruise. The ship brought 3200 passengers to Tenerife for a day attracting a large crowd of spectators in the port.

The Splendida left Barcelona on 30 December and visited Casablanca in Morocco on its way to the Canaries, from Santa cruz it heads to Madeira, Malaga and then Roma and Genoa.

Since the beginning of the year over 7000 cruise ship passengers have visited Santa Cruz.