Secret Tenerife: Tenerife Carnaval Capers and Other News

Tenerife Carnaval Capers and Other News

Image © Javier Salmones Downloaded at: SkinBase. More Carnaval images ...

Bearly there costumes, Amy Winehouse eye make-up, whatever else it is, Carnaval was never intended to be a sober and tasteful celebration, was it?

That's probably why we love it so much and Franco didn't.

Un vistazo a Santa Cruz de Tenerife (A look at Santa Cruz, Tenerife) blog posted this video of carnaval dance band, Billos Caracas Boys, the orchestra formed by Billo Frómeta (1915 - 1988). It probably won't be nostalgia to you, unless you remember the "good old days" depicted, but musically, you'll hear where just about every local fiesta band on these islands got it's influence.

Amongst the collage of images shown is the front page of local newspaper, Diario de Avisos, from when Santa Cruz carnaval made the Guinness World Records in 1987 for the highest number of people attending a dance: 250,000 people danced to the legendary Celia Cruz at the carnival ball that year.

Oh yes, and Ángel Llanos announced the recuperation of Billo's Caracas Boys for the Carnaval 2008. Remember though, this is the same guy who told us that Elton John was coming to Santa Cruz, in November. :)

(More video: Celia Cruz - La Vida Es Un Carnaval)

More Tenerife Carnaval 2008 Images

Photo: vituh2001Un vistazo posted the video while waiting for Friday night's cabalgata anunciadora (the cavalcade that announces / brings carnaval to the streets). Canarias24horas have a nice set of photos from the parade here and Alex Veccia has an absolutely fantastic set of images from the Gala Carnaval Queen Santa Cruz 2008 held last Wednesday.

Two more images of this year's Carnaval Queen, The Golden Age, here and here. Both of those open up as much larger images if you click on them and I recommend you do to see some of the details on the costume.

Monsters and Critics don't beat about the bush: they say, "Sophia Loren's real breasts at age 73 beat starlets' big fake ones" and offer comparisons. I think they presented their case well. :)

This delightful image should provide the final proof though.

Why Fashion blog has more photos here of Santa Cruz' carnaval queen from the gala and another picture of actor Gérard Depardieu taking a great interest in Sophia Loren's decolletage.

Depardieu to put Canarian Wines on the table in Paris

Canarias7 also report that recognized gourmet, Gérard Depardieu (yes, the same actor and connoisseur of cleavages), spent quite some time tasting wines on the island while he was here for the carnaval gala too. Depardieu, who owns 150 hectares of vineyards around the world himself, bought wines to include in the menus of his two restaurants in the center of Paris. (Nothing like taking coals to Newcastle, eh?) Apparently, he also ordered a sample of the islands' traditional potatoes for his own consumption and for his establishments.

So while Gérard dishes the dinner and wines and cheeses of the island of La Gomera are to be sold around Europe too, Sheila in La Palma has started a new blog about that small rock in the Atlantic, explaining where it is and with the cutest Flintstone-powered bus from the local school carnaval procession.

More Carnaval Costume Pulling Championships

Jack had a sudden yearning for blancmange, while watching ample contestants as they sorted the logistics of fitting many small van sized chariots-come-costumes onto a stage clearly not designed for the task at Friday night's gala to choose the Carnaval Queen in Puerto de la Cruz. This article did mention that the costumes in Santa Cruz weigh up to 200 kilos. That, I work out to be 441 pounds or 31.5 stone, which is like dragging a couple of Sumo wrestlers around.

Frank, a Gran Canario living in the USA said here that the junior carnaval queen contest had turned into more like a moving version of Macy's Christmas window display! Canarias Bruta called it the "Campeonato infantil de arrastre de chatarra 2008" (Junior junk pulling championships 2008), basically. :)

If you've seen The Count of Monte Cristo, you'll know that chatarra (the nickname given to Edmond Dantes by the pirate captain, Luigi Vampa) means driftwood. It also means scrap metal, junk and the breaker's yard where you take old cars to die ... Arrastre - weight pulling - is also what oxen do.

Jack may not be prepared with a costume, but the local authorities are with 7,000 free condoms to hand out during the town's fiestas. You don't want to end up in this woman's situation. Nor these two British nationals caught with 2,000 ecstasy tablets that police say they planned to sell at Carnaval.

This will all be repeated ...

While all this pure annual frivolity is going on (and elsewhere people were watching - or eating - a Groundhog who predicts six more weeks of winter), Vida de Sol en Tenerife (who also cover carnaval 2008 in the various towns of Tenerife in French) remind us (in French, with international photos) that February 2nd was also Candlemas and the fiesta to celebrate the Virgin de Candelaria, the patron of the Canary Islands, in Candelaria, Tenerife.

Then there's also Carnevale in Madrid too. Beautiful pics.

But even after all that, my favorite headline of the week was IUC acusa a Zerolo de "practicar el marxismo de Groucho Marx" - the Izquierda Unida Canaria (Canarian United Left, a communist political party), accused Santa Cruz' mayor, Miguel Zerolo of "practicing the marxism of Groucho Marx". :)