Monday, February 28, 2022
Mayor of Garachico defends the funicular as a solution to the difficulties on the roads
Hotel overnight stays soar 764% in the Canary Islands in January and exceed 3.8 million
Stereotypical stock image of hotels and beach |
Sunday, February 27, 2022
The Trigger's Broom of Tenerife Carnival
The City Council presents the new sceptre of the Carnival queen |
Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, through the Autonomous Organism for Festivities and Recreational Activities (OAFAR), presented this Wednesday the new sceptre of the Carnival queen. An exclusive creation for Santa Cruz carnivals that will replace the current one, which dates from the second half of the 1960s. The new piece made by jeweller Juan Gil, luthier David Sánchez and wood turner Rubén Expósito, is made up of various stones that have been part of the costumes of the Carnival queens between 1979 and 2020.
The act was presided over by the mayor of the city, José Manuel Bermúdez, who was accompanied by the Councillor for Fiestas, Alfonso Cabello; the director of the Carnival, Enrique Camacho; and the craftsman Juan Gil and his team.
In his intervention, the mayor recalled that "tonight the Queen's Gala would have taken place if we had respected the traditional dates of our Carnival before omicron appeared and to replace it, in a modest way, what we have done is present a new sceptre. Carnival is our sign of identity, it is a feeling that is deeply embedded in the hearts of our people. For me, one of the most beautiful things that there can be as a chicharrero is to deliver the sceptre to the queen of the Carnival”. "Linked to the Carnival is the largest associative movement that this city has, almost 10,000 people, who need their performances, so it is key that they can have an objective such as rehearsals and competitions," added Bermúdez.
The Councillor for Festivities, Alfonso Cabello, stated that "it is a privilege to be able to have an exclusive artisan element that will be delivered for the first time at the Election Gala to be held this June." According to the person in charge of OAFAR, "the sceptre perfectly represents the idiosyncrasy and the feeling of the Santa Cruz festival".
Juan Gil, creator of the new carnival baton, acknowledges that "from the first moment this piece has been a real challenge, in which I have tried to capture the Santa Cruz festive heritage, combining the brightness and illusion that this celebration exudes". He also referred to the "multidisciplinary work with the craftsmen David Sánchez and Rubén Expósito, essential to have made the creation of this unique piece possible".
The sceptre has a length of 42.3 cm and is formed in its upper part by an element reminiscent of the añepas, a symbol that represents the power of the Mencey (Guanche Kings). This element is made up of 7 pieces with 6 welds made of sterling silver with sheets between 0.7 and 1.2 mm thick. The central body is a cold fusion by casting high-density epoxy resin on an African Makassar ebony support that brings together the stones of the different carnival reigns. The lower part is made up of 5 pieces joined by 4 welds, also in sterling silver with 0.6 and 1.2 mm sheets that show a design inspired by the traditional Canarian ring. Both this section and the central body show a turning to the axis and another eccentric that allows you to achieve a transition from circular to oval section.
The costumes that have contributed an element of their precious stones to the new sceptre are: “Tangerine Dream” (1979) by Justo Gutiérrez and Leo Martínez; “Frivolous Paris” (1983) by Miguel Ángel Castilla; “Tajaraste” (1987), “Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile” (1988), “Miss Dior” (2007), “Bewitched” (2009), “In Wonderland” (2010), “One Hundred Years of History” (2011) by Leo Martínez; “Pim, pam, pum… fire” (1993), “Diva” (1994) and “Palabras Mágicas” (1995) by M&M; “Manila Yerichana” (2000) “Wednesday of the full moon” (2004), “Touching the skin of the sky” (2005) and “The Chariot of Glory” (2006) by Juan Carlos Armas; “Láchesis” (2003), “The Golden Age” (2008), “Empire” (2012), “Volare” (2013) by Santi Castro; “Powerful Amazon” (2014) and “White Sand of the Desert” (2016) by Daniel Pages; “Áurea” (2015), “Madame Soleil” (2017) and “Renacida” (2018) by Jorge González; “La Nuit” (2019) and “Sentir” (2020) by Sedomir.
El Ayuntamiento presenta el nuevo cetro de la reina del Carnaval (Via)
Now, lovely as it is (better picture here) - no detraction is intended and the symbolism and re-use of elements is inspired - HOWEVER, as there was no carnival and no new carnival queen last year, Santa Cruz instead elected three Guardians of the Sceptre at the virtual only gala. So if the sceptre that the Guardians of the Sceptre have been elected to guard until a new queen can be chosen in 2022, isn't the sceptre that will be presented to the new carnival queen in June, doesn't this (presumably accidental irony) make it into something of a Trigger's Broom Paradox (Ship of Theseus for the academics) or is that just me?
Tenerife closed 2021 with the second highest number of employed in the last eleven years
Saturday, February 26, 2022
The Night of the Comparsas
Comparsa Los Cariocas 2019 |
Santa Cruz lists 1,324 of the city's buildings with architectural values for protection
Pigeons in a plaza in Santa Cruz de Tenerife |
Friday, February 25, 2022
10 things you will miss today on the first Friday of Carnival in Santa Cruz
From the Opening Parade on Friday, 1 Mar 2019 |
Night of the Carnival Orchestras
Edwin Rivera at Carnival in Santa Cruz de Tenerife 5 March 2019 |
Carnival in Santa Cruz de Tenerife should have taken to the streets tonight and it would have been the first night of dancing in the streets and squares, after the Carnival Opening Parade, had it been possible to follow the usual schedule - prevented, obviously, by the ongoing pandemic. So, while we wait to hear whether there will be any such events in the streets with carnival being held in June this year, here is the recording of the program, La Noche de las Orquestras (The Night of the Orchestras) made for the Virtual Carnival last year.
Auditorio de Tenerife offers a novel organ and percussion concert this Sunday
Organist Daniel Oyarzabal and percussionist Joan Castelló |
Thursday, February 24, 2022
Two years since the lockdown of the H-10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel due to COVID-19
H-10 Costa Adeje Palace |
More customs of Lardy Thursday
Barbeque of pork products |
Batatas asadas rellenas de champiñones (Mushroom Stuffed Roasted Sweet Potatoes)
Batatas asadas rellenas de champiñones (Mushroom Stuffed Roasted Sweet Potatoes) |
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Las Burras return to Güímar as an exhibition
The Cueva del Viento had 12,499 visitors last year despite the Covid limitations
La Cueva del Viento |
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Carnival 2022 in La Orotava (25 Feb - 6 Mar)
Francisco Linares García, Mayor of La Orotava, presents the Program and Poster |
Monday, February 21, 2022
Winston Churchill in Santa Cruz de Tenerife
![]() |
Winston Churchill with Aristotle Onassis in Tenerife in 1959 |
On February 21, 1959, at half past eight in the morning, the yacht Christina, owned by the Greek shipowner Aristotle Onassis, arrived at the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
A large number of onlookers came to the South Pier to see one of the best vessels of this type that had arrived at the port. She was 99.06 meters long and had a seaplane and a car on board. This luxurious yacht had cabins to accommodate 14 guests, in addition to the private owner, those for his secretary, a sergeant from Scotland Yard, who served as his escort, and the 42 people who made up the crew. The billionaire was so cranky that the boat, the seaplane, and the car all shared the same colours: white and blue.
While the Greek tycoon was in Casablanca, along with his wife Athina and other companions, he learned that Winston Churchill, 84, was on holiday at the Mamounia hotel in Marrakesh, with his wife Clementine and their eldest daughter, Diana Spencer-Churchill. Onassis took his seaplane and flew to the beautiful Moroccan imperial city to meet the former British prime minister. During the meeting he suggested that he accompany him on the trip that he was going to make to the Canary Archipelago, since in Tenerife he had to deal with certain issues regarding his fleet, Olympic Maritime S.A.
Churchill gladly accepted the invitation, for the Islands were familiar to him because his mother had been here on holiday and had told him of its beauty; furthermore, in 1941, when he was prime minister, Churchill had been the main protagonist of Operation Pilgrim (to occupy the Canary Islands if Franco allied himself with Hitler).
On February 18, the two families left the port of Safi, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, arriving at the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the 21st, at 8:30 a.m.
Sir Winston Churchill, after taking a look at the city, preferred to remain on board and said only to the reporters: "I am not in the mood for an interview with the press, but I greet this beautiful island and the Spanish people very cordially through the journalists".
Onassis went ashore, heading to La Marina street, to meet with Mr. Willian Lucas, director of Cory Hermanos S.A., the consignee of his ships in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
As William Lucas had known Churchill since 1949, during a trip in which they coincided on the Queen Mary, returning from the US, the president sent him a letter from London thanking him for the hospitality received in Tenerife.
The two ladies, accompanied by Mary Lucas, wife of the consignee, after touring Anaga Avenue and Rambla de Santa Cruz, headed to Puerto de la Cruz to enjoy that tourist spot and contemplate the beautiful valley of La Orotava.
As the ladies commented to their husbands on returning to the yacht about the beauties of the places they had visited, the illustrious visitors headed to Puerto de la Cruz in their Fiat 500 convertible, driven by Onassis. A white panama hat covered Churchill from the sun.
During the tour of the North Tenerife road they stopped several times to admire the landscape and the wonderful views of Mount Teide and the Valley of La Orotava. Upon arriving in Puerto de la Cruz, they were received by the mayor, Isidoro Luis Carpenter, who invited them to sit on the terrace of the Lido San Telmo pools, where, while they drank some whiskeys, Churchill smoked one of the cigars specially made for him by J. Cuesta in Havana. Onassis paid for the drink, leaving 1,000 pesetas as a tip for the waiter, an amount that tripled his salary for the month. Upon leaving the swimming pools, where Lago Martiánez is located today, a large number of English tourists were waiting for them on Colón Avenue, offering them an affectionate tribute in the form of applause, to which Churchill responded with a smile and with his fingers making the Victory vee.
They returned to Santa Cruz in the official car of the Civil Government, because the temperature had dropped at that time of the afternoon in the North of Tenerife.
By nightfall they were back aboard the Christina. At 9 pm that night they offered a dinner to the local authorities, who were accompanied by their respective wives. The civil governor of the province, Santiago Galindo Herrero; the president of the Island Council of Tenerife, Juan Ravina Méndez; the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Gumersindo Robayna Galván, and the assistant to the British consul, Eric Lionel Fox.
It was a pleasant evening, in which there were typical songs and dances, by Los Huaracheros and the Flores del Sur group. The event ended with a toast to the good relations between Britain and Spain. They also visited La Palma and Gran Canaria.
Sunday, February 20, 2022
Guamasa to host solidarity run on March 26
I CARRERA SOLIDARIA GUAMASA |
Saturday, February 19, 2022
The Monument to Franco, the last of the recognitions to the dictator in Spain
Monument to Franco |
Friday, February 18, 2022
Puerto de la Cruz International Carnival 2022
Puerto de la Cruz International Carnival 2022 |
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Papas rellenas de carne a la lagunera (Stuffed potatoes La Laguna style)
Papas rellenas de carne a la lagunera (Stuffed potatoes La Laguna style) |
These La Laguna-style stuffed potatoes are a very simple dish.
Ingredients:
(For 4 servings)
- 8 medium potatoes
- 600 gr. minced lean pork meat
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 3 sprigs of parsley
- Salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 eggs
For the sauce
- 75ml Of olive oil
- 1 onion
- 1 glass of white wine
- 2 cloves of garlic
- parsley
- 1 bay leaf
- saffron
- Water
Method:
Mix the minced meat with the garlic and parsley very finely chopped, the eggs and salt and pepper. Knead well so that everything is mixed and let it rest while we prepare the potatoes.
Peel and wash the potatoes. With a corer or a hollower - melon baller perhaps - remove the central flesh from the potatoes, until they form one cm thick 'bowls'.
With a teaspoon fill the potatoes with meat.
(If you have meat left over, form some meatballs with it to serve alongside, or reserve for another meal. The potato balls that you remove with the hollower can be reserved to fry them and accompany another dish, or add them together with the stuffed potatoes.)
In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and seal the potatoes on the side where the filling was introduced, so that in this way the meat does not come out when you cook them. Reserve.
In a mortar, crush the garlic and parsley.
Finely chop the onion and brown in the oil where you had sealed the potatoes, add the white wine and let it cook for a couple of minutes. Add the saffron, the bay leaf and add back the stuffed potatoes, cover them with water, at which point add the crushed garlic and parsley.
Leave to cook until the potatoes are tender, if necessary adding more water. Check the seasoning halfway through cooking in case it is necessary to add a little salt.
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Parliament asked again for the creation of an investigation into the Piedra de los Cochinos
![]() |
Entrance to the gallery at Piedra de los Cochinos |