Spanish

IN the south of Spain is a sandy strait with palm-tree lined promenades and high rise hotels that looks like Florida.

You’ll find La Manga less than an hour away from Murcia – and it even has its own salt water lagoon where you can take a mud bath.

La Manga is a 13 mile long strip of sand which offers a ‘two seas experience’.

One being the actual Mediterranean Sea, the other the Mar Menor.

Visitors have compared La Manga to Florida thanks to it’s thin sandbank as well as sunny weather and high rise apartment buildings.

With its bright blue seas, it especially looks like parts around West Palm Beach and even Miami.

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La Manga de Mar Menor literally means ‘The Sandbar of the Minor Sea’ – and the strait splits the Mediterranean Sea from Mar Menor lagoon – the biggest salt water lagoon in Europe.

The lagoon has also been referred to as the ‘Spanish Dead Sea’.

This is because the lagoon has healing mud – visitors smear it all over their bodies and its said to have properties that are good for damaged skin and arthritis pain.

The water is shallow year round and is a popular spot for sailing.

Swimming is allowed at certain times of the year, but there are occasions when the water is off limits – like when there are jellyfish spotted in there.

La Manga is a great spot for holiday makers looking for sunshine too.

Due to its position, it gets a Mediterranean climate and over 300 days of sunshine a year.

This week, while the UK is sitting under 10C – La Manga is enjoying highs of 19C.

Peak months of July and August can see average highs of 30C and no rainfall.

It’s a hit with visitors too, one wrote on Tripadvisor: “It’s just a splendid destination! Beautiful climate, warm water on the “mar menor” side and warm on the “mar major” side and a place not very touristic so perfect for a holiday.”

Another added: “Perfect in every way, walk around the Mediterranean and the Mar Menor, and enjoy its mood and tranquility.”

Hotels on La Manga aren’t expensive either – you can stay for 5 nights in April at the Poseidon La Manga Hotel & Spa from £36.10pppn.

All rooms have air conditioning, TV and private bathroom – in the hotel there’s a spa with a sauna, steam room, gym, hot tub and experience showers.

There’s also a buffet restaurant and cafe-bar.

Outside of the hotels are plenty of beach bars like El Parador del Mar Menor which sits at the very end of the strait.

A popular restaurant is Maloca which serves up Mediterranean dishes like clams, mussels, tuna, or cod with grilled vegetables with one visitor saying “it was spectacular, and nothing expensive!”

The closest airport is Murcia which is two and a half hours from the UK – plus a 30 minute drive.

At this time of year you can get direct flights to Murcia from Birmingham from £15.

For more on Spain discover this resort you’ve NEVER heard of – where locals holiday and hotels start at £28 a night.

And one top travel mum influencer reveals her best cheap, family-friendly hotels – and one is in Spain.

A few months back, a discussion broke out in the De Los chat about whether or not Bad Bunny would win album of the year at the 68th Grammy Awards for his LP “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.”

I was firmly in the “yes” camp from the day the nominations were announced and I was right!

But if I’m being honest, I had my doubts that it would happen until the second that presenter Harry Styles called out the Puerto Rican singer’s name Sunday night.

Those in the “no” camp — who were still rooting for him to win — had history in their favor. It’s so rare for any major awards show, but especially the Grammys, to recognize artists at the peak of their powers. It’s almost as if these voting bodies feel that some (usually Black) artists must go through a weird humiliation ritual before being deemed worthy.

In 2015, Beyoncé’s self-titled LP lost album of the year in favor of Beck’s “Morning Phase.” She was overlooked again when Adele won album of the year for “25” over her seminal album “Lemonade” at the 59th Grammy Awards. Her club classic “Renaissance” also missed out on the top prize in 2023, with Styles’ “Harry’s House” taking home the award.

Rapper Macklemore won the rap album Grammy over Kendrick Lamar’s “good kid, m.A.A.d. City” at the 56th iteration of the award ceremony. At the 2016 Grammys, Lamar’s deeply layered LP “To Pimp a Butterfly” lost album of the year to Taylor Swift’s “1989.” Mumford & Sons’ “Babel” won album of the year in 2013 over Frank Ocean’s “Channel Orange.”

The anti-Blackness in the Recording Academy — the voting body that chooses Grammy winners — cannot be understated.

But in a rare move the voters, which included the Latin Grammy Awards’ voting body for the first time this year, chose the album that actually reflected the cultural zeitgeist.

Really it was less so that I believed Bad Bunny would win as much as I felt that he needed to win.

The past year has been exceedingly trying for the Latinx community as Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids have been conducted throughout the country. It has oftentimes felt as though being Latinx — looking a certain way, speaking Spanish, having certain names — is a crime. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen videos of or heard heartbreaking stories of Latinx people being separated from their families, harassed or even killed due to activities of federal agents.

So even if it was just a moment of recognition for Bad Bunny, I had a lot riding on one win for Latinx people. A win for an album that is unapologetically in Spanish, explored ideas of resistance toward colonization and dared to be joyful, would mean something to me.

When he won, I had the same reaction as him. I couldn’t believe it and I cried — genuine tears in my Latina eyes.

It felt like an acknowledgment that Latinx people exist and matter. I was also moved when he explicitly shouted out immigrant and Latinx communities. There was just something that felt radical, too, in him giving the majority of his acceptance speech in Spanish.

De Los writer Andrea Flores also had faith in Bad Bunny’s Grammys viability from the very beginning.

“I knew Bad Bunny was going to win big at the Grammy Awards the moment he released this album,” she told me. “Bad Bunny made music for Puerto Rico, and the world listened.”

“I cried when I saw that Bad Bunny won album of the year. For me, it felt like sweet vindication for Latinx artists — reggaetoneros, more specifically — who have long been ignored, and at times vilified, by mainstream media for so many years. But what made me even more emotional was seeing posts on X showing Bad Bunny in 2016 as a bag boy at a local Puerto Rican supermarket. He looks familiar in that picture, like a cousin, brother or childhood friend. That was only 10 years ago. It’s proof to me that so much can change if you believe in your art and in yourself.”

It’s weird that a Latinx artist from an American colony is the most powerful cultural figure in the country at the same time that Latinx people face the most tenuous situation in the U.S. that I’ve seen in my life.

When Bad Bunny takes the stage for the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, I wish he’d get up there and call out ICE again on an even-bigger stage or do some kind of spectacular act of protest against the vile political class that has always and continues to push through discriminatory policies against non-white communities.

It’d be awesome if that happens, but even if it doesn’t, there will still be something profoundly radical about him simply being there and performing exclusively in Spanish.

(Jackie Rivera / For The Times; Martina Ibáñez-Baldor / Los Angeles Times)

The latest on Trump’s immigration enforcement

(Joel Angel Juarez / Getty Images)

After killing two U.S. citizens, forcibly extracting immigrants and using force against protestors, some 700 federal agents are being pulled out of Minnesota. About 2,000 officers will remain in the state, White House border czar Tom Homan said early this week.

On Tuesday, immigration officers in Minneapolis pulled their guns on and arrested protestors who were trailing their vehicles, the AP reported.

Meanwhile, my colleague Gavin J. Quinton reported that the Senate isn’t “anywhere close” to reaching an agreement on ICE funding, as Democrats demand “nonnegotiable” ICE reforms.

In some good news, Liam Conejo Ramos — the 5-year-old from Minnesota who was famously photographed wearing a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack while detained by ICE agents — and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were released from a detention facility in Dilley, Texas and are back home in Minnesota.

The duo was released thanks to a ruling from the U.S. District Judge Fred Biery.

“[T]he case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children,” the judge wrote in his ruling.

Stories we read this week that we think you should read

Unless otherwise noted, stories below were published by the Los Angeles Times.

Politics and Immigration

Arts, culture and entertainment

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Spain is filled with beautiful destinations, but are often packed with tourists — but now Brits can fly to one Spanish city without fighting through the hustle and bustle

A breathtaking Spanish city could be yours to discover — for just the cost of a £13 flight.

Spain has a slew of destinations that are filled with amazing history, phenomenal beaches and great natural trails. However, this often comes at the cost of being inundated by tourists trying to capture their own private moment.

But now, a new destination has opened up for Brits to explore the glorious Spanish sun, without the need for wrangling through swathes of holidaymakers trying to take the perfect picture. The hidden gem also sits right on the Mediterranean coast, making it an unspoilt beauty, but still close to other holiday hotspots.

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Castellón de la Plana is a small city sitting just inland of Spain’s Costa de Valencia. With a population of just over 174,000 people, the city is often dwarfed by its popular neighbours, including Benidorm, Valencia, and even Barcelona further along the coast.

However, the city is brimming with culture and history, being the fourth-largest city in the region. The town has been mentioned in history books as far back as 1233, when it was taken over by a Spanish king, and has since built up an impressive history, filled with castles and stunning panoramic views, all with 30 °C temperatures at the height of summer.

Being located close to the sea, the city boasts access to the stunning Islas Columbretes Natural Park, where tourists can take in the amazing natural landscapes. With huge sea stacks and rock formations coming out of the sea, the panoramic views are like no other in Spain itself.

Back on dry land, travellers looking to get stuck into the hustle and bustle of daily life can get lost strolling through the Mercado Central, filled with locals selling their best produce. Seafood is in plenty of supply, with customers often queuing around the markets to get fresh quality goods, including food and drinks.

But if the market chaos is too much, the city also boasts a number of quiet, peaceful plazas that show how locals live their lives. Places such as the Plaça Major offer spots for people-watching, whilst taking in the breathtaking architecture of the local cathedral and other prominent buildings.

Beaches are also dotted around the city, with the songs such as the Playa del Pinar and Playa El Gurugu being the perfect spots to catch the sunrise over the horizon of the Med.

Food and drink are also staples of the city’s thriving life, as there are a host of bars and restaurants offering traditional meals for a reasonable price. Modern history is also covered, with the Refugio Antiaereo air-raid shelter now serving as a museum, adding an extra quirk to the Spanish diamond.

British tourists are now able to catch a flight to Castellón de la Plana, after Ryanair officially connected London Stanstead Airport to Castellón Airport, based some 30 kilometres away from the city itself. The cost of the flights themselves are also incredibly cheap, with the cheapest one-way flight to the Spanish getaway coming in at £13 this month.

The airport can also serve as a great gateway to the rest of the Valencia region, with holiday hotspots such as Valencia City, Alicante, and Benidorm easily accessible. The price of flights also do not fluctuate that much, meaning a cheap flight to Spain is always guaranteed.

Following Bad Bunny’s landmark album of the year win at the 68th Grammy Awards for “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” Ricky Martin penned a letter of appreciation to commemorate the moment.

In an opinion piece for the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día published Tuesday, the Boricua hitmaker said Bad Bunny’s accomplishment stirred deep feelings within him.

“Benito, brother, seeing you win three Grammy Awards, one of them for album of the year, with a production entirely in Spanish, touched me deeply,” Martin wrote. “Not only as an artist, but as a Puerto Rican who has walked stages around the world carrying his language, his accent and his history.”

In addition to becoming the first all-Spanish album of the year winner, the “Nuevayol” artist took home the Grammy Awards for música urbana album and global music performance for the track “EoO” on Sunday.

Martin further called Bad Bunny’s achievement a “human” and “cultural” win, lauding him for not bending to the will of anyone who tried to change his sound in any way.

“You won without changing the color of your voice. You won without erasing your roots. You won by staying true to Puerto Rico,” Martin wrote. “You stayed true to your language, your rhythms and your authentic narrative.”

Martin, who first broke out as a solo musical act in the mid-’90s, became an international superstar off the back of his Spanish-language hits including 1995’s “María,” 1998’s “Vuelve” and “Perdido Sin Ti.”

He reached a new strata of stardom after his track “La Copa de Vida” was used as the official anthem for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. That song charted in over 60 countries and was translated into English. He landed his biggest hit with “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” which was the lead single from his 1999 self-titled English album.

When accepting his album of the year award Sunday night, Bad Bunny addressed the crowd predominantly in Spanish and spoke of the strugglesof the immigrant experience.

“I want to dedicate this award to all the people who had to leave their homeland, their country, to follow their dreams,” he said in English.

“Puerto Rico, believe me when I say that we are so much bigger than 100 by 35 and there is nothing that exists that we can’t accomplish,” the “Dakiti” artist said in Spanish. “Thank God, thank you to the academy, thank you to all the people who have believed in me throughout my whole career. To all the people who worked on this album. Thank you, Mami, for giving birth to me in Puerto Rico. I love you.”

The 54-year-old singer also showed love to Bad Bunny for using his platform to show solidarity for vulnerable communities.

“What touched me most about seeing you on the Grammys stage was the audience’s silence when you spoke,” Martin wrote. “When you defended the immigrant community, when you called out a system that persecutes and separates, you spoke from a place I know very well where fear and hope coexist, where millions live between languages, borders and deferred dreams.”

Martin concluded his letter by thanking Bad Bunny for reminding him and showing other Puerto Ricans that there is power in being true and authentic to yourself.

“This achievement is for a generation to whom you taught that their identity is non-negotiable and that success is not at odds with authenticity,” Martin wrote.

“This was for Puerto Ricans, for all our Latino brothers and sisters who dream in Spanish, for those crossing seas and borders wearing their cultures like a flag. From the heart, from one Boricua to another, with respect and love, I thank you for reminding us that when one of ours succeeds, we all succeed.”

Who’s ready for a Minions happy dance?

Spanish figure skater Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté said Tuesday that he may be able to skate his Minions-themed program at the Olympics after all. He shared on Instagram that Universal is allowing him to use the music from its popular animated franchise for the “special occasion” and said he is working to clear the remaining hurdles.

“There are still a couple things to be tied up with the other 2 musics of the program but we are so close to accomplishing it!” Guarino Sabaté wrote in his update thanking his supporters. “I’m so happy to see that the minions hitting Olympic ice is becoming real again!! I’ll keep you posted!”

A six-time Spanish national champion, Guarino Sabaté said on Monday that he had been informed Friday — exactly a week before the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Games — that the medley of “Minions” music he had skated to, while dressed in blue overalls and a yellow shirt, through the entirety of the season could not be used at the Olympics due to copyright issues. This meant that Guarino Sabaté, who had been set to make his Olympics debut with his Minions-themed short program on Feb. 10, would need to change his plans last minute. How bananas.

The cheery yellow creatures are a signature of Universal and Illumination’s “Despicable Me” film franchise. NBCUniversal owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympics.

“Finding out about this … so close to the most important competition of my life, was incredibly disappointing,” Guarino Sabaté wrote in his post sharing the initial news. “This season I competed with my Minions short program to bring joy and playful style to the ice while still meeting every required element to show that skating as a male Olympic figure skater can be fun. … Nevertheless, I will face this challenge head on and do my best to make the best of it.”

The Olympian said then that he had followed the proper procedures and submitted his music through the International Skating Union’s recommended rights clearance system in August. The situation has brought to attention to the complexities of music licensing and how it affects artistic sports like figure skating. Contemporary music is not in the public domain and skaters are responsible for clearing their own music.

For now, fans will just have to remain hopeful that Guarino Sabaté’s dream of bringing joyous Minion mayhem to the Olympic ice will come true in the end.

Bad Bunny’s “Débi Tirar Más Fotos” was named album of the year at Sunday night’s 68th Grammy Awards — the first time a Spanish-language LP has won the Recording Academy’s most prestigious prize.

Bunny delivered the speech primarily in Spanish.

“I want to dedicate this award to all the people who had to leave their homeland, their country, to follow their dreams,” he said as the audience rose to its feet.

“Puerto Rico, believe me when I say that we are so much bigger than 100 by 35 and there is nothing that exists that we can’t accomplish,” he said in Spanish. “Thank God, thank you to the academy, thank you to all the people who have believed in me throughout my whole career. To all the people who worked on this album. Thank you, mami, for giving birth to me in Puerto Rico. I love you.”

“For all the people who have lost a loved one and even then have had to continue moving forward and continue with so much strength, this award is for you all.”

Intricately arranged with the sounds of the singer and rapper’s native Puerto Rico, “Débi Tirar Más Fotos” was released to rave reviews in January 2025 and quickly reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Last summer, Bad Bunny supported the project with a 30-date concert residency at San Juan’s José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum; he followed that with the announcement of a world tour that avoided the United States, in part, he told I-D magazine, because of his concern that immigration agents might turn up at shows.

Prior to Sunday’s win, “Débi Tirar Más Fotos” — the title translates in English to “I Should Have Taken More Photos” — was named album of the year at November’s Latin Grammy Awards. Next weekend, Bad Bunny (whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) will headline the halftime show at Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara.

He won earlier in the night for música urbana album and global music performance.

The other LPs nominated for album of the year were Justin Bieber’s “Swag,” Sabrina Carpenter’s “Man’s Best Friend,” Clipse’s “Let God Sort Em Out,” Lady Gaga’s “Mayhem,” Kendrick Lamar’s “GNX,” Leon Thomas’ “Mutt” and Tyler, the Creator’s “Chromakopia.”

In 2025, Beyoncé took the prize with “Cowboy Carter.”

The islands are just a 45-minute ferry from mainland Spain and yet are almost completely unknown by UK holidaymakers despite the area’s natural beauty which includes a beach named the best in the world

Most Brits are well-acquainted with the Balearic and Canary Islands. Each year, millions jet off to bask in the sunshine across Spanish island destinations like Tenerife, Lanzarote, Majorca, and Ibiza.

However, what many don’t know is that these aren’t Spain’s only islands. There is an archipelago that welcomes barely any tourists, despite sitting just off the mainland coast, and most UK tourists won’t have heard of them.

The Cíes Islands are a 45-minute ferry journey from Vigo city in northwestern Spain. This archipelago is made up of three main islands: Monteagudo (North Island), Do Faro (Middle Island), and San Martiño (South Island).

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Monteagudo and Do Faro are linked by a 1,200-metre stretch of sand, featuring a lagoon on one side and the Atlantic on the other, reports the Express.

Don’t turn up expecting to find luxury resorts. These islands remain virtually uninhabited, with the sole facilities being a modest shop and a handful of restaurants. Most visitors stay for just a few hours, trekking between the two larger islands via rocky trails and enjoying the tranquil, pristine coastline.

Throughout peak season, which is Easter through May and September, daily visitor quotas are capped at 1,800, requiring visitors to book advance permits before boarding ferries. Outside of peak periods, just 450 people can visit daily.

The stretch of sand linking two of the islands is called Rodas, and this hidden treasure was crowned the world’s best beach by The Guardian. The publication described the islands: “Their nickname – the Maldives or Seychelles of Spain – gives a clear indication of what to expect: gorgeous white beaches, turquoise waters … in other words, your average untouched paradise.”

Walking remains the islands’ most popular pastime, boasting many spectacular coastal trails and reasonably straightforward routes to explore. Scuba diving offers another brilliant opportunity to soak up the Cíes Islands’ natural splendour.

Being part of Islas Atlánticas National Park means the local wildlife is protected, so divers require a permit, and visitor numbers are carefully controlled.

For those wanting to extend their stay beyond a single day, there’s a beautiful campsite perched above the lagoon with sweeping ocean views. You can reserve a ready-pitched tent complete with proper beds and enjoy stargazing after dark without artificial light interference, whilst having the beaches to yourself once day-trippers leave.

Camping Islas Cíes offers essential amenities – everything you need for your visit, from a snack bar to heated showers. There’s also a children’s club packed with entertaining activities, whilst kayaking and snorkelling expeditions can be arranged to help you discover more of the islands.

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Whilst Monteagudo and Do Faro boast regular ferry connections, the most southerly of the Cíes Islands, San Martiño, is only accessible by hiring a private boat. Any boats intending to drop anchor here require a special licence, but it’s well worth the effort if you can get onto a tour, as it’s incredibly tranquil and boasts pristine sandy shores and palm trees, creating the feeling of being in the Caribbean.

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