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seller on beach 2With the sun out, the beaches bustling and lack of beach police – who are not due to start until June, it is heaven for the illegal sellers, particularly on the busy Levante stretch. I spent a couple of hours on the promenade today, observing the comings and goings of these pedlars with sadly not much police presence.

seller on beach 3Up until 1pm there were at least a dozen but then there must be a shift change – which is probably known to these vendors as they suddenly all appeared. Some walk up and down between the sunbeds with coolbags, shouting Coca Cola, Fanta Limon, Cerveza. Aqua – but the ones that really concern me are those selling ‘cocktails’.


CocktailI must say that yes they do look tempting, especially as you lie on your sun lounger and a man walks past within feet of you, carrying huge plastic tumblers, with straw, ice and fruit ready to drink. But stop…. Wait… Don’t – EVER! I cannot emphasise this enough, especially as I watched them being prepared, not once but twice. As I saw one group take the bait I waited until he had walked away then went onto the sand to speak to them. There were five lovely Irish girls and one had a tumbler in her hand. I asked if she had just bought it from the man at which point she looked rather nervously at me and said yes, paying him €5.

preparation areaI explained that I certainly wouldn’t touch it, having watched the conditions in which they are prepared – in dirty alleyways on the floor and the others all agreed and said they told her not to buy it. She promptly poured it into the sand. I told them that all they have to do is walk less than 50 metres to the bars along the front and at least they wouldn’t be risking their health.


cocktails left on floorAs I walked back towards the Avd Mediterraneo I saw two of the pedlars, one was sitting on a bench outside the Carrefour Express. The woman he was with handed him a bag of ice-cubes she had bought from the store and he proceeded to place some into each tumbler using his VERY dirty hands.

Sellers crossing roadBut worse was to come – they picked up the cardboard box with the tumbers, crossing over the road to head towards the beach and the man actually took a big sip from one of the straws as he was walking along. That really turned my stomach as he certainly looked like he needed a good bath to me.
So please please do not buy from these vendors – they are NOT from the bars. It is illegal to sell anything on the beach – apart from the hire of the sunbed and parasols.

Comments  

+1 #3 Gillette 2016-05-25 17:18
I'm also sure I would not have a massage from the so called masseuses. I nearly came to blows with one yesterday. She draggged her victims sunbed under MY umbrella, then sat on the edge of my sunbed. Not for long though. One shove sent her sprawling
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0 #2 Gillette 2016-05-22 19:19
Totally agree on this. We don't even know if the tinnies are counterfeit either.
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+2 #1 Caggs 2016-05-22 17:37
I watched one at Easter when we were there he sliced the fruit up on the tyre of a parked car round the corner from the beach. He then went off to sell them. I certainly would not touch them :eek:
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