Archive for the 'Weather' Category

Pictures of yesterdays tragedy

Saturday, September 8th, 2007
Here you can see the covered bodies of immigrants after their death was certified and several agents of the 'Guardia Civil', two of them recovering a body from the waterat the 'Risco Verde' beach in Agüimes. You can also see the half sunk 'patera' and it being pulled out of the water later on and the enormous efforts done supported by the rescue helicopter and the sea rescue patrol boat. Really sad images that immigration gives us almost every day. :( ...

Worse than immigration

Friday, September 7th, 2007
If the immigration for itself, wasn't hard enough, as people give up all their savings for just an opportunity to make it alive to a 1st world country, to try for a better life, risking their lives and normaly resulting in an almost certain repatriation, things like this unluckily happen more often every time. The tragedy happened yesterday at daybreak when a 'patera', those small, unstable boats, subsaharian immigrants use to get here from Africa, arrived at the 'risco verde' beach in Agüimes at darkness, or at least that is what the occupants thought. What really happened is that they docked to an underwater rock formation, 20 meters off shore, which the immigrants thought to be the beach, but which in reality was surrounded by 2 meters(6 feet) of water, causing 10 of the 16 immigrants to drown. The Chief of the 'GEAS', the special group for scuba activities from the 'Guardia ...

380 million € Runway

Thursday, September 6th, 2007

Plane

Not a 'million dollar, baby,' ;) but 380 mil. € is the estimated budget of the project for the new Gando Airport Runway. The president of the Gran Canaria Council, José Miguel Pérez, advanced yesterday some details of the project that soon will be presented by the 'furtherance ministry'. The time-frame is estimated to be 38 months but the beginning hasn't been determined yet. The new runway will be connected to the actual one and will have a length of 1.100 meters and will also be suitable for class F aircrafts, like the new Airbus A380. This new runway will make Gran Canaria a very important enclave for trans atlantic flights. Well..., though good for us on the one side, the environmental impact of this will be also considerable.

“The branch” without branches

Friday, August 3rd, 2007
One of the most famous, if not the most famous, 'fiesta' on Gran Canaria is "La Rama", which literally means 'the branch' but is at the same time short for "La Bajada de la Rama" or 'the descent of the branch', is held every year in August 4th, which would be tomorrow. Traditionally the celebration is about going up the valley of Agaete dancing to the sound of a marching band, getting some tree branches, previously taken from trees in the 'tamadaba forrest', and taking them down (always dancing) to the 'port of Las Nieves' (the port of Agaete) to Our Lady of Las Nieves, who reside in the port hermitage, as an offering, after hitting the ports' waters with them. The mayor and the different neighbourhood associations of Agaete have decided not to carry branches this year, as a gesture of solidarity for the catastrophe suffered by the island due to ...

Under control

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007
The canarian government stated, that the fire, though still active, is 'under control'. It has affected 20.000 hectares and about 5000 people who start to get back to their homes progressively. Beside the firemen/women, the emergency intervention group, civil protection and the red cross, the gando UME (military emergency unit) took also part in the extinction works with help from units from Valencia, Zaragoza and Madrid. This has unfortunately been the worst natural disaster ever for Gran Canaria. :(
Posted by klopapier

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