Homepage Internet Cafe |
Costa Blanca Blog - general chit chat. |
||
|
|
: GUARDAMAR DEL SEGURA INFO |
| NEW - COSTA BLANCA INFO SECTION : |
| Listing Of Blog Articles ... | |||||
|
|||||
WINTER CLIMATE CHANGE - Where has the Spanish sunshine gone. APRIL 2010 |
||||
| [EDIT]. | ||||
Where is all the wildlife in Spain's Costa Blanca ? ... Feb 2010 [edit in progress] |
|||||||||||||
The Community of Valenciana has around 22 natural parks (parcs naturals) and 8 protected landscapes, seven of these natural parks and three of the protected landscapes fall in the Costa Blanca region. In the Costa Blanca ... the natural parks are ... El-Montgó | Serro de Mariola | Font Roja | Serra Gelado | El Fondo | Salinas de Santa Pola & Laguna de La Mata. and the protected landscapes are ... Serpis | Puigcampana | Serra del Maigmo & Serra del Sit. I have to admit that I have not been to all these places yet. But I'm willing to bet that if the likes of the wide open spaces of Guadalest, Calblanque (outside the Costa Blanca), the area near the caves of Busot (and all the other places we have visited in almost 4 years in Spain) are anything to go by ... the rest of these nature reserves are going to be the same ... nada wildlife ... nada birds ... nothing ... unless you have microscopic binoculars. It really does seem an alarming state of affairs ... Ever since I was a lad, wildlife has been an interest ... and to see - for example a snake - in its natural habitat, here in Spain ... is an ambition (I do have others) ... I know ... a snakes a snake ... but the difference between seeing one in the wild and seeing one in an glass aquarium somewhere ... it's just not quite the same now ... is it ? Don't get me wrong ... I'm not one to plonk myself in a hide somewhere with a ration of sustainable's ... for days on end ... watching & waiting ... it should be natural ... And ... there's the point ... all of these "nature reserves" in the Spain's Costa Blanca ... claim to actually have wildlife ... but you never actually see it ... naturally ... if you get my drift. To my mind (experience so far) ... only the Santa Pola salt lakes can lay claim to be an ACTUAL nature reserve ... where you can at least see the wildlife (or birds in this case).  Example : most of the tourist destinations and natural reserves will display signs ... supposedly inferring that this is the wildlife of the area. The one on the left is from the Fonts de l'Algar and the pictures show Hawks Eagles and even Vultures ... are these kept in a zoo somewhere ? I have seen these signs at various other places we have visited (this being the only photo I had) ... BUT ... any sign of the wildlife ... no. Sightings of birds in the Costa Blanca ... On our urbanisation we have a birdbath (come drinking pot) which is kept filled ... try it ... it works wonders, and quite often you can see Finches, Wagtails, Tits, Collared Doves, Blackbirds and Robins using this watering hole. But apart from this ... what bird life is out there ? The occasional sight of a Hoopoe ... a fantastic bird ... In the spring summer & autumn ... in the dusk ... small Bats. Gulls, Cranes, Herons, Waders, Pipers, Cormorants and Flamingoes on the Salt Lakes at Santa Pola ..
We used to stay in Playa Flamenca (Orihuela - outside of the Costa Blanca) and there, on some waste ground a flock of Wild Green Parrots used to congregate ... in Barcelona these Parrots are common place ... but here in the Costa Blanca ... a very rare sight. On a trip to Tabarca Island I spotted some kind of Hawk which made its way to the lighthouse. I had been living in Spain's Costa Blanca for three years before I even saw a Magpie ... then on a trip to Muxtamel in Alicante - saw three Magpies in a day ... you can (these days) sometimes spot a Kestrel hovering over the Santa Pola salt lakes .. But as far as birds go ... really that's about it in four years of life here in the Costa Blanca of Spain ... not a lot. Sightings of mammals in the Costa Blanca ... Have you ever seen a real life (wild) Fox, Badger, Mole, Hare or Rabbit in the Costa Blanca ? ... me neither. Any dead Hedgehogs in the road ... any dead mammal in the road apart from cats & dogs ? I have seen a Squirrel (not in one of the parks) but, right outside of the casa one morning ... and I'm pretty certain it was a Squirrel and not one of the thousands of stray cats which roam the Costa Blanca. So WHY is this ?... is it the climate .. too hot here in the Costa Blanca ? Lets take a country such as the UK ... where lots of wildlife can be seen ... if ... you step into the countryside ... Spain has lots more land mass ... and into what land mass is countryside (un-built) in Spain ... you could maybe fit the whole of the UK ... why then this lack of visible wildlife here in Spain ? By here in Spain I mean the Costa Blanca specifically. Lets analysis a probable causes of this lack of wildlife in the Costa Blanca .... Food Chain. Water here in the Costa Blanca is plentiful ... so fish and plankton abound in the waters, especially in the Santa Pola lakes ... so no problem for the Gulls, Cranes, Herons, Waders, Pipers, Cormorants and Flamingoes which haunt these lakes. There again ... at locations such as the likes of Guadalest and the Embalse de la Pedrera which are (admittedly - fresh water) man made reservoirs ... there are fish ... I've seen them ... but where are the birds ? However ... The ground (the soil) here in the Costa Blanca (especially in the countryside) is hardly soft, and, "open field" agriculture here in the Costa Blanca is not a thriving business - due (I suppose - in part or completely) to the summer heat and lack of rain within those summer months ... this, one would imagine, could put paid to any burrowing mammals and worms (XXXX etc) chances of survival here in the Costa Blanca ... at least on any kind of large scale. Note: open field agriculture - Lemons Oranges Pommegranites Olives & more ?? Type of soil ?? [EDIT] in Progress] |
|||||||||||||
| Listing Of Blog Articles ... | |||||
|
|||||
House cockroaches in Spain - Getting rid of the Spanish pest cockroach ... 27.08.2008 |
||||
| We moved into our re-sale home, and for 5 months (admittedly part of which were the winter months, which could partly explain the fact) never saw a single cockroach - then the local Spanish council (sometime in spring) sent out some workmen to spray the sewage drains (for some reason unbeknown) ... after this we were getting cockroaches outside the house & more worrying cockroaches inside the house. The spaying of the drains must have forced the cockroaches out and this is when the problem started, so naturally we needed a remedy that would eliminate these pests - the first step was to block every crevice which the cockroaches could possibly use to get inside the house ; this was done ... but we were still finding the cockroaches in the bathroom and the kitchen (no doubt using the water drainage system to get in). We saw on You Tube that an empty jam jar with masking tape on the outside and water & coffee granules on the inside was a good way to trap the cockroaches .. it was totally useless (maybe the cockroaches don't like Nescafe) - absolute rubbish. Then a friend told us about another cockroach treatment which was supposed to work wonders, but gathering the ingredients in Spain for this cockroach poison was rather difficult, we eventually got there with a little help, starch is rather hard to find in Spain. 
The Spanish cockroach killer mixture cure was as follows .... Powdered Boric Acid - 240 grams (available at Farmacy) Onion liquefied in a blender (no water) - 200 grams Starch - 20 grams Wheat Flour (used for bread & cakes) - 22 grams Powdered Milk - 22.5 grams Sugar - 30 grams Simply mix the lot thoroughly - then pop it on a piece of newspaper and leave for around 8 hours. Just break off pieces and place them strategically in the bathroom & kitchen and outside the house (obviously being carefully about pets and children). As for the toxicology of Boric Acid - see ...... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boric_acid Apparently the Boric Acid dehydrates the cockroach. This worked for us, no cockroaches the night after we used the cure - and we have not seen a cockroach inside or outside the house now for over 5 weeks (fingers crossed). ADDED Feb 2010 - This Cockroach Poison really does work .. BUT you need to keep making the mixture EVERY year ... around April - May .. just before the cockroaches start to appear. |
||||
| Listing Of Blog Articles ... | |||||
|
|||||
Natural piped mains gas for Spain - how long will it be ?? .... 28.05.2008 |
|||||
|
|||||
| Listing Of Blog Articles ... | |||||
|
|||||
English TV is dead - how to to get UK TV in Spain ? ... 25.09.2008 |
||||
 Telmicro get their offices raided & the Guardia Civil take away half a million euro - these were the news headlines in September 2008. The reason : Telmicro were reportedly supplying a hell of a LOT of people with SKY TV subscription channels in the Costa Blanca and allegedly only declaring to the Tax people a fraction of this income, the action was brought about after complaints by Sogecable who own Canal+ and who now have the rights to air certain subscribed SKY TV channels in Spain .. which Telmicro were accused of re-broadcasting to their customers. Sogecable & Canal+ are NOT yet selling FULL UK SKY TV packages - otherwise the UK Ex Pat fraternity in Spain would not be up in uproar due to the loss of their UK TV entertainment, they would simply sign up with Sogecable & Canal+ and this would be the UK Spain TV problem solved. Exactly when Sogecable & Canal+ intend to offer their subscribed UK SKY TV packages is extremely hard to determine, but in the meantime there are still countless (English run) Spanish satellite TV companies advertising in the free local English papers .. claiming to offer UK SKY TV to the hoards of UK Ex Pats ... Being no expert on satellite TV - but reading as much as I can - it seems the only way (at the moment .. Sept 2008) to get UK TV in the Spanish Costa Blanca region is to get yourself a BIG satellite dish (size dependant on location & obstacles) and point the thing 19.2 degrees East at the Astra 2 satellite, then dependant on the signal & type of receiver you have you may be able to pick up the standard free to air UK BBC and ITV channels but NOT UK SKY TV. The size of the dish required is a bit of a gray area - with the 2.4m diameter satellite dish being recommended by the experts, as the best for the southern Alicante region of Spain (which is reportedly the worst area in Spain to pick up Astra2 signals). Also much touted is the Freesat Receiver ... one thing is for sure .... this is one Spanish Ex Pat debate that is not going to go away until the dust settles and the UK settlers in Spain get what they want .... English TV in their Spanish homes. |
||||
| Listing Of Blog Articles ... | |||||
|
|||||
Graffiti Busters needed - Guardamar aiding and abetting the Graffiti Artist ?? - 25.05.2008 |
||||
The problem of graffiti in Guardamar (and Spain in general) is one which needs to be addressed (agreed it is a growing global problem) - but it seems in some ways that it is (unwittingly ?) encouraged in the way that Guardamar (and Spanish) buildings are structured. Typically six storey apartment blocks, with underground parking and the ground level of the building reserved for commercial units, most of which, are then bricked up - until someone decides to rent the unit.
In most cases the bricking up of these units looks even worse than the graffiti which inevitably follows (give the kids a canvas which they think is not private property) ...  Even the doorway entrances to some of the apartment blocks (by design) - provide the kids with a hidden opportunity to daub the walls - like dogs marking their territory, all of which .. simply encourages a type of ghetto mentality and things will gradually get worse unless it is nipped in the bud. Lets talk some more about these commercial units in Guardamar del Segura .... The town of Guardamar is a holiday resort for the Spanish from Madrid, which it has historically been for many years now - this does not however assist people running a commercial venture in Guardamar who it seems are in a kind of catch 22 situation as regards to attracting prospective customers, whom are severely lacking out of the peak season - thus most businesses will only fully open peak season - so when people visit Guardamar (off peak) almost everything is closed = not much to do ..... so why bother ? The town is buzzing in Easter, July and August (when the Spaniards from Madrid who own most of the apartments in the town arrive) - but the rest of the year (commercially speaking) pales in comparison - so why the need for so many of these empty (because that's the way they will stay - for quite some time coming) units - with ugly brickwork plastered in graffiti names and slogans. Guardamar may well change (in another 50 years) with regard to an influx of "live in" people who - all year round - can make Guardamar into a thriving commercial centre, after all the structure and environment is there - but that change will be a long time coming ...  The one business that springs to mind in Guardamar (a town with more than its fair share of shoe shops, estate agents and Chinese Bazaars & Chinese Restaurants), which incidentally took over one of these empty units; as an outstanding stroke of genius is El Corte Chino, the store is huge and sells almost everything you can think of - Chinese imported, but one also wonders - with the unrest among the Chinese workers regarding wages - how long these kind of stores will be able to import and still manage to sell goods at rock bottom prices. Meanwhile though, El Corte Chino must rule the roost in Guardamar's commercial sector (as regards to stock turnaround - who knows what the profit margin is) - without doubt.  El Corte Chino could probably put a lot of the other Chinese Bazaars (and a few other stores) in Guardamar out of business and seems to be making a killing, the Spanish love a bargain - and they certainly got one here - the name of the of the store itself could have brought a law suit from the high profile Spanish chain of El Corte Ingles !! What cheek - what a stroke of genius - and - one way to stop the graffiti on the bricked up units of Guardamar. |
||||
| Listing Of Blog Articles ... | |||||
|
|||||
The Spanish Property Market. - 20.05.2008 |
||||
| The Spanish Property Market. Spain's Costa Blanca ... wholesale destruction or essential development ? A question dependant on many things ... the answer (assuming the questions validity) ... inevitably falling at the feet of Spain's entrepreneurial skills - with the Costa Blanca being such a great attraction to people from other European countries (the sun, the sand & the sea) ... the Spanish seized the opportunity vigorously with both hands (who could blame them) ... but ... in hindsight ... (a wonderful thing) ... one hand (with a little less enthusiasm) ... would have sufficed. Spain's Costa Blanca despite this over-development (in parts) ... constitutes a desire and veritable need for the many, many people who have chosen (and will continue to choose) to emigrate from frosty climates to the sunny Costa Blanca shores ... The Costa Blanca which has seen immense changes over the past 50 years now provides home to over two and a half million people ... The current crisis in the world economy obviously lends itself (especially in Spain where a combination of factors - a major one being Spain's sheer over dependency - in certain areas - solely on housing development - a reliance on which some might say, has now turned around and bitten them on the nose - and added to that crisis) to a massive slow down in property buyers ... This dependence on property will have a huge impact on Spain over the next four years or so - and one tends to think that the Spanish have to start producing something other than oranges, lemons, salt and houses (regionally speaking) in order to pull through this slump. Indeed the tourist market itself (another great Spanish coastal dependency) is also headed for a big slow down - so hold on to your hats - Spain is in for a bumpy roller coaster ride, and the splash is likely to encapsulate everyone riding in the carriage. |
||||
| Homepage | Internet Cafe |
|
|
: GUARDAMAR DEL SEGURA INFO |
| NEW - COSTA BLANCA INFO SECTION : |
 SitemapContact |
