March 2016: Tauro beach has been flattened by heavy machinery laying the foundations for its new, Caribbean sand replacement.

After 20 years of delays, the Tauro artificial beach project is on; Grupo Anfi now has final approval from Spain's Costas department to make the beach and a 50-year concession to exploit it commercially. It expects to spend 6 million euros on the project and to be finished by the end of 2015. 

The new Tauro beach (which Grupo Anfi are imaginatively trying to brand as Anfi Tauro) will be twice the size of the existing pebble beach at 300 metres long and 50 metres wide. It's expected to be made from white sand imported from the Caribbean (like Anfi beach) rather than the coarser sand at Amadores beach (which was dredged from off Pasito Blanco). The initial project also seems to include a seafront promenade linking Tauro beach to Amadores.

Local footballer David Silva (a former sponsor of Anfi and investor in the Amadores Beach Club) has already christened the new beach by adding the first spadeful of sand at a press conference at Tauro beach this morning.

Anfi also plans to build a 400 berth marina at Tauro beach, along with 7,500 hotel beds and an 18.500 square metre recreational area (shops).

The development of Tauro beach by local firm Santana Cazorla took a step forward this week after Spain's Costas department gave it permission to create a 180 metres artificial beach.

Tauro beach is Gran Canaria's lazy Sunday chill-out beach for people old enough to remember the resorts going up. They gather at weekends to listen to proper music and  drink the island dry. With a long pebble beach, several ramshackle bars and a motely colection of decaying houses, Tauro is the anti-Amadores. For now!