The Mayor of Rubite, Arsenio Vázquez, knows that competing with the Costa Tropical heavy weights is difficult but having the first underwater park helps.

The Provincial Council, together with the University of Granada, have designed a diving centre valued around 30,000 euros.

The underwater park will have to be laid down from scratch, starting with sinking a boat so that it rests on the seabed as if it were a geniune sunken ship… yes, it really will be a sunken ship, but one put there on purpose, which is not exactly the same as when we talk about “sunken ships.”

So, where is it going to be placed? The answer is right in between two beaches, marked off with buoys, covering an area of 10,000 sq/m. Divers will be able to use the area knowing that no ships, boats or any other craft is going to cut across the park’s surface waters.

According to the Mayor, tourists will be able to enjoy the subaquatic panorama around the ‘sunken ship.’ by 2022, some time between May and the summer.

The University is going to advise on what sort of boat or ship to sink there, which might mean a real one or a replica, but the important thing is that it doesn’t cause pollution. There’ll also be amphoras and other curiosities to discover.

Now, if everything goes to plan, it means that Rubite will pip Almuñécar to the post, who have long been talking about opening such an underwater attraction. Almuñécar recently overhauled the project and is immersed in finding public, financial backing for the subaquatic park.

Almuñécar wants to create one of the same extension near Playa de El Muerto (Peñon del Lobo; i.e., between Cotobro and the Marina del Este at a depth of between 15 and 25 metres. They aim to have 309 structures down there, such as columns and building stones as if it were a sunken city. There will also be a concrete galley to emulate the ones that sunk in La Herradura bay, which have all but disappeared after over 450 years.

The difference is that the Almuñécar one has a budget of 1.25m euros and not 30,000 euros like Rubite.

There’s also good news for the Brits living in the Barranco Ferrer as the Town Hall intends to tarmac the surface of the lane that leads to their cortijos there – there are around 60 dwellings there. The Provincial Council will provide the 68,000 euros needed for this task.

(News: Rubite, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)