Selwo Marina and Selwo Aventura Open for the New Season

Selwo AventuraTwo of our favourite attractions on the Costa del Sol, Selwo Marina Dolphinarium and Selwo Aventura will be opening for the new season today (Friday 24th February 2012).

After a well earned winter break, these popular parks are ready to delight visitors with their unique facilities.

Selwo Marina Dolphinarium, located just minutes away from Sunset Beach Club, will be celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. Special activities will be planned throughout the season to celebrate, so visiting the park is a must if you are visiting theCosta del Sol 🙂

Selwo Aventura, the wildlife adventure park located near Estepona (Approx. 1 hour drive from Sunset Beach Club) also opens to the public today. In a constant effort to reinvent the visitor experience, Selwo Aventura will be introducing new species and animals to their, already impressive, wildlife family. Here’s a quick list of the new attractions:

  • Two new Hippos – Margarita and Manolito (can’t get more Spanish than that!! ) – have been brought to the park in the hope that they’ll be able to add to the parks population with a little Manolito Hippo! The Masai Mara area of the park has been especially prepared to welcome the two Hippos and to make sure they feel at home.
  • HyenaTerritoryis one of the new installations which will be introduced this season. This is perfect opportunity to learn more about this roaming carnivore, vital for the African ecosystem.
  • The newLionTerritory. Located in the main village area of Selwo Aventura, this new feature will allow visitors to see the King of the Jungle up close!
  • The “Reserva de losLagos” area of the park will be the new home of the Sitatunga (don’t worry, I had to look it up too 😉 it’s a type of antelope) another African species.

If you are planning on visiting Sunset Beach Club for a holiday – and especially if you have kids –  make sure you include Selwo Marina Dolphinarium and Selwo Aventura on your list of ‘Places to see’, you’ll have a blast!

Official Opening of the New River Park in Fuengirola

Fuengirola River Park Project

The Fuengirola River Park Project

Next Saturday the 15th October, the Mayor of Fuengirola will officially open the town’s new river park. With this ambitious project, the Fuengirola Town Hall has recovered the edges of the Fuengirola river, allowing locals and visitors to enjoy the marvellous new installations which will be used for leisure, sports and recreation. (more…)

Don’t Miss the Meteor Shower on Saturday 8th October!

Meteor shower

This coming Saturday (8th October, 2011), anyone located on the Costa del Sol will have the chance to experience an amazing meteor shower.

This particular meteor shower is known as the Draconids – so named because they appear to radiate from the constellation Draco (Dragon) – these beautiful streams of light result when the earth ploughs through debris streams shed by a comet on its path around the sun; these become meteors when they hit the earth’s atmosphere and burn up, resulting in what we often refer to as shooting stars.

Earlier in 2011 an astronomer predicted that the Draconids might produce a spurt of 1000 meteors per hour for a brief window of time. So make sure you head out to an area with little light (the glow of city lights makes it difficult to see them), take a comfy beach chair and sit back to watch the amazing spectacle.

Apparently, the best time to see the meteor shower is between 8pm and 10pm and you need to look towards the north.

Enjoy!

Speed Limit Goes back to 120kph

Speed limit in Spain back to 120 kph

Speed limit back to 120 kph

A couple of months ago I posted about the new speed limit which was coming into effect as from the 7th March 2011. Well, 4 months later and a whole load of dosh spent on new stickers for all motorway signs, the Spanish government has decided to reinstate the old speed limit of 120kph!

As you’ll probably remember, the reason for the original reduction was that it would save energy and money due to the high price of oil at the time. As it stands today, oil prices are pretty much the same as they were 4 months ago and whilst various drivers associations are happy that they’ll be able to shoot down the motorway at 120kph again, there are many who are up in arms about the decision; namely, environmental groups and families of car crash victims.

So what now? Well, for starters, road crews will be busy removing stickers on over 6000 road signs on the eve of July 1st! Apparently, this little exercise will cost the tax payer over 200,000 Euros
 but it’s not all bad news; the estimated fuel savings during the past 4 months are estimated at approx. 450 million Euros 🙂

So if you’re planning on coming out to Spain on holiday this summer, as from Friday (1st July) you’ll be able to drive at 120 kph on all motorways; just make sure you don’t go over that speed, for the sake of other drivers and the old purse strings (the police are going to be keen to recuperate some of the “supposed” lost income in traffic fines over the past 4 months) 😉

 

 

 

New Video from Spanish Tourist Board Shows Wonders of Andalucia

Last month, the Spanish Tourist Board (Turespaña) launched 13 new videos on their Youtube channel.

These impressive videos all form part of the new “Spain Timelapse Series”. They have been produced using a special photographic technique called “Timelapse” which consists in taking photos (they took over 300,000 photos to prepare the 13 videos in the series) at a much lower speed than that of reproduction. This means that when the whole sequence of photos is reproduced, reality seems to have been fast forwarded, creating a video with somewhat peculiar and “different” effects.

I’ve embedded one of the videos below which shows the beautiful area of Andalucia, albeit from a more modern and innovative point of view.

The video showcases the regions cultural attractions, it’s most emblematic cities, the wide choice of hotels and accommodation – from charming rural hotels in the interior to 5 star wonders on the shores of the Mediterranean – and, of course, the wide range of entertainment and services that visitors can enjoy in this wonderful part of Spain.

So, what do you think of the video?

 

Four Benalmadena Beaches Receive Blue Flag Status

Blue Flags for Benalmadena Beaches

Blue flag Flying on 4 Benalmadena Beaches

For the first time in history, Benalmadena has received four awards for the quality of its beaches; it is now the municipality with the most Blue Flags on the Costa del Sol!

For those of you who may be unaware of what this means, the Blue Flag is awarded by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). It is voluntary eco-label which is awarded to over 3450 beaches and marinas in 41 countries around the world.

The award of a Blue Flag beach is based on compliance with 32 strict criteria covering the following aspects: (more…)