Ten-Bel dreams of recover a part of the stage of splendor that it reached back in the 70s and 80s. After decades immersed in a process of unstoppable deterioration, visible in the state of abandonment that a large part of its public spaces present, work is already being done on the drafting of the urbanization project with the idea of that it be completed by the end of the year, which will mean fixing the 47,000-square-meter park, privately owned, currently in ruins, and the surrounding streets, as announced last week by DIARIO DE AVISOS.
This step is essential for the Arona City Council to accept the urbanization, a requirement that in turn will open the possibility of granting licenses for new constructions on other plots of the urbanization, currently blocked.
But, in parallel, progress is being made with other tangible measures, such as the investment of 15 million euros in the remodeling of the Alborada apartments by an American fund and the future construction of a health center in the building of the old reception of Ten-Bel, next to the tower – the Minister of Health, Blas Trujillo has already visited the premises -, where work is being done on the construction of a gymnasium at the top.
Talking about Ten-Bel is remembering the paradise that was. There was no other like it. Spending the summer in the pioneer tourist urbanization in the south of Tenerife symbolized the dream pursued by any Tenerife family in the 70s and 80s. Renting or buying, whoever could afford it, an apartment in the tourist center of the Costa del Silencio represented an aspiration longed for by a large part of Tenerife society.
UNIQUE STYLE
An architectural model far from conventional high-rise buildings, with bungalow-type buildings with a couple of floors distributed among large green spaces, together with a formidable climate, flat terrain and proximity to the sea, made the Belgian businessman’s investment a safe bet. Michel Huygen, after buying the land from the Tavío family.
Ten-Bel, a name that arose from the abbreviations for Tenerife and Belgium, was very different from Puerto de la Cruz, the first tourist city on the island, and it bore little resemblance to any of the national destinations that were proliferating in the Spanish Mediterranean at that time. , based on large masses of concrete, which opened their arms to the first waves of mass tourism from Central Europe.
Thousands of Tenerife residents enjoyed the vacation of their lives staying in some of its apartment complexes: Carabela, Eureka, Géminis, Primavera, Drago, Frontera, Alborada, Bellavista and Maravilla, where gatherings and games of cinquillo and ludo continued. until nightfall in the hammocks by the pools amid the smells of coconut and lemon solar oils.
After dinner, it was time for the show on small stages set up next to the pools, where the entertainers (the same ones who organized ping-pong, water polo and petanque tournaments during the day) displayed their best performing arts. A small stage, a curtain and three or four colored spotlights were enough to cover the flamenco group or the singer on duty, the illusionist (Jerarmas was outstanding at the time) or the tourist who started off like Frank Sinatra wearing his incipient reddish brown, while the waiters did not stop serving sangrias and beers among the public.
There, between the notes of songs like My way, Can’t take my eyes of you or Cabaret, fleeting summer loves were forged after the relevant previous flirtations in the pool. The nights ended in the clubs of El Chaparral or Krystal, the latter located in the Marino apartments, where on Saturday nights it was difficult for its guests to fall asleep due to the constant tapping when entering and leaving the premises.
Pools like the one in Frontera were listed. Bathers enjoyed the overflowing heated water, something unprecedented at the time, and the only springboard on the Costa del Silencio. After the eternal two and a half hours of digestion, a certain skill was required to take advantage of the guard’s slightest distraction -generally one of his rounds- and sneak into the urbanization, leave the towel in a hammock and jump into the sea in record time. pool.
PLAYGROUND
And what about mini golf, with holes hidden on top of some kind of flan or behind a worn-out wheel in the shade of the weeping willows amidst the smells of grilled meat from the BQ restaurant? Or the playground that surrounded it, with a train that was not enough to transport so many boys and girls zigzagging between tunnels? Or those electric cars and the circuit of pedal vehicles next to the tennis courts? Or the lake with the bumper boats, where the little ones enjoyed splashing each other?
An orange train with two wagons pulled by a tractor was in charge of picking up tourists free of charge from the apartment complexes and distributing them throughout the urbanization so that they could do their shopping, have lunch, dinner, attend the night show of La Ballena or drink a drink in the El Chaparral area or in the shopping center under the Ten-Bel tower, where the El Rinconcito pub, by Antonio Durán, set the pace of the night -it still does- with bloodletting and lively evenings musicals.
Taking a dip in the sea was another tempting option. The natural pool of La Ballena (it has always been said that it is the largest in Europe), with its characteristic sun loungers and fiber umbrellas, was a safe choice. The two little piers of Ten-Bel, which were accessed by some dizzying stairs that descended from the spectacular promenade with views of Las Galletas, between Maravilla and La Ballena, as well as the coast at the foot of Montaña Amarilla, where bathers met and limpet and burgado shellfish, were other privileged places, although less safe to take a dip due to the overflow and currents.
The smell of fresh bread had been in the air since early morning in the El Chaparral supermarket. There the clientele went to a large drawer in which this product was stored without too many hygienic conditions (the ritual was to touch it to choose the most horny one).
The Marino supermarket, owned by the remembered Marcial and his wife, Petra, was the other option in the area. Between both establishments was the Paco’s Shop kiosk, a place where local and English newspapers received customers on the shelf at the entrance. Bread, newspaper and water. That was the most common purchase in supermarkets by Russians, as local tourism from the metropolitan area was already known in the South.
The early mornings were calm. Silence imposed its law, only altered by the planes that lined the runway of the Reina Sofía airport, especially on Fridays, the day when the carousel of tickets intensified, and by the heels that approached and departed from the discos. But calm reigned on those summer nights.
Today Ten-Bel, unfortunately, is a caricature of what it was. Fenced apartments, rubble on the ground, neglected and dry gardens, abandoned sports fields, deteriorated streets, insecurity… This is the panorama that its residents endure and that surprises the visitor almost half a century after the golden age. Decades of inaction on this gated community have brought the Eden of the 1970s and 1980s to the brink. Hopefully the current movements serve to rescue a part of the essence with which a destination was born for which half of Europe came to sigh. Because that glory of yesteryear is pure melancholy today.
