If you think some of the locals are looking a little bald and frayed round the edges when you arrive it’s merely because the start of 2022 was beset with setback after setback, mostly weather-related.

Normally we are fairly lucky with our winter weather here in VP, a storm or 2, a bit of localised flooding and usually no more than 2 or 3 continuous days of bad weather at any one time.

Cut to this winter however and it was a very different story… a LOT of record-breaking rainfall. Actually the rain was fine at first, filling up reservoirs, turning the mountains lush and green and bringing out long-dormant wild flowers. Then the dreaded ‘Calima’ hit for a few days Mid-March – an unprecedented swathe of Sahara dust which due to our proximity to Africa turned the skies completely orange and the air almost toxic and difficult to breathe. Just as well a lot of people were wearing masks at the time! You may have seen my social media posts about it but if not we include a couple of photos below.

The worst was yet to come when the rain joined forces with the Sahara dust to provide us all in the region with muddy rain…we’re used to occasional dirty rain here but this was thick, slimy and worst of all, staining mud! Very difficult to remove and in fact some previously brilliant white buildings are now forever stained pale orange until they are painted again.

People were tearing their hair out…do we clean, do we wait? Those who cleaned too early just had to do it again and again while the weather system kept circling around and around for what seemed like weeks, dropping its dark, dirty cargo on us relentlessly.

Personally that set us back with our own ‘grand opening’ this April, only just managing to clean up in time for the season and open our doors to paying guests once more.

As if that wasn’t bad enough the worst was yet to come…a tsunami! Yes you heard right, a tsunami!

OK, answers on a postcard if you know the difference between a regular tsunami and a meteotsunami, but VP received the latter at the start of April, hot on the heels of the Calima. Well it’s nothing to do with seismic activity but more to do with air pressure and severe weather events out to sea which combine to create prolonged, huge waves. And so it was that Vera Playa, along with much of Spain’s coastline, was bombarded by this tsunami to devastating effect.

We are used to winter storms here and as everyone knows by now, a lot of the naturist beach’s sand simply disappears in winter. 

This was the worst we have personally seen since 2016, the water came right up to beachfront properties taking not only sand, but gardens, trees and in a few cases actually entering properties.

In fact some of our neighbours and chiringuitos, are still attempting to get everything ship shape again 6 weeks later.

It’s hard to say whether this wave phenomena would not have affected the naturist beach so badly had the breakwater/’espigon’ already been in place, but something tells me not much could have held back the sheer force of the sea this time.

As a consequence, understandably everything is late this year and as usual beach repairs have been taking place. Normally these sand-shifting works would have been taking place during the day in time for Easter/Holy Week before the beach gets busy.

Already as we are approaching the end of May, during the day there are now too many beachgoers and holidaymakers using the beach for the big dumper trucks to be able to do their work, unless they close the beach. 

So the answer has been to work at night…sometimes they have still been working at 3am. I guess unless you live on the beach some people may not even have known it was happening.

Anyway it’s getting there, at time of writing the beach is looking wider, we’re just hoping that whenever the groyne/espigon is in place, the beach will naturally become wider once more, then a little more beautification can take place including perhaps a tree replacement policy. It would be nice to provide a haven for wildlife that has suffered at the hands of the tsunami with loss of habitat.

As I look out, I can see the pipes for new showers are being laid and very soon the bins, paths, lifeguard chairs and the nautical lanes shall all appear…the final pieces of the mid/high season jigsaw.

Despite everything that has been thrown at the beach this winter, somehow, phoenix-like and rising from the ashes, Vera Playa beach has been awarded a Blue Flag for its beaches!! Yay!!

Apart from the repairs in and around the beach, there have also been new road layouts, pavements, sewers and water pipes laid over the last few months…it has been, in some parts of the zone, like a building site.  The final road markings were painted the other week and it is looking quite smart. 

There has been a reduction in parking however as a result of the wider pavements so we’re wondering what can be done about this bearing in mind Vera Playa is becoming more and more popular all the time and now with its Blue Flag status surely only more so.

We wonder if the town hall will be considering a temporary summer car park set-up somewhere? We’re sure there was parking on the beach on the scrappy land in front of Vera Natura/Chringuito Naturista a few years ago or perhaps there are other unused spots crying out for overflow car park usage for summer visitors?  It would be a shame to think after all the promotion of the beach, that people would arrive, find nowhere to park and then have to go somewhere else. Watch this space.

It has been lovely lately to watch the sea and beach come to life as the resort creaks into action for another year.

It’s so nice on a breezy day to see our resident superstar and champion kitesurfer Adelaida out at sea, making her skill look so easy and effortless, but we have seen how much practice she puts into this over the year and she deserves her success! 

The parasailing also seems to have started or at least they’re practising for the start of their season. 

Local paddlesurfer Lolo and partner Natalia will soon be painting and opening their ‘Maktub’ surf shack and are already offering all sorts of watersports and skateboarding opportunities.

Of course for those who just like to kick back, be chilled and enjoy the ambience what better place to do it than Vera Playa with all its beach bars and facilities.

It feels like there is a more positive energy in the air now and from what we understand from other apartment owners, hoteliers and restaurant/bar owners it’s looking like this will be a very busy season indeed and the most ‘normal’ in three 3 very long years!

Well, we’ll drink to that and we hope you can too!

See you soon in paradise…

¡salud!