Olive Press Costa Blanca South and Murcia - Issue 87

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My right to stay!

Expat goes on hunger strike after residency application is rejected due to Brexit withdrawal nightmare

A BRITISH man has gone on hunger strike over his ‘right to residency’ in Spain.

Mark Saxby is protesting the authorities’ refusal to grant him a resident’s permit because he did not have private medical insurance by the Brexit deadline.

Expat Saxby, who lives in Safor, near Valencia, has vowed to only drink water until the situation is resolved.

The 55-year-old teacher, from Birmingham, is now entering his fourth day without food.

He moved to the Valencia region at the beginning of 2020 with

EXCLUSIVE

By Alex Trelinski

plans to work as an English language teacher, but returned to the UK just as the pandemic struck. Once travel restrictions eased in the autumn that year he returned to Spain with an intention to become a resident. However continual delays in getting appointments resulted in his application only being sent in December - weeks before the Brexit Day deadline of January 1, 2021. His application was eventually de -

Will it rain on the parade?

While the tourists might disagree, most locals and long-term expats are praying for the heavens to open this Easter as we approach a summer of drought...And as the Spanish will tell you it always seems to pour during Semana Santa. Happy Easter come rain or shine! See

nied over the lack of private medical insurance, which Mark told the Olive Press could easily have been remedied without the delays.

“There were difficulties accessing websites to log in my details and then I kept being referred to different offices for appointments across the Valencia region due to Covid delays,” he explained, this week.

“We were promised a three-month period to deal with any problems which would have identified the insurance issue, but as everything ended up being submitted in December 2020, I was left with no time to do anything about it,” he added.

After Brexit Day and being told of his rejection, he immedi -

ately acquired the right medical insurance and informed the authorities.

clearly flagged up in the initial application process it would have saved me a lot of time and bother,” he commented.

Errors

He also argued that the Withdrawal Agreement made clear that the host state would help any applicants correct mistakes in their application.

It added that any such errors or omissions could not be used as an excuse to deny residence.

ties but was refused and although the Ombudsman took up his case, the answer ended up the same. He then appealed to the European Commission which agreed Spain may have misapplied the regulations in the Withdrawal Agreement. But unfortunately it added it could not intervene in any specific case.

Mark is now worried about leaving the country in case he is fined on his return for not having a residencia or even denied entry.

“It’s madness really. I normally work around the world on shortterm contracts, earning mon -

“If this stipulation had been ey that I then spend back home, effectively bringing money into Valencia,” he said.

Mark immediately appealed to Valencian immigration authori -

“But right now I cannot travel so I cannot work and am surviving on my savings.”

As a final throw of the dice, he launched a hunger strike on Monday where he will only drink water until his situation is resolved.

“This is not something I am doing for a day or two to get some publicity, but to get action, as my life is in limbo as I cannot do anything,” declared Mark.

HUNGER FOR JUSTICE: Mark Saxby is weighing himself daily and has lost two kilos so far

Healthy option

TORREVIEJA council says it wants to create a salt hydrotherapy centre as part of plans to convert the empty ‘La Quimica’ salt works buildings into a health resort.

Sandy return

REGENERATION

work at Santa Pola’s Playa Lisa has finished in time for Easter with over 250 tons of sand restored.

Calling time

ORIHUELA council has been ordered to remove beach bars at Cala Bosque and La Caleta which are not opening this Easter and therefore not fulfilling their purpose on public maritime land.

Beach walk

A NEW walkway at Elche’s El Caribassi beach has been opened as part of a €500,000 package of enhancements to the municipality’s coast.

A LEBANESE multimillionaire has been jailed for eight months after attempting to buy a liver.

Hatem Akkouche, former mayor of Al Kharayeb, asked family living in Alicante to search for a compatible liver in 2013.

The politician, 69, who suffered from liver disease, offered €40,000 to any-

BRITAIN’S former most wanted female fugitive, finally arrested last year, has had her jail sentence doubled after she failed to repay a seven-figure sum.

Former private school girl Sarah Panitzke will now spend 17 years in jail when previously being sentenced to nine. The penalty was imposed at the City of London Magistrates' Court after she failed to repay £2.4 million she stole as part of a massive VAT fraud scheme.

Panitzke had spent nine years on the run in Spain, living incog nito as a local thanks to her excellent Span ish, before being cap tured and returned

Chokey for liver donor error

one who could help him overcome his ‘incurable’ disease. An NGO worker alerted authorities after he found a 28-year-old Algerian woman living in Valencia who agreed to be a ‘living donor’.

The man was detained upon his return to Valencia for a check up in 2014. He eventually had surgery using part of his son’s liver, legally and free of charge at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona.

PAY IT BACK

Britain’s most wanted female fugitive who spent nine years hiding out in Spain has her jail sentence doubled

to the UK while out walking her dogs.

She had been living in the town of Santa Barbara near Tarragona under the alias ‘Maria’, where she had an apartment above an English academy. The fraudster was initially sentenced to 8 years in pris-

A DECOMPOSED body originating from the Vega Baja area has been found on a landfill site 100 kilometres away at Xixona. Authorities were called on Sunday morning after workers at the Piedra Negra landfill facility discovered the corpse. Early indications are that it corresponds to that of a middle-aged man. The body was in a consignment of waste sent from the Dolores treatment plant in the Vega Baja which receives rubbish

By Walter Finch

on, while being ordered to repay the sum, which was a tiny fraction of the £1 billion she is thought to have laundered on behalf of a scheme to sell mobile phones. Her part involved laundering millions of pounds of stolen money through offshore bank

Landfill corpse

from across the area. One unconfirmed suggestion is that the corpse may have been part of a transfer from Torrevieja to Dolores. The Guardia Civil is conducting inquiries and more specific details will be obtained once an autopsy is carried out by coroners in Alicante.

accounts set up by the criminal gang she was part of, which claimed to be importing and selling the phones legitimately. Despite going to great lengths to hide the profits, HM Revenue and Customs investigators uncovered the complex web of transactions used to launder the stolen money through international bank accounts. These included accounts in the UK, Andorra, Dubai, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Portugal and the US.

Panitzke's failure to repay the stolen money means she still owes the full amount plus interest, which continues to accrue at a rate of £538 per day, and has now reached a total of £3,782,779.

Nicol Sheppard, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said Panitzke’s actions had deprived the UK of vital public money.

“Panitzke was part of a criminal gang that stole millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money and deprived our public services of vital funding,” Sheppard said.

POLICE have seized what they described as the ‘largest cocaine stash seen for years’ in Alicante province.

Some 35 kilos of the drug was removed during an operation around Alicante and Elche, which saw the Policia Nacional arrest two men of Spanish and Colombian nationalities. The duo were remanded in custody after appearing in court.

Around €32,000 in cash was impounded along with three high-end vehicles used to transport the drugs hidden in secret compartments.

Big seizure Guardia blasted

A PENSIONER who shot four Guardia Civil officers said he opened fire because he thought they were burglars.

The 73-year-old blasted police with a licenced hunting rifle during an early morning raid as part of an anti-drugs operation. The man and his wife were arrested. Their son - who was the target of the operation - was arrested at a different address. None of the officers were seriously injured.

Authorities said the officers knocked repeatedly on the front door of the El Moralet villa and identified themselves to be from the Guardia Civil. They forced their way in and were greeted by the homeowner who opened fire.

Armageddon approaches

BRITISH comedian Ricky Gervais will be making a stop in Spain on his upcoming Armageddon tour, thanks to a show in Barcelona’s Auditori Forum, on August 31. The tour will kick off on April 4 in Newcastle at two soldout shows, and will visit a range of UK cities including Manchester, Liverpool and London, as well as Dublin in Ireland. The international dates will see the award-winning comedian, director and writer visit the United States, Portugal, Sweden and Germany, among other destinations. Gervais is the creator and star of The Office, Extras, Derek, and the critically acclaimed recent Netflix hit After Life. The Armageddon show will also be recorded so that it can be released via Netflix.

KRAFTWERK, the German grandfathers of electronica are set to dazzle a new generation of music lovers at Sevilla’s Iconica festival. Having virtually pioneered the entire genre of electronic music, the Dusseldorf synth artists will complete an eclectic line up featuring Spanish stars Pastora Soler and Lola Indigo among others. The festival has become one of the top musical events in Spain and has helped put Sevilla firmly on the musical culture map. The festival is spread over several weeks from June 15 to July 22. Kraftwerk will be headlining the show on July 3.

KING OF THE BEAT

Man of the People: King Felipe VI stuns flamenco box players in Cadiz by joining in

THE King and Queen of Spain surprised a group of flamenco box drummers by sidling up and joining in their cajoneada session prior to a theatre show in Cadiz.

The event was held outside the Gran Teatro Falla and involved Felipe VI sitting on a flamenco box and drumming alongside a group of students. The performance was intended to welcome attendees to

Spanish Phantom

ANTONIO Banderas is taking part in the production of a Spanish-language version of Andrew Lloyd Weber's hit musical The Phantom of the Opera.

Lloyd Webber and Banderas teamed up a while ago with the aim of producing theatre, musicals and live entertainment shows for Spanish-speaking markets via their new company Amigos Para Siempre (friends forever).

The Spanish version of The Phantom of the Opera, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, is expected to premiere on October 4, at the UMusic Hotel Teatro Albeniz in Madrid.

Mum’s the word

SHE is seldom out of the society pages and now Ana Obregon has sent the Spanish celebrity magazines into a frenzy by revealing she has become a mother at the age of 68.

The model, actress, TV presenter and scriptwriter hired a surrogate to bear her a baby daughter in Miami, USA.

Best known outside Spain for her role in Bolero alongside Bo Derek, Obregon lost her 27-year-old son Alejandro Lequio to cancer in 2020.

At the time she was comforted by old friends, King Emetrius Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia.

Now she has said she has recovered ‘the excitement to live’ after the arrival of her new daughter.

Hiring a surrogate mother is illegal in Spain, however, there are agencies that allow wealthy families to ‘order’ a kid from Eastern European countries and the USA. Obregón is being highly criticised online and on some Spanish TV programmes.

People have also pointed out how she left the hospital in a wheelchair as if she had given birth to the baby herself.

the 9th International Spanish Language Congress in Cadiz - little did they realise they would attract the head of state to join in.

As the King and Queen ar-

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rived at the theatre for the opening show, Tiempo de Luz, they got out of their car and were immediately intrigued by the box-playing cajoneada.

The Queen and King then approached the two available boxes and Felipe VI briefly played one, joining in and singing the rumba Ali oh "The first cajon-playing king," proclaimed Guille, one of the percussionists who led the performance of 62 separate boxes - or cajones.

The Instituto Cervantes and the Cadiz City Council organised the cajoneada to commemorate the origin of the cajon flamenco. Members of the public attending the event were also free to join in.

Feline fantastic

A TOTAL of 43 new Iberian lynx cubs have been born throughout 2022 in different breeding centres managed by National Parks across Spain. The breeding season ended with the successful birth of seven cubs in the Doñana National Park (Huelva). A further nine cubs were born in Zarza de Granadilla; 14 in La Olivilla; 10 in Silves and three in Jerez Zoo. Additionally, last year saw a total of 33 lynx released into the wild at a national level as part of the Iberian Lynx Ex situ Conservation Programme.

QUIT: Maria Gamez

Quick spin at the top

THE Guardia Civil has a new female boss, a trained journalist, after its previous leader resigned over a corruption scandal.

Mercedes Gonzalez stepped in after Maria Gamez’ quit amid a scandal in which several commanders are accused of profiting from building work on police barracks.

Gamez, 54, put the blame for her departure down to the implication of her husband, lawyer Juan Carlos Martinez, in a separate corruption case. He has been dragged into the high profile Mediador scandal, which involved backhanders and bungs in return for contracts in the Canary Islands.

The new broom, Gonzalez, 47, who has worked in politics, studied journalism at university.

TERRORISTS!

Arsonists to blame as thousands are evacuated around Eastern and northern Spain - with over 100 blazes set deliberately

SPECIALIST fire units are counting the cost of one the biggest wildfires in Spain for a decade.

The Castellon fire is finally under control after raging for nine days, destroying 4,700 hectares of mountain woodland.

Some 1,700 residents were evacuated after the blaze started in the Alto Mijares region on March 23.

Strong gusts of wind caused a few embers to relight over the weekend but reappearing flames were quickly extinguished.

Most residents have finally been able to return to their homes, after being forced to stay at special emergency

By Alex Trelinski

centres.

While no properties were destroyed, a number of the 500 firefighters suffered from smoke inhalation.

The fire was described by Valencian president Ximo Puig as being more of a summer fire fanned by 'voracious' summer-like temperatures. Hard-working fire crews were able to prevent it from entering the valuable Sierra de Espadan natural park.

The fire is believed to have started from a spark of a machine ‘used to collect brushwood'.

Shopping bonus

A €90 bonus card to help low-income households with food shopping bills has been launched by the Valencian government.

Families with incomes of less than €21,000 per year will qualify to get a prepaid card to spend in any supermarket or grocery store in the community.

The offer however does not apply to pensioners.

Requests for the bonus card can be made via a website between April 18 to July 15, and from the date of issue, the card can be used for up to four months to get food products.

STRONG GUSTS: Winds and hot weather blamed

“Everything points to the fire starting due to agricultural malpractice,” claimed regional fire chief Jose Maria Angel. So serious was the blaze that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez insisted the intensity was down to the alarming drought conditions currently threatening Spain. "There is no room for denial because the climate emergency causes dramas like the one we are experiencing," he said on a visit to the area.

A further 600 firefighters were drafted in to battle an alarming 91 blazes in the north of Spain last week. Nearly 400 people were evacuated from a number of key inland areas of Asturias, as a

shocking 135 fires were started around the Valdes, Villayon and Tineo areas.

“The fires were set by terrorists,” President of Asturias Adrian Barbon insisted. “They are real organised criminals.”

Devastated

Meanwhile, in Cantabria firefighters were dealing with 28 fires at the weekend. Last year Spain had nearly 500 serious wildfires which devastated 306,000 hectares - three times more than in 2021.

A serious lack of rain is feared to be set to make 2023 even worse.

SEVEN cars were damaged and a Torrevieja bar terrace canopy destroyed by a motorist driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

Three people suffered minor injuries after the Sunday morning incident on Calle Caballero de Rodas. The offending driver hit a vehicle that was double-parked before damaging five others and taking down a bar terrace awning where fortunately there were no customers as it was 8.15am.

Sunday mayhem Barking error

ROJALES council has been left in the doghouse after opening a 520m2 canine park on private land on the Pueblo Bravo urbanisation.

Entrance gates to the facility have been padlocked after a complaint from the Euromarina real estate company that owns the land.

The facility was set up next to the La Laguna Tourist Apartments and its outdoor swimming pool, both owned by the firm.

In a written complaint to Rojales council the company complained of noise and smell and demanded the dog park’s closure.

Getting legal

AUTHORITIES have identified

7,600 illegally-built homes in the Vega Baja region.

Now Valencian Ministry of Territorial Policy, Public Works and Mobility has hosted a briefing in Orihuela to explain to local town halls how a procedure to legalise the properties works.

7,600 illegal homes identified in the Vega Baja could have route to legitimacy

By Alex Trelinski

A guide has been produced that shows how people can deal with licence applications and how straight

The regularisation of illegal properties constructed on green-belt land up to August 20, 2014 can be achieved through Territorial Impact Minimisation Licences (MIT) introduced by the Valencian government.

A MIT legalises a building in exchange for a guarantee that the impact of environmental factors such as sewage disposal and potential dangers such as fires in the surrounding area are minimised.

Licence issuing is the responsibility of individual municipalities which can get funding to help them oversee the process.

Brit John Kirby is working for the Valencian government to explain the changes. He’s lived in Spain for 28 years and worked for Alborache council as a municipal architect.

John told the Olive Press : “The sheer number of illegal homes (350,000 in the Valencia region) means that a large part of the region is affected but MITs are a real opportunity for change while protecting the environment.”

He emphasised that getting a

SHOCKING DEATH

A 69-year-old British man has been jailed as investigations continue into the killing of his wife at their Lomas de Cabo Roig urbanisation home on the Orihuela Costa

A domestic violence court judge has ordered the unnamed Brit to be remanded in custody as homicide and gender violence charges are pursued against him.

The 64-year-victim - named as Anne Marie - died as a result of several stab wounds.

It is the first domestic violence death of the year in the Valencian Community with many town halls across the region holding periods of silence in Anne Marie's memory. Her husband sustained a stab wound in his stomach and was treated at Elche’s Vinapolo hospital.

Once he was discharged, he was hauled off for an appearance before the Orihuela judge.

The British couple had retired and moved to Spain in 2017.

The man had been on the VioGen gender violence database for a case opened by the Guardia in 2019.

The probe was shelved the following year, however, after the victim failed to file a police report nor take legal action.

Several neighbours said that fights between the couple were ‘very frequent’ and that they came to blows on ‘several occasions’.

One resident reported that the couple ‘drank a lot’ and that in one instance, Anne Marie was spotted semi-clothed and barefoot in the street with scratches on her body.

MIT doesn’t automatically mean that your rural home would become legal, but it does give you some key things.

“The property can be legally lived in and maintained forever, as well as

local councils being obliged to provide the same kind of services as in built-up areas of a municipality,” explained John. He also pointed out that a property with a MIT licence would inevitably be easier to sell if and when the time comes. forward the procedure is.

A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than two million people a month.

Voted top expat paper in Spain OPINION

Desperate action

MARK Saxby’s decision to go on hunger strike over his denial for residency is certainly taking matters to the extreme.

But you have to admire his tenacity in contacting the European Commission and the Ombudsman to argue that he didn’t get enough time to submit proof of health insurance ahead of the January 2021 deadline.

That was an error on his part as rules changed some years ahead of Brexit which demanded all EU incomers to show they had enough money in the bank as well as health cover.

But the UK Withdrawal Agreement did allow for two months for mistakes to be cleared up.

And what was certainly not his fault was the autumn 2020 appointments logjam caused by the Covid pandemic. Moreover he is paying taxes into the Spanish system and just wants to be a good citizen rather than a villain who wants to live ‘under the radar’.

Surely some common sense from authorities is in order so that he can enjoy a hearty meal as soon as possible.

Easter warning

SO often have the Semana Santa processions been cancelled to the disappointment of millions that it’s become a bit of a running joke that ‘it always rains at Easter in Spain’.

This year, we could be forgiven for hoping the joke is fulfilled.

Much of Spain, as we report on page 8, is officially in drought. As reservoirs dry up, rain is desperately needed, with crops threatened.

Indeed, even a bishop has got involved to lead a special mass to call for rain (see back page).

But the real answer is, of course, nothing to do with prayer. There can be no doubt that climate change is taking effect.

It may be too late to reverse the damage, but it is within the power of all of us to at least try to stop things getting worse. Governments and big business must get their act together and take action much faster to combat CO2 emissions. Otherwise we had better all start praying.

PUBLISHER / EDITOR

Jon Clarke, jon@theolivepress.es

Dilip Kuner dilip@theolivepress.es

Anthony Piovesan anthony@theolivepress.es

Jo Chipchase jo@theolivepress.es

John Culatto

ADMIN Sandra Aviles Diaz (+34) 951 273 575 admin@ theolivepress.es

Spain’s Weirdest Easter Events

SEMANA Santa (Holy Week) is celebrated with great passion throughout Spain. Between April 2 and Easter Sunday on April 9, you can expect multiple processions day and night in the bigger towns and cities.

The floats (pasos) carrying saints, candles and flowers are carried through the streets on the shoulders of men, preceded by the clergy and followed by a cloud of incense, a

Procession of the Drunken Mobs, Cuenca (Castilla-La Mancha)

crucifixion cross to Mount Calvary. The march gets under way at dawn on Good Friday, when ‘the mobs’ respectfully stage the ridicule of Christ to the sound of out-of-tune drums and trumpets while drinking resoli, the typical drink of Cuenca.

band or drummers, and penitents.

Biblical events are commemorated with great fervour in even the smallest of villages. But there are some places where the local population goes the extra mile, adding a personal touch or a twist on the Easter theme.

Here are some of Spain’s more unusual Semana Santa celebrations:

Descent of the Angel, Aranda de Duero (Burgos)

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Carretera Nacional 340, km 144.5, Calle Espinosa 1, Edificio cc El Duque, planta primera, 29692, Sabinillas, Manilva

THE Spanish government is preparing a law to ban the sale of internal combustion engines by 2040. It is part of a concerted effort to be the first European government to meet the EU’s official target of a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2040.

Fair enough – we all want cleaner air.

In addition to the problems of polluting emissions, when you consider that fossil fuels (gasoline and diesel) are becoming exponentially more expensive, it stands to reason that the automotive industry is heavily invested in producing emission-free electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids. Yet the reliance of EVs on the electrical grid system creates its own set of problems (more about that later).

So what about a solar car? After all, solar energy is front and centre in any discussion of clean, emission-free energy – especially here in sunny Spain!

But the silence around the topic is deafening, so I looked into it.

As mentioned, the internal combustion engine is going the way of the dinosaurs. Since the Spanish government announced its intention, 31 countries, states and cities have internal combustion bans in place.

Copenhagen, for example, wants to end all diesel sales starting

ON Easter Sunday, they stage the appearance of the angel who announced the Resurrection of Jesus to the Virgin. Using a system of pulleys, a globe – suspended from a cable – is lowered into position above a statue of the Virgin Mary, cloaked in black. To gasps and cheers from the crowd, the globe bursts apart showering confetti to reveal a small child, also dangling somewhat precariously from the cable, dressed as an angel. The angel releases two doves, swoops down and removes the cloak to signify the end of mourning, and flies up and down at quite some height.

Drumming of Hellin (Castilla-La Mancha)

MORE than 20,000 drums sound through the streets and rattle the windows of this city – and almost all week. The first drumming session takes place on Holy Wednesday and the last ones boom out on Easter Sunday. Attendees dress in black tunics with red scarves tied around their necks.

Driving on sunshine

Fossil fuels are bad for the planet, electricity is expensive. How about we all drive solar cars? Jack Gaioni explores the options while waiting for a breakthrough

next year. Likewise, Paris, Athens, Milan, and Mexico City plan bans by 2025; Norway by 2025; and France, Germany and the UK by 2040. In the United States, California, New York, and Washington have a 2030 target date for a ban in place.

With the aim of reducing emissions paramount, it’s logical the auto industry is promoting EVs. Indeed, running cars on electricity does reduce emissions, but there are unintended consequences.

Here in Spain, the cost of electricity has skyrocketed and costs four times what it did just a few short years ago.

Blackouts are becoming more common everywhere: the US already has more than any other developed nation, and the situation is getting worse. Experts expect a 38% increase in electricity consumption by 2050,

mostly due to the projected sales of EVs. Add to that another 10-15% increase to reflect the growth of energy-consuming industries, and power grids will be hard pressed to keep up with demand.

Bottlenecks in the supply of batteries and the high demand for components have already caused some manufactures to suspend EV production.

Doomed

Factors like these undermine confidence in the EV and hybrid markets. But if the internal combustion engine is doomed, and there are doubts about the reliability and capacity of electricity grids, what direction does the auto industry turn?

A few established auto manufacturers in-

It’s Easter, and in Spain that means saints and processions . . . as well as Nero, flying children, and drunken mobs, writes Nadia McDonald

THIS procession reenacts the mockery that Jesus Christ was subjected to while dragging his

Seaborne Jesus, Alicante

EASTER celebrations in Alicante have a maritime flavour starting with the figure of Christ of the Sea coming into harbour aboard a boat, accompanied by port police. Another unusual event is the Last Supper, where a monumental float requiring nearly 200 bearers is paraded through the streets.

Genarin’s Burial, León, Castile-Leon

ONE of the most unusual traditions during Semana Santa is the pagan celebration of Genarin’s Burial. A mock funeral procession takes place in the historic centre of Leon on Holy Thursday, in honour of Genaro Blanco, a drunk known for frequenting all the brothels in the city. He was run over by a truck in 1929, and, on the first anniversary of his death, four of his friends staged the mock funeral in homage to their dearly departed party companion. Over time, it became an excuse to parody the Holy Week processions. Though subjected to censorship during Franco’s dictatorship, the tradition re-emerged in the 1970s.

Holy Week of Ben-Hur, Lorca (Murcia)

DECLARED a Festival of International Tourist Interest in 2007, this procession is more reminiscent of a flamboyant carnival. The city’s different religious brotherhoods spend months preparing floats for what has become something of a competition. Marc Anthony, Nero and Cleopatra are among some of the pre-Christian characters that feature in this Easter procession.

cluding Toyota and Hyundai have begun exploring solar-powered vehicles. The first order of business has been to enable normal ‘plug-in’ EVs to use solar to top up the batteries, providing ‘an auxiliary add-on’ to extend the EVs’ range.

Other manufacturers, mostly start-ups, are looking at ways to make cars that are totally powered by solar, or which use the grid solely as backup. Aperta Motors in California, for example, is on a mission ‘to build lightweight and aerodynamic vehicles powered by the sun that are able to handle most daily needs completely off the grid’.

Using solar roof panels, the Aperta charging system can provide enough energy to power a daily range of 44 km (as long as it’s sunny). The average commute in the US is 30 km per day (in Europe it is 28 km), and so, for the commuter, the need to stop and charge during the day is eliminated. Designed with three wheels, the vehicle can achieve speeds of over 95 km per hour, and, the manufacturers claim, reduce emissions by more than 6000 kg of CO2 per year.

At the time of writing, Aperta’s solar car is yet to pass all federal safety standards, but there is already a backlog of 12,000 pre-orders for the vehicles which cost between €27,000 and €42,000.

Germany’s Sono Motors aims to make ‘every vehicle solar for a world without fossil fuels’ and is developing an EV that charges itself. In a bid to achieve a ‘grid-free’ range of 305 km, more than 1000 solar cells have been adapted and embedded in the plastic body panels of the roof, the sides and the boot. Their prototypes use two to three times less battery power than any EV currently on the market, and already meet legal safety standards. They’re also more suited to today’s consumers, being four-wheeled, multi-passenger and traditional sedan style.

Prisoner freed, Malaga

WHEN plague broke out in 1759, prisoners rioted when they found out that Easter processions were cancelled. In the hope they could be saved from the plague, they then forced their way out of jail and carried a statue of Jesus through the streets before returning to their cells. King Carlos III was so impressed by their piety that from that day on he declared a prisoner should be set free in Malaga every Easter, so long as they had not been convicted

Dance of Death, Verges (Girona)

ON Maundy Tuesday, Verges lays on a Dance of Death. Two adults and three children dress up as skeletons and dance to the rhythm of drums. The origins of the tradition stem from medieval times when Christianity provided hope during the terror of the plague.

Look out below, Valencia

On Easter Saturday Valencianos like to make a noise. They celebrate Christ’s Resurrection with fireworks at midnight but they are not noisy enough for the locals. They join in the noise by throwing pots and old crockery from upper floor balconies. Take an umbrella if you are visiting - water is regularly dumped on unwary visitors too.

VERY SUCCESSFUL

Mail-out restaurant campaign bites BIG with our thousands of registered users

WITH a new restaurant opening looming and a need to spread the word, Malaga’s leading Metro Group turned to the Olive Press to help. Via two enticing emails, we hoped our 30,000 registered website users would bite. And bite, they certainly did.

For a limited period of just 11 days, our readers at www. theolivepress.es were offered a unique 50% discount code to redeem against a meal at the hot new restaurant Nomad, opening last month in Marbella. And boy, did they use it, with a staggering 83 BOOKINGS coming in for the launch.

“It was very successful and we have actually been a bit overwhelmed with the reservations,” Metro’s marketing manager Karen Wolfson explained.

“All in all we are very pleased with the result. Thanks so much. We will definitely be doing more with the Olive Press.”

One of the lucky readers to benefit from the generous meal offer was Danish expat, Carsten Christensen, based in San Pedro.

“We jumped at the offer and I took my wife for her birthday with friends,” he explained. “The meal came to €300, which dropped to only €150 after the discount code was applied.

“It was a great meal and we have already booked to come back, not to mention recommended it to a few of our friends.”

For more information on how to run a similar campaign for your restaurant or another business contact sales@theolivepress.es

The top five most read stories on www.theolivepress.es in the past two weeks are:

1- Light at the end of the tunnel: Gibraltar’s new runway tunnel opens March 31 much to commuters’ glee

2- Why are the Semana Santa hats conical and are they linked to the KKK?

3- British parents pay £200 bill each after going on drinking session with their baby at a Gibraltar bar

4- Ryanair boss fumes over latest Spain flight disruptions caused by French air traffic controller strike

5- Spanish celebrity Ana Obregon become a mother at 68

Get in touch today at sales@theolivepress.es or call us at 00 34 951273575 for more info

DRYING UP

Ongoing drought sees waters shortages and fires across Spain

THREE quarters of Spain is affected by water shortages according to reports from water management company Aqualia.

The country has been struggling with ongoing droughts since 2017 and last week weather agency Aemet declared the country to have officially entered a longterm drought period due to a lack of rainfall and increasing average temperatures.

This Autumn the country experienced 27% less rainfall than the average.

According to the Ministry for Ecological transition, reservoirs contain 35% less water than the average volume in the past decade. Water basins with the lowest levels of capacity are in Catalunya (33.8%), Ebro (35.4%), Guadiana basin (23%) and Guadalquivir basin (18.6%).

In many parts of the country restrictions have been

Electric delivery

OIL and energy giant Repsol is teaming up with delivery company SEUR to reduce greenhouse gasses.

They have signed an agreement under which Repsol will install and operate more than 150 recharging points in the 55 work centres that the transport company has throughout the country.

SEUR has pledged to carry out deliveries with low-emission vehicles in 64 Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants by 2025.

At the moment SEUR claims that 13% of its fleet is ‘environmentally friendly’ and, by 2030, the company plans to incorporate 3,000 electric vehicles.

PLASTIC FASHION

AS plastic pollution rapidly escalates, Spanish fishermen are salvaging waste from the ocean to turn into something useful.

Plastic bottles, fishing nets and other smaller particles are being recycled into fabric to make stylish fashion items and accessories.

By Nadia McDonald

put on water usage and consumption, including the entire metropolitan area of Barcelona.

The drought is striking farmers hard in Northern Spain, and has also led to an earlier than usual fire season. Around 100 blazes have started in Asturias, with the majority thought to have been set by arsonists. The tinder-dry conditions have also seen fires in the Valencia region. On World Water Day the UN called for ‘governments to work up to four times faster’

in making changes to water management and consumption. The sixth UN Sustainable Development Goal establish-

es universal access to drinking water and sanitation. Currently 60% of the global population lives in areas with water scarcity.

In 2022, thanks to the work of around 2,600 fishermen, a total of 189,844 kilos of waste was collected from the Spanish seabed via the Upcycling the Oceans Spain project, currently working in 45 Spanish ports.

THE WORLD IS GETTING HOTTER

THE last few years has seen the world experience extreme weather, record temperatures and rapid ice melt.

Latest reports indicate that we are running out of time for easier solutions and that human activity is changing the climate in unprecedented and irreversible ways.

CHECK OUT THE FACTS

● The 10 warmest years since records began in 1880 have all been recorded since 2010

● A total of 28 countries experienced their warmest year ever last year

● Record warmth was recorded in Western Europe…..including Spain, Portugal, Andorra, France, Belgium, Morocco and Germany. All very close to home.

● The UK hit 40·C for the first time ever

● In 2022 there was a heatwave in the Antarctic which briefly pushed up temperatures by 38·C above the average

● The drought in Europe last year was the worst for 500 years

● The Alps had unusually low levels of snow

PRETTY DISMAL READING

Berkeley Earth, a Californian based independent research institute, predicts that this year will be hotter than last year and that 2024 will break the record again.

The Paris Agreement on Climate Change (which all European countries signed up to in 2015), set a target of limiting global warming to 1.5·C . We are on a trajectory to hit 1.5·C before 2034 and hit 2.0·C before 2060.

ATMOSPHERIC CO2 LEVELS

Last year levels of CO2 exceeded the recorded levels of 2021, which in turn were higher than the previous year. This simply cannot continue.

Planting more trees and protecting carbon absorbing ecosystems is one of the most effective ways of capturing carbon.

But forests worldwide are shrinking at an alarming rate.

Destruction of tropical forests is far outstripping the current rate of replanting.

A massive concern is that over a quarter of the

Amazon now emits more carbon than it absorbs.

MELTING ICE

Arctic sea ice has shrunk.

The rapid loss of Arctic sea ice is not just a symptom of climate change. It is also a driver. There is less snow and ice now to reflect heat. The white reflective surface is being replaced by a darker heat absorbing surface, which leads to further loss of sea ice.

This is a vicious circle that has to be broken. Now is the time for governments to act. Therein lies the problem. Talk is cheap…..action costs money.

Green Matters By Martin Tye

DRYING UP: Reservoirs are at low levels

Burning issue

Dear Olive Press,

l FEEL l must comment on your reference on the front page of your paper to the burning of giant papier-mache caricatures (Olive Press Costa Blanca Issue 102).

For many years the fallas models have been made from polystyrene. The production of the models provide year round work for many artists and sculptors.

It’s a high-tech business using computer controlled cutting machines.

When the models were made of wood and papier-mache, smoke and ash were produced on their burning but it was sustainable. Now the burning of the polystyrene produces dangerous gases harmful to the environment and global warming.

On a side note, how about a feature on Denia? It is a very interesting and different town to Javea, which you just produced a supplement on.

We do enjoy reading your paper, it has wide ranging, interesting articles not covered by other papers.

Barbara Daly, Denia

Editor’s note: Many thanks for your kind words Barbara and thankyou for your suggestion about Denia. Watch this space!

FIRST CLASS

9 out of 10 customers would recommend us

IN a recent survey of our customers after using Línea Directa’s Roadside Assistance and breakdown services, over 90% said they would happily recommend our insurance services to a friend or colleague.

Línea Directa would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to answer the questions in our survey as it has given us valuable feedback on our services and enabled us to integrate positive changes and continue to provide expert solutions for overseas residents in Spain.

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Car, bike and home insurance, with absolutely everything in English. The emergency and claims hotline is fast and efficient, with quick no obligation quotes over the phone.

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Campaigns work!

Thanks from our readers as the Olive Press continues to highlight issues that affect them

Congratulations

AS a reader for many years, may I congratulate the Olive Press for your untiring work in successfully campaigning for the reciprocal agreement for driving licences.

Please could you now turn your attention and influence on the plight of the more than 800,000 Spanish home owning Brits who for years have made Spain their second home and who are now severely and unfairly affected by the 90 day in 180 Schengen rule. Our ultimate wish would be for Spain to grant us the same visa free arrangement that the UK gives to Spain. Can you add your not inconsiderable voice to our campaign?

Freddie Lees, Staffordshire and Pego Editor’s note: We are very aware of the plight of many homeowners who now find they can not use their own property as they would wish since Brexit. We will certainly consider a campaign on the matter in the next few months.

Plastic query

I READ your article about plastics fished from the sea off Spain (Olive Press Online). I was interested in the assertion that if no solutions are found, by 2050 there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

I am an active member of the Marbella-Guadalmina Rotary Club and we organise and support activities in this area as part of our EndPlasticSoup

Keep it up

THE issue of solar panels covering swathes of unspoilt countryside that you have consistently highlighted is an important one.

I personally have embraced the concept of using solar, and have panels on my roof. Surely this is an avenue that should be exploited to its fullest before vast ‘mega farms’ are set up covering thousands of hectares, many in places of great natural beauty.

Take a walk in any town or city and you will see plenty of rooftop space just begging to have solar installed. The Olive Press should continue to report on this issue, which seems to be largely ignored elsewhere in the media.

Joan Armitage, Torremolinos

Initiative. We would be interested in using this as part of our promotional material, but would like to know where it comes from. Is it the scientific community or is it from an organisation that is doing work in this area?

I would appreciate it very much if you could clarify this for me

Barbara Collins, Marbella

POWER! FIGHT THE HAND S OFF OUR COSTAS

Editor’s note: The Olive Press has always covered and campaigned on environmental matters so thank you for your question that highlights an important issue. To answer your question - this information was provided by WWF UK, which states: “The amount of plastic in the ocean is expected to double in the next 15 years, and by 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the sea (by weight).”

Assistance.

And their car insurance includes helpful services such as Legal Assistance that can provide help when applying for or renewing your driving license in Spain.

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Manuel labour

AMID a barrage of bright economic news, including GDP growth of 5.5% last year, Spain faces a deficit in one of its traditional strengths: a lack of waiters.

With bookings for Easter weekend up 20% on last year, there is concern among tourism chiefs that labour will be unable to meet demand.

The after effects of the pandemic are still lingering, with claims that it continues to put workers off from entering the tourism and hospitality industry.

Coupled with hotels forecasting occupancy to be at 90% throughout the whole summer season, Spain will need at least 60,000 additional workers in the sector.

Leading companies such as Meliá have been looking for young talent on social networks, while hospitality schools in Madrid have taken the unusual step of guaranteeing their students a job upon graduation.

Fixing investigation

By Alex Trelinski

SPAIN'S competition authority, the CNMC, has launched a probe into Google and its parent company Alphabet into alleged restrictive practices concerning Spanish publishers and news agencies.

The CNMC in a statement said: “Specifically, these practices consist of the possible imposition of unfair commercial conditions on publishers of press publications and news agencies established in Spain for the exploitation of their copyrighted content.”

“There are rational indications of possible infringements,” the CNMC added. They will investigate whether

VUELING FINED

Probe into search engine giant’s ‘restrictive practices’

Business booming

SPANISH companies nearly doubled their business volume in 2022 compared to the year before, thanks in large part to the energy sector.

Firms saw their volume of business increase by 41% in 2022 compared to the year before when the country was emerging from the pandemic.

Of that 41%, the energy sector accounted for nearly 17 percentage points, according to the Bank of Spain figures. Electricity and gas firms saw joint profits of €12.8 billion in 2022, partly due to the rise in energy costs caused by the war in Ukraine.

Inflation surprise

SPAIN'S inflation rate in March clocked in at 3.3% according to preliminary figures from the National Statistics Institute. That's down on February's figure of 6% and is attributed to falls in electricity and fuel prices and the big hikes recorded in March 2022 working their way out of the system.

Google broke Spain’s competition laws by abusing its dominant market position and hindering free competition.

The CNMC investigation will last for up to 18 months and was prompted by a 2021 complaint from the Spanish Reproduction Rights Centre

BUDGET airline Vueling has been hit with a €30,000 fine in a landmark decision over discrimination between female and male cabin crews. The penalty was imposed by Catalunya’s Labour Inspectorate after a complaint from the Stavla cabin crew union.

Barcelona-based Vueling - part of the IAG group - is studying the ruling and has the right to appeal.

It’s the first-such adjudication in Spain over cabin crews with the Inspectorate saying that Vueling committed a ‘very serious infraction’ by forcing female employees to wear heels and make up while their male colleagues only required ‘a clean and groomed appearance’.

(CEDRO) - a group representing writers and publishers.

CEDRO legal director, Javier Diaz de Olarte, said: “Google has not treated press publishers in an appropriate way un-

der competition rules or in the same manner as other similar companies operating in the market.”

The complaint talks about protecting intellectual property rights and asserts that Google is threatening the ‘plurality, independence, and freedom of the press’ in Spain

The CNMC did not specify the period to be covered by the probe, nor what sanctions Google could face if it is proven the company abused its strong market position in the country.

The European Union and several member states have taken steps to stop companies like Google from hindering competition, as well as tax avoidance on profits made from accessing news articles.

The March inflation rate is the lowest annual figure since August 2021 and has confounded predictions from economists who projected a rate of around 3.8%.

Angel Talavera, chief economist for Europe at Oxford Economics, said: “This should not make us believe that inflationary tensions are over.”

“Core and food prices will remain high, and in addition, the large fall in energy prices in the last months of last year will cause the opposite effect to that of March on the inflation rate in the last months of 2023,” he added.

Core inflation, which does not include variable fresh food and energy prices, was 7.5% year-on-year, slightly below the 7.6% recorded in February.

It’s the first drop - albeit marginal - in the core rate in 23 months.

Food prices are the main issue for most people in Spain with the last stripped-out figure reporting a 16.6% annual rate in February.

The Bank of Spain has predicted that food inflation will remain in double digits for the rest of 2023 with the annual rate in December predicted to be 12.2% before falling to an average rate of 4.6% next year.

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TASTE OF SPRING

WITH Semana Santa upon us, it’s time to resume outdoor living.

Summer ranges are about to drop in store… and will usually be gone by the end of May. So, if you want to get ahead outside, here are some top terrace tips.

On your marks, get set, go: More-is-more maximalism – a hot trend right now, and our strong sunlight, deep blue skies, staggering sunsets, and colourful landscapes can certainly handle it. Add in plenty of patterns with different

As we finally move outside back into our gardens and roof terraces, Julia Begbie, takes a look at a few hot options

sized repeats, lots of strong colour (a wide range from light to dark) including the frames of furniture, and a variety of surface textures too.

Not a style for shrinking violets - if you have a go and it looks a bit sad, you probably need to add more!

Quiet minimalism – if bold colour and pattern set your nerves on edge, then follow Nicky Dobree’s advice (below) and take inspiration for colour from the landscape.

Establish a base neutral palette (e.g. off-white, beige, taupe, or grey) and hold back with the accessories, limiting the colour palette to soft and muted tones and shades picked up when you survey your surroundings.

Invest for long-lasting style – use high quality sun and weather-resistant textiles, such as Designers Guild fabrics, to get years of pristine performance.

According to Jacqueline Roberts of TerazzaBella, in Estepona, among the biggest developments in terrace design has been the huge increase in exciting colour and pattern, not just in textiles but in outdoor rugs and wallpaper too. Now you can have whatever you want, inside or out!

Visit www.telabella.es

Live like Jackie O

HARD WEARING: Materials from Designers Guild

JUST between us, there is something special going on at Ikea right now: a partnership with cult Finnish design brand Marimekko – beloved of Jackie O and Carrie Bradshaw. If you know, you know. These star designer collaborations sell fast and are one season only. The Marimekko products

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PROS

Designer Nicky Dobree on how she was inspired by the local vernacular to create the sumptuous look of hip Vejer hotel Plaza 18

quite a departure and is Nicky’s first hotel project. Judging by the ecstatic guest reviews, it won’t be her last.

are branded ‘bastua’: use this term to filter the Ikea website and discover a small but perfectly formed capsule range of kimonos, floor cushions, rechargeable lanterns, trays and platters, glorious glassware, and all manner of beach and terrace textiles to get you and your home summer-ready!

The branded carrier bag (watch out for late summer resale prices on eBay) is just €0.99 and would make a great gift / beach bag.

British interior designer Nicky Dobree is best known for a portfolio chock-full of sumptuous, snowblown ski chalets.

So Plaza 18, a boutique hotel in sun-baked Vejer de la Frontera, is

You might wonder how an outsider - even a professional one - could drop in, flawlessly convert a venerable Andalucian building, and deliver an impeccable sense of place.

It helps that Nicky has been a regular visitor to Vejer and is a true champion of the Andalucian vernacular.

Plus she’s a veteran when it comes to getting wide things up narrow tracks.

Of particular interest from an interior design point of view is how Plaza 18 manages to feel both historic and contemporary, and cool and cosy, all at

the same time.

Here she gives the Olive Press her tips for renovating and decorating in Spain.

ON COLOUR: Take local inspiration for colour, look to nature and local culture, so for example, against the soft stone tones of the south of France you might pick a palette of soft pinks and greens, whereas in the south of Spain, you start with a black and white canvas and you can afford to use bolder colour.

ON MIXING OLD AND NEW: Even if you want contemporary style, don’t strip out beautiful original details, instead invest in restoring these. Furnishings don’t have to work so hard when the architecture is beautiful; you can mix very modern pieces with antiques in a well-restored period building, particularly when you select local pieces.

ON PUEBLO BLANCO STYLE: The pueblo blanco vernacular is strongly black and white, but in an older building, the patina of use alters colour. Plaza 18’s blacks and whites are off-blacks and offwhites, and not off-the-ferretería-shelf. All colours

were carefully tested on site. Culturally, Africa also has a role to play in Andalucian style, and in Plaza 18 artworks by African artists were also woven in.

ON OUR CLIMATE: A room that is decorated using light-coloured linens to alleviate the summer heat can also be cosy on a chilly winter’s night when you turn on lamps, sink your feet into rugs, plump cushions and surround yourself with a collection of art and decorative objects.

ABOVE ALL: Save time and money by getting professional design help, learn about local style by working with an expert who knows instinctively what’s right and where to find it.

“EVERY project has to be grounded by its location and its architecture…having a sense of place for any building is absolutely vital.”

visit

THE Roman Villa de la Estacion, the remnants of a large palatial building with thermal baths near Antequera, will finally be open to the public this summer.

It was first discovered in 1998 during the construction of a ring road, and forced planners to reroute due to the archaeological importance of the ruins. The villa, dating back to the 1st century AD, will become the only suburban villa of the Roman region of Baetica that can be visited.

Entrance to the site will be free, via appointment at the Museo de la Ciudad de Antequera (Museum of Antequera).

SIX-TIME Grammy winners Black

Eyed Peas will be the stand-out act at this year's Brilla Torrevieja festival.

The group featuring will.i.am will take to the stage at Torrevieja's Antonio Soria Park on August 11.

The band is famous for hits like I Gotta Feeling and The Time, and have recorded eight studio albums.

The Peas gig will feature tracks from their latest album Elevation, which includes collaborations with artists

Peas big night

such as Anitta, Shakira and Daddy Yankee. Tickets go on sale this Sunday, and will be one of only four performances the band will be giving in Spain this summer along with dates at Cadiz, Marbella, and Mallorca. The third Brilla Torrevieja festival will run between July 30 and August 20.

LOADS OF INK

A bizarre exhibition is celebrating the art of the tattooist

THE world’s largest expo on the history of the artform has opened at the CaixaForum Agora building within Valencia’s Arts and Sciences complex. The exhibition goes back to the origins of body art and showcases how its popularity has surged in recent years.

By Alex Trelinski

A special feature is the bizarre sight of 20 silicone torsos tattooed by masters of the art, as well as models of other body parts. ‘Tattoo. Art under the skin’ will remain in Valencia until August 27.

LET THERE BE LIGHT!

Valencia’s grand, blue-domed Bellas Artes museum is already well-known for its collection of beautiful paintings by Joaquin Sorolla, the Valencian son who so magically captured the city’s light and everyday life at the turn of

Squid Game escape

He was famous for his geometric buildings and the Mediterranean and Arabic styles that inspired his work.

Now architect Ricardo Bofill - whose iconic designs have been compared to the backdrops of hit Netflix series The Squid Game - is being celebrated this year in the colourful resort of Calpe. The Alicante hotspot had declared 2023 its ‘Year of Bofill’, just before he died in early 2022, but the celebrations are still going ahead.

Bofill’s most famous work in Calpe is the 1972 apartment complex ‘The Red Wall’, which perches on the cliff to the southern end of the Bay of Calpe, looking across to the striking Penyal d’Ifac rock.

Said to have been inspired by the design of a North African kasbah, all terraces, patios and hidden walkways, it is actually just one of three quirky buildings that make up the coastal Manzanera urbanisation designed by Bofill.

The forest-green Xanadu building looks like a teetering pile of houses on top of each other right on the coast and is home to 18 modern apartments while the sleek Amphitheatre complex, all creamy exteriors set around a red-tiled pool, is home to another 27 luxury homes.

From April to the end of September, Calpe will offer weekly guided tours of the city’s Bofill

Face to the name

the 20th Century.

It’s a landmark year for the so-called ‘Master of light’ with 2023 marking the 100th anniversary of his death.

To mark the occasion, a new temporary exhibition has just opened at Bellas Artes to explore his earlier works.

Entitled Origins, it features a big range of canvases, including his 1883 painting The Slave and the Dove, created when he was just 20 years old and considered the first to showcase his ability to capture light.

The exhibition, in partnership with the Sorolla Museum in Madrid, will feature other works never before displayed in Valencia, tracing his career from early drawings to his first seascapes and including photos and watercolours, too.

It will run until June 11 and is just one of the ways the city is marking the centenary of Sorolla’s death.

It has been put together by France’s Musee du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, with exhibition coordinator Adrien Flament, saying: “A tattoo is still the expression of the relationship that an individual maintains with his society. “It is an expression of contemporary history that does not stop evolving,” Flament added. This exhibition brings together more than 240 historical and contemporary works from different parts of the world including contributions from Japan and Polynesia to Thailand and

Los Angeles. It documents tattoo artists and tattooed people both past and present to explore the development of the art form into one of global artistic expression.

Displays include paintings, drawings, photographs, audio-visual displays and books, as well as objects such as tools, masks and stamps.

CaixaForum Valencia head, Alvaro Borras, commented that the tattoo has every right to be included as ‘part of the history of art’.

THE Cueva de Nerja has managed to virtually ‘resurrect’ Pepita’s skeleton. This is the name given to the remains of a young woman found in 1982 in the Torca Room of the Cueva de Nerja during the archaeological excavations directed by Professor Manuel Pellicer. Since then, ‘Pepita’ has become the most emblematic piece of the Nerja Museum, which belongs to the Cueva de Nerja Fondation.

Now, the face of the ancient skeleton, one of the best preserved of its time in Europe, has been rendered on computer to give an idea of what she looked like.

architecture, which is normally closed to the public. Email infocultura@ajcalp.es for more details. Or you could always book a stay in one of the apartments within the urbanisation. Apartments in The Red Wall are available on Booking and Airbnb from €95 a night.

LA CULTURA

PICASSO QUIZ: How much do you know about his art?

It’s Picasso Year, in case you hadn’t noticed. April 8, 2023 marks a significant anniversary of the death of the great Spanish modern artist, and major exhibitions are happening across Spain and around the world commemorating his life and work

LOVE him or hate him (or quite like some of his stuff sometimes), Picasso achieved massive fame and success.

So you shouldn’t have any trouble with our Picasso Year Quiz. The questions are all multiple choice.

1- Big anniversary – so what year did he die?

a) 1923

b) 1948

c) 1973

d) 1993

2- Where was he born?

a) Malaga

b) Barcelona

c) Torremolinos

d) Valencia

3- Which of these is Picasso’s first known oil painting? (below)

4- He was a very busy artist indeed and left behind somewhere in the region of 20,000 works in one form or the other. Best known as a painter, he was creative in other ways. What discipline isn’t he famous for?

a) Poetry

b) Theatrical sets

c) Pottery

d) Embroidery

6- If there is one painting associated with the Spanish Civil War, it’s Guernica. Where was it first exhibited?

a) Bilbao

b) Madrid

c) New York

d) Paris

7- Where did Picasso spend most of his life?

a) Malaga

b) Barcelona

c) Paris

d) The French Riviera

5- Over the space of five months, Picasso created a suite of 58 works called Las Meninas, 44 of which (including this one below) were inspired by a painting by which artist?

a) Joan Miro

b) Modigliani

c) Diego Velasquez

d) Juan Gris

8- He named his daughter Paloma after

a) the universal symbol for peace

b) the pigeons flying around Malaga

c) the song, Paloma Blanca

d) the ballet dancer Anna Pavlova but had – famously

– misheard her name

9- Robert Capa’s iconic 1948 photo of the Spanish artist and his lover (left) was taken on:

a) the Costa Brava

b) the Costa del Sol

c) the Costa Blanca

d) the French Riviera

10

- His name and his art are known around the world. But could you pick the young artist out from a lineup (above)?

Fabulous at anytime: Museo Picasso Malaga and Museu Picasso Barcelona

For details of all major exhibitions, visit Spain is Culture

10 - A - Pablo Picasso, photographed in 1908. The others are: Antoni Gaudi (b); George Bernard Shaw (c); and, another Spanish artist being commemorated this year, Joaquin Sorolla (c) who died 100 years ago this August.

9 - D - The French Riviera. It shows Picasso (65) and the artist François Gilot (25). Although they never married (Picasso was already married to the Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova), they met in 1943, had two children, and remained together for almost a decade.

8 - B - The pigeons in Plaza de la Merced, Malaga, that he could see from the window of his family home obviously had a profound impression on the young Picasso.

7 - C - Paris. Picasso’s family left Malaga when he was 10 (for A Coruña). He lived in Barcelona for close to nine years (1885-1904) but began spending an increasing amount of time in Paris, and left Spain for good in 1904, remaining in Paris for 63 years, before moving to the French Riviera.

6 - D - Picasso was living in Paris when he painted Guernica in 1937. It was first shown at the International Exposition in Paris the same year, before being sent to MoMA in New York, where it stayed until finally coming to Spain after Franco’s death. It is now at the Reina Sofia in Madrid.

5 - C - Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez, painted way back in 1656. The masterpiece by the Sevilla-born Velazquez caught the eye of the young Picasso during one of his many trips to the Prado Museum while studying art in Madrid, and you can still see it there today. Picasso’s -inter pretations are part of the permanent collection at the Museu Picasso, Barcelona.

4 - D - Embroidery.

3 - B - El Picador, painted by Picasso in 1889 when he was eight years old, and a painting he kept all his life. The others are: a) Portrait of Gertrude Stein, also by Picasso but done 16 years later; c) Blue Coat by Paul Klee (aged 69); d) Last Supper by Emil Nolde (aged 42).

2 - A - Picasso was born in Malaga. His family lived in Plaza de la Merced for the first 10 years of his life, and the family home is now a museum, the Museo Casa Natal de Picasso [https:// museocasanatalpicasso.malaga.eu/].

1 - C - Picasso died on April 8, 1973, aged 91. This is the 50th anniversary of his death.

PICASSO QUIZ ANSWERS

Picasso, Barcelona

HAYFEVER sufferers will be able to breath easy this year.

According to the SEAIC allergology society, 2023 will likely be mild for allergy sufferers.

By using a model based on historical data and weather forecasts, the society has predicted that spring will be mild for pollen on the Mediterranean coast but a little worse in areas such as Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura.

SEAIC reported that coastal cities such as Barcelona, Alicante and Murcia will see pollen levels of between 1,000 and 1,200 grains per square metre, rising to 2,000 in inland urban centres such as Lleida and above 4,000 grains in areas south of Madrid..

The cold winter has had an effect on pollen levels, in particular from cypresses and conifers, which are usually the first to shed their grains.

THE Murcia Mental Health Federation has been awarded the Gold Medal of the City for 25 years of defending the rights and serving the needs of people with mental health problems and their families. Coordinator Rosa Garrigos said: “We are very happy and grateful to all the people who have helped us in these

GOLD SERVICE AWARD

25 years and who are the true heroes of this recognition.” The federation offers mental health counselling and care for those with mental health disorders, as well as legal advice, including to people in

prison. The medal will also be awarded to la Plataforma ILP del Mar Menor for protecting Europe’s largest salt water lagoon and cyclist Alejandro Valverde.

Sperm mistake

A MAN who had a son via IVF treatment has discovered that the child is not his biological offspring and now wants €1 million compensation. The situation came to light due to a series of coincidences which included repeated comments from relatives about how little the child, who was born in late 2021, resembled his father.

OP Puzzle solutions

Quick Crossword

Across: 6 Allow, 7 Scurry, 8 Spur, 9 Noontide, 10 Dangle, 12 Gamma, 14 Dad, 16 Melon, 17 Retire, 19 Countess, 21 Togo, 22 Sloped, 23 Icing.

Down: 1 Warplane, 2 Blur, 3 Twinned, 4 Subtract, 5 Trod, 7 Shop, 11 Grown-ups, 13 Mortgage, 15 Drastic, 18 Bend, 20 Oily, 21 Trio.

IVF baby is not biological offspring of father

By Simon Hunter

Then a friend with medical knowledge noticed that the blood group of the baby was incompatible with those of his parents.

This prompted the family to take a paternity test, the result of which showed that the woman was the child’s biological mother, but that the man was not the father. “The result was communicated to the family on February 27, 2023 and was devastating for them,” a lawsuit filed by pressure group The Patient’s Ombudsman states.

Suing

The family is suing the health system as well as the Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar in Cadiz. The regional health chief, Catalina Garcia, launched an investigation into what exactly happened. The lawyer acting for the family, which has not been identified, also raised fears about how far-reaching the error could be: i.e. another fami-

Close call

ly undergoing IVF treatment may have had a baby using the man’s sperm. The group has opted to go public with the story in order to avoid such mistakes happening again. “It’s obvious that what happened cannot be sorted out, but perhaps if everyone hears about it, it won’t happen again,” a spokesman said.

A 10-YEAR-OLD child ended up in intensive care after a hospital accidentally administered him a dose of the tranquiliser ketamine that was meant for an adult weighing 130 kilos. The incident happened after the boy was taken to the Universitario Hospital in Torrejon de Ardoz with a broken arm. Twenty minutes after he had been attended to by doctors, he was found in a strange position and was making odd noises. Checks revealed that he had a blood saturation level of 40%, when a normal level is between 95 and 100%, and that he was having problems breathing. It was then that the medical team realised that he had been given a large dose of ketamine in preparation for surgery. A dose of 250 milligrams was prepared instead of 50 milligrams. Fortunately, the full dose was not given to the patient.

Fooled you

OLIVE Press writer Simon Hunter has attracted more than 2.3m views - and many outraged comments - with his April Fool tweet featuring a tortilla espanola including sausages and cheese as ingredients.

Speed freak

A BRITISH biker has been clocked speeding at 202kph on the A7 in Manilva on the Costa del Sol and is now under investigation for a crime against road safety.

Just learning

POLICE are investigating a 58-year-old man after he allowed his eight-year-old son behind the wheel in a Malaga car park used by parents to teach their children how to drive.

O P LIVE RESS The

COSTA BLANCA SUR / MURCIA

RAIN GOD

Villagers pray for end to drought at special Mass to Lady of the Torrents

A DROUGHT stricken village has revived an old practice to pray for rain.

The inhabitants of L’Espunyola in Catalunya decided to hold a special mass to Our Lady of the Torrents, a local virgin associated with rainfall, in a bid to save their crops.

Some 250 residents joined a procession, with worshippers bearing the colourfully paint-

By Dilip Kuner

ed statue of the virgin from its home in the local church (pictured) and around the village streets followed by the bishop and parishioners.

Together with tourism, farming is the main source of income for L’Espunyola, which is about an hour-and-a-half north of Barcelona.

Following three dry years, much of Catalunya is affected by drought, putting crops at peril unless it rains soon.

All three reservoirs in the area

PLUCKY PEACOCKS

IT makes a change from rescuing cats from trees. Fire crews in Valencia were called out on a peacock rescue mission after four birds were spotted leaping across rooftops. Residents were surprised to see the colourful creatures enjoying freedom on top of buildings on Godella's Calle Mayor. There were concerns that one or more might suffer a fatal fall and that pedestrians might be injured as well. Firefighters from Burjassot and Paterna were assigned the task of getting the peacocks to safety.

are below a third of their capacity and nearby La Baells reservoir is at just 35% capacity. It may be an old Mass revived, but the villagers have tried the same method of ‘rainmaking’ in recent times. And they claim it workedsoon after offering prayers and hymns to Our Lady of the Torrents in 2008 the heavens opened. But Bishop Francesc Conesa (pictured) is being cagey over whether the villagers’ prayers will be answered this time. He said: “We have asked with faith, and many people have come and prayed with faith. “The Lord will give us what suits us.”

FIVE Komodo Dragons have been hatched in a

This is the first successful breeding of the world’s largest lizard in Spain for a decade. Currently there are only 1,300 of the endangered species in the

The breeding success at Fuengirola’s BioParc is a milestone for the species as it is particularly difficult to get the lizards to mate. Female dragons are only on heat for one week a year and spend the other 51 weeks actively avoiding the male.

Conceived

Each of the baby dragons have been named: Juanito (for being conceived on San Juan’s day), Phoenix (as his egg broke during incubation but he managed to survive), Embum (meaning ‘morning dew’ in Indonesian), Saya (a tribute to a previous female dragon at the zoo) and Drakaris (named by a team member who is a self confessed Game of Thrones fan).