Tradition And Sport: Alcudia's Regatta

Puerto Alcudia has numerous associations with nautical sports and with boatmaking and restoration. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Alcudiamar marina - 25th in terms of when the marina's company was granted the concession to the moorings; 25 years of development that have brought several accolades and awards to one of Mallorca's leading "puertos deportivos".

Photos from the past show what was once just a pier that jutted out into the sea with nothing on it. The physical foundation of the marina required further human intervention in order to begin to make the marina what it has now become. And so, in 1968, the Club of Friends of Alcudia (nautical section) began the process that ultimately led to Alcudiamar.

The marina is one of the obviously visible signs of Alcudia's present-day nautical industry. This is an industry that has tumbled over into tourism in a very significant fashion. Alcudia, and the bay, have become one of the premier locations for sports tourism in Mallorca. A combination of initiative on behalf of Alcudia town hall and Alcudiamar (with some help from regional government) has realised ambitions to truly make the resort a centre for sports tourism, and sea-based sports tourism in particular.

In April this year, I spent some time chatting to Pep Hernàndez Forteza at the port's boat show. Pep, or "Bibi" to give him his nickname, is a boat restorer, a qualified shipwright, of whom there are very few nowadays in Mallorca, who operates out of a workshop tucked away in the Manresa area. I mention him because next week the associations I referred to above - nautical sports and restoration - come together. The Trofeo Almirante Conde de Barcelona regatta will once more take place in the bay of Alcudia.

The origins of the regatta lie with restoration and with the creation of the Hispania Foundation for Vintage Boats. Among the achievements of the foundation was the recovery of the yacht "Hispania". Ordered in 1909 by King Alfonso XIII, it was being used as a floating home at West Mersea in Essex. It was purchased by the foundation, refitted, was able to take to the sea again and to take part in regattas. A great deal of the work in restoring the yacht was undertaken by Astilleros de Mallorca in Palma.

The foundation was also responsible for creating the Trofeo Almirante Conde de Barcelona regatta. The regatta's name was taken from a great supporter of the foundation's efforts, Juan de Borbón, the father of Juan Carlos, the former king, who had been given the title of Count of Barcelona, a title which subsequently passed to Juan Carlos. Last year, Juan Carlos visited the "Hispania" and met its crew. The king may have abdicated but the spirit lives on. This year will be the 30th staging of the regatta.

In 2012, the regatta came to Alcudia for the first time. It had normally been held in Palma but also in Mahon in Menorca. Only once in its history, to coincide with the 1992 Olympics, has it been staged outside the Balearics - in Barcelona. Moving the regatta to Alcudia was a recognition of the status that the resort had acquired for nautical sports. Added to which was a further recognition - that of the advantageous sailing conditions in the bay.

In keeping with the philosophy of the foundation, the regatta is for vintage and classic boats. The vintage boats, either wooden or steel hulled, have to have been launched before the end of 1949. The classic boats date from between 1950 and 1974. In addition, there are boats built in the "spirit of tradition", i.e. ones which, despite the use of contemporary techniques, have similarities in appearance to vintage boats. The final class is that of the "vela latina", the triangular sail boat.

Originally, the regatta was solely for vintage boats. The first regatta was won by "Refanut" from Sweden. Since then, the winners of the vintage class have been dominated by boats from Spain and England. The last four winners have all been English, taking the English winning total to nine, three behind Spain. Other winners have come from Italy, Germany, France, the US and Peru. The classic boats trophy, in existence since 1999, has been the preserve of Spain, Italy and England.

The regatta starts on Thursday next week, the first race being at 1.30pm. Races on Friday and Saturday are at the same time, and there is a service by "golondrinas", i.e. the tourist boats, to enable the watching of the races. And what can be seen is unquestionably spectacular, as nautical sports, tradition and restoration come together in the bay of Alcudia.

What's On Around Alcúdia And Pollensa - Puerto Alcúdia Sant Pere Fiestas

The fiestas in Puerto Alcúdia start tomorrow (Sunday, 22 June) and climax a week later on the 29th with the procession of the image of Saint Peter in the evening, followed by the flotilla in the bay and finally at half past midnight the grand fireworks display. In a change to the programme in recent times, there is no nighttime pirates party at the port end of the Paseo Marítimo but instead a beach party on Saturday, 28 June, which starts much earlier - at half eight. The programme in English: http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2014/06/puerto-alcudia-sant-pere-2014.html

The HOTguide for Alcúdia and Pollensa 2014

Already posted on The Hotguide blog (http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/), for double coverage, a note here as well that the summer 2014 HOTguide for the north of Mallorca is available as a PDF for free download. The online version is compressed, so the quality is not the same as with the original, but is still, hopefully, good. Go to: http://www.scribd.com/doc/225093704/The-HOTguide-Alcudia-and-Pollensa-2014

Mysteries Of Alcúdia's Port

Passengers with Saga Cruises have been undertaking a Magical Mystery Tour of the Mediterranean. The cruise involves surprises; the passengers don't know which their ports of call will be. On Wednesday, they discovered that one of them was Puerto Alcúdia. Saga Pearl II docked, and as has now become traditional, lady mayor Coloma Terrasa was there at the commercial port to greet the passengers. One says traditional; it is a tradition now only in its third year.

Alcúdia may not have originally been the chosen Mallorcan destination. It might have been Palma. But Alcúdia stands to receive rather more than the couple of scheduled ships this year. The reason? Palma can get too congested. According to the harbour pilot, Avelino Fernández, speaking at the time of the boat show earlier this month, six or seven craft are likely to be diverted to Alcúdia.

Before anyone gets carried away - and there has perhaps been some misunderstanding as to the type of craft that Alcúdia can accommodate - none of the ships is going to be particularly large. Sr. Fernández reckons that ships of up to 220 metres length could be able to use the port. To put this into context, the Prinsendam, the largest to have so far come into Alcúdia, was 205 metres and had a passenger capacity of 740. There are never going to be giant ships arriving in Alcúdia.

But what of the passengers onboard Saga Pearl II? What would their impressions have been? If they were aware of a touch of local industrial history, they would have known that the most obvious sign of such history was as old as most of them: the former power station was constructed in the 1950s.

While GESA's one-time source of electricity generation in the north will not prevent cruise ships coming to Alcúdia, its presence does not offer the most charming of sights for the arriving passenger. De-commissioned long ago, its future remains as much of a mystery as the Saga Mediterranean mystery tour.

Industrial heritage is a fine thing - and Mallorca could, were anyone of a mind to, provide interesting excursions that highlight this heritage (old mine works, former factories and so on) - but there is a place for such heritage. Next to a commercial port with ambitions of increasing its cruise-ship business is arguably not one of these places.

The power station was of course due to have been converted into a museum of science and technology. This conversion was conceived as having been "the clearing in the forest" by the Barcelona-based architects firm which won the tender. No sooner had they won and had they presented their design at Alcúdia's auditorium, than the project was put on hold. Even at the time that the presentation was being made, there was an admission that funding was not in place. When crisis struck soon after, the project was placed in mothballs. Last heard of, the president of the Council of Mallorca, Maria Salom, had intimated that the project hadn't been particularly sensible. It would have been, one can see with hindsight, a project that was typical of the days of plenty and of profligacy, one without any guarantee of success. A vanity project, in other words. It will never happen.

But there are plenty of people who want something to happen. The architects would have retained the two chimneys. Perhaps this was right, perhaps it was wrong, but it is the chimneys, more than anything, which are the evidence of the abandoned and rotting power station. Passengers coming into port can't avoid them. Anyone on the bay of Alcúdia, admiring the sweep of this massive watery chunk lifted from between Cap Farrutx and Cap Pinar, can't avoid clocking them either.

GESA, it seems, can't get away from architectural-preservation controversy and/or eyesores. The power station has far greater merit in terms of preservation than Palma's non-descript office block of sixties Brutalism, but its location is the issue. It is simply wrong for the present day.

This said, it does hold an important role in Alcúdia's history and development, as indeed does the old port, now modernised and with deeper waters for larger craft. Puerto Alcúdia had enjoyed tourism from the 1930s, but the early sixties tourism movement was only partially responsible for the boom that the port experienced. The power station and its workers were also responsible. 

Will anything happen? It's impossible to say. Demolition is probably not an option. One only has to think of the interminable wrangle and legal opinion in respect of the GESA building to know that demolition would be unlikely. So, passengers coming into Alcúdia will have to get used to the sight. The power station's going nowhere.

Tourism For Despots: Beauty pageants

Stunning Andrea, a 23-year-old student, model and television presenter, speaks four languages, enjoys horseback riding, going to the cinema and looking after her pet Chihuahua. We don't know if stunning Andrea is hoping for world peace and to also look after children, but she is looking forward to visiting Equatorial Guinea and promoting Spain to the people whilst experiencing the culture on offer.

Why on earth would anyone look forward to visiting Equatorial Guinea? Simon Mann didn't, but there again he was facing 34 years in prison there. He got off lightly and was released after only 16 months. Mann and his barmy mercenary army were involved in a coup plot, as supposedly was mad Mark Thatcher. When the awfulness of over 30 years in nick started to dawn on a western media, Equatorial Guinea was portrayed as being little better than a hell on earth. So, one asks again, why would anyone look forward to visiting there?

Equatorial Guinea is a former Spanish colony. It isn't an unwealthy country as it has a good deal of oil money. But very few people benefit from the black gold. Instead, much of the population is deprived access to clean drinking water, the country has an appalling human rights record, it has a reputation for sex trafficking and it ranks among the world's worst for failing to comply with minimum standards. It has a democracy of sorts, its president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, having ruled since 1979 and having received 95.8% of the vote at the last election. The country's motto is "unity, peace, justice". Its anthem says "let us walk the paths of our immense happiness".

Obiang is from the Saddam-Gaddafi-Mugabe school of lunatic despotism. All his country normally attracts are headcases like Mann and (allegedly) Thatcher. They are welcome to each other. It typically doesn't attract the stunning Andreas of this world. But Andrea will be there in October this year. The Sipopo Conference Centre in the capital Malabo will be the location for the 2013 Miss Tourism beauty pageant.   

The conference centre was completed two years ago. Its cost is unknown. But as Obiang junior can splash out the equivalent of over two hundred and fifty million euros on a superyacht, stumping up for a grandiose conference centre wouldn't have posed much funding difficulty.

What in God's name is a global beauty pageant doing taking place in such a wretched country? This is something for the organisers to search their consciences in seeking an answer. Little chance. The website for the pageant insists that the country's image has been distorted and that the contest is designed to promote Equatorial Guinea as a "destination of business, travel and leisure". 

I had been unaware that there was such a thing as Miss Tourism until it emerged that Miss Tourism Spain 2013 is to be held primarily in Puerto Alcúdia over ten days next month. I am assuming, as I am rather confused, that the winner of this will go forward to the 2014 Miss Tourism contest, wherever this might be staged. Andrea was Miss Tourism Spain in 2012 but only now (or in October) will she have the chance to take to the world stage: in a lavish conference centre, a tribute to a wholly corrupt dictatorial regime with barely any redeeming features. My confusion is compounded by the fact that Andrea, it would appear, picked up the 2012 award earlier this year. Whatever.

Andrea features in publicity for the September event to which Alcúdia town hall is evidently delighted to lend its shield. From the 20th to the 30th of September, the eighteen candidates will be whisked around the island, doing some Palma sightseeing, attending Miss Bikini Spain (no, I didn't know either) and visiting the Caves of Drach. They will be based in Alcúdia, though, having lunches and dinners before finally (on 28 September) actually getting down to the serious (sic) business of deciding the winner.

Doubtless they will enjoy themselves and doubtless they will like their accommodation. They will be staying at Bellevue. Yes, that Bellevue. One presumes they will be segregated and not have to come into contact with who one typically sees waddling around Bellevue in late season - bra-wearing Bella Embergs often with more than a hint of facial hair.

Whoever wins may not have to endure Andrea's fate and pretend that she might actually like Equatorial Guinea. Miss Tourism is peripatetic. One of its irregular previous editions promoted another despotic regime. Zimbabwe's. Why not go there again and allow a nonagenarian madman to drool and slobber at the sight of young females and all in the name of tourism. It makes you want to throw up.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Liberalising Wetlands: The Balearics new water plan

The Balearics Water Council (Consejo Balear de Agua) is a body within the regional government and is one that oversees the planning of water resources in the Balearics. This council consists of the environment minister and various others, such as representatives of agriculture, health, the ports and users of water in coastal and urban areas. It also includes a representative of ecology groups and defenders of the environment. One representative among 42 in total.

Not all of these 42 were at a meeting of the council the other day. 34 were, and of these 34, one of them voted against the ratification of the new regulations under what is known as the Plan Hidrológico de las Islas, which basically means the plan for water resources. I wonder who the one who voted against was.

This water resources plan, on the face of it, is pretty dry and dull stuff, but when you go behind it, it becomes anything other than dry and dull. Primarily, the plan has to do with ensuring water supplies and their quality, but water resources in Mallorca are not confined to what is swimming around off its coastline, to what lurks underneath the earth or to obviously protected areas of wetlands, such as Albufera. There are other areas of the island, the classification of which makes the water resources plan less than dry and dull.

The environmental GOB has attacked the ratification of the new plan. It has done so on various grounds. It disagrees with what will be authorisation for new wells in coastal areas where there is an issue with salinization, with access to water "without limits and controls", and with the modification of limits in areas of partly urban wetland.

The revised plan is, therefore, destined to be more permissive. As such therefore, it is in line with other policy moves adopted by the Partido Popular regional government which have favoured a more market approach than previous illiberal restriction. There is good and bad that can come from this greater freedom, and there will be those who believe that modifications to what can be done on partly urban wetland will only be bad. I am not one of them.

A major argument can be expected to return to Puerto Pollensa as a result of the new plan. It will be about the Ullal area of the resort. The modifications under the plan open the way for the development that has been envisaged for Ullal for some while, this development being a five-star hotel complex.

Puerto Pollensa badly needs more hotel stock. The relatively low amount of hotel places in the resort has been recognised as a potential weakness for years. It has also been a strength in that a tourist accommodation base which favours non-hotel stock has helped to maintain the traditional, less-developed feel of the resort.

But there is one very major way in which the regional government, and its PP masters in national government, is not liberal, and that is in its attitude towards and treatment of private accommodation for tourist rental. What has been a strength in the resort could very quickly become a weakness, and a crippling weakness at that, if the regional government was stupid enough to really get tough on private accommodation.

The government, which hasn't been doing Puerto Pollensa any favours in one way, is doing so in another; the development of Ullal should be welcomed. Doubtless there will be arguments, and one wouldn't rule out legal challenges, but if the plan now does clarify the status of Ullal, then perhaps the questionable notion that Ullal is wetland can be dispensed with. It is said that it is an historical, ancient wetland, which it may well, but in its present-day incarnation, it is very un-wet.

While the revised plan will raise hackles in Puerto Pollensa, it is unlikely to in Puerto Alcúdia. It is striking just how different attitudes are between the two resorts in respect of partly urban wetland. Political parties at Alcúdia town hall have pretty much been unanimous in rejecting the idea that developments in the resort between the horse and Magic roundabouts and along the Avenida Tucan contravene the plan as it was before the latest revision. They are also unlikely to disagree vehemently with any further developments which may arise because of the new plan, and one of these may be the revival of what has long been talked about, which is a further hotel complex, one that would now, like Puerto Pollensa, be of a five-star category. 

Of course, none of this development might happen, but the new plan makes it possible. It may not be a plan that meets with universal support, there may indeed be rightful concerns about over-exploitation of water resources, but in one respect, it is a step in the right direction.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Thousands leave Alcúdia for Menorca's Sant Joan fiestas

Some 3,000 people are expected to travel from Alcúdia's port to Menorca for the island's Sant Joan fiestas. There was particularly high demand for ferries yesterday, around 2,000 people (mostly young) having decided to head to Menorca where Sant Joan is one of the biggest celebrations of the year.

See more: Ultima Hora

MALLORCA TODAY - Complaints about lack of parking at Alcúdia's commercial port

As happened last year, parking is to be made available by the commercial port in Alcúdia for people travelling to Menorca for the Sant Joan fiestas. Normally, such parking is prohibited, but local businesses want there to be more parking, saying that before the new terminal was built, there was a good deal of parking available.

See more: Ultima Hora

MALLORCA TODAY - Alcúdia taxi-drivers raise petition against tourist train

The taxi-drivers of Puerto Alcúdia, unhappy about the return of the mini tourist train in the resort, have started a petition against the train, considering a possible "denuncia" against it on safety grounds.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - No incidents at Alcúdia's end-of-school-year party

7,000 teenagers gathered together to celebrate the start of the school holidays and you might expect trouble. There has been in years gone by, but co-ordinated action by local police forces and the Guardia has cut incidents to a bare minimum, and this year's party (over Friday night) registered none of any note. Meanwhile, the massive island-wide traffic controls that were well publicised in advance and which were effected in all major urban centres between 11pm and 1am on Friday night and were primarily for breath-testing netted a mere three positive tests in the area.

See more: Ultima Hora

MALLORCA TODAY - Water resources plan would affect buildings in Alcúdia

Further to the unanimous decision by Alcúdia town hall to reject provisions of the Balearics water resources plan ("Plan Hidrológico), the town hall has made clear to the local environment ministry that it makes no sense to classify areas along the Via Corneli Atic and Avenida Tucan as falling under this plan, as much of these areas is already built on. The ministry is to allow a technical analysis to show that these areas are indeed not wetlands.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Strengthened police presence for Alcúdia end-of-school-year party

The now traditional party in Puerto Alcúdia to mark the end of the school year will take place tomorrow evening and night. The party, basically a gathering of mainly older schoolchildren from numerous towns in northern and central Mallorca, is expected to attract some 7000 kids. Police tutors from at least nine towns will complement Alcúdia police in maintaining order for an event that typically creates very few incidents of any significance.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Viva hotels take on remaining Eden hotels

The two Eden hotels that had not been previously sold to the German group Alltours - the Eden Lago by the border between Alcúdia and Playa de Muro and the Eden Binibeca in Menorca - have now passed into the hands of Hotels Viva. The Eden Alcúdia and the Eden Playa were taken over last year, the Eden group having encountered financial difficulties. It would appear that Viva have assumed the management of the Lago and Binibeca as opposed to acquiring them, while the group has also taken on the Ses Fotges hotel in Playa de Muro.

See more: Hosteltur

MALLORCA TODAY - Alcúdia town hall insists Avenida Tucán is urban

The distinction between what constitutes urban land (for development) and wetland (which isn't) has been at the heart of debate in Puerto Pollensa's Ullal area. It is also an issue in Puerto Alcúdia along the Avenida Tucán (the road with Hidropark). The town hall insists that it is urban while the water resources plan for the island has it marked down as wetland. This doesn't solely refer to Tucán but also to the Via Corneli Atic between the horse and Magic roundabouts. In theory, under the water resources plan, there are developments which shouldn't be there, such as the public swimming-pool. Unlike in Puerto Pollensa, all political parties agree that the land is urban.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

Spreading Rumours

A friend of mine from university days was machiavellian and mischievous in starting rumours. He would sidle up to me and mutter in my ear what his latest rumour-mongering involved. He was extremely adept at it; he should have been a political spin doctor or propagandist. The rumour no sooner planted, it swiftly became fact.

Rumours usually have at least some basis in fact but not always. I was inadvertently responsible for starting one about the creation of a large new British bar in Alcúdia. I had been told by a bar owner that there was to be one along The Mile, the implication being that he was going to be involved with it. Once I'd passed on this information, speculation arose as to where the bar would be. I made a suggestion, and it was no more than a suggestion, and in hardly no time at all, this suggestion had become gospel. Not only was the suggestion wrong, the original information was wrong. There was no large new Brit bar.

Any community, be it a university campus, a resort in Mallorca or wherever, lives by rumour, speculation and gossip. I should know better than to be drawn into speculation but then I am not virtuous in disregarding tittle-tattle. There can, after all, be some truth in tittle-tattle or the speculative. But only some. Invented truths are used to disguise and fill in the gaps of the incomplete initial information, and these truths are, in turn, subject to the process of the Chinese whisper. The rumour can end up bearing no resemblance to the truth, assuming there were ever any substance to it in the first place.

It is a common complaint by expats in the resorts that these are breeding-grounds for rumour, some of it malicious, some of it innocent, some of it potty and some of it, every now and then, relatively accurate. It is a common complaint but it doesn't stop participation. To not engage in rumour and gossip is to be somehow alienated from the community. One could argue that rumour is the common bond that the resort communities possess: their only one.

Hotels are regular targets of rumour. In Puerto Alcúdia, the largest hotel complex of all, Bellevue, has for years been a repository packed full of rumour. It has been and still is a gigantic rumour mill, one that regularly gives rise to speculation that there is "trouble at rumour mill". For once, though, Bellevue's rumour mill has ceased to grind out its grains of speculation, if only temporarily. A different hotel has assumed its mantle.

I am not naming the hotel. Oh no, I am most definitely not naming. There are enough people who know as it is. The speculation surrounding this hotel has actually developed from fact, namely a change of ownership that became public knowledge around three months ago. Though the new hotel chain does not as yet list the hotel on its website, the hotel is named as being from this hotel chain on certain sites. Trip Advisor still has it under the previous hotel chain, and Trip Advisor may assume increasingly greater importance in this story.

There is uncertainty regarding the hotel's future policy. One aspect of this is whether it will remain a Thomson hotel for the British market. It is in fact available for booking next year through Thomson's website, though this has not stopped speculation that it will cease to be a Thomson hotel, that it might cater for different nationalities or that it might become all-inclusive.

I'm not about to go into all the speculation for one very good reason - I don't know whether any of it is accurate. The only way one can truly establish accuracy is by getting information from the horse's mouth. Perhaps I'll ask the new hotel chain and see what it has to say. If anything.

It would appear that a definitive decision regarding future policy has not yet been finalised. If so, this is not unreasonable. Any business has the right to take its time in determining its policy, but, and this is where Trip Advisor and the jungle drums of the internet come into the equation, any business has to be aware of the power of speculation and rumour; it was on the internet where another hotel that changed policy suffered something of a PR meltdown because of uncertainty.

The way to prevent rumours and to stop speculation is to remove this uncertainty. And that means making a clear statement as to policy, if indeed there is to be a new one. It's the rule of the game, especially now, as the biggest rumour community is not in local resorts but all over cyberspace.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Lines In The Sand

The Mallorcans will protest about anything. Many a bed sheet has been sacrificed in the name of marker pens and "No" to this or "Sí" to that. Photographic coverage of these protests follows a very familiar formula. The man or woman with the conch (the loudspeaker) holds his bellowing pose while to either side of him are (usually) small numbers of other protesters, enough though to hold a bed sheet or two.

One is tempted to think that Mallorcan protests, go great are their number, are the product of pent-up protest prohibition in the good old days when protests were frowned upon. It's a long time now, though, since the bubbles of bottled-up protest suddenly popped out of cavas of circumscription. You would have thought they would have got it out of their system by now.

Minor, futile even, does many a Mallorcan protest appear to be. But then perhaps, it isn't so futile. Perhaps it is the only way that voices can be made to be heard, that discontent be displayed in a land where the accountability of officialdom meets the layers of public administration responsibility or irresponsibility in generating frustration. Or perhaps people just like protesting.

Everything is subject to protest. Take beaches and their environs, for example, and three cases in point. One was the protest by the Muro townspeople who have holiday homes in what are the old church cottages in the enclave of Ses Casetes des Capellans. It was one of the more poignant of the protests. The bed sheets carried messages about Capellans being "for the children", a place for them to play, a place that was threatened (still is in theory) by the zealots of the Costas Authority who wanted to demolish cottages that had been built by the church years before the Costas had ever been dreamt of.

Whereas this protest was a popular one in that it was a people's protest, a second protest, also in Playa de Muro, that organised by land and property owners. It was also against the demarcation gestapo of the Costas who, twenty years or so after the old coastal law had been drawn up, discovered that some property in the resort crossed the demarcation lines. This was a protest of a different order as it wasn't a popular one. It wasn't a people's protest but a protest by business against the government. When land and property owners comprise names such as Iberostar, Grupotel, Viva and others, then the protest is likely to gain a great deal more attention than that by humble townspeople in Capellans. And it did. The Costas didn't retreat with its tail completely between its legs but its destructive desire to reverse the destruction of three decades or more in the past has been watered down to the point where the demarcation line is little distance from the water's edge.

So the message is that protest is more likely to get somewhere if business can tell its staff to all get themselves out on to the streets and make a grand show that might put government to shame. Which is pretty much what happened with the hoteliers protest in Playa de Muro. The little people, like those of Capellans, can also get somewhere because they are ordinary people and because they have right firmly on their side. As well as the town hall, which backed them to the hilt, as it had backed the hoteliers as well.

But then there is the protest which doesn't get the town hall onside, when the town hall is the object of the protest, and when the protesters' motives have to be questionable. Which brings me to the third beach-based protest, one over the weekend in Puerto Alcúdia. It could count on all of fifty or sixty people. It garnered support from opposition politicians (both leftist and Mallorcan nationalist) but it was arranged by the youth group Arran. This is the organisation that has changed its name from the Maulets, the Catalanist, independentist radicals. Its protest was levelled at the blue asphalt that has been plastered over the beach path, and the message was all to do with the destruction of Mallorca, blah, blah, blah.

I don't disagree with the sentiment of the message as I think the path looks awful, but it looks awful mainly because of its colour. Yes it's a shame that the path cannot still be eroded old stones, but few people, even those who don't like the path, argue that the path didn't need making properly usable. Arran's protest presumably had nothing to do with the fact that the town hall is dominated by the Partido Popular and that it represented the opportunity (and was therefore opportunistic) to hijack a a local controversy and use it for political aims. Were there a genuinely "popular" protest against the path, then the town hall might be shamed, and so it should be for having allowed such a hideous colour to be used, but it was not. Arran should take note of the ordinary people of Capellans; they know how to protest and to gain popular sympathy.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Protest against Alcúdia's blue asphalt

Some 50 people or so staged a protest yesterday against the laying of the blue asphalt over the beach path in Puerto Alcúdia. The protesters were from youth groups, one of them being Arran, the left-wing independentist movement. The town hall is led by the right-wing Partido Popular.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Fumigation against mosquitoes in Alcúdia

Alcúdia town hall has initiated a campaign of fumigation, especially in the areas by the lakes in Puerto Alcúdia, to control mosquitoes. The spray is made of natural products, as chemical insecticides are not used in mosquito prevention.

At Your Inconvenience: Alcúdia's Ironman

When the staging of the first Ironman triathlon in Puerto Alcúdia was announced, it was said that the event would bring various benefits. Among these would be the promotion of Alcúdia as a sports tourism destination, a means of giving a boost to low-season tourism and the generation of revenues for local businesses thanks to all the participants, helpers, exhibitors and visitors.

The first event, in 2011, came, and it was very much a novelty. There hadn't been an event of such a scale before. 3,000 participants, 1,500 helpers, 20,000 visitors. Of these figures, the one that stood out was for the visitors. It stood out because it was both hard to believe that there would be this number and who they might have been. If they were from other parts of the island, then they would have the devil's own job getting into Puerto Alcúdia on the day; the roads were mostly closed. Three events on, and the novelty has now started to wear off. Questions are being asked.

There are unquestionably benefits from the Ironman event. It may indeed help to put Alcúdia more on a sports-tourism map and it does produce business in the early weeks of the tourism season that would otherwise not be produced. There are the doubters who say that triathletes, rather like cyclists, are of little value to businesses (these being bars and restaurants). They are too damn healthy to be chucking volumes of beer or beef down their necks. Not so. As with cyclists, there are triathletes who are quite capable of indulging themselves.

The business generated by Ironman is spread around; it isn't only Alcúdia which benefits from hotel guests or from consumers in restaurants and shops. There are also training camps, not necessarily directly linked to the Alcúdia event, but which are offered in the weeks before the event. Local hotels are the base for these camps. But business which really can benefit, other than hotels, is that in the port area. As ever, the spoils of events are gained by the port or the old town; never by other parts of Alcúdia, such as the main tourist centre. For those who don't benefit and even for those who do, but who face the challenge of disruption, the inconvenience of Ironman has now become more than just a little tiresome.

Closing a main road into the port for a whole week is far more than just a bit of an annoyance. Despite it only being early season, it is still season. And that means that there are an awful lot more people and a lot more vehicles than when it isn't season. The tailbacks have now become a major headache. Someone, somewhere can probably put a number to the benefits of Ironman, but can someone, somewhere put a number to its downsides?

Putting up with road closures for a day is something that can be accepted, but when one road closure creates the chaos that it has for as long as it has, then it is right that questions are being asked. The inconvenience manifests itself in different ways. For bars and restaurants, as an example, they can suffer because deliveries cannot be effected. Or because they are delayed considerably. And for all the claims of benefits to tourism, what about ordinary tourists?

Because of the problems with getting into Puerto Alcúdia, especially on the day of the event, what do you suppose happens to tourists who might be coming or going? Saturday is, after all, a fairly heavy change-round day. One thing that happens is that tourists can be expected to have to get off transfer coaches and then make their own way. Not just across a road but a considerable distance. These are tourists with luggage. Those who may have small children. Those who have been up since early in the morning.

It isn't only tourists in Puerto Alcúdia. In Puerto Pollensa, where involvement in Ironman is only minimal because the cycling leg passes through it, tourists have been told that they would have to leave for the airport seven hours before their flights. Seven hours!

There seems to be precious little concern being shown for those who are affected by Ironman. Alcúdia town hall will doubtless reiterate the benefits, declare the event a great success and look forward to next year's. But the town hall's credibility is taking a heavy knock. The laying of the blue asphalt over the stones on the beach path (used for the running stage) has been met with what has bordered on outrage. There is no other reason for the blue path, so most people believe, other than to meet demands of Ironman. The town hall claim differently, but this just compounds the degree to which its credibility is being shaken. It is surely no coincidence that a blue path along the beach, one that will be filmed and look nice for certain promotions (by Ironman), looks very similar to the blue matting for the triathlon transition area. Colour co-ordination.

Ironman may well bring benefits, but pandering to its every need and wish and the thumbing of the nose to those who are put out is not what might have been expected three years ago. The event needs re-thinking.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Alcúdia asphalt beach path denounced

The environmental group GOB has denounced the blue asphalt beach path in Puerto Alcúdia to the Costas Authority, arguing that it is inappropriate and questioning whether the town hall had permission from this governmental department to create it. GOB has received support from the Més per Mallorca (socialists) group.

See more: Diario de Mallorca