Holed up in Almerimar

What a difference a few days can make.  Last week we were relaxing, wining and dining at glamorous Nikki Beach Marbella with my brother Andrew and sister-in-law Wendy; now we are holed up in a ‘post-apocalyptic’ holiday resort waiting for spare parts for the water-maker and the air-conditioning to arrive from the UK. 

Greg captures all the best sights at Nikki Beach

I’m thinking of sending in a review of Almerimar to Trip Advisor informing them that the top place to visit in this resort is the Mercadona Supermarket. It has an excellent fresh fish counter, lots of different products in the freezer providing me with hours of interesting browsing....and ferocious air conditioning. Given that the temperature outside has been in the high 30s all week with punishing sunshine, you can probably see why it’s an attractive option; particularly as there is not much else to do unless you want to fry on a very gravelly beach.

The No.1 place to visit in Almerimar!

Almerimar suffers from two major problems as far as we can see.  Firstly the port has not fulfilled its potential. It was designed in an attractive layout with numerous waterside apartment blocks overlooking the three basin marina. One basin is quite lively, with more businesses and open restaurants making it more attractive. 

The busier basin

Sadly it appears the timing of the building in the central basin was affected badly by the crash and not a single apartment seems to have been sold and only one commercial unit is let.  The area is becoming neglected and littered.  

Not a single apartment or retail unit is let in this marina side development

Secondly the whole surrounding area is covered in plastic polytunnels.  Look at this picture from google earth. 

Google Earth picture of Almerimar and surrounding area

We cycled into the plastic zone. It is surreal.  There are no people to be seen for miles and miles.  On the days when the wind blows from the land to the sea, there is a strong "eau de fertiliser" in the air and when it blows from the sea to the land, everything is dusted in red desert sand from Africa. 

Approaching Almerimar from the sea, the plastic seemed endless..

The beaches are a bit quiet

The plastic doesn't enhance the view of the landscape!

Staying here for a few days has led us to observe with interest how the economy and individual businesses are trying to survive. Many restaurants and shops have closed down and the beaches are very sparsely occupied compared to everywhere else we have been to so far.  The surviving restaurants in the port seem to have entered into a scheme which we are marvelling at - and speculating on its potential for longevity. Basically, if you buy a drink ……you get a free meal.  

It’s called ‘beer and tapas’ but we have assumed that whoever started giving free tapas to gain customers, started a trend and the only way to retain customers was then to increase the size of the tapas.  So you go in and order your drinks……..lets say a beer and a cider…….then  you choose your tapas from an extensive free menu.  It includes typical things like battered squid rings and salad but also a full plate of hamburger and chips!  No-one is ordering any food they need to pay for and after a couple of drinks there is no need to eat anything else anywhere else! Then repeat the next day! The one restaurant not doing it hasn’t had a single customer since we got here.

Good tapas portions at El Tunel attracts a crowd

They haven't seen a customer all week

We cycled the whole length of the very long esplanade and noticed that one or two beachside restaurants were absolutely packed and others were empty. We tried to get a table at La Tita but it was only possible with a booking so we booked for the next day and decided to try the very empty Michaelangelo.  Having experienced both it was clear that the Michaelangelo is in dire need of a visit from Gordon Ramsay. With that view, location and size it should have been packed.  Sadly neither the food or service would make us return. They even forgot to charge us for our bottle of wine.  Greg pointed it out to the waiter...it was probably their entire profits for the day in the peak week of the season!

Empty for a reason......

Finally got a table in this popular restaurant for our Wedding Anniversary

The council is trying to woo people back here.  This week there has been a Pirate theme.  This has included a Pirate Market which involved about 10 very sad stalls in a back street, selling not a lot and nothing very piratical.   Greg tried to help the economy when he spotted a pirate bandana and tried it on - but sadly it was for a baby (or a dog) and looked ridiculous! 

Then there was the Pirate Event and Parade. Cars were warned not to park and many were towed away.  Our expectations were high….possibly not on the scale of Notting Hill Carnival but certainly we hoped for more than 12 people dressed as pirates with a few people playing in a band behind them.  They stopped at various points during the ‘parade’ and 2 girls danced about with some golden material, two boys did a few somersaults (only one was actually any good) and then there was some half-hearted play fighting by two men dressed as pirates.

 Hoards of people had turned out from far and wide to attend the event and for a while the place seemed as packed out as other resorts.  Most people looked very bemused and rather bored, but clearly it was all being filmed for a promotional video which will doubtless look exciting if carefully edited. 

The good news about being stuck here is that Greg has had a chance to observe the weather and finally the conditions have been suitable for him to get his paramotor out of the front cabin and take to the skies.  As the unskilled member of the team, I get to carry heavy things round to the beach and wait around in the heat to make sure the bags don’t get stolen until he lands again.  

It was all going swimmingly to start with…..

but sadly yesterday disaster fell which proved to be both painful and expensive! 

Apologies in advance for the bad language..... 

Fortunately Greg wasn't too badly hurt and although his paramotor was damaged, apparently he anticipated this so has enough spares to rebuild it. However his wing is not flyable at the moment so no more lugging kit for quite a while it appears….  

Hopefully the parts for the air-con and water-maker will arrive on time and Frank the miracle-working engineer will do the repairs tomorrow and we will be off again.  We are eternally optimistic! ☺