Big heat Tuesday
Well, after all the forecasts that had preceded it, Big Heat Tuesday only managed a high of 41.5C in Muro. What am I saying? Only? Yes, but weather stations such as Inca and Llubi had been holding out for a 44C, which would have taken us into record territory - the all-time high in Mallorca, 44.5C, was registered in Montuïri in August last year. Still, there’s plenty of time for that record to be threatened again, and quite soon. By Wednesday, weather stations in the interior were offering up to 43C on Tuesday next week - Big Heat Tuesday 2.0. What on Earth are we going to do if it carries on like this? Run out of dramatic headlines, that’s for sure.
It was only a short while ago that businesses on the island were said to have been concerned that it wasn’t hot enough. Given there were highs of around 30C at that time, one doubts that the concerns were that great. But now that it’s up around 40C, there are concerns about daytime trade. Bar and restaurant terraces are too hot; street entertainers in Palma have been suffering heat stroke and needing to jump into the Hort del Rei pond and scatter the swans in order to cool down; tour guides are having to re-route their tours and try and find places indoors; market stallholders are losing out because everyone’s going to the beach instead. A Palma resident observed earlier this week that it’s impossible to lead a normal life because of the heat. And that includes at night. The sirocco wind contributed to an island high of 37.1C in Banyalbufar at 4am on Wednesday. Much of Mallorca was over thirty degrees.
Let’s all go to the beach - but which one?
A group of British tourists on a cruise found conditions in Palma too hot for their liking, which wasn’t at all surprising; conditions are too much for many people. But as the market traders pointed out, there are always the beaches. Indeed there are. And where there are beaches, there is some entity or other wanting to conduct a survey as to the best ones. To this end, we have just had the European Best Destinations website, aimed primarily at an American market, come up with Torrent de Pareis in Sa Calobra as its number one beach in Europe, as voted for by travellers. Spectacular it most certainly is, but best beach in Europe?
These best-ofs all have in common the fact that they are only valuable in terms of the amount of publicity generated for whoever’s running the survey and the amount of discussion they provoke, which can include absolute outrage at choices. In the case of Puerto Pollensa, fourth in a Which? survey of best seaside and beach towns in the Med, this high ranking has merit. It is a lovely place. But a five-star rating for the beach?
It does perhaps depend on which beach or part of beach one’s referring to, as the Albercuix beach in Puerto Pollensa - between the yacht club and the pinewalk - has been plagued with contamination for years. The Which? survey findings were badly timed, as they coincided with the red-flagging of Albercuix beach because of an unacceptably high concentration of E. coli. The main beach in Puerto Pollensa is glorious and not a problem at all, but Albercuix is problematic. And a new administration at the town hall has run up against an issue that the previous lot had - being unable to identify the source of the contamination.
The shallows of Muro
Playa de Muro regularly features in the best-ofs, its most recent claim to fame having been that it’s the world’s best beach based on a trawl of keywords such as ‘clean’. This was a survey by Rightboat, who sell boats and didn’t distinguish between the different sections of beach. One suspects that when surveys rate Playa de Muro, this is because of the ‘rustic’ section that is backed by dunes and forest.
Before one gets to that section, there is one of the wooden jetties that are used for excursion boats. In the Rightboat description of Playa de Muro, there is reference to shallow sand, when it should be shallow sea. Last Sunday afternoon, a Spanish beachgoer unfortunately discovered just how shallow. He dived from the jetty into just sixty centimetres of water and hit his head on the seabed. He was rushed to Son Espases with no feeling from the neck down.
And the beach terraces of Muro
At the far end of Playa de Muro’s rustic beach and by the boundary with Can Picafort is Ses Casetes des Capellans, the peculiar collection of cottages that owes it name to chaplains, as the land was once used by the church and had summer cottages for the clergy. Ceded to Muro town hall decades ago, the cottages, the Capellans restaurants and the people had experienced many a long peaceful summer until the Costas Authority started to poke its nose in.
Apart from some cottages threatened by demolition, permission for terraces at the three beachside restaurants was withdrawn last year. A whole summer passed without terraces, but the terraces are back this summer. The proprietors had proposed a reduction in the number of tables to the Costas. Having got no reply, they decided to install the terraces anyway, much to the delight of pretty much everyone.
Flight disruption (again) and taxes on tourists
Neighbouring Can Picafort couldn’t have been anticipating that it would find itself the location for the first case of injury by balconing in Mallorca this summer. It did so when a 31-year-old British tourist fell some three metres from the second floor of the Hotel Haiti shortly after midnight on Monday. Drunk and on drugs, he tried to get to another balcony from his own, slipped and suffered multiple injuries.
The fact that this was the first case and that it was in Can Picafort may indicate that efforts to stamp out balconing in Magalluf are bearing fruit. In general, there has been very little negative news from Magalluf this summer, but one British tourist - 47-year-old Lee Cocker from Leeds - has drawn attention to the dangers of having drinks spiked. He and his 16-year-old daughter were on holiday in Magalluf at the end of June. He had had a few beers but started to hallucinate and feel disorientated. His daughter helped him back to their hotel, and it was only then that it was realised that his phone had been stolen.
Balconing - and not in Magalluf
Holidaymakers are meanwhile being made to suffer, and inevitably so, by the regular disruption to flights. The big issue this week has concerned easyJet, who announced the cancellation of 1,700 flights from July to September from Gatwick. The airline cited “unprecedented” air traffic control delays (French air traffic controllers) for the disruption. Almost 180,000 travellers have been affected. Fortunately, the great majority have been found alternatives. By Monday, 95% had replacement flights.
At Palma Airport a row is brewing over what is described as another tax on tourists. This concerns the airports authority Aena, who intend charging coaches and VTC-licensed transport (VTC=passenger transport with driver) for use of the airport. These charges are due to come in at the start of next year. The new president of the Aviba association of travel agencies in the Balearics, Pedro Fiol, considers this to be an abuse of authority. “Transfers from the airport to hotels will become more expensive.”
Fiol appears to be quite content with the political change in the Balearics, new ministers having this week been handed ministerial briefcases and documents by their predecessors. One of these ministers is Jaume Bauzà. The new tourism minister, he said on Tuesday that the tourist tax (which will be maintained) will be used for tourism purposes. Under the former government, the tax “became a mixed bag to finance all kinds of initiative that had nothing to do with tourism”.
A new way of doing politics?
Marga Prohens gave her acceptance speech as new Balearic president to an audience at Palma’s La Lonja last Friday night. She offered a commitment to dialogue and to a new way of doing politics. Hers will not be the politics “of the trenches”.
At the Council of Mallorca, its new president, Llorenç Galmés, announced that there will be immediate action to scrap the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane on the motorway from the airport into Palma and to put the speed limit on the Via Cintura back up to 120 km/h from 80. There was nothing new about this, as Galmés had said he would take both these measures prior to the election campaign. Eliminating the HOV lane seems reasonable. Putting the speed limit back up is less so. There were good reasons - safety, noise, pollution - for having reduced it.