A Spanish teenager who started digging a hole in his backyard after an argument with his parents, six years ago, is now the proud owner of an underground cave in his own backyard. Andres Canto was 14 when he first headed into his backyard in Alicante, Spain, with a pickaxe, following an argument with his parents. They wouldn’t let him go put into town wearing a track suit, so he decided to stay home and let off some steam by digging a hole. The thing he hadn’t planned one was enjoying digging as much as he did. Andres found that he loved coming back to his growing hole every evening, after classes, and just expanding it little by little. He eventually brought a friend to help him with the digging, and together they turned the hole into an impressive cave. Read More »

A group of seven Zapatistas, indigenous Mexcian revolutionaries, is getting ready to set sale across the Atlantic ocean in an attempt to peacefully invade Spain and mark the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest. On May 3rd, the Zapatista’s conquering force – three men, three women and a transgender woman – will leave Mexican soil aboard a wooden boat named “La Montana”, or “The Mountain”, hoping to reach Spain by August 13, the day that the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish conquistadors in 1521. Only instead of drowning the land in blood, like the conquistadors, the Zapatistas are planning a peaceful takeover that even includes a party upon their arrival. Read More »

Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel turned a non-descript lighthouse in northern Spain’s Cantabria region into an eye-catching work of art. Inspired by the “natural wealth of the region by representing local fauna and, with its textures, the cultural diversity of a modern and open Cantabria, which is connected to the world,” Okuda San Miguel turned the Faro de Ajo lighthouse into a technicolor work of art, featuring more than 70 vibrant hues. Okuda started work on the 16-meter-tall lighthouse in August and completed the project, titled “Infinite Cantabria”, in September. Now, the region’s last built lighthouse is meant to become a symbol of the cultural diversity of a modern and open Cantabria. Read More »

Around 20 Spanish children ended up growing hair all over their bodies after being administered hair restoring medicine, instead of syrup for upset stomachs. In a shocking incident first in the summer of 2019, almost two dozen children reportedly started exhibiting symptoms of hypertrichosis, aka “werewolf syndrome”. They started growing hair excessively all over their bodies, after being administered minoxidil, a drug that stimulates hair growth, instead of omeprazole, usually prescribed for gastric problems. The mix-up allegedly happened after mislabeled syrups were delivered to pharmacies in Granada and Valencia, which chemsist prescribed to treat the upset stomachs of little ones. Over a year since hypertrichosis symptoms were first reported, the families of affected children claim their hair is still growing excessively, but justice has not been served. Read More »

A Spanish ham producer recently announced that it sold the most expensive piece of traditional Iberian ham to a Japanese buyer for the outrageous price of 12,000 euros ($14,100). Julio Revilla, president of Sierra Mayor Jabugo, an Iberian ham producer based in Corteconcepción, Spain’s Huelva region, said that the record-breaking piece of ham was prepared following the strict instructions of the buyer. They requested that the ham come from an Iberian pig at least two years old that had been grazing in the mountains of Sierra Mayor for at least 100 days. The animal had to gain at least 100 kilos during the time they spend grazing and that their diet consisted only of acorns and herbs. Finally, the curing period for the ham was five years, double the normal curing period for premium ham. Read More »

In an effort to prove that been confined or quarantined indoors during the coronavirus pandemic is no excuse for neglecting daily exercise, a Spanish athlete recently spent ten hours running a 61-kilometer marathon in the comfort of his own home. Like the vast majority of people in his country and much of Europe, Javier Castroverde, a 41-year-old triathlete from the Spanish region of Galicia, has been spending his days indoors, as part of a social distancing effort to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus. However, instead of binging on Netflix, napping and going on social media, he has been busy keeping in shape. Despite being confined to a relatively small apartment, Castroverde was able to run the equivalent of a 61-km marathon in about 10 hours. He shared the data recorded by a smartphone app and dedicated his feat to the health professionals risking their lives to help others. Read More »

A tailoring shop in the Spanish city of Bilbao has sparked a heated debate online after it was reported that it started charging people 15 euros ($16.7) just for trying on clothes. Camino Azula Pascual, co-owner of the Pascual Bilbao tailoring shop in downtown Bilbao, has been making custom men’s suits and tuxedos for 40 years, so she doesn’t even need a measuring tape anymore. As soon as someone walks through the door, she knows their measurements, and, if they’re in a hurry, she can even recommend something that would suit the special occasion perfectly. But this is a skill that she and her brother Carlos have  honed over four long decades, and wasting it all on people who don’t even want to buy anything is no longer acceptable. That’s why starting this year, Pascual Bilbao has implemented a 15 euro tax for everyone looking to try on suits in the shop. Read More »

A 35-year old Spanish man was recently arrested after ramming his SUV through the wooden doors of a church so he could gain access inside, claiming it was the only place where he could take shelter from his demonic “possession”. On January 8th,the unnamed man reportedly drove up to the large doors of the San Juan Evangelista church, in the Spanish town of Sonseca, and started ramming his Jeep into it. At first passers-by didn’t really understand what was going on, and one woman, who thought the driver had been involved in an accident, walked up to the car to see if he was alright only to be scared away by having obscenities shouted at her. Read More »

The marble tomb of a notorious truck hijacker is set to become one of the most famous attractions in the Spanish province of Granada, because of two bronze eccentricities – a life-size statue of the man buried there, and a realistic replica of an Audi Q5, the car he used to carry out his hijackings in. Antonio “El Tonto” (The Fool), also known as “The Pirate of Trucks”, was one of the most successful criminals in the history of Granada, having racked over 60 arrests over his fruitful career. He was mostly known for hijacking trucks and getting away with millions in merchandise, including perfumes and computers, but he had also pioneered legal marijuana trade in the Spanish province, as well as opened a supermarket to sell whatever he stole in. El Tonto died last year, at the age of 46, soon after being arrested for allegedly stealing seven trucks, but he remains in the memories of the people of his home town, Pinos Puente, as well as through some pretty unique tomb decorations. Read More »

During the same time that a turquoise but toxic lake near the Russian city of Novosibirsk is making international headlines as the “Siberian Maldives“, a similarly dangerous attraction is gaining notoriety in Spain. During the first and second World Wars, Monte Neme was a prized tungsten mine that supplied the material necessary for making light bulbs and hardening steel. Today, the mine is no longer accessible, but it remains popular, albeit for a totally different reason. Galician influencers have discovered that the turquoise lake that now covers the flooded mine is the ideal location for spectacular selfies. Despite knowing that the alluring water contains a high concentration of chemicals that give it its unusual color, they flock to Monte Neme to take photos, and some even bathe in the toxic water. Read More »

Spanish police reported that a woman who hired her son-in-law to kill her partner recently turned up to file a complaint against him after he failed to live up to his end of the bargain. Earlier this month, an unnamed woman and her daughter went to a police station in central Madrid to file two separate complaints. One was against the woman’s romantic partner, who had allegedly scammed her out of more than €60,000 ($60,000) over several years, and the second was against her own son-in-law who had agreed to kill her partner and then sell his organs on the black market to recover the substantial amount of money he had swindled. Unfortunately, things didn’t go very well after the latter revelations, as both women and the would-be hitman were immediately arrested. Read More »

A Spanish man risks spending the next two years in prison for opening a letter addressed to his 10-year-old son and using it as evidence in a trial against the boy’s mother. In a hearing held on Wednesday in the Spanish city of Seville, a father was accused by the prosecution of violating his child’s privacy by opening a letter addressed to him, which he was not authorized to do. The letter had been sent by the boy’s maternal aunt, and in it he was told how he should testify against his father in a 2012 domestic abuse case brought against the defendant by his own wife, the boy’s mother. The child’s aunt reportedly also insulted his father in the letter, which was then used by the defendant in court to prove that his wife’s family had coerced his son to testify against him. He was acquitted in that case, but now faces a two-year prison sentence and financial compensation for violating private correspondence. Read More »

A family in Granada, Spain was shocked to discover that the constant buzzing coming from behind their bedroom wall turned out to be a massive bee colony numbering over 80,000 honey bees. Spanish social media has been buzzing with the news of a couple in Pinos Puente, Granada, who recently asked a local beekeeper to investigate the increasingly loud buzz sound coming from behind their bedroom wall. They had been hearing it for a while and had long come to the conclusion that it must be caused by bees, but it wasn’t until the buzzing got so loud that they couldn’t sleep at night that they decided to get professional help. Beekeeper Sergio Guerrero had helped remove bee colonies from their properties before, but what he found behind the wall of this particular house left him speechless – a hive of over 80,000 bees and honey combs over a meter long. Read More »

A Spanish inmate recently invoked the principle of religious freedom in an attempt to convince the prison warden to serve him a glass of wine with every meal so he could worship his chosen deity. In a letter addressed to the director of Zaballa prison, in Spain’s Basque Country, the unnamed prisoner declares himself a disciple of Bachus, the Roman god of wine, and asks that he be provided with a glass of wine for every meal, so he can properly worship his deity. Read More »

For over a decade, residents of the O Calvario and A Doblada neighborhoods in the Spanish city of Vigo have been living in fear of finding their cars scratched or with toothpicks jammed in the keyhole. The culprit? A 79-year-old man who has reportedly vandalized over 1,000 cars in the last year alone. Most often than not, vandals try to make sure there are no witnesses before damaging someone else’s property, but that’s not how Jose Antonio V., a 79-year-old man from Vigo, operates. He scratches parked cars and jams toothpicks into their keyholes in broad daylight, with a total disregard disregard for witnesses. And if someone dares to say something or try to stop him, the old man gets aggressive and often hits people with his cane. Police estimate that last year alone, the notorious vandal damaged around 1,120 cars, and he’s off to a “great” start in 2019 as well, with evidence linking him to over 120 vandalized vehicles. Read More »