On Sunday, July 8, the village of Chirche will wake up early to receive the thousands of visitors that come for their annual Día de las Tradiciones (Day of Traditions).
Over twenty houses will open their doors and patios to demonstrate traditional tasks of wheat and coffee roasting, kneading bread, making kites, basketry ... The teacher and students at the school or the traditional healer will not miss the appointment. In the streets various acts are staged; a wedding, milking, moving ... finally, at 2:00 pm there is the procession and a dance by the group El Cardón.
Free transport from Guía de Isora will be increased this year due to high demand. Buses depart every half hour from 9.45h in front of the Civil Guard Barracks in the town of Guía de Isora, the last bus returning from Chirche at 4.30pm.
Also on Sunday, July 8, in La Laguna is the Romería Regional de San Benito Abad. This is a popular romeria that is held the second Sunday of July. It's held in honor of St. Benedict of Nursia, the patron saint of farmers of Tenerife. Declared of National Tourist Interest, it is the most representative romeria of the Canary Islands, in which participating groups coming from all corners of the archipelago. Events begin at mid-day.
The biggest events in July are the Fiestas del Carmen, the biggest of which is the Embarcación Virgen del Carmen (The Fishermen’s Fiesta) in Puerto de la Cruz, which this year takes place on Tuesday 10 July 2018.
There are various Romerías taking place during the month, and on July 25, the city of Santa Cruz will, once more, celebrate the trouncing of British Admiral Horatio Nelson, who tried unsuccessfully to conquer the island.
We've mentioned this event before, but from today, June 28 the Feeling Reggae Festival is currently taking place in Adeje, culminating in a concert at the Estadio Municipal de Fútbol de Adeje (Adeje Municipal Football Stadium), Av. Palo Mayor, 12, Adeje on Saturday 30 June 2018 from 6pm. Tickets for the Feeling Festival are on sale through tomaticket.es and ticketbell.es at the price of € 35. A percentage of the proceeds will go to projects to help people in social exclusion through the Pedro Rodríguez Ledesma Foundation and for the construction of a school in Gambia with Solidarios Canarios.
Every year on 22 June, in Puerto de la Cruz, in time for the festivities of San Juan (St John), all of the water fountains are decorated with fruit, flowers and vegetables.
The Festival of San Juan dates back to pre-Christian times and marks the arrival the longest day of the year. It's celebrated all over Spain, but especially in coastal regions where people head for the beach, build bonfires and party throughout the night.
Then if you're up early enough, or still up maybe, on the morning of Sunday 24 June 2018, at the old port in Puerto de la Cruz, watch as a multitude of not always willing goats get their annual bath in the waters of the sea. Said to be good for ridding them of fleas.
The Día de las Alfombras (Day of the Carpets) for Corpus Christi in La Orotava this year falls on Thursday 7 June 2018. Go along to see - and more importantly smell - for yourself as the atmosphere on the day is tremendous, with families and groups coming together to make the carpets, as well as from the heady scents of all the flower petals, greenery and toasted plant material. It will also be a chance to see the massive sand carpet in front of the town hall before the procession walks over them and destroys them all.
Looking at these photos fills me with awe, partly as so little has changed. All of the familiar buildings in La Orotava; church, town hall, Casa de las Balcones, of course, appear exactly as we know them today, but also there is the realisation that many decades and a lot of history has since passed and the world has actually changed beyond recognition.
And on Sunday 3 June 2018, something more traditional with food, wine, fiesta and family at the Romería de San Antonio de Padua in Granadilla de Abona.
