The Algarve Ecovia, a pilot cycle track project in Portugal, which will join Sagres to Vila Real de Santo António over a length of 214 kilometres, will be opened next November. Lusa visited some of the stretches of the Ecovia that are already paved and have hard shoulders and saw that many cyclists are already following the signs on the ecological track, in municipalities such as Tavira, Lagoa and Silves.

The English club will be at a training camp in the Algarve from 12th to 16th February to prepare for their meeting with Barcelona in the first knock-out round of the Champions League. The Reds will be staying for five days at Barringtons Golf & Health Spa, a tourist resort located in the Vale do Lobo area. Mentioning Liverpool’s wins in the Champions League in 2005 and the English Cup in 2006, Graham Stewart, Barringtons director-general, said that they were very excited about welcoming Liverpool.

The “chocolate of the Algarve” is the motto for the 1st Conference on Carob, which aims to promote the growing of carob and identify the fruit’s market potential. The conference will take place on 9th and 10th February at the Auditorium of the Clube de Tavira and will consist of a number of talks, ending on 10th with visits to an experimental plantation at the Centro de Experimentação de Tavira (Tavira Experimentation Centre) (Algarve Regional Agriculture Directorate) and a private carob tree plantation.

Faro Council is concerned about the possible effects on coastal erosion in the municipality of building an artificial island off the tourist resort of Vale do Lobo. In a letter to which the Lusa agency has had access, the president of the Faro Council, José Apolinário (PS) says that the construction of the island and the access tunnel could exacerbate the coastal erosion in his municipality between Ancão and the Ilha de Faro

American film producers will be visiting the Algarve mid-February to view possible filming locations for future productions. The visit and guided tour is being organised by the president of the Algarve Film Commission (AFC), high profile Portuguese actor Joaquim de Almeida. According to José Manuel Lopes, general co-ordinator of the AFC, who has also been a successful actor, producer and editor, the arrangements were discussed with Almeida at a meeting held in January in Lisbon.

The pigeons in the Algarve capital should watch out for the city’s latest resident: the fastest bird of prey in the world, with a diving speed which can reach up to 300 kph. It is still not known if the bird is here to stay or if it is just stopping off on its journey in order to have a good feed. In recent days, a peregrine falcon (falco peregrinus), has been sighted in Faro, a medium-sized bird of prey, which is not common in this part of the world.