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Actual

Under this headline are to be found images and text material covering actual happenings at Costalita and it's close surroundings. It may be matters such as ongoing activities, happenings and/or visits. Those of you having ideas and/or material you think would be suitable to include in this section are welcome to contact me and I will do my best to include it wherever possible. Older material that once was published under this headline has been moved to Archives.

Activities

The idea here is to tell you about what is happening in the Costalita area and in its vicinity. During the last two years, we have had a lot of construction activities in our area. In the summer of 2023, it was time for both the opening of the new apartment hotel The Flag up in our north-eastern corner and the "reopening" of the Mett Hotel (formerly Iberostar) down in our south-western corner after almost two years of renovation and change work.

2023

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August 1st, i e the first day of the main Spanish vacation month, the hotel located down at Costalita's south western corner finally opened its doors to the public after almost two years of restauration works. During that time the hotel also changed its name from Iberostar to the new one, Mett Hotel.

Scandi in Estepona

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Not directly associated with Costalita, but of interest, especially to Swedes, is that a grocery store with Swedish food, Scandi in July opened its doors in Estepona, more particularly on Calle Melilla 35.The store is a sister store to the Scandi in Nueva Andalucia with the same owner,

Our mayor José Maria Garcia Urbano giving a speach

Estepona's mayor posing with the CEO of the hotel

The hotel offers a 20 m climatized salt water pool

May 26th the new apartment hotel in the Costalita area, focused on senior citizens, THE FLAG (click for info) was offcially opened. The inauguration, with associated pomp and circumstance, took place in the presence of, among others, the mayor of Estepona José Maria Garcia, the top executive of the Flag association Ms Eike Muhr and the CEO of the hotel Rüdiger Hollweg.

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Right now, end of February, the new section of our Beach Promenade, being built west of Costalita, in front of the Villacana Area, starts to take shape. Construction works are taking place six days a week, also on Saturdays, and the target is that everything shall be ready in time for Easter. It looks as if this will be accomplished. A positive side effect of this project is that the beach in front has been thoroughly cleaned up and looks really inviting.

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Here you find Saturday sweets..

.. and seats for a cup of coffee

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Finally, beginning of February, the long awaited new addition to our "Swedish" shops along the coast, namely Spisa, located at the Centro Plaza in Nueva Andalucia. opened its doors to the public. The shop is managed by Michael Leu who, a few years ago, tested restaurant life with his own restaurant Nordh i San Pedro. Spisa, as we can see, is bigger and with a bigger choice of merchandize, than the other two "Swedish" shops we alreay have in the area. Spisa, also housing a small café and a "Swedish style" sausage kiosk, has taken over the old SuperSol premises.

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Now we are getting closer! In March the new apartment hotel THE FLAG (click for more info) will be ready for moving in.

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Finally, beginning of 2023, works started on the prolongation of our beach promenade from the western end of Costalita in the Estepona direction. This new section will take off from the bridge behind the VP Beach Club, existing since a few years back, and continue in front of the Villacana area why a couple of the existing buildings closest to the sea have been torn down. A new wall/fence will be erected between the Villacana area and the beach and the rebuilt chiringuito Barrakka Beach will find its place on the seaside of the beach walk. Will be exciting to follow the progress of this project which is planned to be completed in time before easter.

2022

One day it was there...

... and the next it was gone

On October 6, Hotel Mett's Beach Restaurant was razed to the ground. Even when the beach promenade was built a few years ago, the hotel was required to demolish the parts closest to the sea to make room for the new promenade. Apparently, when the hotel was originally built, land that was too close to the sea had been confiscated, which had to be corrected. Hopefully this is what they are now trying to do and that this will be followed by a real beach promenade being built in front of the hotel and replacing the boardwalk that has served as a temporary solution for a few years. Will be exciting to see the sequel.

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Just before Easter the contours of the new apartment hotel The Flag start to take shape. Above a few pictures.

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Early Saturday morning April the 9th we were woken up by a loud crash down by our beach. As we, a couple of hours later, came down to the beach we noted that a relatively large boat, equipped with three supersize outboard engines, purposely had hit the beach and landed approximately 10 metres up in the sand. A well known method for todays drug smugglers to bring their goods into the country, something that Per alreay has been witnessing once at an earlier occation on our beach. We don't know whether the police got there in time to catch the smugglers or their cargo, but there were no signs of this. Interestingly enough the boat was left unattended on the beach the whole day and also the following night. Next morning we noted that someboby, during the night, had dismounted the three outboard engines, possibly with a market value of up to 100.000 Euros, and moved them to an unknown destintion.

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Place for the new underground parking entrance

Now less than two weeks until the New Mercadona opens its doors..

Roof laying at new Barraka..

Just before easter we notice that Barraka is getting its new roof.

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Now, beginning of April, only a few weeks remain until the new Mercadona will open. Date is set to April 25th. Will they make it?

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On thursday March 24th Costa del Sol was hit by an extremely powerful Calima, ie. a rain mixed with sand from Sahara supported by heavy winds fell over our coast. Everything was covered by a muddy grease. People were advised to stay indoors because of the unhealthy air.

The foundation is being laid for the new Barraka..

When the beach promenade is now to be extended and connected to the existing bridge west of Costalita, it will be drawn in the lower part of Villacana where some existing parts, including a tennis court and some beach cottages, will have to be demolished. As the chiringuito Barraka was in the way of the planned beach walk, its existing construction had to be demolished and a new building, located a few meters closer to the sea, is now being raised to make room for the new promenade.

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Maybe this is the place for a swimming pool...

Extensive work is being done on the new building up in the right corner of Costalita, where the new apartment hotel The Flag is taking shape. Above a few pictures from February 2022. Opening of the new hotel is estimated to summer 2023.

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January 18th the rebuilt and refreshed food store earlier named Supersol was reinauguratated, now under its new name Supeco. This shop is the eighths of Carrefour´s new chain of low cost food stores named Supeco (please click for more info).

2021

Old Mercadona is completely down to the ground

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October 2nd 2021 Mercadona closes its doors for renovation. Not a minor facelift, but the whole old building is torn down to make place for a new one. Reopening is planned for 25th of April 2022.

Here a new apartment hotel is being built

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...and this is what it will look like...

After the vacation period 2021 construction of a new project starts at the last remaining Costalita plot, at the area earlier referred to as Costalita phase 7, where, in 2006, all construction activities were suddenly stopped as the world economy went down. Since then the plot has changed owner several times until the present owner, German company The Flag, decided to build a new full service apartment hotel named THE FLAG - Costa del Sol Senior Living (click for more info).

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Finally! On Saturday August 28th, with two weeks delay, the long awaited new bridge connecting Costalita and Cancelada, was finally inaugurated and ready for use.

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During May and June several hours-long daily demonstrations are taking place right in front of La Antigua as a company contracted for works is protesting, claming that they have not been paid for their work. La Antigua, on their side, claims that the agreed works have not been completed and approved by them. The demonstrations are very noisy and causing disturbance to the restaurant guests as well as to us, surrounding neighbours. The talk choir keeps repeating their message "paga ya" (pay now) continuously in a loud voice from early morning until late at night.

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The bridge connecting Costalita with the other side of the main road has over the years become more and more deteriorated why it was time to restore it, i e the old bridge is now completely removed and replaced by a new one. In order to drive in the Estepona direction or to access the shops on the opposite side of the main road it is now necessary to exit in the Marbella direction, drive to the Benahavís exit and there turn around and drive back in the Estepona direction. Also when arriving from the Marbella direction and going to Costalita the ordinary exit cannot be used so you must continue in direction Estepona and find a place to turn around further on. The turnaround point used by the majority is to leave the main road just before to bridge in front of Costa Jardin, drive under the bridge and then go back on the parallel street until reaching Costalita.

On April 21st works on the new stretch of our beach promenade from the IKOS hotel to Costalita finally took off meaning that it will be ready sometimes around October as the construction time is estimated to six months. The completion of this section will give us a continuous eleven kilometres of seaside promenade taking us all the way from Costalita right into the center of Estepona.

Cancelada sports facility

April 12th Estepona municipality assigned a company to refurbish and ameliorate the Cancelada public swimming pool. The most important improvement will be that the pool will now be heated all around the year. This work is estimated to take one year. Once this is completed the idea is to adapt the facility to accomodate also other activities such as e g gymnastics, padel, football, yoga and karate.

The new bridge

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Finally, in the beginning of March, the new bridge connection in the north eastern corner of Cancelada is ready to be open to the public.

2020

The last trembling hours of the year, December 28th, we were reached by good news as the Estepona municipality informed that they now have issued a call for tenders covering the construction of another 625 metres extension of our beach promenade in the westward direction, which also includes a 62,5 metres long wooden bridge across the Guadalmansa river. The project is budgeted to 1.276.707 Euros and the construction time is estimated to six months.

After two weeks of waiting in the Mediterranean the transport carrying the Golden Bridge, on February the 19th finally could weigh anchors to continue their trip to Stockholm, where they expect to arrive on March the 1st.

Ship Zhen Hua 33 outside Costalita

...floating low. Photo: Jan Werding

In Stockholm a big project is ongoing with the reconstruction of Slussen, a central point for the city traffic, and an important part of that project is a 140 metres long bridge which will be laid between the Old Town and the southern city parts. This bridge, which is slightly gold coloured and therefore given the namn the "Golden Bridge", is built in China and right now transported by boat up to Stockholm. At the beginning of February we were all expectant and wondering whether we should be able to have a look at the transport as it passed on the Mediterranean right in front of our eyes. Maybe it should pass during the night? To our surprise the transport, on February the 5th, right before entering the Gibraltar strait, turned 180 degrees around and headed in direction of Costalita. As it turned out the reason for this was not that they came back to say hello, but that they, after a storm warning from Biscaya decided to stay a couple of extra days in the Mediterranean awaiting better weather. So, now we have possibilities to take daily looks at the transport during our morning walks.

Stretch of the new shortcut (in red)

Calle Dominica...

...to be continued down to the river

February 3rd Estepona municipality announced that all now is ready for the construction of a new bridge across the Tarajo canyon and related access roads, permitting direct access between the upper parts of Cancelada and the Bel Air area (please refer to map). The project, budgeted to roughly 2 Million Euros plus VAT, will be financed by private promotors planning to explore the area. The bridge, which will be 120 metres long and 16,5 metres wide, will be built for two-way traffic and also cater for a separate pedestrian lane. Plans are to start activities in February, which should maybe be taken with a pinch of salt, recommended when politicians publish their fantastic plans. The procurement of the project is still not finished.

2019

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View from the Beach Walk

An elevator is installed in the corner next to the roundabout

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End of July La Antigua is not yet open to the public, but it looks as the opening is close, maybe beginning of August.

Wooden walk section in front of the hotel Photo: Emmet McMahon

Now possible to descend from the bridge on its far side Photo: Emmet McMahon

In time before the summer the Beach Walk has been complemented with some temporary solutions so that it can at least be used for its purpose. In front of the hotel a provisional wooden walkway has been laid in anticipation of the real one which is planned to be built closer to the hotel (requiring the destruction of the actual wall and construction of a new wall closer to the hotel, which will however not happen until earliest after the summer). The wooden bridge behind the VP Beach restaurant, ready since early February, has now been completed with a section making it possible to descend from its far end so that it can be used for its purpose.

.	View from te Beach promenade

In the beginning of April La Antigua finally begins to take shape. Now construction of internal walls etc has started. As it seems today construction will not be finished for easter as earlier predicted, but rather in time for the summer season, maybe beginning of June.

Delivery with the help of a long trailer and a long crane..

Everything was well prepared and fitting was perfect

Now it is finally there...

Today, Wednesday February 6th, was a special day that we have been waiting for for a while. The wooden bridge for our new Beach Walk was delivered and lifted into its new position.

.	View from te Beach promenade

Beginning of February the skeleton of the new La Antigua is ready casted and masonry can start.

The river banks have been stabilized...

..and the bridge fundaments are ready

The olive trees are there...

...and the Triumph Arch is on site

Beginning of February construction of the new Beach Walk has made good progress. The old roundabout has been filled in and a new roundabout has been created a few metres higher up. The palm trees from the old roundabout have been taken care of by the VP Beach Club and in their place very old olive trees have been planted in the new roundabout. It seems that the Estepona town council have made a bargain buying a large quantity of olive trees as we now can see lots of them planted in different places, on the road side as well as within the VP Beach Club premises. Even the roundabout next to the petrol station up by the road has got its olive trees. Down by the river the banks have been stabilized with large white boulders and the bridge fundaments are ready casted on both sides. The VP Beach Club grabbed the opportunity to build a large triumph arch which will serve as a new high-class entrance to their restaurant. It has been recognized that Hotel Iberostar has built their wall against the sea a little too far out, on land which is not theirs, why they will have to demolish the existing wall to give place to the new Beach Walk. In the mean time, until the wall is demolished and replaced by a new one, a provisionary, little bit narrower, Beach Walk will be built in front of the hotel.

Soon time for the first floor...

..and this is the view from the Beach Promenade

In the beginning of January more of the structure of the new restaurant La Antigua can be seen. Time plan to open in time for Easter seems to work.

A new roundabout (right) replaces the old one (left)

New beach walk passes right behind VP Beach restaurant

Mid December 2018 construction of the new beach walk finally started. Progress seems to be quick so it will most probably be ready in time before Easter.

2018

The Promenade will be extended along the hotel wall

The roundabout will be moved in the northward direction and the beach will be broadened

June 20th 2018 the Málaga County Council allocated around 667.000 Euros to the Estepona Town Hall for the extension of our beach promenade some hundreds of metres in the westward direction. The existing beach promenade will, to start with, be extended along the wall in front of the Iberostar Hotel and then further on behind (!) the Villa Padierna Beach Club where a new wooden bridge will be built across the little river right to the west of Costalita. In order to connect the section in front of the Iberostar Hotel with the bridge behind the Villa Padierna Beach Club the existing roundabout will be moved a bit up north and at the same time the beach will be broadened through the addition of more sand.

Digging for the new La Antigua

Directly after the vacation period, mid September 2018, construction works started for the new restaurant La Antigua. It will be a two-storey building a little further away from the sea than its predecessor and the owners remain the same. Plans are to have it ready in time for easter 2019.

Costa Marinsa

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Right in time for the summer 2018 new urbanisation Costa Marinsa (click for more info) got ready for moving in. A few already moved in, but there is still a lot of work to get it fit for fight.

2017

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During the summer 2017 preparations have also started for the construction of 49 new apartments on the plot between the hotel Estepona Occidental and Lidl. This new urbanisation will be named Los Miradores del Sol (click for more info) and is planned to be completed by October 2018.

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Not very far from Bricorama

In May 2017 construction started of 14 new apartments on the small plot between Bricorama and the Villas de Costalita. This new urbanisation will be named Costa Marinsa (click for more info).

Here a few square yards of common public ground..

...will return to be public beach

Here Villa Padierna's "lawn" is removed

On Friday April 21st it was finally time. The community workers popped up early in the morning to restore the beach after the bad weather during the winter. At the same time the opportunity was taken to reconquer the parts of the public beach that had been taken into possession by the Villa Padierna Beach Club over the years, piece by piece, metre by metre. We had been hoping that the Beach Promenade should also have been extended past the Iberostar hotel, something that the hotel themselves had asked for, and immediately in front of the Villa Padierna Beach Club exactly as has been done in front of the chiringuito La Antigua a little bit further away, but this seems to be a separate project if it ever going to happen.

2016

The Movistar Boys

On November 16th 2016, almost exactly two years after competitors Olivenet and Avatel, Movistar, the old "Spanish Telecom" arrived at Costalita to install their fibre network. As they are already present with their old analogue network, they estimate the fibre to be quickly in place. Their plan is to have a complete fibre infrastructure covering all of Costalita in place less than a month from now. Theoretically this will mean that households interested in their fibre services could have these in place in just a few days after order. We await the thrilling continuation of this project, of course it will be interesting to see what Movistar will be offering in terms of services and at which prices.

9 am - hotel sign being mounted

5 pm - first guests arrive

On March 18th, right before the last weekend preceding the Easter 2016, everything suddenly happened at once. At 5 pm there is not the slightest sign to be seen of what during the morning was an active work site with masons, painters, electricians, cleaners etc. Hotel Iberostar Costa del Sol opened as planned to welcome their first guests.

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According to the Spanish law pools exceeding a certain size must be enclosed with a fence in order to avoid accidents. Some urbanizations solved this decreasng the size of their pools, in some cases by simply filling part of the pool with cement. Out of the Costalita pools Costalita-e were the first ones to enclose their pool in 2014, followed by Costalita-f in 2015. This year this is being followed by Costalita-i where right now a nicely designed new cristal fence is being erected.

The hotel is now painted white

The palm trees are transported to another hotel

Less trees in front of the hotel

At the end of 2015 the hotel Playa Bella was sold to the Iberostar group, now planning for its reopening right in time for the Easter week 2016, now under its new name Iberostar Costa del Sol. Works are now being rushed to get everything ready in time before the planned reopening. Among the changes can be mentioned that the hotel is being given a new colour, white is replacing the previous terracotta red. Half of the palm trees, among 50 of them, are being removed which will give more light to the hotel guests. Maybe those palm trees were not part of the sales deal as they are now transported to the Senator Hotel where they are replanted.

2015

WiFi mast

Late during the autumn 2015 Olivenet installed a new WiFi system covering the beach in front of Costalita. It is a cost-based system where you buy Internet time, anything from one hour for 1 Euro and up to seven days for 20 Euros.

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During the summer 2015 construction works have started on the bridge/road that will connect Costalita with the communities on the western side of the "river" (Villacana, Sun Beach etc). This connection will simplify access to and from the carretera for those communities where they today have to make long deviations (For example coming from Marbella they have had to drive all the way down to Selwo, turn around, and drive the same way back to get home). For Costalita the new bridge/road will most certainly result in increased traffic and decreased security. Plans are that the new connection will open to traffic in August 2015. The photos above have been supplied by the Ayuntamiento de Estepona.

Fiber preparations at Costalita del Mar

Cables are small, aren't they?

OliveNet working with fibre at Costalita-i

On November 24th company Avatel (click for more info) started laying down fibre optic cables at Costalita, when Costalita del Mar got connected. Their (and their competitor's) plans are to cover the whole Costalita area with a basic network, making it possible for individuals and/or urbanisations to decide on whether they will ask for an optical fibre connection to their apartments/town houses. This will mean a big step forward when it comes to the speed of Internet connections. Costalita has, since constructions started in the late 90's, been a "black hole" when it comes to Internet where, only with some luck the data speed exceeded 1 MB/s. The installation of a fibre optic system will allow speeds up to 100 MB/s, making it possible, among other things, to receive TV transmissions from the whole world at a good quality. Mid January 2015 also company Olive Net (click for more info) starts to lay fibre cables in the ground. The same way as Avatel they take advantage of the existing Telefónica tubes and ducts. OliveNet has been very active and they now have their fibres laid for areas Costalita-d, Costalita-e, Costalita-f and Costalita-j. Negotiations are ongoing with areas Costalita-h and Costalita-i. According to themselves it should now be possible to get a fibre connection to your apartment in a day or two after order in those areas where they have got their base network in place.

2014

Preparing for video supervision system

On November the 24th digging works started in the soil at Costalita-e. The idea is to install an internal video supervision system covering the complete urbanisation. Plans are to install around ten superisory cameras.

Happenings

Under this headline are presented various texts and picture material re. happenings and events related to Costalita and its close surroundings.

2019

3/4 of our team. Mother, 93 years of age, to the right

Time for the first question

A lot of thinking

Hurray, we won!

Monday March the 11th I accompanied my friend Emmet to the Irish Pub next to the Lawn Bowling club where Emmet goes to play several times a week. This evening Quiz, a popular occupation in the English-speaking pub world, was on the program. Teams of four were set up so Emmet and myself were placed with two English ladies, mother (aged 93) and daughter, which both of them proved to be Quiz Professionals. So, even though Emmet and myself didn't contribute too much to the answers, luckily enough, our team ended up as the winner of the night. A few bottles of wine to bring back home were our reward, except for the honour of winning of course. A good example of the questons during the evening could be: Who scored the first goal in the match between Wolverhampton och Middlesbrough in their second encounter 1979?

2018

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During the week October 6-13 the Senior Padel World Championship was arranged on the courts next left from Costalita, the former Costalita Sports Club.

Visits 2018 Nelia loves Lena At Carmelina with Anki, Kjell & Kerstin With Mona at Brigitte's Lunch with Bengt & Öllegård Sunday roast with Ray & Maureen Thomas, Lena, Arne & Inger Restaurant with Harald & Mona Cheers Thomas! Playa Bella with Bärbel & Kalle Mona meets her neighbours Ulla, our new Swedish neighbour Vyv, Emmet & Ursula at dinner Vyv serving Liam The autumn 2018 was the first time I arrived only by myself at Costalita, but I did not have to spend many moments without company. My friends took very good care of me and something was going on most every minute. Something took place almost every day and we often met just to socialize, either at one of their places, my place or out on the town. Top of page