With all the real model nativity villages to see over Christmas, it's probably not necessary to make photos of Tenerife look like "fake" models, but they're still fun.
Here's another Tenerife tilt shift image and a couple of La Gomera. (For more on Tilt-shift photography, Tilt-shift miniature faking, Let’s get small. I made the "model" of Santa Cruz above with TiltShiftMaker.com Via: Boing Boing.)
Weather alert (actually, I think it's only a yellow "pre-alert", i.e. don't panic, yet ...) for rains that could become heavy in isolated parts and snow on the mountains above 2,500 meters, but that includes pretty much all of the Teide National Park, so expect access to be restricted. Rains with the risk of snow this Friday in the Canary Islands. Temperatures of between 15 and 19C are expected.
The access to Teide via La Esperanza had only just been reopened the other day, after it had been closed due to ice on the road from last time. In Tenerife, 15-19 C is "extremely cold", although we have to mention again that it's hardly the arctic snap / mini ice-age / global cooling that's currently gripping UK viewers.
The Tenerife Symphony Orchestra kick off the concerts for the 25th Canarian Music Festival in the Tenerife Auditorium in Santa Cruz tonight, Jan 9th.
Make a date in your diary, as the 12th Edition of the "Almond Flower Route" walk in Santiago de Teide is to be celebrated on February 7th.
The walk starts at 9 a.m. that day, but you need to pre-book, by calling 922 863 127, exts 234 y 235. Other than that, the details are pretty much the same as in previous years. Get a taster, complete with birdsong, in this short video.
You know, the one we've been telling you about for years ... but what did I say the other day, that this year might be the year when this news reaches the mainstream. Well, the campaign itself is obviously interesting enough to have got the attention of leading magazine, Marketing Week. Keep pluggin'
There was a "rain of hope" to receive the Three Kings in Santa Cruz (it rained), although I don't quite know why as, apparently, even Wise Men are being hit by the credit crunch these days: with news that "the kings didn’t arrive by helicopter but were driven into the CD Tenerife football stadium by the local fire men."
There was a slight change to routine in Los Cristianos, where the kings arrived at the ferry port and made their way in a large procession of dancers and musicians to the church plaza this year, rather than outside the cultural centre. The Three Kings parade in La Laguna had to be suspended because of the rain, but the Three Kings "delayed" their return to the Orient and visited Tenerife hospitals.
And ... an expert proposes eliminating the fiesta of Los Reyes to shorten the school holidays. What the hell is s/he an expert in, "playing Scrooge"?
Know Your MushroomsThree people have been poisoned after consuming wild mushrooms in Tenerife. Two received treatment for gastrointestinal problems after collecting an unknown species of mushroom in La Esperanza. The other case involved, Amanita phalloides, commonly known as the death cap that had been picked in the area of La Conejera in Santa Úrsula. The patent had to undergo a liver transplant.
"Canarian politicians remain committed to demonstrating their stupidity." More on Canarian Parliament President, Antonio Castro's idiotic pronouncements on banning breeding and immigration and, why his arguments don't stand up. For instance, new building can hardly be said to be the needed solution when, it's reported that 117,627 homes were vacant in the Canaries in 2007.
The Auditorium in Los Cristianos is to be tarted up out of the state coffers.
Tenerife ports close the books on a bad economic year in 2008.
The fiestas are over, back to real life. Long live Carnival!
With all the real model nativity villages to see over Christmas, it's probably not necessary to make photos of Tenerife look like "fake" models, but they're still fun.
Here's another Tenerife tilt shift image and a couple of La Gomera. (For more on Tilt-shift photography, Tilt-shift miniature faking, Let’s get small. I made the "model" of Santa Cruz above with TiltShiftMaker.com Via: Boing Boing.)
Weather alert (actually, I think it's only a yellow "pre-alert", i.e. don't panic, yet ...) for rains that could become heavy in isolated parts and snow on the mountains above 2,500 meters, but that includes pretty much all of the Teide National Park, so expect access to be restricted. Rains with the risk of snow this Friday in the Canary Islands. Temperatures of between 15 and 19C are expected.
The access to Teide via La Esperanza had only just been reopened the other day, after it had been closed due to ice on the road from last time. In Tenerife, 15-19 C is "extremely cold", although we have to mention again that it's hardly the arctic snap / mini ice-age / global cooling that's currently gripping UK viewers.
The Tenerife Symphony Orchestra kick off the concerts for the 25th Canarian Music Festival in the Tenerife Auditorium in Santa Cruz tonight, Jan 9th.
Make a date in your diary, as the 12th Edition of the "Almond Flower Route" walk in Santiago de Teide is to be celebrated on February 7th.
The walk starts at 9 a.m. that day, but you need to pre-book, by calling 922 863 127, exts 234 y 235. Other than that, the details are pretty much the same as in previous years. Get a taster, complete with birdsong, in this short video.
You know, the one we've been telling you about for years ... but what did I say the other day, that this year might be the year when this news reaches the mainstream. Well, the campaign itself is obviously interesting enough to have got the attention of leading magazine, Marketing Week. Keep pluggin'
There was a "rain of hope" to receive the Three Kings in Santa Cruz (it rained), although I don't quite know why as, apparently, even Wise Men are being hit by the credit crunch these days: with news that "the kings didn’t arrive by helicopter but were driven into the CD Tenerife football stadium by the local fire men."
There was a slight change to routine in Los Cristianos, where the kings arrived at the ferry port and made their way in a large procession of dancers and musicians to the church plaza this year, rather than outside the cultural centre. The Three Kings parade in La Laguna had to be suspended because of the rain, but the Three Kings "delayed" their return to the Orient and visited Tenerife hospitals.
And ... an expert proposes eliminating the fiesta of Los Reyes to shorten the school holidays. What the hell is s/he an expert in, "playing Scrooge"?
Know Your MushroomsThree people have been poisoned after consuming wild mushrooms in Tenerife. Two received treatment for gastrointestinal problems after collecting an unknown species of mushroom in La Esperanza. The other case involved, Amanita phalloides, commonly known as the death cap that had been picked in the area of La Conejera in Santa Úrsula. The patent had to undergo a liver transplant.
"Canarian politicians remain committed to demonstrating their stupidity." More on Canarian Parliament President, Antonio Castro's idiotic pronouncements on banning breeding and immigration and, why his arguments don't stand up. For instance, new building can hardly be said to be the needed solution when, it's reported that 117,627 homes were vacant in the Canaries in 2007.
The Auditorium in Los Cristianos is to be tarted up out of the state coffers.
Tenerife ports close the books on a bad economic year in 2008.
The fiestas are over, back to real life. Long live Carnival!
We know that Christmas is only just finished, the sales have only just begun and the Carnaval is only just round the corner, but we're sure you can find a spare couple of seconds in between to go to one of the annual San Antonio Abad fiestas that are coming up this month in Tenerife.
The actual Saint's day for San Antonio Abad (Saint Anthony Abbot, a.k.a. Anthony the Great) is on January 17th, but based on past experience and last year's dates, this fiesta should be taking place in Los Silos on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 and in Buenavista del Norte on Sunday, January 25th, 2009.
We also know it colloquially as the Festival of Animal Poo, because the good saint looks after animals and this means that everyone brings their cattle, horses, flocks of goats and sheep, dogs ... (as well as rabbits, birds, snakes and all manner of exotic things), to town to be blessed. And the sheer numbers of them, means that the animals "bless" the town streets with rather a lot of "fertilizer." Last year there were 1,500 cattle trudging around the streets in Buenavista, so you can imagine how much. In Los Silos, they also have a crafts fair in the plaza.
Photos: San Antonio Abad 2008 - Los Silos | San Antonio Abad - Buenavista
San Antonio Abad is also venerated / celebrated in the town of Arona, where he's the town patron too and they hold the first Romería * of the year, which this year will be held on Sunday, January 18th, 2009.
It's only a short bus or car ride from the southern resorts. Tenerife Tourism Corporation say, "This procession and fiesta is the second oldest in the district and takes places on the second or third Sunday of January. Wagons pulled by oxen and decorated carts, together with folk music groups maintain the atmosphere of this important local tradition in this southern town."
On the Saturday, there's a Gala to choose the fiesta queen and a large open air party with live music. Arona also holds a crafts fair on the Sunday.
(* The Wikipedia explanation that "A Romería in Spanish or "Romaria" in Portuguese is a religious pilgrimage", doesn't quite cut it. They're right that the celebrations often last all day, or while there's enough food and booze. :)
We know that Christmas is only just finished, the sales have only just begun and the Carnaval is only just round the corner, but we're sure you can find a spare couple of seconds in between to go to one of the annual San Antonio Abad fiestas that are coming up this month in Tenerife.
The actual Saint's day for San Antonio Abad (Saint Anthony Abbot, a.k.a. Anthony the Great) is on January 17th, but based on past experience and last year's dates, this fiesta should be taking place in Los Silos on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 and in Buenavista del Norte on Sunday, January 25th, 2009.
We also know it colloquially as the Festival of Animal Poo, because the good saint looks after animals and this means that everyone brings their cattle, horses, flocks of goats and sheep, dogs ... (as well as rabbits, birds, snakes and all manner of exotic things), to town to be blessed. And the sheer numbers of them, means that the animals "bless" the town streets with rather a lot of "fertilizer." Last year there were 1,500 cattle trudging around the streets in Buenavista, so you can imagine how much. In Los Silos, they also have a crafts fair in the plaza.
Photos: San Antonio Abad 2008 - Los Silos | San Antonio Abad - Buenavista
San Antonio Abad is also venerated / celebrated in the town of Arona, where he's the town patron too and they hold the first Romería * of the year, which this year will be held on Sunday, January 18th, 2009.
It's only a short bus or car ride from the southern resorts. Tenerife Tourism Corporation say, "This procession and fiesta is the second oldest in the district and takes places on the second or third Sunday of January. Wagons pulled by oxen and decorated carts, together with folk music groups maintain the atmosphere of this important local tradition in this southern town."
On the Saturday, there's a Gala to choose the fiesta queen and a large open air party with live music. Arona also holds a crafts fair on the Sunday.
(* The Wikipedia explanation that "A Romería in Spanish or "Romaria" in Portuguese is a religious pilgrimage", doesn't quite cut it. They're right that the celebrations often last all day, or while there's enough food and booze. :)
Roscón de Reyes (Crown of Kings) from Pasteleria El Aderno (they really are the best) that is the traditional desert for January 6th. Roscón recipe here.
"So, what's so special about the roscon? Well, there are usually surprises inside the roscon. Traditionally, the baker wraps a porcelain figure of a baby in aluminum foil and a haba or dry bean and places them in the dough just before baking. Whoever finds the baby in their piece will have good luck and be the king of the party, while whoever finds the haba must pay for the roscon. In Spanish, the saying is: “Si es el haba lo encontrado, el Roscon pagaras; mas si ello es la figura, coronado y Rey seras…”, Lisa Sierra explains.
In fact, in all the roscones I'd had from the Pasteleria El Aderno, in Tenerife, you'd find a whole set of three porcelain figures, of the Three Kings.
Roscón de Reyes (Crown of Kings) from Pasteleria El Aderno (they really are the best) that is the traditional desert for January 6th. Roscón recipe here.
"So, what's so special about the roscon? Well, there are usually surprises inside the roscon. Traditionally, the baker wraps a porcelain figure of a baby in aluminum foil and a haba or dry bean and places them in the dough just before baking. Whoever finds the baby in their piece will have good luck and be the king of the party, while whoever finds the haba must pay for the roscon. In Spanish, the saying is: “Si es el haba lo encontrado, el Roscon pagaras; mas si ello es la figura, coronado y Rey seras…”, Lisa Sierra explains.
In fact, in all the roscones I'd had from the Pasteleria El Aderno, in Tenerife, you'd find a whole set of three porcelain figures, of the Three Kings.
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.
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.
The commentary on this short video made in Garachico in 2008, tells you (in Spanish) that the town's Three Kings Parade is the oldest known one celebrated on the island. It's also recognized as the most spectacular and colourful in Tenerife, lasting more than 3 hours, as the procession stops to perform small works of street theatre all along the route to reenact the familiar story.
The Three Kings from the West ...
Starting from the Quinta Roja manor house (built by the Marquis in the early 1600s), set among banana plantations the Three Kings travel through the village of San Pedro de Daute and down into Garachico from the west - the opposite direction from the traditional one - making this something of a novelty too.
Accompanying the Three Kings mounted on camels are; pages, Roman soldiers, torch bearers, Roman guards on horseback and standard bearers ...
As they approach the San Miguel castle, which has been converted into Herod's residence for the day, they're spotted by the vigilant guards on the battlements who sound their trumpets.
The Three Kings then dismount and ready themselves to meet with Herod.
Once on their way again, the Three Kings make their procession along the Calle Esteban de Ponte and other streets of the town, to eventually return to the plaza Glorieta de San Francisco, where the live nativity has been set up in front of the Los Angeles church, the town hall has been dressed up as a palace for the kings, with a fancy facade, canopies and three thrones. Even the frontage of the former San Francisco convent has had faux battlements added to it for the day.
These well-rehearsed events follow a similar format every year, with a live reenactment of the entire Christmas story that usually employs a varying number of real live animals (that don't always do what's expected of them) and a cast of, well, several dozen.
The whole show is brought to a climax with a huge firework display, after which the three kings START their job of dishing out gifts to hundreds of kids, as pages call out their names.
As we detailed before, the Three Kings start their journey at around 7 p.m., reaching the main town for the meeting with Herod at around 9 p.m. The rest of the procession and show takes at least another couple of hours, so it's a real value for money - especially since it's free - night out for all the family.
Do get there early if you're going by car and want to park anywhere near the town. Another thing Garachico lacks are restaurants that open in the evening where you could while away your time whilst you're waiting for the procession, but the best vantage point is the Cafetería y Dulcería Avenida, opposite the castle anyway.
Apart from serving you a drink or a coffee (as well as sandwiches, snacks and cakes), you'll be within sniffing distance of the camels once the Three Kings arrive, as they dismount on that side of the tree-lined island in the road!
This is the other great advantage to the event in Garachico, it's big enough to be spectacular, is done to a professionally high standard and draws a relatively large crowd, but it's still small enough to be intimate, so you feel part of it.
There aren't many other places, in Tenerife or elsewhere, where the kings still arrive authentically on camels (in many places it's on floats); not everywhere has the perfect selection of old architecture for the various locations either, which, along with being the oldest, combines to make Garachico's Three Kings Parade the best on the island, if not in the whole of Spain, in my humble opinion.
Images from Los Reyes in Garachico 2007, about which there is more here.
If you don't make it to the parade for this year, why not book ahead for next? The date of this celebration doesn't change - it is always held on the eve of Epiphany; the night of January 5th. If you stay at the Hotel La Quinta Roja, ask for a room at the front of the hotel, overlooking the plaza Glorieta de San Francisco and you'll have "ringside seat" to watch the entire event from your own room.
The commentary on this short video made in Garachico in 2008, tells you (in Spanish) that the town's Three Kings Parade is the oldest known one celebrated on the island. It's also recognized as the most spectacular and colourful in Tenerife, lasting more than 3 hours, as the procession stops to perform small works of street theatre all along the route to reenact the familiar story.
The Three Kings from the West ...
Starting from the Quinta Roja manor house (built by the Marquis in the early 1600s), set among banana plantations the Three Kings travel through the village of San Pedro de Daute and down into Garachico from the west - the opposite direction from the traditional one - making this something of a novelty too.
Accompanying the Three Kings mounted on camels are; pages, Roman soldiers, torch bearers, Roman guards on horseback and standard bearers ...
As they approach the San Miguel castle, which has been converted into Herod's residence for the day, they're spotted by the vigilant guards on the battlements who sound their trumpets.
The Three Kings then dismount and ready themselves to meet with Herod.
Once on their way again, the Three Kings make their procession along the Calle Esteban de Ponte and other streets of the town, to eventually return to the plaza Glorieta de San Francisco, where the live nativity has been set up in front of the Los Angeles church, the town hall has been dressed up as a palace for the kings, with a fancy facade, canopies and three thrones. Even the frontage of the former San Francisco convent has had faux battlements added to it for the day.
These well-rehearsed events follow a similar format every year, with a live reenactment of the entire Christmas story that usually employs a varying number of real live animals (that don't always do what's expected of them) and a cast of, well, several dozen.
The whole show is brought to a climax with a huge firework display, after which the three kings START their job of dishing out gifts to hundreds of kids, as pages call out their names.
As we detailed before, the Three Kings start their journey at around 7 p.m., reaching the main town for the meeting with Herod at around 9 p.m. The rest of the procession and show takes at least another couple of hours, so it's a real value for money - especially since it's free - night out for all the family.
Do get there early if you're going by car and want to park anywhere near the town. Another thing Garachico lacks are restaurants that open in the evening where you could while away your time whilst you're waiting for the procession, but the best vantage point is the Cafetería y Dulcería Avenida, opposite the castle anyway.
Apart from serving you a drink or a coffee (as well as sandwiches, snacks and cakes), you'll be within sniffing distance of the camels once the Three Kings arrive, as they dismount on that side of the tree-lined island in the road!
This is the other great advantage to the event in Garachico, it's big enough to be spectacular, is done to a professionally high standard and draws a relatively large crowd, but it's still small enough to be intimate, so you feel part of it.
There aren't many other places, in Tenerife or elsewhere, where the kings still arrive authentically on camels (in many places it's on floats); not everywhere has the perfect selection of old architecture for the various locations either, which, along with being the oldest, combines to make Garachico's Three Kings Parade the best on the island, if not in the whole of Spain, in my humble opinion.
Images from Los Reyes in Garachico 2007, about which there is more here.
If you don't make it to the parade for this year, why not book ahead for next? The date of this celebration doesn't change - it is always held on the eve of Epiphany; the night of January 5th. If you stay at the Hotel La Quinta Roja, ask for a room at the front of the hotel, overlooking the plaza Glorieta de San Francisco and you'll have "ringside seat" to watch the entire event from your own room.
On Monday, January 5th, there'll be Three Kings Parades in every major town (and a few minor ones too) on the island. For the kids it may be, but there's not a child under 99 who isn't currently excited at the prospect of the imminent arrival of Los Reyes and, secretly hoping that they'll bring them something. So it isn't a case of whether you go to see a Three Kings Parade, it's to which one.
As Andrea Montgomery says, "It might seem strange to those of us who are used to handing over gifts on the 25th December, but if you think about it, it makes more sense to hand over gifts on the same day as the three wise men bestowed their gifts on the baby Jesus."
Whilst the big spectacle in the football ground in the capital, Santa Cruz, will undoubtedly be the biggest, there's bound to be a parade close enough to wherever you are and you may prefer to choose from any of these listed:
Adeje: Starts at 7.30 p.m in the Calle Grande (main street) up in the town. The parade will have floats, Disney characters and lots of other surprises, as well as the arrival of the Three Kings from the Orient themselves.
Candelaria: Starts 7 p.m. from the Plaza de La Hornilla to Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias (where the Basílica de Candelaria is.)
Garachico: Victor in Garachico says that an ambassador from the court of the Three Kings visited Garachico about a week ago (to pick up letters / wish lists) and that the Cavalcade of the Kings is not far off, so we know it's planned to take place as in previous years. It's usually advertised as starting at around 7 p.m., but that's the time the "caravan" starts off in the outlying village of San Pedro. They Three Kings generally arrive down to the castle on Garachico's seafront to meet Herod at around 9 p.m., they then parade around the town, ending up in the plaza in front of the town hall for a live nativity, with fireworks to follow.
Granadilla: Their Majesties leave from the church at the top of the town at 6 p.m. , in procession around the main streets of the town centre and later receive the children and dish out gifts in the municipal sports centre.
Guía de Isora: 7 p.m. in procession around the main streets of the town, accompanied by the local town bands, floats, Disney characters ...
Güimar: From the Plaza de Fátima at 6 p.m., together with the Herald Angel and their respective pages, they take the route of; Avenida Venezuela, Calle Beltrán de Lis and the Avenida de Santa Cruz, to end up in the Plaza de San Pedro.
Icod de los Vinos: Starts 7.30 p.m. from the Plaza del Calvario, around the streets of Icod, accompanied by their court. The Herald Angel makes the announcement in the Plaza del Calvario; the kings meet Herod in the Plaza Luis de León Huerta and terminate by adoring the baby Jesus in the live nativity in the Plaza Andrés de Lorenzo Cáceres (by the church, next to the Drago.)
La Guancha: 7.00 p.m. Traditional procession of the Three Kings around the streets of the district to arrive at the church square, where there will be a reenactment of the nativity, after which their Majesties receive the kids.
La Laguna: For the 7th consecutive year, The Three Kings will arrive at the North Tenerife airport of Los Rodeos, on board an Islas Airways flight. Their ETA is 16:30 hours and, it is hoped that, as in previous years, there will be thousands of kids there to greet them. There is car parking at the old terminal if you wish to go, where, from 4 p.m. onwards, you'll be taken by free bus to meet the kings and be brought back to the terminal again afterwards. Later, at 6.30 p.m. The Three Kings will commence their traditional cavalcade around the historic centre of the city - from the Plaza del Cristo, Nava y Grimón, Consistorio, Herradores, Calle Carrera, on camels, accompanied by floats, marching bands, etc.
La Orotava: the Three Kings parade on 5th January, will be leaving from the municipal stadium towards the Plaza del Ayuntamiento at 8 p.m.
La Victoria de Acentejo: Starts at 8 p.m. in the Calle Pérez Díaz.
Los Cristianos (Arona): The procession starts from the esplanade in the port of Los Cristianos at 7.15 p.m. and goes along the Avenida Suecia, to end up in the Plaza de Los Cristianos.
Puerto de la Cruz: As we mentioned before, The Three Kings had asked to be allowed to arrive from the Orient by sea to Puerto de la Cruz this year, so their procession, will start from the old fishing port at around 7 p.m. and, from there, proceed around the Plaza del Charco, Calle La Marina, Calle Santo Domingo to the Plaza de Europa. This year there will be a live reenactment of the Christmas story along the route and they're even installing giant screens at various strategic points so that people can watch the events. (Photos of the parades in Puerto 1999 - 2008, visit Reyesmagosweb and click on Cabalgatas.)
San Miguel de Abona: At 6 p.m. The Three Kings make their offerings to the baby Jesus in the church, after which they tour the main streets of the town, accompanied by bands, Disney characters and more to the cultural centre.
Tegueste: The Kings' cavalcade starts at 8 p.m., followed by sacramental order of worship by the Holy Magi on the porch and balcony of the town hall.
Vilaflor: 5.30 p.m., starting from the Church of San Roque to St. Peter's Square where the Adoration of the Magi will take place and, from there to the Recreation Centre where children will deliver their letters to Their Majesties.
As they did for New Year, buses and trams will run all night of the 5th / 6th.
All of these events (with the exception of the one inside the stadium in Santa Cruz, which has a nominal charge made in aid of charity) are FREE.
On Monday, January 5th, there'll be Three Kings Parades in every major town (and a few minor ones too) on the island. For the kids it may be, but there's not a child under 99 who isn't currently excited at the prospect of the imminent arrival of Los Reyes and, secretly hoping that they'll bring them something. So it isn't a case of whether you go to see a Three Kings Parade, it's to which one.
As Andrea Montgomery says, "It might seem strange to those of us who are used to handing over gifts on the 25th December, but if you think about it, it makes more sense to hand over gifts on the same day as the three wise men bestowed their gifts on the baby Jesus."
Whilst the big spectacle in the football ground in the capital, Santa Cruz, will undoubtedly be the biggest, there's bound to be a parade close enough to wherever you are and you may prefer to choose from any of these listed:
Adeje: Starts at 7.30 p.m in the Calle Grande (main street) up in the town. The parade will have floats, Disney characters and lots of other surprises, as well as the arrival of the Three Kings from the Orient themselves.
Candelaria: Starts 7 p.m. from the Plaza de La Hornilla to Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias (where the Basílica de Candelaria is.)
Garachico: Victor in Garachico says that an ambassador from the court of the Three Kings visited Garachico about a week ago (to pick up letters / wish lists) and that the Cavalcade of the Kings is not far off, so we know it's planned to take place as in previous years. It's usually advertised as starting at around 7 p.m., but that's the time the "caravan" starts off in the outlying village of San Pedro. They Three Kings generally arrive down to the castle on Garachico's seafront to meet Herod at around 9 p.m., they then parade around the town, ending up in the plaza in front of the town hall for a live nativity, with fireworks to follow.
Granadilla: Their Majesties leave from the church at the top of the town at 6 p.m. , in procession around the main streets of the town centre and later receive the children and dish out gifts in the municipal sports centre.
Guía de Isora: 7 p.m. in procession around the main streets of the town, accompanied by the local town bands, floats, Disney characters ...
Güimar: From the Plaza de Fátima at 6 p.m., together with the Herald Angel and their respective pages, they take the route of; Avenida Venezuela, Calle Beltrán de Lis and the Avenida de Santa Cruz, to end up in the Plaza de San Pedro.
Icod de los Vinos: Starts 7.30 p.m. from the Plaza del Calvario, around the streets of Icod, accompanied by their court. The Herald Angel makes the announcement in the Plaza del Calvario; the kings meet Herod in the Plaza Luis de León Huerta and terminate by adoring the baby Jesus in the live nativity in the Plaza Andrés de Lorenzo Cáceres (by the church, next to the Drago.)
La Guancha: 7.00 p.m. Traditional procession of the Three Kings around the streets of the district to arrive at the church square, where there will be a reenactment of the nativity, after which their Majesties receive the kids.
La Laguna: For the 7th consecutive year, The Three Kings will arrive at the North Tenerife airport of Los Rodeos, on board an Islas Airways flight. Their ETA is 16:30 hours and, it is hoped that, as in previous years, there will be thousands of kids there to greet them. There is car parking at the old terminal if you wish to go, where, from 4 p.m. onwards, you'll be taken by free bus to meet the kings and be brought back to the terminal again afterwards. Later, at 6.30 p.m. The Three Kings will commence their traditional cavalcade around the historic centre of the city - from the Plaza del Cristo, Nava y Grimón, Consistorio, Herradores, Calle Carrera, on camels, accompanied by floats, marching bands, etc.
La Orotava: the Three Kings parade on 5th January, will be leaving from the municipal stadium towards the Plaza del Ayuntamiento at 8 p.m.
La Victoria de Acentejo: Starts at 8 p.m. in the Calle Pérez Díaz.
Los Cristianos (Arona): The procession starts from the esplanade in the port of Los Cristianos at 7.15 p.m. and goes along the Avenida Suecia, to end up in the Plaza de Los Cristianos.
Puerto de la Cruz: As we mentioned before, The Three Kings had asked to be allowed to arrive from the Orient by sea to Puerto de la Cruz this year, so their procession, will start from the old fishing port at around 7 p.m. and, from there, proceed around the Plaza del Charco, Calle La Marina, Calle Santo Domingo to the Plaza de Europa. This year there will be a live reenactment of the Christmas story along the route and they're even installing giant screens at various strategic points so that people can watch the events. (Photos of the parades in Puerto 1999 - 2008, visit Reyesmagosweb and click on Cabalgatas.)
San Miguel de Abona: At 6 p.m. The Three Kings make their offerings to the baby Jesus in the church, after which they tour the main streets of the town, accompanied by bands, Disney characters and more to the cultural centre.
Tegueste: The Kings' cavalcade starts at 8 p.m., followed by sacramental order of worship by the Holy Magi on the porch and balcony of the town hall.
Vilaflor: 5.30 p.m., starting from the Church of San Roque to St. Peter's Square where the Adoration of the Magi will take place and, from there to the Recreation Centre where children will deliver their letters to Their Majesties.
As they did for New Year, buses and trams will run all night of the 5th / 6th.
All of these events (with the exception of the one inside the stadium in Santa Cruz, which has a nominal charge made in aid of charity) are FREE.
It's almost time for every kid (between the ages of 0 and 99) to get excited about the annual visit of Los Reyes (The Three Kings), who bring the gifts on the eve of the epiphany.
Tickets go on sale on Friday to see the Three Kings arrive - by helicopter - to the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López in Santa Cruz on Monday, January 5th. With 22,486 seats, it'll be the biggest night of the year. Entry costs just one euro (you can donate more if you wish as the money goes to 7 local charities in the city), with a maximum of 6 tickets per person.
Following the usual program, an hour long show should start at around 5 p.m., the Three Kings arriving in the stadium at 6 p.m. and their cavalcade around Santa Cruz streets beginning from there at 7 p.m., ending up in the Plaza de Candelaria, for Adoration at the nativity at around 8.30 p.m.
It costs nothing to watch the procession through the streets and plazas, of course, which takes the route from the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium, through the following streets; San Sebastián, Plaza República Dominicana, Avenida de las Asuncionistas, Ramón y Cajal, Plaza Pedro Schwartz, Galcerán, Méndez Númez, Pilar, Villalba Hervás, La Mariana to the Plaza de España.
The procession of Kings Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar, includes marching bands, Romans, Jews, pastors, carts full of sweets, horses and flocks of sheep and goats, says this report (as well as probably every Disney & Sesame Street character.)
Events are rounded off with a fireworks display.
It's almost time for every kid (between the ages of 0 and 99) to get excited about the annual visit of Los Reyes (The Three Kings), who bring the gifts on the eve of the epiphany.
Tickets go on sale on Friday to see the Three Kings arrive - by helicopter - to the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López in Santa Cruz on Monday, January 5th. With 22,486 seats, it'll be the biggest night of the year. Entry costs just one euro (you can donate more if you wish as the money goes to 7 local charities in the city), with a maximum of 6 tickets per person.
Following the usual program, an hour long show should start at around 5 p.m., the Three Kings arriving in the stadium at 6 p.m. and their cavalcade around Santa Cruz streets beginning from there at 7 p.m., ending up in the Plaza de Candelaria, for Adoration at the nativity at around 8.30 p.m.
It costs nothing to watch the procession through the streets and plazas, of course, which takes the route from the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium, through the following streets; San Sebastián, Plaza República Dominicana, Avenida de las Asuncionistas, Ramón y Cajal, Plaza Pedro Schwartz, Galcerán, Méndez Númez, Pilar, Villalba Hervás, La Mariana to the Plaza de España.
The procession of Kings Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar, includes marching bands, Romans, Jews, pastors, carts full of sweets, horses and flocks of sheep and goats, says this report (as well as probably every Disney & Sesame Street character.)
Events are rounded off with a fireworks display.
News that the sun was shining yesterday in Tenerife, with not a cloud in the sky and it was hoped that the more rain and strong winds forecasted for the islands hold off for the New Year celebrations. Seemingly, that wish was granted and, we have it on authority that the latest forecasts indicate that the rain intends to stay away for at least the next week.
Airports across the Tenerife province were all operating normally yesterday after many flights had been cancelled or delayed and, access to Mount Teide via El Portillo on the TF-21 road has been reopened after it had been closed on Tuesday, due to rockfalls caused by the last few days' rains.
Canary Islands' First babies of 2009Were, first a little girl, born at 2 minutes past midnight in the Hospital Universitario Materno Infantil in Gran Canaria. Lucía Kresic weighed in at 3.93 kilos and measured 53 centimetres. Her mum is Slovenian and her dad is Croatian and a cousin of Sergio Kresic, the former trainer of UD Las Palmas football team.
The second birth in the archipelago, took place at 1.30 a.m. in the Hospital Universitario de Canarias (HUC), in Tenerife. A boy, to be named Samuel, who was born to a German mother and Spanish father. Ironic that both new babies also had foreign parents, given the following item ...
Antonio Castro, President of the Canary Islands Parliament, is reported to have opined that if they don't wish to consume more land on the islands, then other measures will need to be implemented, such as "prohibiting immigration or controlling the birth rate" (via Miguel at Canarias Bruta, who entitled his post "Happy 2009 with condom to hand.")
How exactly, Sr. Castro thinks he might control the natural urges of the entire population of the Canary Islands, I've no idea, but the message that words like prohibiting immigration sends out to the public is an appalling one.
My opinion, based on experience, is that this statement will be like a red rag to a bull in inciting more fear and loathing and increasing the perceived "threat" of the islands being overrun by outsiders. And, whilst I know that we European citizens are no longer "officially" foreign, if you think that makes any difference to the attitude of some ignorant individuals, then you're being very naive.
We're relieved the year's first [foreign] babies weren't born on incoming flights.
Direct flights to Miami will commence in the Spring, LosGigantes.com report that the Air Europa direct flights between Tenerife and Miami are to start at the end of April or the beginning of May, not at the beginning of the year as was first planned and, the weekly flight will operate from the North Airport, not from the South. (Photo: Ken DeJarlais)
La Orotava points the wayThe town centre shopping streets in La Orotava are to get improvements, thanks to government grants, for street furniture and signage.
And you don't get much for 100K these days as the money is for the installation of 5 posts (on which there'll be tourist information signs, we must assume), pointing out to the visitor where to find things like the town hall, the municipal library, small hotels, gardens, plazas, cultural centres, artistic monuments, museums and other places of interest.
Price increases in basic services, effective today, are, it's reported, above the inflation target of 2 per cent, except in the case of butane and natural gas (not that there's any of the latter in Tenerife yet, other than in Siam Park), where tariffs are being reduced, by 1.88% and 3.6% respectively.
However, electricity prices are rising by 3.5% and postal services by 3.22%.
Ordinary letters (up to 20 grams) within Spain rise to 32 cents, while those to Europe (and your postcards to the UK) will cost 62 cents. To other international destinations, the price has been frozen at 1.66 euros. Parcels sent nationally will cost 3.31% more, whilst the cost of sending them abroad is rising by 2.84%.
Elsewhere, it's reported that a 4% rise in water prices approved by the council in La Laguna has been criticized as being disproportionate. At least it wasn't the 5.3% rise they'd initially announced, but I suppose this means residents can expect rises in the price of water passed by other town councils [sic].
And in my first whine of the year at the British press' totally divorced from reality treatment of Tenerife (it's no wonder "the UK is the least trusting of information in its newspapers"), The Telegraph yesterday published an interview with Darren Gough (who apparently is a former England cricketer and Strictly Come Dancing champion), who says of his worst holiday:
"One place that I wasn't too keen on, if I'm going to be honest, was Tenerife. If you go on a lads trip there it's not so bad but, unless you're going to spend thousands and thousands of pounds, it's not private enough for a family holiday. There's lots of younger people there drinking and it's not really for me. When I go abroad I like to try the local cuisine but the restaurants in Tenerife seemed to only offer British food. It wasn't my cup of tea and I'm not in a rush to go back there."
What is patently obvious from what he says, is that like the vast majority of package holiday Brits, the eminent Mr Gough, clearly didn't break his balls to go tripping the light fandango around any part of the island outside his resort, where he would have seen that it is not at all as he describes.
For 9 years of my stay in Tenerife, I almost never came across an English speaker, much less British food, but that aside, there's a plethora of rural houses that don't cost thousands and would certainly be private enough for a family holiday. Gough is clearly bowling the island a googly and it's just not cricket!
News that the sun was shining yesterday in Tenerife, with not a cloud in the sky and it was hoped that the more rain and strong winds forecasted for the islands hold off for the New Year celebrations. Seemingly, that wish was granted and, we have it on authority that the latest forecasts indicate that the rain intends to stay away for at least the next week.
Airports across the Tenerife province were all operating normally yesterday after many flights had been cancelled or delayed and, access to Mount Teide via El Portillo on the TF-21 road has been reopened after it had been closed on Tuesday, due to rockfalls caused by the last few days' rains.
Canary Islands' First babies of 2009Were, first a little girl, born at 2 minutes past midnight in the Hospital Universitario Materno Infantil in Gran Canaria. Lucía Kresic weighed in at 3.93 kilos and measured 53 centimetres. Her mum is Slovenian and her dad is Croatian and a cousin of Sergio Kresic, the former trainer of UD Las Palmas football team.
The second birth in the archipelago, took place at 1.30 a.m. in the Hospital Universitario de Canarias (HUC), in Tenerife. A boy, to be named Samuel, who was born to a German mother and Spanish father. Ironic that both new babies also had foreign parents, given the following item ...
Antonio Castro, President of the Canary Islands Parliament, is reported to have opined that if they don't wish to consume more land on the islands, then other measures will need to be implemented, such as "prohibiting immigration or controlling the birth rate" (via Miguel at Canarias Bruta, who entitled his post "Happy 2009 with condom to hand.")
How exactly, Sr. Castro thinks he might control the natural urges of the entire population of the Canary Islands, I've no idea, but the message that words like prohibiting immigration sends out to the public is an appalling one.
My opinion, based on experience, is that this statement will be like a red rag to a bull in inciting more fear and loathing and increasing the perceived "threat" of the islands being overrun by outsiders. And, whilst I know that we European citizens are no longer "officially" foreign, if you think that makes any difference to the attitude of some ignorant individuals, then you're being very naive.
We're relieved the year's first [foreign] babies weren't born on incoming flights.
Direct flights to Miami will commence in the Spring, LosGigantes.com report that the Air Europa direct flights between Tenerife and Miami are to start at the end of April or the beginning of May, not at the beginning of the year as was first planned and, the weekly flight will operate from the North Airport, not from the South. (Photo: Ken DeJarlais)
La Orotava points the wayThe town centre shopping streets in La Orotava are to get improvements, thanks to government grants, for street furniture and signage.
And you don't get much for 100K these days as the money is for the installation of 5 posts (on which there'll be tourist information signs, we must assume), pointing out to the visitor where to find things like the town hall, the municipal library, small hotels, gardens, plazas, cultural centres, artistic monuments, museums and other places of interest.
Price increases in basic services, effective today, are, it's reported, above the inflation target of 2 per cent, except in the case of butane and natural gas (not that there's any of the latter in Tenerife yet, other than in Siam Park), where tariffs are being reduced, by 1.88% and 3.6% respectively.
However, electricity prices are rising by 3.5% and postal services by 3.22%.
Ordinary letters (up to 20 grams) within Spain rise to 32 cents, while those to Europe (and your postcards to the UK) will cost 62 cents. To other international destinations, the price has been frozen at 1.66 euros. Parcels sent nationally will cost 3.31% more, whilst the cost of sending them abroad is rising by 2.84%.
Elsewhere, it's reported that a 4% rise in water prices approved by the council in La Laguna has been criticized as being disproportionate. At least it wasn't the 5.3% rise they'd initially announced, but I suppose this means residents can expect rises in the price of water passed by other town councils [sic].
And in my first whine of the year at the British press' totally divorced from reality treatment of Tenerife (it's no wonder "the UK is the least trusting of information in its newspapers"), The Telegraph yesterday published an interview with Darren Gough (who apparently is a former England cricketer and Strictly Come Dancing champion), who says of his worst holiday:
"One place that I wasn't too keen on, if I'm going to be honest, was Tenerife. If you go on a lads trip there it's not so bad but, unless you're going to spend thousands and thousands of pounds, it's not private enough for a family holiday. There's lots of younger people there drinking and it's not really for me. When I go abroad I like to try the local cuisine but the restaurants in Tenerife seemed to only offer British food. It wasn't my cup of tea and I'm not in a rush to go back there."
What is patently obvious from what he says, is that like the vast majority of package holiday Brits, the eminent Mr Gough, clearly didn't break his balls to go tripping the light fandango around any part of the island outside his resort, where he would have seen that it is not at all as he describes.
For 9 years of my stay in Tenerife, I almost never came across an English speaker, much less British food, but that aside, there's a plethora of rural houses that don't cost thousands and would certainly be private enough for a family holiday. Gough is clearly bowling the island a googly and it's just not cricket!
As the weather alert in the Canary Islands is declared over, it's been a case of "lovely weather for ducks" to end the year in Tenerife. Following the orange weather alert which advised people on the island to stay indoors, gales and heavy rains caused the closure of a few roads, including one carriageway of the Tenerife south highway and, airports on the island also suffered some important delays due to the bad weather. Here are images of the rainy day on December 28th, in gorges around Santa Cruz. (The beautiful mountain landscape is indeed a bit damp, but so very, very green.)
Lots of people, both tourists and locals, watch to see if Tenerife's Mount Teide has snow on it for a White Christmas excursion up the mountain. This year, it seems there was, although it was also reported that mountain access roads were closed on Christmas Day because of sheets of ice, while La Gomera had tornados! It's good news for agriculture - and there's an old saying on the island about a good harvest to come - if there's snow on the mountain at New Year. As this image shows, there was a light covering of snow on December 28th. No doubt, with more having been left by the heavy rains in the last couple of days. (Photo: Jøran Pecher.)
The official weather man is forecasting a colder start to the New Year than is usual in the Canary Islands and 2008 has already been declared "the least warm year of the 21st Century." Don't forget that what's called "cold" in Tenerife is not cold as you and I know it. Last report had rated 19.9ºC as "extremely cold".
But, while rain might close the odd road, it wont wash out a party and, in any case, the good news is that fine, clear weather is now expected for the 31st.
I'd wondered what it was when I saw that archway go up in La Laguna last year, now the "mystery" is solved with the news that the annual San Silvestre Lagunera (Saint Silvester's Day Roadrace) has beaten it's own record with some 1,200 runners participating in the twenty-seventh edition of the race around the principal streets of the historic centre of the town on Wednesday, December 31st.
Parties will be held in just about every venue and town square across the island - it might be easier to tell you where they won't be - so just follow the crowds, the noise and the fireworks. If you're on the south of the island, the party in the church square in Los Cristianos is usually rockin' ...
Described as Gran Fiesta de Fin de Año, the fun starts in the plaza in Los Cristianos from 11 p.m. (until dawn), with two orchestras; "Sensación Gomera" and "Corinto Band", party bags, fireworks and more surprises.
Meanwhile, Televisión Española will be bringing in the New Year from the area around the Ermita de San Sebastián in Adeje and that's Costa Adeje (the posh way of saying it's up the better end of Playa de las Américas, so you won't have far to go (map).
In Santa Cruz, television channel Televisión Canaria will be broadcasting the chimes from the emblematic Iglesia de la Concepción in Santa Cruz.
The customs at New Year are to wear your very best, new clothes and to eat 12 "lucky" grapes (Uvas de la Suerte), one grape on each stroke of the clock.
And, as we mentioned earlier, there will be be uninterrupted bus and tram services right through the night of New Years Eve for revelers.
If you missed it earlier, Ricardo Melchior, the President of the Tenerife Island Corporation recorded a Christmas and Happy New Year message in three languages this year. Here's the English version and a transcript.
Numbers of tourists visiting Tenerife were down 6.46% during November, bringing figures to the end of the 11th month to 0.78% more than in 2007. Bad news if you were looking for growth, not so bad when you see that numbers have still more than equalized those of last year. The Canary Islands have launched a £1.26 million European promotional campaign to entice more visitors and prove the islands have more to offer than just sun, sea and sand …
Sail on the last working Royal Mail ship in the world, the RMS St Helena, which sails from Portland UK to Cape Town and back, via Tenerife. Once St Helena Airport on the south Atlantic island of Saint Helena - most widely known as the original resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte - opens (originally due to be completed by 2010, but is now expected to be completed by 2012/2013), the RMS St Helena will have reached the end of its working life. Saharan Vibe blog has a great post about both the island and the ship.
The population of Spain at January 1st, 2008 was 46,063,511, over 5 million of whom were foreigners. In the Canary Islands the total population had reached 2,075,968, 50,017 (2.47%) more than the 2007 figure.
Give With One Hand, Take Away With the Other:
The relevant ministry is increasing the minimum salary in Spain to 621 euros a month in 2009 (yeah, not a lot is it?) But, water, energy, transport and telephone are all going up in the Canary Islands from January 2009.
Duty free allowances changed on December 1st and from 1 January 2009, the other goods allowance will increase again from £300 to £340.
Flu has reached epidemic proportions in 7 Spanish communities, among them the Canary Islands.
ChargeBox mobile phone charging units come to the Canary Islands in January. Distributor, Avances Tecnologicos (A&T), will deploy 25 units across the archipelago in the new year, and hopes to install 100 by the end of 2009.
And heath services have activated their plan to give press coverage to the first babies born in Canarian hospitals in 2009. (Assuming that those first New Year babies are born in hospitals and not in the streets like the Christmas ones were!)
And that just leaves me to wish you all a Feliz Año Nuevo
... and remind you to write / pronounce that with the ~ tilde (squiggle), lest your greeting be misunderstood as having to do with this impolite fighting talk.
(Año, "year" in Spanish, ano, "anus" in Spanish.)
As the weather alert in the Canary Islands is declared over, it's been a case of "lovely weather for ducks" to end the year in Tenerife. Following the orange weather alert which advised people on the island to stay indoors, gales and heavy rains caused the closure of a few roads, including one carriageway of the Tenerife south highway and, airports on the island also suffered some important delays due to the bad weather. Here are images of the rainy day on December 28th, in gorges around Santa Cruz. (The beautiful mountain landscape is indeed a bit damp, but so very, very green.)
Lots of people, both tourists and locals, watch to see if Tenerife's Mount Teide has snow on it for a White Christmas excursion up the mountain. This year, it seems there was, although it was also reported that mountain access roads were closed on Christmas Day because of sheets of ice, while La Gomera had tornados! It's good news for agriculture - and there's an old saying on the island about a good harvest to come - if there's snow on the mountain at New Year. As this image shows, there was a light covering of snow on December 28th. No doubt, with more having been left by the heavy rains in the last couple of days. (Photo: Jøran Pecher.)
The official weather man is forecasting a colder start to the New Year than is usual in the Canary Islands and 2008 has already been declared "the least warm year of the 21st Century." Don't forget that what's called "cold" in Tenerife is not cold as you and I know it. Last report had rated 19.9ºC as "extremely cold".
But, while rain might close the odd road, it wont wash out a party and, in any case, the good news is that fine, clear weather is now expected for the 31st.
I'd wondered what it was when I saw that archway go up in La Laguna last year, now the "mystery" is solved with the news that the annual San Silvestre Lagunera (Saint Silvester's Day Roadrace) has beaten it's own record with some 1,200 runners participating in the twenty-seventh edition of the race around the principal streets of the historic centre of the town on Wednesday, December 31st.
Parties will be held in just about every venue and town square across the island - it might be easier to tell you where they won't be - so just follow the crowds, the noise and the fireworks. If you're on the south of the island, the party in the church square in Los Cristianos is usually rockin' ...
Described as Gran Fiesta de Fin de Año, the fun starts in the plaza in Los Cristianos from 11 p.m. (until dawn), with two orchestras; "Sensación Gomera" and "Corinto Band", party bags, fireworks and more surprises.
Meanwhile, Televisión Española will be bringing in the New Year from the area around the Ermita de San Sebastián in Adeje and that's Costa Adeje (the posh way of saying it's up the better end of Playa de las Américas, so you won't have far to go (map).
In Santa Cruz, television channel Televisión Canaria will be broadcasting the chimes from the emblematic Iglesia de la Concepción in Santa Cruz.
The customs at New Year are to wear your very best, new clothes and to eat 12 "lucky" grapes (Uvas de la Suerte), one grape on each stroke of the clock.
And, as we mentioned earlier, there will be be uninterrupted bus and tram services right through the night of New Years Eve for revelers.
If you missed it earlier, Ricardo Melchior, the President of the Tenerife Island Corporation recorded a Christmas and Happy New Year message in three languages this year. Here's the English version and a transcript.
Numbers of tourists visiting Tenerife were down 6.46% during November, bringing figures to the end of the 11th month to 0.78% more than in 2007. Bad news if you were looking for growth, not so bad when you see that numbers have still more than equalized those of last year. The Canary Islands have launched a £1.26 million European promotional campaign to entice more visitors and prove the islands have more to offer than just sun, sea and sand …
Sail on the last working Royal Mail ship in the world, the RMS St Helena, which sails from Portland UK to Cape Town and back, via Tenerife. Once St Helena Airport on the south Atlantic island of Saint Helena - most widely known as the original resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte - opens (originally due to be completed by 2010, but is now expected to be completed by 2012/2013), the RMS St Helena will have reached the end of its working life. Saharan Vibe blog has a great post about both the island and the ship.
The population of Spain at January 1st, 2008 was 46,063,511, over 5 million of whom were foreigners. In the Canary Islands the total population had reached 2,075,968, 50,017 (2.47%) more than the 2007 figure.
Give With One Hand, Take Away With the Other:
The relevant ministry is increasing the minimum salary in Spain to 621 euros a month in 2009 (yeah, not a lot is it?) But, water, energy, transport and telephone are all going up in the Canary Islands from January 2009.
Duty free allowances changed on December 1st and from 1 January 2009, the other goods allowance will increase again from £300 to £340.
Flu has reached epidemic proportions in 7 Spanish communities, among them the Canary Islands.
ChargeBox mobile phone charging units come to the Canary Islands in January. Distributor, Avances Tecnologicos (A&T), will deploy 25 units across the archipelago in the new year, and hopes to install 100 by the end of 2009.
And heath services have activated their plan to give press coverage to the first babies born in Canarian hospitals in 2009. (Assuming that those first New Year babies are born in hospitals and not in the streets like the Christmas ones were!)
And that just leaves me to wish you all a Feliz Año Nuevo
... and remind you to write / pronounce that with the ~ tilde (squiggle), lest your greeting be misunderstood as having to do with this impolite fighting talk.
(Año, "year" in Spanish, ano, "anus" in Spanish.)
2009 is just around the corner, time to resolve to do things differently or in some way improve your life in the coming year. Well, for all of you who, like us, decide that it’s time to leave the bad weather, the ailing pound and the stress of trying to keep your head above water in rip-off Britain and head to Tenerife’s (normally) sun kissed shores, here are a few pointers that will help you to get the best possible start to your new life.
2009 is just around the corner, time to resolve to do things differently or in some way improve your life in the coming year. Well, for all of you who, like us, decide that it’s time to leave the bad weather, the ailing pound and the stress of trying to keep your head above water in rip-off Britain and head to Tenerife’s (normally) sun kissed shores, here are a few pointers that will help you to get the best possible start to your new life.
The government in the Canary Islands has declared a state of orange alert in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife due to forecast storms with high winds and rains. Winds of up to 90 kph may be experienced on high ground.
Advice from security and emergency services, includes avoiding leaving home, particularly the elderly. They also remind you to park vehicles somewhere where they're protected from the wind and rain.
The government in the Canary Islands has declared a state of orange alert in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife due to forecast storms with high winds and rains. Winds of up to 90 kph may be experienced on high ground.
Advice from security and emergency services, includes avoiding leaving home, particularly the elderly. They also remind you to park vehicles somewhere where they're protected from the wind and rain.
On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, trams in Tenerife's capital, Santa Cruz, will be running normally during the day, until 6 p.m., when frequencies will begin to reduce until service ends at 9 p.m. The last trams leave the Intercambiador in Santa Cruz or the La Trinidad terminus in La Laguna at 8.30 p.m.
The tram service will start running again at 8 a.m on Christmas morning.
There will, however, be uninterrupted services right through the nights of New Years Eve and the Eve of Los Reyes (night of January 5th) for revelers.
You'll find a similar situation on the buses. Transportes Interurbanos de Tenerife (Titsa) have announced modifications in frequency of services on Christmas Eve, again winding down to a stop at 9 p.m. On December 25th, January 1st and 6th, bus services also restart at 8 a.m., to follow their usual fiesta timetables.
On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, trams in Tenerife's capital, Santa Cruz, will be running normally during the day, until 6 p.m., when frequencies will begin to reduce until service ends at 9 p.m. The last trams leave the Intercambiador in Santa Cruz or the La Trinidad terminus in La Laguna at 8.30 p.m.
The tram service will start running again at 8 a.m on Christmas morning.
There will, however, be uninterrupted services right through the nights of New Years Eve and the Eve of Los Reyes (night of January 5th) for revelers.
You'll find a similar situation on the buses. Transportes Interurbanos de Tenerife (Titsa) have announced modifications in frequency of services on Christmas Eve, again winding down to a stop at 9 p.m. On December 25th, January 1st and 6th, bus services also restart at 8 a.m., to follow their usual fiesta timetables.
"To the disappointment of children and romantics - and the relief of bookmakers - there is virtually no chance of snow falling on Christmas Day in the UK this year.", report The Guardian today. But what about the chance of a White Christmas in Tenerife? The forecast at Weather Underground, says there's a chance of a thunderstorm on Wednesday night (which could upset Santa's travel plans) and a 30% chance of precipitation. With the "polar" temperatures (relatively) that Tenerife has been experiencing lately, that could indeed mean waking up to a sprinkling of snow on Mount Teide for the annual Christmas Day trip.
But do try not to get lost and go prepared! Guardia Civil Mountain and K9 Rescue teams have had to help no less than three walkers who got lost in the mountains this weekend in Tenerife. An Italian tourist was rescued from between the Pico Viejo and the peak of Teide, unhurt, but with a mild case of hypothermia. The other two, residents of La Orotava, were found safe and well, but had become lost on a forest track, in the evening, without warm clothing or torches.
Tenerife Celebrates El Gordo winsAs the kids from the San Ildefonso school sang out the winning numbers, the annual Christmas Lottery didn't forget the Canary Islands entirely for once. The Number 1 and oldest Lottery Administration in La Laguna distributed a total of 9,750,000 euros in prize money on one of the 5th prizes - the number 36199 - with a 50,000 euro (or £50,000) payout per ticket (the strip of 10). Individual décimos (10ths), of which 1,950 were sold there, win 5,000 euros each.
The first prize was won by ticket number 32365, but none of those were sold in the Canary Islands. Sales of Xmas lottery tickets were down 2.79% this year.
And the magician Xerax, apparently correctly identified the winning lottery number. A few minutes after the draw (just enough time to write the correct number on the card?), the locked box that had been suspended in mid-air from the Cabildo building, for the last week, was lowered and opened, revealing, yes, WOW, gosh ... the number 32365! (Sorry, if I fail to be impressed!)
More news on the Christmas Baby born in Icod de los Vinos yesterday, reveals that the littl'un, a boy, was born in the petrol station (either the Cepsa pictured, or the Shell down the road, I guess) after the parents, both German, had stopped to fill up for the journey to hospital. Mother and baby are pictured here with the police officers who had helped in the birth.
What were the odds that a second baby would be born in Tenerife, in similar circumstances, on the same day? This time, a little girl was born, at 13.26 on Sunday afternoon, on the main road in Guía de Isora. A member of the family received instructions by phone. Both are doing well in the Hospiten Sur.
Firemen visit the kids in hospitalIf you're a kid and you're sick in hospital at the moment, you could have been having a pretty grim experience, but one thing's for certain, you won't have been lacking in visitors. Today, firemen were to visit the kids at the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria (HUNSC).
Just for fun, they were going to be rappelling or abseiling down the building like Spidermen and doing a surprise demonstration with foam.
This is on top of the visit from the CD Tenerife football team on Thursday and, Papá Noel (Father Christmas)' on Friday, in an open-topped car, loaded with sweets and gifts, escorted by municipal police officers from Santa Cruz and members of the Tenerife Chapter on their Harley Davidsons.
Tenerife is to close 2008 with negative results, says this report. Tourist figures had been 1.4% up by the end of October, but the corporation are forecasting "a bad month", this month with a few less visitors than last year.
By the end of November, the number of foreign tourists to visit the Canary Islands was 8.5 million, just maintaining the level of the previous year.
At least CD Tenerife football club is closing the year with a victory and, they are just two points away from the promotion zone. So close! Remember when Tenerife played the giants of the Spanish first division and of Europe?
Monarch is increasing its scheduled flying program to the Canary Islands for Summer 2009, with extra flights from From Manchester to Tenerife.
Monarch also recently introduced a complimentary hold baggage allowance of 10kgs for infants. Customers booking to travel with infants will receive their standard allowances of 20kgs of hold baggage and 10kgs of hand baggage, but infants will also now qualify for a 10kg hold baggage allowance. This can be taken in addition to pushchairs, prams and car seats, which will continue to be carried free of charge. Bookings via Monarch Holidays.
And tomorrow, at the recently opened Tenerife Espacio de las Artes (TEA), in Santa Cruz, there's to be a workshop for children on Cosmic Christmas.
"To the disappointment of children and romantics - and the relief of bookmakers - there is virtually no chance of snow falling on Christmas Day in the UK this year.", report The Guardian today. But what about the chance of a White Christmas in Tenerife? The forecast at Weather Underground, says there's a chance of a thunderstorm on Wednesday night (which could upset Santa's travel plans) and a 30% chance of precipitation. With the "polar" temperatures (relatively) that Tenerife has been experiencing lately, that could indeed mean waking up to a sprinkling of snow on Mount Teide for the annual Christmas Day trip.
But do try not to get lost and go prepared! Guardia Civil Mountain and K9 Rescue teams have had to help no less than three walkers who got lost in the mountains this weekend in Tenerife. An Italian tourist was rescued from between the Pico Viejo and the peak of Teide, unhurt, but with a mild case of hypothermia. The other two, residents of La Orotava, were found safe and well, but had become lost on a forest track, in the evening, without warm clothing or torches.
Tenerife Celebrates El Gordo winsAs the kids from the San Ildefonso school sang out the winning numbers, the annual Christmas Lottery didn't forget the Canary Islands entirely for once. The Number 1 and oldest Lottery Administration in La Laguna distributed a total of 9,750,000 euros in prize money on one of the 5th prizes - the number 36199 - with a 50,000 euro (or £50,000) payout per ticket (the strip of 10). Individual décimos (10ths), of which 1,950 were sold there, win 5,000 euros each.
The first prize was won by ticket number 32365, but none of those were sold in the Canary Islands. Sales of Xmas lottery tickets were down 2.79% this year.
And the magician Xerax, apparently correctly identified the winning lottery number. A few minutes after the draw (just enough time to write the correct number on the card?), the locked box that had been suspended in mid-air from the Cabildo building, for the last week, was lowered and opened, revealing, yes, WOW, gosh ... the number 32365! (Sorry, if I fail to be impressed!)
More news on the Christmas Baby born in Icod de los Vinos yesterday, reveals that the littl'un, a boy, was born in the petrol station (either the Cepsa pictured, or the Shell down the road, I guess) after the parents, both German, had stopped to fill up for the journey to hospital. Mother and baby are pictured here with the police officers who had helped in the birth.
What were the odds that a second baby would be born in Tenerife, in similar circumstances, on the same day? This time, a little girl was born, at 13.26 on Sunday afternoon, on the main road in Guía de Isora. A member of the family received instructions by phone. Both are doing well in the Hospiten Sur.
Firemen visit the kids in hospitalIf you're a kid and you're sick in hospital at the moment, you could have been having a pretty grim experience, but one thing's for certain, you won't have been lacking in visitors. Today, firemen were to visit the kids at the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria (HUNSC).
Just for fun, they were going to be rappelling or abseiling down the building like Spidermen and doing a surprise demonstration with foam.
This is on top of the visit from the CD Tenerife football team on Thursday and, Papá Noel (Father Christmas)' on Friday, in an open-topped car, loaded with sweets and gifts, escorted by municipal police officers from Santa Cruz and members of the Tenerife Chapter on their Harley Davidsons.
Tenerife is to close 2008 with negative results, says this report. Tourist figures had been 1.4% up by the end of October, but the corporation are forecasting "a bad month", this month with a few less visitors than last year.
By the end of November, the number of foreign tourists to visit the Canary Islands was 8.5 million, just maintaining the level of the previous year.
At least CD Tenerife football club is closing the year with a victory and, they are just two points away from the promotion zone. So close! Remember when Tenerife played the giants of the Spanish first division and of Europe?
Monarch is increasing its scheduled flying program to the Canary Islands for Summer 2009, with extra flights from From Manchester to Tenerife.
Monarch also recently introduced a complimentary hold baggage allowance of 10kgs for infants. Customers booking to travel with infants will receive their standard allowances of 20kgs of hold baggage and 10kgs of hand baggage, but infants will also now qualify for a 10kg hold baggage allowance. This can be taken in addition to pushchairs, prams and car seats, which will continue to be carried free of charge. Bookings via Monarch Holidays.
And tomorrow, at the recently opened Tenerife Espacio de las Artes (TEA), in Santa Cruz, there's to be a workshop for children on Cosmic Christmas.
There's been speculation over whether there could be some of the Mexican "jet set" visiting Tenerife, as the shiny new Mayan Queen IV, is docked in the port of Santa Cruz. The 92 meter - British designed - super-yacht belongs to Alberto Baillères, second richest man in Mexico and fourth in Latin America, according to Forbes Magazine. The 75 year old is said to be worth 9.8 billion dollars.
Security had been so tight there was no telling if her owner was on board, but this report confirms that she was heading to Tenerife to pick up her owner.
Mayan Queen IV sailed from Norway and was last seen spending a few days in Dartmouth on the south of England, before arriving in Tenerife on December 14. The yacht is piloted by Babbacombe-based Richard Kirkby, who used to pilot Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich's super-yacht Le Grand Bleu. Mayan Queen IV leaves Tenerife on December 23rd, going to Barbados.
Already having classed this autumn as the coldest in 15 years, the weather gurus have had more to say about the unusually cold temperatures that Tenerife has been experiencing.
Apparently, it's the 9th coldest the island has suffered since 1965 and the coldest since 1993. (I was there then and, strangely, I don't remember being frozen solid ...), but says the Agencia Española de Meteorología (Aemet) (Meteorological Agency)'s delegate on the island, this one-off cold snap cannot be attributed to climate change.
Wind chill has added to the sensation of cold and, compared with the average temperatures in Tenerife between 1971 and 2000, this autumn has been classed as "between very cold and extremely cold." November's weather, which was the 7th coldest in 48 years, notably contributed to this, they tell us.
But after all this talk of cold has made you shiver and conjure up images of palm trees with frost on, what do they actually mean by "extremely cold?" "... the average temperature on low ground in the islands has been about 19.9º."
Yeah, that's plus and in centigrade. Your heart bleeds, doesn't it?
If you're wondering if you're going to win anything in tomorrow's El Gordo lottery draw, pop along to the official Sorteo de Navidad website, enter your number in the little box and click the button that says "Comprobar."
Microsiervos are showing a strange case here, where someone has entered their ticket number already and the site is telling them they've won 100 euros. Dead clever that, since the lottery isn't drawn until tomorrow morning! :)
Economic Crisis' Million Pound Bonus ....
One thing that struck me as I was reminded that the first prize is 3,000,000 euros, is that, in previous years, I'd have been saying that was equivalent to only £2,000,000, but with the "crap" exchange rate it's £3,000,000, of course!
And while searching for information and references, I found this site: The Fat One, all about the El Gordo lottery, but in English. They point to some videos, including this one that shows you how the children "sing" out the numbers and, they say, "As an interesting side note, the most famous ad campaign for the Christmas El Gordo lottery featured during many years a British actor who is very well know as "el calvo" ("the bald one"). See that video here.
Christmas Baby comes earlyNo room at the inn, check. Born in "inappropriate" setting, check. Arrives just in time for Christmas ... Where have we heard this story before?
News just in is that a 28 year old woman gave birth at 4.14 a.m. Sunday, in a car, on the Avenida Príncipes de España; the main road that passes through Icod de los Vinos, in Tenerife.
A municipal police officer went to the scene and helped the woman through the birth, guided by phone by a nursing trained coordinator of emergency services, until the ambulance arrived to take mother and baby to Bellevue hospital.
Both mother and baby are said to be in perfect health.
There's been speculation over whether there could be some of the Mexican "jet set" visiting Tenerife, as the shiny new Mayan Queen IV, is docked in the port of Santa Cruz. The 92 meter - British designed - super-yacht belongs to Alberto Baillères, second richest man in Mexico and fourth in Latin America, according to Forbes Magazine. The 75 year old is said to be worth 9.8 billion dollars.
Security had been so tight there was no telling if her owner was on board, but this report confirms that she was heading to Tenerife to pick up her owner.
Mayan Queen IV sailed from Norway and was last seen spending a few days in Dartmouth on the south of England, before arriving in Tenerife on December 14. The yacht is piloted by Babbacombe-based Richard Kirkby, who used to pilot Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich's super-yacht Le Grand Bleu. Mayan Queen IV leaves Tenerife on December 23rd, going to Barbados.
Already having classed this autumn as the coldest in 15 years, the weather gurus have had more to say about the unusually cold temperatures that Tenerife has been experiencing.
Apparently, it's the 9th coldest the island has suffered since 1965 and the coldest since 1993. (I was there then and, strangely, I don't remember being frozen solid ...), but says the Agencia Española de Meteorología (Aemet) (Meteorological Agency)'s delegate on the island, this one-off cold snap cannot be attributed to climate change.
Wind chill has added to the sensation of cold and, compared with the average temperatures in Tenerife between 1971 and 2000, this autumn has been classed as "between very cold and extremely cold." November's weather, which was the 7th coldest in 48 years, notably contributed to this, they tell us.
But after all this talk of cold has made you shiver and conjure up images of palm trees with frost on, what do they actually mean by "extremely cold?" "... the average temperature on low ground in the islands has been about 19.9º."
Yeah, that's plus and in centigrade. Your heart bleeds, doesn't it?
If you're wondering if you're going to win anything in tomorrow's El Gordo lottery draw, pop along to the official Sorteo de Navidad website, enter your number in the little box and click the button that says "Comprobar."
Microsiervos are showing a strange case here, where someone has entered their ticket number already and the site is telling them they've won 100 euros. Dead clever that, since the lottery isn't drawn until tomorrow morning! :)
Economic Crisis' Million Pound Bonus ....
One thing that struck me as I was reminded that the first prize is 3,000,000 euros, is that, in previous years, I'd have been saying that was equivalent to only £2,000,000, but with the "crap" exchange rate it's £3,000,000, of course!
And while searching for information and references, I found this site: The Fat One, all about the El Gordo lottery, but in English. They point to some videos, including this one that shows you how the children "sing" out the numbers and, they say, "As an interesting side note, the most famous ad campaign for the Christmas El Gordo lottery featured during many years a British actor who is very well know as "el calvo" ("the bald one"). See that video here.
Christmas Baby comes earlyNo room at the inn, check. Born in "inappropriate" setting, check. Arrives just in time for Christmas ... Where have we heard this story before?
News just in is that a 28 year old woman gave birth at 4.14 a.m. Sunday, in a car, on the Avenida Príncipes de España; the main road that passes through Icod de los Vinos, in Tenerife.
A municipal police officer went to the scene and helped the woman through the birth, guided by phone by a nursing trained coordinator of emergency services, until the ambulance arrived to take mother and baby to Bellevue hospital.
Both mother and baby are said to be in perfect health.
Got your map of Santa Cruz handy? Got a pen? Good, then you can start changing some street names, just as the town hall has done this week, when mayor, Miguel Zerolo signed a decree changing the names of eight (out of more than 100) of the streets with names that had something to do with the Franco era, in accordance with the Ley de la Memoria Histórica (Law of Historical Memory.)
The names, which changed as of Thursday, are as follows:
| Old Street Name | New Street Name | Translation |
| Rambla del General Franco | Rambla de Santa Cruz | Holy Cross Way |
| Avenida José Antonio | Avenida Marítima | Maritime Avenue |
| Avenida del General Mola | Avenida Islas Canarias | Canary Islands Avenue |
| Calle General Moscardó | Calle Del Amor | Love Street |
| Calle General Goded | Calle Del Perdón | Forgiveness Street |
| Calle General Fanjul | Calle Del Olvido | Forgetfulness Street |
| Calle General Sanjurjo | Calle De los Sueños | Dreams Street |
| Calle García Morato | Calle De la Tolerancia | Tolerance Street |
The new names have been chosen partly in consultation with residents, but we can't help thinking that the choice of those 5 street names isn't, er accidental.
There are, of course, numerous opinions on this. There are those who think that changing the names is actually sweeping the bad stuff under the carpet; that once the names are taken off the streets, this ugly part of history will be forgot.
It is not for me to opine over what might be more suitable names for streets in the Santa Cruz of today, but one commenter has already beaten me to it anyway, suggesting that streets should be given names like Corrupción en Miami (Miami Vice Street) Rambla del Padrino (Godfather Way), or Avenida Corleone (Corleone Avenue), Plaza del Gangsterismo (Gangsterism Place).
(* The Godfather movie's line "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." was voted as the #10 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.)
One thing I couldn't resist, was looking for one of these new street names in the Callejero (Street map) at the town hall's website and of course, I wasn't a bit surprised when it came back with, "No se han encontrado coincidencias con su búsqueda" (Nothing has been found that coincides with your search).
Low cost airline, Jet 2, are launching some new free services for passengers in the new year, it is reported, amongst them an increase in luggage allowance from 17 kilos to 22 kilos and offering made-to-measure menus where passengers can choose their hot meal at the time of booking.
Jet 2 will also be offering online check-in, with seat allocation, to avoid queuing, on flights leaving from a number of Spanish airports, including Tenerife.
Thousands of Scots will defy the economic downturn by jetting abroad for Christmas. More than 250,000 holidaymakers are expected to pass through the country’s main airports in the run-up to December 25. As heavy rain and wind lashed the country, 53,000 passengers were booked to fly in or out of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports on what was predicted to be the busiest 24 hours of the festive season. Popular destinations include the sun-soaked beaches of Tenerife, Alicante and Dubai.
As we reported earlier, the annual nativity model village in the Hotel La Quinta Roja in Garachico, generally takes the form of one of the Canary Islands in the pre-conquest era and that this year's offering features the island of Gran Canaria, the foreground of which represents, La Cueva Pintada (Painted Cave), where this year, a young aboriginal Jesus makes his entrance into the world. This report shows the model, together with the man who made it, Vicente Antonio Díaz Melián (blog), while here are some closeups of the model's detail.
Tickets ending with the number 5 are the ones that have been repeated most often throughout the history of the El Gordo Christmas Lottery in Spain, being winners 31 times.
It's followed by the numbers 4 and 6, which have won on 26 occasions and the numbers 3 and 8, both winning 20 times. The number that has won the least number of times is the number 1 - that has only won on 8 occasions.
An article in the Tenerife press yesterday, informs us that Santa Cruz town hall is in possession of a report revealing "possible contamination risks" from the refinery, saying levels of nickel in the atmosphere are three times the permitted amounts, a situation classified as "dangerous and alarming for the city." Photo: Foro contra la Incineración.
And we all know what we think of "untimely" killjoy advice like that, don't we? But they're right. Variety, moderation and, they suggest cutting down on eggs, since so many of the traditional Christmas foods, particularly turrón and many other sweets and deserts also contain them.
Still time to order: Turron, Christmas Candy and Treats
Tickets for the Rod Stewart concert to be held on May 16th, 2009 in Adeje, Tenerife, have been selling like hot cakes, with 8,000 sold in the first 4 days since tickets went on sale last Monday and, at some points of sale, people even had to queue up.
Organizers say that the phone lines were saturated on the first day and that they've received communications and emails from Scotland, England, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland.
Stewart's Latin fan club, headquartered in Barcelona, are said to have reserved "an important number" of tickets in the front row and hotels are reportedly getting busy. If you want to attend, better get it organized while stocks last.
Got your map of Santa Cruz handy? Got a pen? Good, then you can start changing some street names, just as the town hall has done this week, when mayor, Miguel Zerolo signed a decree changing the names of eight (out of more than 100) of the streets with names that had something to do with the Franco era, in accordance with the Ley de la Memoria Histórica (Law of Historical Memory.)
The names, which changed as of Thursday, are as follows:
| Old Street Name | New Street Name | Translation |
| Rambla del General Franco | Rambla de Santa Cruz | Holy Cross Way |
| Avenida José Antonio | Avenida Marítima | Maritime Avenue |
| Avenida del General Mola | Avenida Islas Canarias | Canary Islands Avenue |
| Calle General Moscardó | Calle Del Amor | Love Street |
| Calle General Goded | Calle Del Perdón | Forgiveness Street |
| Calle General Fanjul | Calle Del Olvido | Forgetfulness Street |
| Calle General Sanjurjo | Calle De los Sueños | Dreams Street |
| Calle García Morato | Calle De la Tolerancia | Tolerance Street |
The new names have been chosen partly in consultation with residents, but we can't help thinking that the choice of those 5 street names isn't, er accidental.
There are, of course, numerous opinions on this. There are those who think that changing the names is actually sweeping the bad stuff under the carpet; that once the names are taken off the streets, this ugly part of history will be forgot.
It is not for me to opine over what might be more suitable names for streets in the Santa Cruz of today, but one commenter has already beaten me to it anyway, suggesting that streets should be given names like Corrupción en Miami (Miami Vice Street) Rambla del Padrino (Godfather Way), or Avenida Corleone (Corleone Avenue), Plaza del Gangsterismo (Gangsterism Place).
(* The Godfather movie's line "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." was voted as the #10 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.)
One thing I couldn't resist, was looking for one of these new street names in the Callejero (Street map) at the town hall's website and of course, I wasn't a bit surprised when it came back with, "No se han encontrado coincidencias con su búsqueda" (Nothing has been found that coincides with your search).
Low cost airline, Jet 2, are launching some new free services for passengers in the new year, it is reported, amongst them an increase in luggage allowance from 17 kilos to 22 kilos and offering made-to-measure menus where passengers can choose their hot meal at the time of booking.
Jet 2 will also be offering online check-in, with seat allocation, to avoid queuing, on flights leaving from a number of Spanish airports, including Tenerife.
Thousands of Scots will defy the economic downturn by jetting abroad for Christmas. More than 250,000 holidaymakers are expected to pass through the country’s main airports in the run-up to December 25. As heavy rain and wind lashed the country, 53,000 passengers were booked to fly in or out of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports on what was predicted to be the busiest 24 hours of the festive season. Popular destinations include the sun-soaked beaches of Tenerife, Alicante and Dubai.
As we reported earlier, the annual nativity model village in the Hotel La Quinta Roja in Garachico, generally takes the form of one of the Canary Islands in the pre-conquest era and that this year's offering features the island of Gran Canaria, the foreground of which represents, La Cueva Pintada (Painted Cave), where this year, a young aboriginal Jesus makes his entrance into the world. This report shows the model, together with the man who made it, Vicente Antonio Díaz Melián (blog), while here are some closeups of the model's detail.
Tickets ending with the number 5 are the ones that have been repeated most often throughout the history of the El Gordo Christmas Lottery in Spain, being winners 31 times.
It's followed by the numbers 4 and 6, which have won on 26 occasions and the numbers 3 and 8, both winning 20 times. The number that has won the least number of times is the number 1 - that has only won on 8 occasions.
An article in the Tenerife press yesterday, informs us that Santa Cruz town hall is in possession of a report revealing "possible contamination risks" from the refinery, saying levels of nickel in the atmosphere are three times the permitted amounts, a situation classified as "dangerous and alarming for the city." Photo: Foro contra la Incineración.
And we all know what we think of "untimely" killjoy advice like that, don't we? But they're right. Variety, moderation and, they suggest cutting down on eggs, since so many of the traditional Christmas foods, particularly turrón and many other sweets and deserts also contain them.
Still time to order: Turron, Christmas Candy and Treats
Tickets for the Rod Stewart concert to be held on May 16th, 2009 in Adeje, Tenerife, have been selling like hot cakes, with 8,000 sold in the first 4 days since tickets went on sale last Monday and, at some points of sale, people even had to queue up.
Organizers say that the phone lines were saturated on the first day and that they've received communications and emails from Scotland, England, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland.
Stewart's Latin fan club, headquartered in Barcelona, are said to have reserved "an important number" of tickets in the front row and hotels are reportedly getting busy. If you want to attend, better get it organized while stocks last.
The Daily Express, this week published an "alarmist" headline: Misery for holidaymakers: One pound is now worth one euro, saying thousands of families - including those travelling to the Canary Islands for some winter sun - will find the cost of their trip has rocketed - clearly blaming the exchange rate as the culprit.
Even so, relatively, most of the things you're likely to buy, on holiday, will still cost you less in Tenerife than they would in ripoff Britain. "Allowing that prices have gone up here, it's still far better value to eat out and to travel on public transport", says ‘Going Native in Tenerife’ author, Andrea Montgomery.
Let's look at the example of coffee ...
When I left the UK in 1992, coffee in Britain was uninspiring stuff, but as The Independent comment in this 2002 Coffee Special, "Is it really only 10 years since our idea of a good cup of coffee consisted of pouring boiling water over a teaspoon of instant?"
Now 16 years later with coffee shops everywhere in Britain, quality has definitely got better, but prices have risen disproportionately, keeping them well above Tenerife levels.
An espresso in a local (as in Canarian, away from the resorts) bar in Tenerife costs around 90 euro cents. When the exchange rate was around 1.5 euros to the pound, that coffee would have cost the British punter around 60 pence. With the exchange rate having now dropped to a par, it's 50% more, at 90 pence.
However, in a small independent coffee shop in an ultra provincial town in the UK, an espresso is priced at £1.
At the Costa Coffee chain it's £1.35 single and £1.70 for a double shot.
In a provincial branch Caffè Nero in the UK, the espresso is the higher price too, but note, whilst I've said that coffee in the UK has got better (and they are all drinkable), the taste of the Caffè Nero coffee is the only one that I feel really comes anywhere close to the quality and richness of even the most stunningly average coffee in Tenerife.
Meaning, that even though that exchange rate has dropped like a lead balloon, the equivalent coffee in Tenerife is still 80 pence cheaper - virtually half price - than it is in provincial England. (It must be even more in big cities.)
Don't, please, make the mistake of thinking that Tenerife's resorts are "sadly lacking" a branch of Starbucks. Any street corner or roadside bar, wherever you happen to be passing in Tenerife, will serve a perfectly good espresso (or cafe solo) and many more varieties besides. They've been doing so since long before any of these chains were even thought of. Maybe you won't find in them 1001 different flavoured coffees, but then good coffee tastes of coffee!
And coffee is but one example. I've double-checked with our correspondent on the island and the same can be said for restaurant food, booze prices and a whole lot of other things besides. Just as in the UK, it depends where you shop, but in general, prices are always better, provided you get away from the resorts.
Mind you, Andrea informs me that the price of a pint of Dorada has gone up from £1 to £1.50 in the resort of Playa de las Américas. Britain still worked in pounds, shillings and pence last time a pint was that cheap! :) Again, using examples of very provincial pubs in Britain, I've paid £1.50 and £2.00 for just a half.
"Oh and petrol is back down to 0.60 something a litre now", in Tenerife, added Andrea. So what of the Express' assertion of "misery"? Far as I can see, the only way to be miserable is to stay in bloody freezing, over-priced Britain.
Feed your coffee addiction ...
Some while ago, I read that coffee consumption was overtaking tea swilling in Britain, but a surprising little discovery here is that, even in 1997, the English were consuming 1.76 kilos of coffee per head, only one place and 10 grams behind Spain's 1.86 kilos, in the European coffee drinking league table.
Now tea breaks turn into coffee stops as 'builders' brew' is being replaced by 'labourer's latte' as Britain's workmen switch from tea to coffee for a breaktime beverage; and a mug of instant is not enough for their delicate taste buds.
So here's another money saving tip: go to one of the big supermarkets in Tenerife; such as Alcampo, Mercadona, Hiperdino, etc, and stock up.
You'll find 250 gram bags of coffee for around £1.25 in Tenerife still, rather than the 3 quid or more that you're paying for lacklustre flavoured coffee in Britain. All of the brands sold in Tenerife have more flavour and less harshness.
NB: Coffee, according to this article, is the "more modern drink". Perhaps it is in Scotland? In England, it's the coffee drinkers who are returning to the traditions of old. Coffee was being consumed earlier than tea, even in the UK. Samuel Pepys used to go about his business or scribble his diary in one of London's famous, 17th Century coffee-houses. (See The rise and fall of English coffee houses and The English Coffee House), while tea was only then just being introduced to the nation, via Charles II's Portuguese wife, Catherine of Braganza. So there!
The Daily Express, this week published an "alarmist" headline: Misery for holidaymakers: One pound is now worth one euro, saying thousands of families - including those travelling to the Canary Islands for some winter sun - will find the cost of their trip has rocketed - clearly blaming the exchange rate as the culprit.
Even so, relatively, most of the things you're likely to buy, on holiday, will still cost you less in Tenerife than they would in ripoff Britain. "Allowing that prices have gone up here, it's still far better value to eat out and to travel on public transport", says ‘Going Native in Tenerife’ author, Andrea Montgomery.
Let's look at the example of coffee ...
When I left the UK in 1992, coffee in Britain was uninspiring stuff, but as The Independent comment in this 2002 Coffee Special, "Is it really only 10 years since our idea of a good cup of coffee consisted of pouring boiling water over a teaspoon of instant?"
Now 16 years later with coffee shops everywhere in Britain, quality has definitely got better, but prices have risen disproportionately, keeping them well above Tenerife levels.
An espresso in a local (as in Canarian, away from the resorts) bar in Tenerife costs around 90 euro cents. When the exchange rate was around 1.5 euros to the pound, that coffee would have cost the British punter around 60 pence. With the exchange rate having now dropped to a par, it's 50% more, at 90 pence.
However, in a small independent coffee shop in an ultra provincial town in the UK, an espresso is priced at £1.
At the Costa Coffee chain it's £1.35 single and £1.70 for a double shot.
In a provincial branch Caffè Nero in the UK, the espresso is the higher price too, but note, whilst I've said that coffee in the UK has got better (and they are all drinkable), the taste of the Caffè Nero coffee is the only one that I feel really comes anywhere close to the quality and richness of even the most stunningly average coffee in Tenerife.
Meaning, that even though that exchange rate has dropped like a lead balloon, the equivalent coffee in Tenerife is still 80 pence cheaper - virtually half price - than it is in provincial England. (It must be even more in big cities.)
Don't, please, make the mistake of thinking that Tenerife's resorts are "sadly lacking" a branch of Starbucks. Any street corner or roadside bar, wherever you happen to be passing in Tenerife, will serve a perfectly good espresso (or cafe solo) and many more varieties besides. They've been doing so since long before any of these chains were even thought of. Maybe you won't find in them 1001 different flavoured coffees, but then good coffee tastes of coffee!
And coffee is but one example. I've double-checked with our correspondent on the island and the same can be said for restaurant food, booze prices and a whole lot of other things besides. Just as in the UK, it depends where you shop, but in general, prices are always better, provided you get away from the resorts.
Mind you, Andrea informs me that the price of a pint of Dorada has gone up from £1 to £1.50 in the resort of Playa de las Américas. Britain still worked in pounds, shillings and pence last time a pint was that cheap! :) Again, using examples of very provincial pubs in Britain, I've paid £1.50 and £2.00 for just a half.
"Oh and petrol is back down to 0.60 something a litre now", in Tenerife, added Andrea. So what of the Express' assertion of "misery"? Far as I can see, the only way to be miserable is to stay in bloody freezing, over-priced Britain.
Feed your coffee addiction ...
Some while ago, I read that coffee consumption was overtaking tea swilling in Britain, but a surprising little discovery here is that, even in 1997, the English were consuming 1.76 kilos of coffee per head, only one place and 10 grams behind Spain's 1.86 kilos, in the European coffee drinking league table.
Now tea breaks turn into coffee stops as 'builders' brew' is being replaced by 'labourer's latte' as Britain's workmen switch from tea to coffee for a breaktime beverage; and a mug of instant is not enough for their delicate taste buds.
So here's another money saving tip: go to one of the big supermarkets in Tenerife; such as Alcampo, Mercadona, Hiperdino, etc, and stock up.
You'll find 250 gram bags of coffee for around £1.25 in Tenerife still, rather than the 3 quid or more that you're paying for lacklustre flavoured coffee in Britain. All of the brands sold in Tenerife have more flavour and less harshness.
NB: Coffee, according to this article, is the "more modern drink". Perhaps it is in Scotland? In England, it's the coffee drinkers who are returning to the traditions of old. Coffee was being consumed earlier than tea, even in the UK. Samuel Pepys used to go about his business or scribble his diary in one of London's famous, 17th Century coffee-houses. (See The rise and fall of English coffee houses and The English Coffee House), while tea was only then just being introduced to the nation, via Charles II's Portuguese wife, Catherine of Braganza. So there!
Is also the translation of the title of a new Christmas carol (I'd have said pop song), "Es Navidad en Santa Cruz", written by Tenerife artist, Iván Troyano, who performs it with Dan Silva and R&B / hip-hop sextet, Soul Sanet. I'm sure it will be popular with locals and, how many cities have their own "Christmas carol"? Watch the video though, the lights look pretty.
Also, this new "carol" will be performed live for the first time on Saturday, December 20th, in the Plaza del Príncipe in Santa Cruz at 7 p.m.
You too may prefer the Christmas Concert by the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra to be held on Christmas Day in the port of Santa Cruz; this year in its 15th year. I say this every year, but I simply cannot impress on you enough how high the quality is. Goodness knows what you'd have to pay to see a top orchestra like the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra elsewhere, but this concert, on Christmas Day in the evening, in the open air on the port at Santa Cruz is completely FREE, with seating for 20,000.
This year, the OST, conducted by Lü Jia, will be accompanied by Chilean soprano, Cristina Gallardo-Domâs.
The program, coinciding with Italian composer, Giacomo Puccini's 150th Birthday, on December 22nd, contains some of the most representative arias of his works; from La Bohème, Madame Butterfly and La Rondine.
There are also the 1st and 3rd parts of Ralph Vaughan Williams' English Folk Song Suite and pieces from; the lyrical opera Eugene Onegin, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as the finale.
As usual, the concert will be televised live by Televisión Canaria in the Canary Islands. Local TV in Castilla La Mancha are also showing it live and Telemadrid will be showing it the next day. For the rest of us, the note continues that, as last year, you can watch the concert live via the internet at the Tenerife Ports Authority website: Puertos de Tenerife. Show starts 10 p.m.
Today was the last day to play El Gordo 2008, the Spanish Christmas Lottery. This year, every Canarian will spend an average of 46.41 euros on Christmas Lottery tickets, six euros more than in 2007.
Interestingly, the average spent on Christmas Lottery tickets in Santa Cruz province (56.71 euros) is around 20 euros, per person, higher than in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with Tenerife this year betting a total of 55.79 million euros on some 278,973 tickets.
People hope at least one of them will come up, of course, though the headlines every December 23rd, always lament the fact that the islands get "forgotten" by El Gordo. Surprisingly, this may, in part, be due to the comparatively LOW (not so's you'd noticed, eh?) participation in this lottery on the islands. In contrast, in Spain as a whole, the average spend on tickets for the annual December 22nd, El Gordo, is 73 euros per person.
As many as three million Britons will escape the gloom engulfing the economy and the weather and head overseas this Christmas, it has been revealed. Travel organisation ABTA said Christmas getaway numbers did not appear to have been affected by the economic downturn, with Tenerife still heading the list of most popular sunshine destinations for Britons.
Who may not all be too pleased to hear that ...
The Canary Islands will have the coldest and driest winter in years. The Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (State Meteorological Agency) has declared this autumn the coldest in the last 15 years. The coming winter, according to Aemet's crystal ball, will bring above average temperatures on the Spanish mainland, meanwhile temperatures are expected to drop in the islands.
A Spanish company has launched the first ever helmet with airbag in the world, to be distributed exclusively throughout the Canary Islands.
As a special offer during the launch, it will be on sale for just 649 euros until January 5th, which, the news item continues, "is practically 200 euros less than the usual selling price which amounts to 715 euros."
Yes, that is "practically" 200 euros, I suppose, if you happen to think there's very little difference between 66 euros and 200 euros. Must be the falling exchange rate again. Or that most reporters are notoriously bad with figures! :)
Join the demonstration on Saturday, December 20th in the Plaza Weyler, Santa Cruz (map), against immigration policies that are racist and that clearly contravene basic human rights, being held to mark International Migrants Day, which was on December 18th.
For more details of what this protest is all about, in English, read this Call for International Day of Action Against Immigration Prisons.
The volume of home sales has fallen by 32% in the Canary Island archipelago in the last 12 months, more than the national average drop of 29.8%. (Though that, in turn, says that 2/3 of the usual rate of business is still being done, which seems fairly positive to me, given the ever increasingly uttered word, "crisis.")
El Cañizo say they will continue to analyse the data, but point to a news item published in Europa Press, from sources obviously close to the CajaCanarias (Canarian Savings Bank), whose business growth has dropped by 2/3rds in the last year, compared to 2006/2007, causing them to reach a diagnosis that Tenerife's economy is seriously injured. (Let's hope it doesn't prove fatal.)
Kicking sand in our faces - tales of Tenerife beaches, "Nice new walkways to improve access, and better facilities can make a big difference to Tenerife beaches, but sometimes the warning bells start ringing when the word improvement is used." If bland is an improvement, this was.
The Hollywood Motor Show starts today in Puerto Santiago, has been a huge success in Santa Cruz, San Isidro and Granadilla and will be in Los Cristianos from 25th Dec to 6th Jan.
Christmas program in Granadilla de Abona
The Center for Tourism Initiatives in Güímar has launched a new campaign, "Senderos de Güímar. Tesoro Natural de Tenerife" (Footpaths of Güímar: Natural Treasure of Tenerife), to promote the district's natural resources to visitors. The project includes a DVD with 10 reports on each of the routes, guides, maps and itineraries, in Spanish, English and German.
Direct flights Tenerife to Miami. After many months of planning the new Air Europa flight between Tenerife and Miami will commence in the New Year.
Joe Cawley the award-winning travel writer, copywriter and author, gets the last word on the upcoming Rod Stewart concert in Tenerife next May:
"Well, it’s official. I mean officially official. The announcement was made several weeks ago that the oldest mullet in town was heading to Tenerife… but you know how things are on the rock. A ‘definite’ is a maybe, a ‘probable’ is a no chance, and a ‘possible’ is as likely as a gecko being voted mayor of Arona." (See, we're not the only cynics!)
Is also the translation of the title of a new Christmas carol (I'd have said pop song), "Es Navidad en Santa Cruz", written by Tenerife artist, Iván Troyano, who performs it with Dan Silva and R&B / hip-hop sextet, Soul Sanet. I'm sure it will be popular with locals and, how many cities have their own "Christmas carol"? Watch the video though, the lights look pretty.
Also, this new "carol" will be performed live for the first time on Saturday, December 20th, in the Plaza del Príncipe in Santa Cruz at 7 p.m.
You too may prefer the Christmas Concert by the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra to be held on Christmas Day in the port of Santa Cruz; this year in its 15th year. I say this every year, but I simply cannot impress on you enough how high the quality is. Goodness knows what you'd have to pay to see a top orchestra like the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra elsewhere, but this concert, on Christmas Day in the evening, in the open air on the port at Santa Cruz is completely FREE, with seating for 20,000.
This year, the OST, conducted by Lü Jia, will be accompanied by Chilean soprano, Cristina Gallardo-Domâs.
The program, coinciding with Italian composer, Giacomo Puccini's 150th Birthday, on December 22nd, contains some of the most representative arias of his works; from La Bohème, Madame Butterfly and La Rondine.
There are also the 1st and 3rd parts of Ralph Vaughan Williams' English Folk Song Suite and pieces from; the lyrical opera Eugene Onegin, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as the finale.
As usual, the concert will be televised live by Televisión Canaria in the Canary Islands. Local TV in Castilla La Mancha are also showing it live and Telemadrid will be showing it the next day. For the rest of us, the note continues that, as last year, you can watch the concert live via the internet at the Tenerife Ports Authority website: Puertos de Tenerife. Show starts 10 p.m.
Today was the last day to play El Gordo 2008, the Spanish Christmas Lottery. This year, every Canarian will spend an average of 46.41 euros on Christmas Lottery tickets, six euros more than in 2007.
Interestingly, the average spent on Christmas Lottery tickets in Santa Cruz province (56.71 euros) is around 20 euros, per person, higher than in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with Tenerife this year betting a total of 55.79 million euros on some 278,973 tickets.
People hope at least one of them will come up, of course, though the headlines every December 23rd, always lament the fact that the islands get "forgotten" by El Gordo. Surprisingly, this may, in part, be due to the comparatively LOW (not so's you'd noticed, eh?) participation in this lottery on the islands. In contrast, in Spain as a whole, the average spend on tickets for the annual December 22nd, El Gordo, is 73 euros per person.
As many as three million Britons will escape the gloom engulfing the economy and the weather and head overseas this Christmas, it has been revealed. Travel organisation ABTA said Christmas getaway numbers did not appear to have been affected by the economic downturn, with Tenerife still heading the list of most popular sunshine destinations for Britons.
Who may not all be too pleased to hear that ...
The Canary Islands will have the coldest and driest winter in years. The Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (State Meteorological Agency) has declared this autumn the coldest in the last 15 years. The coming winter, according to Aemet's crystal ball, will bring above average temperatures on the Spanish mainland, meanwhile temperatures are expected to drop in the islands.
A Spanish company has launched the first ever helmet with airbag in the world, to be distributed exclusively throughout the Canary Islands.
As a special offer during the launch, it will be on sale for just 649 euros until January 5th, which, the news item continues, "is practically 200 euros less than the usual selling price which amounts to 715 euros."
Yes, that is "practically" 200 euros, I suppose, if you happen to think there's very little difference between 66 euros and 200 euros. Must be the falling exchange rate again. Or that most reporters are notoriously bad with figures! :)
Join the demonstration on Saturday, December 20th in the Plaza Weyler, Santa Cruz (map), against immigration policies that are racist and that clearly contravene basic human rights, being held to mark International Migrants Day, which was on December 18th.
For more details of what this protest is all about, in English, read this Call for International Day of Action Against Immigration Prisons.
The volume of home sales has fallen by 32% in the Canary Island archipelago in the last 12 months, more than the national average drop of 29.8%. (Though that, in turn, says that 2/3 of the usual rate of business is still being done, which seems fairly positive to me, given the ever increasingly uttered word, "crisis.")
El Cañizo say they will continue to analyse the data, but point to a news item published in Europa Press, from sources obviously close to the CajaCanarias (Canarian Savings Bank), whose business growth has dropped by 2/3rds in the last year, compared to 2006/2007, causing them to reach a diagnosis that Tenerife's economy is seriously injured. (Let's hope it doesn't prove fatal.)
Kicking sand in our faces - tales of Tenerife beaches, "Nice new walkways to improve access, and better facilities can make a big difference to Tenerife beaches, but sometimes the warning bells start ringing when the word improvement is used." If bland is an improvement, this was.
The Hollywood Motor Show starts today in Puerto Santiago, has been a huge success in Santa Cruz, San Isidro and Granadilla and will be in Los Cristianos from 25th Dec to 6th Jan.
Christmas program in Granadilla de Abona
The Center for Tourism Initiatives in Güímar has launched a new campaign, "Senderos de Güímar. Tesoro Natural de Tenerife" (Footpaths of Güímar: Natural Treasure of Tenerife), to promote the district's natural resources to visitors. The project includes a DVD with 10 reports on each of the routes, guides, maps and itineraries, in Spanish, English and German.
Direct flights Tenerife to Miami. After many months of planning the new Air Europa flight between Tenerife and Miami will commence in the New Year.
Joe Cawley the award-winning travel writer, copywriter and author, gets the last word on the upcoming Rod Stewart concert in Tenerife next May:
"Well, it’s official. I mean officially official. The announcement was made several weeks ago that the oldest mullet in town was heading to Tenerife… but you know how things are on the rock. A ‘definite’ is a maybe, a ‘probable’ is a no chance, and a ‘possible’ is as likely as a gecko being voted mayor of Arona." (See, we're not the only cynics!)
“When it what?!” I hear you cry…well yes, it can and does sometimes rain in Tenerife. Hugely inconvenient for anyone on holiday here at the time, but essential to agriculture, mains water supplies, health and sanitation, in fact the on-going survival of the island.
Of course, here in the ‘north’ we’re perfectly okay with rain; we see it as the ingredient that provides us with our beautiful tropical vegetation and consider the few occasions when we get whole days or even a whole week of rain as a small price to pay for our surroundings.
It’s said that Tenerife has one bad month of weather a year and it’s just a question of waiting to see which month that will be. But this year, it’s proving to be a November/December crossover and is teetering on the edge of being more than a month.
Given the appalling summer that Britain has just experienced and the continued downturn in the value of the pound, this unusual spell of ‘poor’ weather has led to an unfortunate set of circumstances. Many hundreds of Brits are finding themselves with two weeks in one of Tenerife’s southern resorts with no sun and a great deal of time on their hands. Naturally, the tendency is therefore to spend more time in bars, cafes and restaurants parting with more of their significantly reduced euros than they would normally do, and has in turn led to many people complaining that there’s nothing to do in Tenerife without the sun and that it’s far more expensive than it used to be.
Well, here’s a simple and cost-effective solution to the whole question of what to do in Tenerife when it rains…
Get out of your resort and explore.
There are endless possibilities of places to see and things to do that will cost you a fraction of what you’ll spend by killing time in resort bars.
Other than the cost of getting there, exploring Tenerife’s fascinating landscape and historic towns doesn’t have to cost a céntimo if you don’t want it to. But by leaving your resort, you’re automatically increasing the value of your euro anyway, so lunch, a cold beer, a coffee, soft drinks, ice cream all cost considerably less around the island.
There are some excellent museums on Tenerife. Not the sort that house exhibits gathering dust that will threaten a revolt from your offspring the moment the front door looms into sight, these are positive fun houses! Like the Museum of Science and the Cosmos in La Laguna which has hundreds of wonderful scientific puzzles to play with including lifting a Mini with just one hand, getting lost in the mirror maze and casting shadows on a wall that stay there after you’ve moved.
Then there’s the Museum of Man & Nature in Santa Cruz with its morbid collection of Guanche mummies, or the Military Museum in Santa Cruz in a working barracks which has a scale reproduction of Nelson’s unsuccessful attack on Santa Cruz amongst its arsenal of military paraphernalia.
And if you go on a Sunday, every museum has free entrance.
To make things really easy for you, the brand new ‘Going Native in Tenerife’ guide gives you a comprehensive insight into 38 different towns and villages across Tenerife and tells you the best bits to see and the best places to eat. Along with local food, best-buys and a guide to the island’s many colourful fiestas, ‘Going Native in Tenerife’ will tempt you to get out and discover some of the beautiful places that exist on Tenerife.
Make your holiday go further; see the island and save money while you’re doing it, then come back and tell me there’s nothing to do on Tenerife when it rains!
“When it what?!” I hear you cry…well yes, it can and does sometimes rain in Tenerife. Hugely inconvenient for anyone on holiday here at the time, but essential to agriculture, mains water supplies, health and sanitation, in fact the on-going survival of the island.
Of course, here in the ‘north’ we’re perfectly okay with rain; we see it as the ingredient that provides us with our beautiful tropical vegetation and consider the few occasions when we get whole days or even a whole week of rain as a small price to pay for our surroundings.
It’s said that Tenerife has one bad month of weather a year and it’s just a question of waiting to see which month that will be. But this year, it’s proving to be a November/December crossover and is teetering on the edge of being more than a month.
Given the appalling summer that Britain has just experienced and the continued downturn in the value of the pound, this unusual spell of ‘poor’ weather has led to an unfortunate set of circumstances. Many hundreds of Brits are finding themselves with two weeks in one of Tenerife’s southern resorts with no sun and a great deal of time on their hands. Naturally, the tendency is therefore to spend more time in bars, cafes and restaurants parting with more of their significantly reduced euros than they would normally do, and has in turn led to many people complaining that there’s nothing to do in Tenerife without the sun and that it’s far more expensive than it used to be.
Well, here’s a simple and cost-effective solution to the whole question of what to do in Tenerife when it rains…
Get out of your resort and explore.
There are endless possibilities of places to see and things to do that will cost you a fraction of what you’ll spend by killing time in resort bars.
Other than the cost of getting there, exploring Tenerife’s fascinating landscape and historic towns doesn’t have to cost a céntimo if you don’t want it to. But by leaving your resort, you’re automatically increasing the value of your euro anyway, so lunch, a cold beer, a coffee, soft drinks, ice cream all cost considerably less around the island.
There are some excellent museums on Tenerife. Not the sort that house exhibits gathering dust that will threaten a revolt from your offspring the moment the front door looms into sight, these are positive fun houses! Like the Museum of Science and the Cosmos in La Laguna which has hundreds of wonderful scientific puzzles to play with including lifting a Mini with just one hand, getting lost in the mirror maze and casting shadows on a wall that stay there after you’ve moved.
Then there’s the Museum of Man & Nature in Santa Cruz with its morbid collection of Guanche mummies, or the Military Museum in Santa Cruz in a working barracks which has a scale reproduction of Nelson’s unsuccessful attack on Santa Cruz amongst its arsenal of military paraphernalia.
And if you go on a Sunday, every museum has free entrance.
To make things really easy for you, the brand new ‘Going Native in Tenerife’ guide gives you a comprehensive insight into 38 different towns and villages across Tenerife and tells you the best bits to see and the best places to eat. Along with local food, best-buys and a guide to the island’s many colourful fiestas, ‘Going Native in Tenerife’ will tempt you to get out and discover some of the beautiful places that exist on Tenerife.
Make your holiday go further; see the island and save money while you’re doing it, then come back and tell me there’s nothing to do on Tenerife when it rains!
CD Tenerife football club, the blanquiazules (the blue and whites) have prepared a series of initiatives, offers and events for the Christmas season.
From Wednesday, fans who spend over 30 euros in the official club shop - which is staying open 7 days a week (they need to grab every opportunity) - get a free ticket to the next home game against Sevilla Atlético (on Jan 3rd or 4th), as well as participating in a raffle for a basket of CD Tenerife goodies and two other raffles; for a ball signed by all the club members and junior kit.
As well as collaborating with homeless charity, Cáritas, as they do traditionally at this time of year, at around 1 p.m. on Thursday, December 18th, after training, various team members are to visit the children's ward of the Hospital Nuestra Señora de Candelaria and, on December 30th, they will do likewise, when visiting the Hospital Universitario de Canarias (HUC).
CD Tenerife players will also be putting in appearances at the Parque Infantil de Tenerife (PIT), from December 20th in the Fairs and Congress Center.
CD Tenerife football club, the blanquiazules (the blue and whites) have prepared a series of initiatives, offers and events for the Christmas season.
From Wednesday, fans who spend over 30 euros in the official club shop - which is staying open 7 days a week (they need to grab every opportunity) - get a free ticket to the next home game against Sevilla Atlético (on Jan 3rd or 4th), as well as participating in a raffle for a basket of CD Tenerife goodies and two other raffles; for a ball signed by all the club members and junior kit.
As well as collaborating with homeless charity, Cáritas, as they do traditionally at this time of year, at around 1 p.m. on Thursday, December 18th, after training, various team members are to visit the children's ward of the Hospital Nuestra Señora de Candelaria and, on December 30th, they will do likewise, when visiting the Hospital Universitario de Canarias (HUC).
CD Tenerife players will also be putting in appearances at the Parque Infantil de Tenerife (PIT), from December 20th in the Fairs and Congress Center.
Tomato growers in the Canary Islands have voiced their "amazement" at the Spanish government after a summit in which 520 million euros of Spanish aid is agreed for the Kingdom of Morocco, while the sector in the islands is still waiting for transport subsidies for 2007 and 2008, their businesses virtually paralyzed by debt.
(If they were thinking of throwing their rotten produce in protest, maybe they should consider throwing shoes instead. I hear it's all the rage these days!)
The United States has confirmed landings of illegal CIA flights in Tenerife. The plane which flew from Guantanamo to Los Rodeos airport on the north of Tenerife on April 12, 2004, "participated in a special rendition operation". That is to say, it moved one or more persons illegally, from one country to another without due process of extradition, nor judicial control whatsoever - and with the certain risk of being subject to torture.
The flight took the route, Guantanamo - Tenerife-Constanza (where it's suspected the CIA had a secret prison at that time) -Bucarest - Casablanca - Rabat - Washington although, it's claimed by US diplomats, was not carrying passengers nor prisoners during the brief time (2.5 hours for refuelling) it touched down on Spanish soil. (Though I might have heard something with bells on and, I don't think it's an approaching sleigh.)
The Madoff fraud has touched the well-known Tenerife financial guru, Ram Bhavnani (patriarch of a family of Indian traders, settled on the island for more than 30 years and considered one of the most influential financial visionaries in Spain), who had 2.45 million euros in a fund managed by Madoff. Bhavnani had invested via the Santander group, which has been affected by the scandal.
Banks to report transactions of €3,000 or more: "several new plans are being introduced to track down those guilty of tax fraud and will come into effect on 1st Jan 2009."
The Tenerife Cabildo's Nativity display is being well visited this year, as 16,300 viewers have been to see the 1,000 piece antique model since it was put on display to the public on December 1st.
The number of the winning (if the magician has done it right) lottery ticket is now suspended (along with our belief) from the Cabildo building.
75% of Canarians consider the public health services to be bad or just "regular".
Refuse collectors in San Miguel de Abona have parked up their lorries and gone on strike, leaving the municipality without a refuse collection service from the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The Miss Gay International Canarias 2008 beauty contest taking place at the Discoteca A Saudade in Santa Cruz, this week has been organized as a strategy to attract gay, lesbian, transsexual and bisexual tourists to the island. (There seems a kind of naive honesty in stating that.) The 11 candidates; from Santa Cruz, La Orotava, Granadilla, San Miguel de Abona, Puerto de la Cruz, Los Realejos, Guía de Isora, Adeje, Arona, Arafo and La Palma, compete to participate in the Miss Gay International contest taking place in London next October.
The Isla Baja Consortium (formed by the administrations of Buenavista del Norte, Los Silos, Garachico and El Tanque) and the Tenerife Corporation have jointly agreed on a plan to not go above 1,000 tourist beds and for the restoration of more old Canarian casonas (manor houses) as rural hotels.
In search of the perfect wave ... The adverse weather on Tuesday, on the north of the island, gave rise to high seas, particularly in Puerto de la Cruz, Garachico and Tacoronte. In Puerto de la Cruz, some daring types took advantage of the conditions to surf (see image).
Tomato growers in the Canary Islands have voiced their "amazement" at the Spanish government after a summit in which 520 million euros of Spanish aid is agreed for the Kingdom of Morocco, while the sector in the islands is still waiting for transport subsidies for 2007 and 2008, their businesses virtually paralyzed by debt.
(If they were thinking of throwing their rotten produce in protest, maybe they should consider throwing shoes instead. I hear it's all the rage these days!)
The United States has confirmed landings of illegal CIA flights in Tenerife. The plane which flew from Guantanamo to Los Rodeos airport on the north of Tenerife on April 12, 2004, "participated in a special rendition operation". That is to say, it moved one or more persons illegally, from one country to another without due process of extradition, nor judicial control whatsoever - and with the certain risk of being subject to torture.
The flight took the route, Guantanamo - Tenerife-Constanza (where it's suspected the CIA had a secret prison at that time) -Bucarest - Casablanca - Rabat - Washington although, it's claimed by US diplomats, was not carrying passengers nor prisoners during the brief time (2.5 hours for refuelling) it touched down on Spanish soil. (Though I might have heard something with bells on and, I don't think it's an approaching sleigh.)
The Madoff fraud has touched the well-known Tenerife financial guru, Ram Bhavnani (patriarch of a family of Indian traders, settled on the island for more than 30 years and considered one of the most influential financial visionaries in Spain), who had 2.45 million euros in a fund managed by Madoff. Bhavnani had invested via the Santander group, which has been affected by the scandal.
Banks to report transactions of €3,000 or more: "several new plans are being introduced to track down those guilty of tax fraud and will come into effect on 1st Jan 2009."
The Tenerife Cabildo's Nativity display is being well visited this year, as 16,300 viewers have been to see the 1,000 piece antique model since it was put on display to the public on December 1st.
The number of the winning (if the magician has done it right) lottery ticket is now suspended (along with our belief) from the Cabildo building.
75% of Canarians consider the public health services to be bad or just "regular".
Refuse collectors in San Miguel de Abona have parked up their lorries and gone on strike, leaving the municipality without a refuse collection service from the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The Miss Gay International Canarias 2008 beauty contest taking place at the Discoteca A Saudade in Santa Cruz, this week has been organized as a strategy to attract gay, lesbian, transsexual and bisexual tourists to the island. (There seems a kind of naive honesty in stating that.) The 11 candidates; from Santa Cruz, La Orotava, Granadilla, San Miguel de Abona, Puerto de la Cruz, Los Realejos, Guía de Isora, Adeje, Arona, Arafo and La Palma, compete to participate in the Miss Gay International contest taking place in London next October.
The Isla Baja Consortium (formed by the administrations of Buenavista del Norte, Los Silos, Garachico and El Tanque) and the Tenerife Corporation have jointly agreed on a plan to not go above 1,000 tourist beds and for the restoration of more old Canarian casonas (manor houses) as rural hotels.
In search of the perfect wave ... The adverse weather on Tuesday, on the north of the island, gave rise to high seas, particularly in Puerto de la Cruz, Garachico and Tacoronte. In Puerto de la Cruz, some daring types took advantage of the conditions to surf (see image).
Christmas is a high-risk sport, for thousands of rock-climbing or paragliding Santas (made in China) still fashionable as Christmas decorations on the island since the first one was strung up in around 2005 ... and, now for a growing number of sets of Three Kings as the idea is adapted to the local culture.
Christmas under the sea - matched in daftness only by the under-water flower arranging that happens in Los Silos each September - last Sunday, a bunch of divers from the SeaDive diving centre made their "typical" (it may be to them!) dive to place and decorate a Christmas tree at a depth of 18 meters under the waves (photo) in the bay of Radazul, El Rosario (Tenerife).
An Unusual Christmas Tree
"In the consumption of cocaine, [the Canaries] are above the national average." As they are for the use of ecstasy, tranquillizers and sleeping pills, but score below average - surprisingly - on smoking and the consumption of alcohol.
(Surely, they've omitted all the drinking undertaken by the expat community, which could take the archipelago back to the top of the league? :-)
Experts (in "stating the bleedin obvious", presumably, given the data on cocaine consumption) sound the alarm over an increase in violent behaviour related to the consumption of drugs.
Two out of three Canarians believe that the islands do not need foreign workers (those from small communities, over the age of 55 and with Spanish nationality, were more likely to think this), while 44% of those surveyed see immigration as negative for the Canaries (this is up from 38% earlier in the year and 34% in 2007) with unemployment, the economic crisis and immigration the principal problems that exist in the Canary Islands, according to an autumn 2008 barometer of public opinion.
(10 not-so-great things about the 1950s)
Bad weather Monday caused three flights to be diverted from Tenerife North to Reina Sofia airport in the south. Two were flights from the Spanish mainland and the third, an inter-island flight from Fuerteventura.
This article on consumer rights in The Independent, explains why your European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), may not always cover the cost of any medical care you might need while you're on holiday in Tenerife.
The price of used apartments in the Canary Islands has dropped by 4.21% during 2008. (Which seems a low drop compared to figures elsewhere.)
And finally, whilst in the UK, Alistair Darling implores everyone to spend, spend, spend to save the economy ... in the Canaries they make it the law: The Canarian Parliament has approved a draft set of incentives to kick economic activity up the backside, which proposes tax cuts to come into force on January 1.
Christmas is a high-risk sport, for thousands of rock-climbing or paragliding Santas (made in China) still fashionable as Christmas decorations on the island since the first one was strung up in around 2005 ... and, now for a growing number of sets of Three Kings as the idea is adapted to the local culture.
Christmas under the sea - matched in daftness only by the under-water flower arranging that happens in Los Silos each September - last Sunday, a bunch of divers from the SeaDive diving centre made their "typical" (it may be to them!) dive to place and decorate a Christmas tree at a depth of 18 meters under the waves (photo) in the bay of Radazul, El Rosario (Tenerife).
An Unusual Christmas Tree "In the consumption of cocaine, [the Canaries] are above the national average." As they are for the use of ecstasy, tranquillizers and sleeping pills, but score below average - surprisingly - on smoking and the consumption of alcohol.
(Surely, they've omitted all the drinking undertaken by the expat community, which could take the archipelago back to the top of the league? :-)
Experts (in "stating the bleedin obvious", presumably, given the data on cocaine consumption) sound the alarm over an increase in violent behaviour related to the consumption of drugs.
Two out of three Canarians believe that the islands do not need foreign workers (those from small communities, over the age of 55 and with Spanish nationality, were more likely to think this), while 44% of those surveyed see immigration as negative for the Canaries (this is up from 38% earlier in the year and 34% in 2007) with unemployment, the economic crisis and immigration the principal problems that exist in the Canary Islands, according to an autumn 2008 barometer of public opinion.
(10 not-so-great things about the 1950s)
Bad weather Monday caused three flights to be diverted from Tenerife North to Reina Sofia airport in the south. Two were flights from the Spanish mainland and the third, an inter-island flight from Fuerteventura.
This article on consumer rights in The Independent, explains why your European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), may not always cover the cost of any medical care you might need while you're on holiday in Tenerife.
The price of used apartments in the Canary Islands has dropped by 4.21% during 2008. (Which seems a low drop compared to figures elsewhere.)
And finally, whilst in the UK, Alistair Darling implores everyone to spend, spend, spend to save the economy ... in the Canaries they make it the law: The Canarian Parliament has approved a draft set of incentives to kick economic activity up the backside, which proposes tax cuts to come into force on January 1.
According to one study, carried out by Ciao for Philips, 28% use "stimulators" (a euphemism for vibrators) and another 43% of those who don't already, have expressed a desire to do so. Also discovered was that more than half of the population - especially women (no surprise) - consider foreplay to be very important in sexual relations. Average Canarians make love twice a week at most, 28% of them even plan it in advance, though 48.4% say that any time, day or night, is the right time - differing with the national average who mostly prefer sex just before going to sleep. And the favourite fantasy of 72% of those surveyed, is having sexual relations in prohibited or unusual places.
Spain is amongst the European countries with the least number of abusive alcohol drinkers. Only 3.4% of Spaniards consume alcohol at a rate considered a risk by the World Health Organization, the lowest figure since 1997. Ireland has the highest rate, apparently. (Now there's a surprise!)
Unelco-Endesa, the electricity company which supplies the majority of homes in Tenerife, has been informing its clients by letter that, since November 1st, it will be invoicing and collecting charges monthly instead of every other month as it had until now. (I can't help thinking that there's something Freudian about the fact that my spell checker wants to change Unelco to Unwelcome. :)
Your Christmas Wrapped Up ...Christmas program in Santa Cruz, Tenerife in downloadable format (PDF). 1,700 events during December and January; sporting events, lots of musical events in many varied styles, Christmas markets, Nativity displays and much more.
The town hall in La Laguna has increased their budget for Christmas events by 10 percent and are offering a program of 250 free activities over the holidays in various parts of the district.
And, if you haven't already, I suggest you check our calendar for more.
Adeje is to spend 4.5 million euros to improve two streets; Venezuela and Panamá, both of which lead into the Avenida Rafael Puig and the Avenida Centenario, two of the principal routes in Playa de Las Américas. The works will start in January and are expected to take 15 months to complete.
School kids reach for the stars. Pupils in Rochdale use school computers to link up with the telescope on Mount Teide on the holiday island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands and learn about the solar system.
Pound vs euro costs: How has pound's fall hit your holiday? Tenerife doesn't come out too badly in this list of prices, compared to some of the other destinations, but remember that the figures the Mail is quoting are almost certainly those in the resorts where prices are higher. Move outside of your comfort zone / hotel bubble and you'll be able to experience something much more authentic and at a fraction of the cost.
According to one study, carried out by Ciao for Philips, 28% use "stimulators" (a euphemism for vibrators) and another 43% of those who don't already, have expressed a desire to do so. Also discovered was that more than half of the population - especially women (no surprise) - consider foreplay to be very important in sexual relations. Average Canarians make love twice a week at most, 28% of them even plan it in advance, though 48.4% say that any time, day or night, is the right time - differing with the national average who mostly prefer sex just before going to sleep. And the favourite fantasy of 72% of those surveyed, is having sexual relations in prohibited or unusual places.
Spain is amongst the European countries with the least number of abusive alcohol drinkers. Only 3.4% of Spaniards consume alcohol at a rate considered a risk by the World Health Organization, the lowest figure since 1997. Ireland has the highest rate, apparently. (Now there's a surprise!)
Unelco-Endesa, the electricity company which supplies the majority of homes in Tenerife, has been informing its clients by letter that, since November 1st, it will be invoicing and collecting charges monthly instead of every other month as it had until now. (I can't help thinking that there's something Freudian about the fact that my spell checker wants to change Unelco to Unwelcome. :)
Your Christmas Wrapped Up ...Christmas program in Santa Cruz, Tenerife in downloadable format (PDF). 1,700 events during December and January; sporting events, lots of musical events in many varied styles, Christmas markets, Nativity displays and much more.
The town hall in La Laguna has increased their budget for Christmas events by 10 percent and are offering a program of 250 free activities over the holidays in various parts of the district.
And, if you haven't already, I suggest you check our calendar for more.
Adeje is to spend 4.5 million euros to improve two streets; Venezuela and Panamá, both of which lead into the Avenida Rafael Puig and the Avenida Centenario, two of the principal routes in Playa de Las Américas. The works will start in January and are expected to take 15 months to complete.
School kids reach for the stars. Pupils in Rochdale use school computers to link up with the telescope on Mount Teide on the holiday island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands and learn about the solar system.
Pound vs euro costs: How has pound's fall hit your holiday? Tenerife doesn't come out too badly in this list of prices, compared to some of the other destinations, but remember that the figures the Mail is quoting are almost certainly those in the resorts where prices are higher. Move outside of your comfort zone / hotel bubble and you'll be able to experience something much more authentic and at a fraction of the cost.
Dressed for Christmas with pretty lights in the trees. Ahh.
Photo: Plaza del Adelantado, originally uploaded by Anselmo Rodriguez.Dressed for Christmas with pretty lights in the trees. Ahh.
Photo: Plaza del Adelantado, originally uploaded by Anselmo Rodriguez.
As seen on December 11th, by Jose Mesa in Güimar (also in Candelaria, La Laguna, Santa Cruz). Be interesting to see when the images are live. (Via
Photo: 11 diciembre, Carretera del Puerto, originally uploaded by Mataparda.As seen on December 11th, by Jose Mesa in Güimar (also in Candelaria, La Laguna, Santa Cruz). Be interesting to see when the images are live. (Via
Photo: 11 diciembre, Carretera del Puerto, originally uploaded by Mataparda.