Playa Blanca gains 65 free parking spaces in the centre

Anyone who knows Playa Blanca in August knows the problem: you reach the centre and there is nowhere to park. Since Friday it is slightly less painful, because Yaiza council has reopened the stretch of Avenida Papagayo between the Carmen church and calle Maciot, fitting it with 65 new angled spaces, all free.

The stretch has also changed its logic: it is now one-way towards Las Coloradas. Along with the resurfacing, the pavements and accessibility ramps have been rebuilt — on that avenue they were the worst point for anyone using a wheelchair or pushing a pram.

There is more to come. On the council plot behind the church, another 35 spaces are planned, plus a loading bay for the shops, which currently unload in the middle of the road.

The work is the second phase of a full rebuild of Avenida Papagayo worth €2.6 million, which the council is carrying out in sections so as not to close everything at once in high season. The site has now moved between calle Maciot and calle Janubio, where pavements and accessibility come before the asphalt.

Mayor Óscar Noda framed it as an answer to a demand shared by residents, workers, shopkeepers and visitors alike: in a centre whose population multiplies in summer, free parking is not a detail but the condition for the shops to trade at all.

A practical note for these days: the section under construction is the next one along, so it is easier to enter the centre from Las Coloradas rather than from the Janubio side.