UD Las Palmas made a glorious comeback to the First Division in a thrilling encounter against Deportivo Alavés that kept fans on the edge of their seats until the final whistle. In front of a raucous near-capacity-crowd of 31,790, Las Palmas sealed their return ticket to the top flight with a hard-fought goalless draw in the season’s photo finish.
What an interesting last weekend of May ahead. Weather predictions are showing some rain showers are likely across Gran Canaria. This extended #WeekendTips covers up to Tuesday, when all things Canarian are celebrated on the Día de Canarias. There’ll be some gorgeous Patron Saints’ festivities happening in San Fernando de Maspalomas as well as in Valleseco.
Fun Fact:
Valleseco literally means “dry valley” in Spanish, but is actually one of the wettest municipalities Gran Canaria. Nestling between the famous fresh water sources of Firgas & Teror, half way up the island’s mountainous northern slopes, this area is well known for its apple growers, cider and its weekly market
The authorities on Gran Canaria have been engaged in a rigorous search for Swedish tourist Anna-Karin Bengtsson, who went missing in the south of Gran Canaria around April 9. Her unexplained disappearance has caused her family much distress, with no clues to her whereabouts having emerged in the six weeks since they first realised her phone was no longer functioning.
An exciting May weekend ahead with abundant events and festivities taking place all around Gran Canaria. There are Patron Saints’ festivities for Motor Grande, in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria, and in El Tablero in the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana and up in the mountains of Artenara. There is also a two day lively exhibition event in Meloneras boulevard and the Rally Gran Canaria is held this Friday and Saturday.
The body of a 58-year-old German man was found this Friday floating just off the coast of Mogán, on the south-west of Gran Canaria.
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Would you like to volunteer to help in the official reforestation effort on Gran Canaria? The official Cabildo project is called Greening Gran Canaria. The Canary is working with the Volunteer Network Gran Canaria, and the Nabojelpen project in Arguineguín, to organise community involvement from English speaking residents on the island, with transport funded by donations to The Long Walk 2017.
If you would like to be included in future communications regarding this effort, please email GreeningGranCanaria@TheCanaryGuide.com
The Cabildo has opened a reforestation project for Gran Canaria to citizen participation, with a calendar of actions that will begin in areas affected by last September’s wildfire. They expect exceed 20,000 volunteers given the interest shown by individuals, schools, companies and groups to get involved in Greening Gran Canaria
This was announced last week by the President of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales, along with the Minister of Environment, Miguel Ángel, who added that the institution and the citizen collaboration will not only succeed in ensuring a greener island for future generations, but also create youth awareness of the importance to protect the environment.
For this ambitious plan, which goes far beyond the recovery from the fire, the Cabildo already has the €4.5 million Green Forestry Fund approved earlier this year, in addition to the €500,000 approved by the Canary Islands Government after the fire and €300,000 from the State.
The area affected by the fire is the one that needs a most immediate intervention, and in fact work to treat and prepare the land began as soon as the fire was declared fully extinguished, so as to stop the effects of erosion and to assess damages that the arrival of torrential rains could potentially create. If we only receive light rains this year it will allow the greenery to begin to sprout.
An area of 1,930 hectares affected by the fire has been assessed, leading to the conclusion that 70% is Canarian pine, where it may not be necessary to intervene at all, even reaching up toward 96% if urban or agricultural lands are included allowing for the initial interventions to be centered around the remaining 4% in need of direct intervention. On that basis Morales has calculated that they will concentrate reforestation efforts on around ten percent of the area, which supposes some 200 hectares or replanting and associated work.
20 members of the bravo teams began to prepare the ground for these actions, which are not only limited to planting, it also covers irrigation, cleaning and even sponsorship of plots.
Those who wish to participate in voluntary environmental actions only have to register at the webpage voluntariado (only in Spanish)
Individuals, neighborhood associations, business personnel and general volunteering is invited on Sundays between now and December 10, and then restarting again on Sunday January 14.