After more than 20 years, posts here will now only be occasional (see why) for big events such as Tenerife Carnaval, so please "Like" and follow our Facebook Page because that's where to see future updates.

Meteorite falls in the North of Tenerife

Artist's impression, sort of, complete with snow capped mountain and palm trees!

The Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos (Museum of Science and the Cosmos) in La Laguna, Tenerife, has detected and confirms the landing of a body from outer space between Icod and Buenavista. No one knows what remote place it may come from, nor how long it has been traveling through the universe to end up trapped by the gravity of a small planet such as Earth.

Statistically, meteorites generally fall into the sea, which occupies more than two-thirds of the planet's surface, so arriving on land is also not usual. And yet, our unusual protagonist came to fall on the surface of Tenerife, which is just 2,034 square kilometres of the 510.1 million that make up the blue planet.

At 00:50:26 on the 14th of this month, a meteorite fell through our atmosphere and crashed in the north of Tenerife, as the Museum of Science and the Cosmos has managed to detect and confirm thanks to the recent acquisition of a camera capable of capturing these observations.

This phenomenon was also captured by another camera located on Mount Teide, which is part of the Slovak AMOS project, so that both tests have made it possible to triangulate and locate the approximate location of its fall, being located between the municipalities of Icod and Buenavista del Norte.

There may be, in the area of ​​the meteorite fall, small pieces of between 10 and 50 grams in weight, with a size similar to a coin and with a blackish appearance. And any reader who finds one of those pieces, must remember it's as a result of a gigantic coincidence that it ended up in his hands.

Cae un meteorito en el Norte de Tenerife

Major epidemics in Tenerife: Typhoid

El Lazareto Hospital in the El Cabo neighbourhood of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Real Academia Nacional de Medicina. Members of the Benemérita (Civil Guard) and Red Cross, nurses and patient on a stretcher, 1918.

The year 1906 was a very turbulent and unfortunate one for Santa Cruz de Tenerife - then capital of the Archipelago - because the provisional status in the mayor's office and in the civil government, some incumbents and others being accidental or interim, would give rise to a social environment beset by poverty and unemployment, due to lack of investments. To all this would be added the dramatic situation in in the city in the last months of that year, due to the epidemic that some believed was typhus and others bubonic plague.

The discord began in October, when a large number of dead rats appeared in the area of ​​the docks, ravines and sewers in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and two members of a humble family who lived in a shack in the Cuesta de los Melones district - today Residencial Anaga - died, which was diagnosed by the doctors as "petechial typhus", isolating the rest of the relatives in the Lazareto (maritime quarantine station turned Isolation Hospital); however, as no official statement was provided, nor was the population informed, the fact would cause alarm to spread and the authorities to be reproached for their silence.

Once fears of an epidemic were confirmed, the situation became so chaotic that uncertainty and terror paralyzed citizen life, to which the indecision of the authorities would contribute. Many people, mostly port workers and those in small industries who remained unemployed, were in such a distressing situation that despite the fact that cheap kitchens had been set up, large street protests took place to protest isolation, hunger and lack of work.

Mayor Pedro Schwartz returned to his post, creating the health commission, in charge of carrying out cleaning and hygiene in neighbourhoods, disinfecting drinking water, repairing sewers, burning the houses where the first cases had appeared, and taking the pigs out of town, even if they were not to blame.

Because basic necessities began to be scarce and prices of sugar, soap, salted fish, etc., rose, the new mayor, Carlos Calzadilla, acknowledging his impotence to solve the problem, telegraphed the Ministry of the Interior, exposing the critical state of the situation, asking the Ministries of Development and War to promote the works that were paralyzed, before the desperation of the workers caused serious disturbances as they were suffering from hunger and misery.

When it seemed everything was under control, the authorities in Las Palmas requested Madrid to place Santa Cruz de Tenerife incommunicado to avoid contagion, attaching the statements of eighteen doctors who certified that the disease in Tenerife was not typhus but bubonic plague. The Count of Romanones, Minister of the Interior, replied that neither national nor sanitary laws authorized the isolation of cities and regions, as it would mean sentencing them to death.

La Laguna also asked Madrid to completely isolate itself from Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which would give rise to a climate of tension and insecurity, when the people of La Laguna took to the streets and destroyed a section of the tram tracks and, at kilometre 8 of the general highway, they established a checkpoint to fumigate and disinfect the goods that arrived from the capital, prohibiting the passage of anything that offered the least doubt.

The island of La Palma joined this nonsense, and a crowd armed with sticks and stones prevented passengers of the León y Castillo steamer who arrived from the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife from disembarking.

Due to the insecurity and tension existing in the islands, and given the alarm that had been unleashed, the Government sent Dr. Luis Comenge, director of Urban Hygiene of Barcelona, ​​to take charge of the sanitary measures and report on the reality of the epidemic. After making a detailed study, he communicated to Madrid that the news was unfounded as the disease in Santa Cruz de Tenerife was not the plague. In a meeting held in the civil government, when asked if he was in favour of the isolations and sanitary cordons, he answered: "who can cordon off and isolate the rats, fleas and flies, the conductors of the diseases".

We consider that this statement was for political reasons, since a study carried out by Dr. Gumersindo Robayna Galván shows that the disease was pestile in nature, since it was especially spread by the Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis), the flea of ​​the gray rat that transmits the plague, which appeared in 80 percent of the people studied; therefore it was a bubonic plague, and no cases of the pneumonic variety were found.

Dr. Comenge, given the regrettable state and lack of hygiene of many tenements in the El Toscal neighborhood and caves in the Santos ravine, would ensure that Don Juan Febles Campos made the premises of the asylum available to the City Council so that its residents could stay there, and the Captain General vacated the El Bufadero battery to welcome families in need.

Also, in order to attend to those most in need, he handed over the 5,000 pesetas that the Government had granted him for carrying out this Commission, created the Breastfeeding Institute, in the former convent of San Francisco, and donated his gold watch for a raffle that he had organized to raise funds. For this reason, on February 9, 1907, the City Council granted him the title of Adoptive Son and gave his name to Calle de San Francisco, a designation that fortunately was recovered again in 1936.

When the normality and the activity of the population were restored, the mayor published an edict authorizing the carnivals, which was an unequivocal sign that the city had overcome the crisis and that the chicharreros had not lost their adventurous spirit, and on May 3 the religious function of the Fiestas de La Cruz were celebrated, although the population would take months to recover from the psychological damage it had suffered.

During this epidemic the doctors again set an example of service to the community, carrying out sacrificial, commendable and priceless work. Of these we will highlight Agustín Pisaca Fernández, who, being a municipal doctor, was confined in the Isolation Hospital - The Lazareto - during the five months that the epidemic lasted, organizing, assisting and living with 83 patients, managing to reduce mortality from 37 to 9%. Upon returning home, his two daughters ran out to hug him, becoming infected and dying days later.

During this time, home service was provided by Dr. José Naveiras Zamorano and Dr. Luis García Ramos. Dr. Diego Costa e Izquierdo, upon learning that his homeland was suffering from a contagious disease, hastened his return from Paris and made himself available to the authorities. Dr. Costa played an important role in the cholera epidemic of 1893.

Five people died in this epidemic.

* Official Chronicler of Santa Cruz of Tenerife

Grandes epidemias en Tenerife

Tenerife in July 2020

Embarcación de la Virgen del Carmen in Puerto de la Cruz in other times

July does not have any national public holidays, but there are a few public holidays at municipal level this month, which are as follows:
  • 14 July: Festivity of the Virgen del Carmen in Puerto de la Cruz
  • 16 July: Festivity of Nuestra Señora del Carmen in Santiago del Teide
  • 27 July: Monday following the Festivity of Santa Ana in Candelaria
With councils, understandably, diverting the cash that would have been spent on fiestas to vulnerable residents and those in most need, these, at best, just tell you when to expect shops and town halls in those areas to be closed for the day. And even if the state of alarm has come to an end, the so-called new normality still requires social distancing and prohibits crowds, so we can merely point out what events are NOT taking place this July that we hope will be back in 2021.
  • More than 11,000 people attended the Romería de San Benito Abad last year in La Laguna. Said to be the most representative romería of the Canary Islands, it is usually held on the second Sunday of July. 
  • More than 130,000 people have attended the Embarcación de la Virgen del Carmen in Puerto de la Cruz that usually takes place on the Tuesday before 16 July and thus would have been on the 14th. 
  • Chirche's Traditions Day has been celebrated in July for almost two decades with local residents and volunteers recreating what daily life was like during the 40-50s of the 20th century, characterised down to the last detail. Last year more than 6,000 visitors arrived.
  • And on 25 July, Santa Cruz usually reenacts the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1797) to celebrate its proud victory over that dastardly English Admiral, Horatio Nelson, whose failed attempt on the city cost him his right arm. This year, just one battle is to be recreated, without public in attendance, recorded so it can be shown online. 

Tenerife Land of Eternal Christmas

Sunbathing SantaDesert Island ChristmasScuba Diving SantaTropical Santa
Santa's Having a Whale of a TimeSurfing SantaWaterski SantaCamel Rodeo Santa
With a wide range of products in each design, click the pics (above) to see the full selections.