Monday, January 05, 2009
Robbery with biting ... only in Tenerife
This headline from the Canarian Police website, reports a case of "Robbery with biting". This happened (could only happen?) in Tenerife, in a pet shop in Cabo Blanco, Arona. The report continues, "Years spent working with animals and, in the end, who bit the shop assistant, wasn't one of the pets, it was a robber."
Civil Guard officers from Playa de Las Américas detained a 36 year old man who stole 80 euros from the pet shop's cash register and bit the arm of the shop assistant, when she attempted to stop him from taking the money.
[Photo: of a perfectly innocent Presa Canario dog by untipografico]
Christmas may be long gone where you are, but the main events in Tenerife are yet to come tonight and if you can't manage (or can't be bothered) to go out to one of the many Three Kings Parades all over the island, the parade in the streets of Santa Cruz is being televised by Televisión Canaria. But hurry, the program started at 7.15 p.m.
It's possible to watch it from outside the Canary Islands via the internet here.
And here's proof that Teide had snow at the year end too - which is held to herald a good harvest to come. With the way that the island gets water, through a network of underground galleries in the mountains, it only stands to reason that a goodly quantity of snow to melt to refill them, will mean water for crops ...
While Andrea Montgomery will tell you about The Changing Face of Santa Cruz, husband Jack shows us the grub in an equally developing Playa San Juan.
Meanwhile, Tenerife Matters went off in search of the best nativity displays on the island over the season. In Santa Cruz they discovered a " ... somewhat of a curious affair with Jesus being born in a cave set in the middle of a seriously overpopulated Canarian town where crowds of tiny residents go about their daily business dressed in traditional costume." A realistic one then.
Colin Kirby shows us a pretty picture of the Christmas lights in the plaza in Los Cristianos, but tells us, for New Year, "The La Noria bar area in Santa Cruz made an ominous move, introducing a 20 euro ticket to get into this popular zone," and continues that he hopes it's "not the start of the ticket only do’s that ruined much of the New Years Eve fun for revelers in the UK years ago."
The better news that Colin had for us was that CD Tenerife won their first game of 2009, to go joint second (4th on goal difference) in the Spanish Second Division, just two points behind leaders Salamanca. Things could get even better next weekend when Tenerife are away to 3rd place Xerez on Sunday morning.
Joe Cawley, the award-winning travel writer, copywriter and author, has his 5 minutes of fame (well, 1-and-a-half at least), being interviewed about Tenerife in a short film. And here's the excellent film, Another side to Tenerife. It gives me hope.
Could 2009 be the year when, FINALLY, the knowledge that Tenerife is a LOT more than a downmarket package holiday resort, reaches its tipping point and becomes known to a mainstream, English-speaking audience?
The Mirror carries a story, Tenerife has year round appeal, which is mostly about Siam Park, but does follow with information about other, more natural attractions, particularly Teide, Garachico, Teno and, of course, Masca.
Tenerife born DJ, Real El Canario, releases solo disk
Puerto de la Cruz native, Real el Canario (MySpace), who many of us remember from Braham's & Listz, Vampi's and Soul Train in the 90s and 07's Dancefloorkiller, Love Will Save The Day, featuring Daughters Of Soul singer, Jasmin Tusjadia, has launched his first album, Llegaron los olvidados (GOFIO LTD). Buy it via eMusic.
"The absolute driving force of the Eclectic Sound," 34 year old, Ezequiel Val Real, who's lived in Amsterdam for almost a decade, is probably better known in Germany, France, Greece or Turkey, than he is on his on his own island, although he travels to his city of birth frequently, where he has a recording studio.
The album is a mix of hip-hop, funk, electronic and latin rhythms. Real's lyrics speak the uncomfortable truth about life in the barrios (poor districts) of the island, about the gastronomy; potatoes and gofio and Canarian customs.
Which leads us nicely onto the food section ...
It is the New Year, making me think of new things, new foods and specifically new potatoes. Which leads me nicely to my newest new potato experience, namely Canarian Wrinkled Potatoes or - much more poetically - Papas Arrugadas.
Supposed to be an economic crisis; people are supposed to be buying less, but Christmas still manages to cause gridlock in Santa Cruz. Yet, the sale of cars in the Canary Islands sank more than 50% (which, given the enormous number - 69 per 100 inhabitants at the last count in the Canaries - sounds like good news to me. I guess owners of car dealerships probably disagree.)
The price of petrol in the Canary Islands dropped 7.7% in December, that of diesel fell by 10%, but the police website highlights news that price of petrol in the Canary Islands can vary by as much as 21.08%, depending on which petrol station you go to. They also say that Tráfico are going to get still tougher with controls in 2009 and that some of Tráfico's price rises are as much as 257%.
Illustrated, pointedly with a facsimile copy of one of those scraps of paper with a picture of a dead president on it, 20Minutos tell us the Canary Islands specialize as a transit destination for foreign investment. That sounds terribly like the money doesn't stay, but just gets "laundered" or something in the archipelago, but I doubt any newspaper would print anything so potentially truthful!
Finally ... Not only do the The Daily Mail want to scare you back within the confines of your hotel on holiday, now they want to keep you off the golf course too, whether at home or abroad, according to this report from Anorak, which says scientists claim that golfers who use titanium clubs risk damaging their hearing. This is not terribly good news for Tenerife, which as everyone knows, as golf courses became the fashionable way to attract "quality tourists" (euphemism for the ones with a pot to piss in), has created the propensity to stick 'em everywhere, converting the island into a huge golf course with a big hilly bunker in the middle.
Image: by Mataparda. A Bird's Eye View of the Golf Club, from an absolutely fascinating 1934-1936, state produced tourism leaflet on Tenerife.
0 Comments:
