Issuu

Mercury

Monthly records were also set in Alicante when the mercury peaked in the village of Pego at 34.4C. In Valencia, city temperatures reached a July-like 32C in mid April, but didn’t break the 35C record set in 1945. Some parts of the south have experienced temperatures up to 15 degrees above average for the time of year. Weather agency Aemet has now warned of a ‘very high’ risk of fires and called for extreme caution due to the warm and dry air from North Africa. As many as 54,000 hectares of land have already been ravaged by fire this year. Spain is undergoing a severe drought, with 27% of the country classified as in a drought ‘emergency’ or ‘alert’, and water reserves are at 50% capacity. Spain has requested emergency funds from the EU to support farmers, while the drought has already driven up prices of olive oil to record levels as farmers report catastrophic crop failures, particularly of wheat and grain. UN figures suggest nearly 75% of Spain’s land is susceptible to desertification in the coming years due to climate change. Water war, page 5

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Vol. 5 Issue 105

www.theolivepress.es

Your expat

voice in Spain May 4th - May 17th 2023

yorkshirelinencostablanca.com

Jávea · Altea

COMING OF AGE

Legion of Spanish chefs team up to teach 150 young pretenders how to weave their magic in the kitchen

NEXT GENERATION: Learning from the masters (right)

NOT KIDDING on page 6

PIC CREDIT: Jon Clarke

FEARS are rising over what the summer has in store for the Costa Blanca after an unseasonably early heatwave broke Spain’s April records. As the month was confirmed as the hottest since 1961 when records began, forecasters predicted a doomsday scenario of no rain, perhaps until September. The high temperatures have also brought the country’s annual Heat Warning campaign forward by two weeks to begin on May 15. An alarming 90-plus records were confirmed around Spain across the month for maximum temperatures. Residents in Cordoba endured record temperatures of 38.8C, beating Spain’s highest April high of 38.6C registered in Elche in 2011.

The

ALARM AS SPAIN SWELTERS

O LIVE P RESS COSTA BLANCA

SUCKERS

Holiday operator offers measly compensation to family terrorised by eight nights of bed bugs in four-star hotel A BRITISH family were left flabbergasted by a derisory compensation offer from their tour operator after their dream holiday turned into a bed-bug-infested nightmare. Gary Turner, 57, and Jutta Turner, 55, suffered from being feasted on by swarms of blood suckers over the course of eight nights at a four star hotel in Puerto Pollensa. Gary suffered an allergic reaction to the blanket of bed bug bites on the back of his head, which ended with an ambulance ride to hospital and a painful emergency shot in his bottom. When confronted over the Turners’ nightmare ordeal, operator Tui only offered them 10% off one of the two rooms they had booked with their two

EXCLUSIVE By Walter Finch

daughters, aged 24 and 31, as compensation. They were given an alternative offer of 20% off their next holiday with Tui, but this was rejected and Gary and Jutta demanded a full refund. “We paid for a four-star plus rated hotel, with good reviews and never ever expected to be sleeping with bed bugs for eight nights,” Gary told the Olive Press. “We never expected to suffer like we did, this is not what we paid for.” The Turners arrived at the Hotel Illa D’OR on Mallorca expecting a relaxing 14-day sunshine getaway.

BAD REACTION: Holidaymakers were covered in bed bug bites But when Jutta and Gary started to notice bites on their hands and head after the third night, they assumed they were just from mosquitos. Only a week into the holiday did the pair turn on the bedroom light at 3am. To their undying horror, they saw dozens of little brown bed bugs crawling all over the fabric headboard and even the bed sheets they were sleeping in. But the nightmare was only just beginning for the British - Ger-

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man couple. Apologetic staff at the hotel immediately brought insect spray to bear and moved the couple to another room where the bed had a wooden headboard. While Jutta’s arm turned bright red in a sea of vicious bed bug bites, the back of Gary’s head became inflamed as dozens of the little critters had chewed up his scalp. Gary and Jutta could not sleep at night due to the itching, while exposure to the sun caused the bites to flare up. And the medication they got from the pharmacy - which the hotel paid for - left them feeling drowsy. “It all left us feeling tired, run down and exhausted,” Jutta told the Olive Press. “We could not enjoy our holiday at all.” Jutta said: “The only lucky thing was that our daughters were not in that room, otherwise we could have taken one of them back in a coffin if she had had the same reaction as my husband did. She is disabled and immune suppressant due

SOLAR PANELS

to a kidney transplant.” The hotel merely offered ‘a spa treatment or ride on their boat’ as compensation, an offer that was also rejected. Gary and Jutta requested two complimentary rooms for two weeks in October as compensation. A spokesperson for Tui told the Olive Press: “We recognise that some services fell short of our usually high standards. “We’d like to reassure all customers that we regularly audit all of our hotels in respect to health and safety, including hygiene.” Meanwhile, Hotel Illa D’OR called the Turners’ request for a two week free holiday in October ‘unreasonable’. They said they would not ‘succumb to pressure from any guest seeking to receive free accommodation.’ “We want to emphasise that our hotel takes pest control very seriously and we have a company contracted to provide preventative and control services,” they said in an email.