The discovery has led scientists from the Catalan Institute of Paleontology to speculate that possibly Lanzarote originated as part of the African continent, because by the Miocene period these birds had already lost the ability to fly, suggesting that the island then became separated from the land mass that forms Africa. This theory is also strengthened by the fact that although there are similarities, the remains of the birds found on Lanzarote are distinct from the African ostrich.

At present, paleontologists are continuing to study the fossils that have been discovered. But there may well be an opportunity for fossil enthusiasts to study these remains in the future, according to the councillor for the Historic Patrimony of Lanzarote at the Cabildo, Sr Juan Antonio de la Hoz.

The Spanish government recently announced plans to cut sales tax on new homes from 8 to 4% in order to help reduce an estimated backlog of one million unsold residential properties.  This excess stock has been created by a number of factors, including over development and a fall in demand since the onset of the economic crisis.  Home sales in Spain dropped by 26% in June versus the same month last year, prompting the government to take action.

The two flights that were cancelled were destined for Dusseldorf in Germany and Madrid. Four flights were redirected to land at Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria, whilst the delays for both arrivals and departures at Lanzarote airport were an average of 57 minutes long.

However, in June 2011 the prolonged period of the heat wave that was experienced between the 21^st and 24^th of the month saw temperatures of 40ºC and above in both coastal and interior regions of the islands. With the maximum recorded at 41.6ºC in the south east of Gran Canaria on 22^nd June. This has pushed up the average temperature across the islands by between 1 and 3.6 degrees for the month.

Arrivals from Lanzarote´s other key markets also showed positive growth, with passenger numbers from Germany rising by 19.4% and from Ireland by 6.5%.  Whilst the islands fourth largest market, Holland, enjoyed 12.8% rise with a total of 4328 tourist arrivals.

Overall a total of 119,020 foreign tourists visited Lanzarote last month – a 14% increase versus May 2011 figures.  As the island´s tourist sector continued to enjoy a positive start to the year.  The only dark cloud in this otherwise sunny picture comes from the Spanish market – where arrivals fell by 16.9% to 21,690 passengers.

However, the Canaries are not the highest consumers of beer, as this award goes to Andalucia and southern Extramadura, where 7.5 million hectolitres (100 litres) were sold last year.

In contrast to this slight increase in consumption in the Canaries, the overall national level of beer drinking fell by 0.5% in comparison with figures for 2009, despite Spain winning the World Cup in 2010.

The report also highlighted the fact that production and consumption of non-alcoholic beer is higher in Spain than any other European country, with approximately 15% of the lagers consumed falling into this category.

The new website ‘taxitourlanzarote.com’ will allow users to book a cab in advance and pay by debit or credit card. The page will be available in three languages to start with, Spanish, English and German.

In future, each municipality will offer the same on-line service to cover the whole island and new offices are set to be opened in the main tourist resorts, with Costa Teguise next in line for a more technologically friendly service.

The robberies have led to the creation of special task force under the direction of the Mayor of Teguise.   As opportunist thieves have taken advantage of the peak period for harvesting spuds.  With local farmers pressing the local authorities to create some form of patrol to watch over their crops!

According to the new UN figures France remains the world’s most popular destination with 78.95 million foreign arrivals.  Followed by the US came with 60.88 million.  China leapfrogged Spain into third place, recording 55.66 million tourist guests.

And this may well not be the high point of China’s expansion, as the UN tourism agency has predicted that China could replace France as the world’s largest tourist destination by 2015.

The upsurge in German visitors last month follows on from positive growth recorded in January, when German arrivals rose by 27.7%.  And overall foreign tourist numbers climbed by 23.6% last month on Lanzarote.  With British arrivals also climbing by 9.2% and other markets such as the Scandinavian countries also recording positive growth.  A couple of clouds remain in this otherwise sunny outlook however as Spanish tourism continued to decline – down by 26.8 %.  Whilst arrivals on Eire also fell by a disappointing 4.7%.