Tenerife Carnival Dates for 2010

Carnival 2010 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife

The main events of carnival in Santa Cruz de Tenerife will be:

• Wednesday 10 February 2010 - Election of the Carnival Queen
• Friday 12 February 2010 - Opening Parade
• Tuesday 16 February 2010 - Carnival Main Parade
• Wednesday 17 February 2010 - Burial of the Sardine
• Sunday February 21 2010: Parade of Vintage Cars 10 a.m. onwards.

Public Holidays in Tenerife 2010

2010

The Spanish government has today published the labour calendar for 2010, which in the Canaries will include the following 10 public holidays:

• 1 January - New Year (Año Nuevo)
• 6 January - Epiphany / Three Kings Day (Epifanía)
• 1 April - Easter Thursday (Jueves Santo)
• 2 April - Good Friday (Viernes Santo)
• 1 May - Labour Day (Fiesta del Trabajo)
• 12 October - National Day (Fiesta Nacional de España)
• 1 November - All Saints (Todos los Santos)
• 6 December - Constitution Day (Día de la Constitución)
• 8 December - Immaculate Conception (Inmaculada Concepción)
• 25 December - Christmas Day (Natividad del Señor).

In addition to these there are another two Canarian specific holidays (May 30th, for Día de Canarias (Canaries Day) and 15 August, Asunción de la Virgen (Assumption of Mary), plus another holiday specific to each island, which in Tenerife is: 2 February, Virgen de la Candelaria (Candlemas) and then a couple more that are specific to each municipal council area (for instance, Santa Cruz always declares Carnival Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday) as a holiday in the city.)

Although, in Spain, there is a legal right to the days off on public holidays (there's no such right in Britain), if you work in the tourist sector, it's pretty unlikely you will! If you have business to do in Town Halls, banks, etc., they'll be shut on these days. If you're visiting, don't worry tourist provisions carry on as normal.

Via: GomeraVerde

More information: Public holidays in the Canary Islands

Sex at bargain prices because of the crisis

Last year it was reported that the word "crisis" overtook the word "sex" in internet searches for the first time, so it's clear priorities have shifted. 

A recent report (via Gomeraverde) tells the tale of Mili, a prostitute in the south of Tenerife, who, before the crisis, worked 3 hours per day to obtain an average monthly income of around 3,000 euros. Now, she says, she works as many as 12 hours per day, but doesn't manage to earn over 800 euros per month.

It's reported that, because of a decrease in clients, many of the girls have been obliged to drop the prices of their services to attract "more careful" (read poorer / meaner) customers, or to accept clients they would normally refuse, advertising services at "anti-crisis prices" starting as low as 20 euros. 

Meanwhile, sex shops aren't reporting any drop in trade, saying that while people are spending less on going out, they are spending more time at home (presumably, playing with their "toys") and sexologists are reporting a boom, as couples realize that it's cheaper to seek counselling than it is to separate.

Labour Day, Día del Trabajador

This is what a worker used to look like

Today, May 1st is a national Public Holiday in Spain and this weekend is a puente (bridge), or long weekend for people to escape and do something enjoyable. That is, unless you're one of the majority unemployed, when really, Worker's Day (celebrated by not working), doesn't seem much different to any other day. 

Día del Trabajador (May Day), like most Bank Holiday weekends (anywhere), means roads come to a chaotic standstill as everyone tries to escape elsewhere and return later, while road deaths - through excess speed - increase in inverse proportion. It's an illogical conundrum.

Had we been able to tell you earlier, you could have gone along and protested in Santa Cruz at mid-day about the terrible conditions in your job (if you have one), or the lack of one (if you don't). The aim was to "publicly denounce the systematic loss of rights that workers suffer, with the excuse of the current economic crisis."

Tenerife's Village of the Damned

Sanatorio de Abona Church Wusel007 [CC BY-SA 3.0]

The corridor stretches interminably before me punctuated by open doorways, some of which are portals to small empty rooms while others lead to corridors which matrix into hundreds more rooms and yet more corridors. The walls are graffiti’d stone with naked wires protruding at intervals along their length and beneath my feet cement dust and rubble cover small beige tiles. In places the plaster has fallen from the ceiling revealing hollow space beneath the roof. Through the glassless windows the sun’s blinding glare bounces around the dry scrubland rippling the air on the horizon above the ocean.

The echo of my footsteps is joined by the incessant cry of the wind which is following my every move, darting through open windows and rushing down corridors. At each new doorway I stop and peer inside at rusting bed frames and discarded Coke tins. Most of the cells are small squares with a tiled bathroom in one corner where fittings have been roughly torn from the wall leaving patches of exposed plaster in the tiling.

Feeling like a character in a Sergio Leone movie or on a level of Silent Hill, each new doorway holds the threat that I might stumble across a squatter, an itinerant or the ghost of one of the inmates this village was built to house. I’m peering into the gloom of a particularly dark room when there’s an explosion of noise directly behind me which sends my heart crashing into my ribcage and my head and neck sinking into my shoulders. My hair follicles register movement as the panic stricken wings of a pigeon flap the air centimetres from my head. I must have spooked it as it dozed in one of the gaps in the wall. The pigeon takes an erratic flight path beneath the low ceiling before veering through a window frame to the right and into the glare.

A couple of weeks ago Jack stumbled across an article about a ghost town on Tenerife’s Arico coast beside the TF1 motorway; an entire abandoned village which was constructed to house lepers. Despite frequent trips to the south of the island and an afternoon searching that exact area looking for the ‘Happy Donkeys’ (that’s another story) we’d never spotted anything that could remotely fit the bill of what the article was describing. So on Thursday, on our way back from a meeting in the south of the island, we decided to seek the ghost village out.

Leaving the TF1 and driving down to the beaches of Abades the outline of the empty church with its huge stone cross and 30 or so deserted buildings shone out from the headland like a beacon. How on earth we had managed not to see the village before now is baffling. I can only think that as Abades looks newly built we must have taken the empty buildings for just a half completed project, which in essence it is; only this one’s over 60 years old.

The village was originally conceived at the end of the Spanish Civil War when leprosy was rife, Tenerife alone having 197 known cases. The policy at that time was to house sufferers in isolation in a climate that was considered beneficial to health; hence the choice of the arid, sunny and breezy east coast of Tenerife, miles away from any large population centres. Under Franco’s command plans to build a vast leper sanatorium and place it under control of the military were put into place.

Designs were drawn up by José Enrique Marrero Regalado, a local architect from Granadilla de Abona whose works include the African Market in Santa Cruz and the Basilica in Candelaria.

Work was suspended in the 1940s when the use of Dapsone in the treatment of leprosy provided a breakthrough in halting progress of the disease and it was determined that sufferers responded better to treatment in the comfort of their own homes.

Building work stopped and the site was abandoned.

In 2002 an Italian developer bid for the site from Arico ayuntamiento and work began to create a huge tourist complex with a golf course and 3,000 beds. But in 2003 the Ley de Moratoria Turística (building moratorium) was passed which severely restricted the size and type of tourism developments permitted within open countryside in order to protect the environment.

So once again plans were thwarted and the village remained as it is today; a ghost village just metres from the island’s main motorway and yet strangely invisible – just as its original inhabitants were intended to be.

There are many fascinating parts of Tenerife waiting to be discovered by those who chose to leave the standard tourist trail and explore the Real Tenerife.

The Abandoned Leper Village of Tenerife

Lying on a beach all day every day might make for a relaxing holiday, but memories of it fade as quickly as your sun tan. Island Drives is aimed at travellers who want to experience the real essence of Tenerife, not just its pools and beaches. If you want an unforgettable holiday as opposed to a good one, Real Tenerife Island Drives will make the difference.

PS: Observant readers will recognise this as the location - that stood in for Mexico - in the final 2-part episode 'Awakening' of Silent Witness Series 20 2017.



Emilia Fox and David Caves introduce 'Awakening' - Silent Witness

How many miles from the UK to Tenerife?

A question that people often ask, is "How far is Tenerife from the UK?" The distance between London, England and the capital of the island of Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, is approximately 1,800 miles or 2,897 kilometres, "as the crow flies". But we haven't seen many crows on holiday, so here are the distances between the main UK & Irish airports offering direct flights to Tenerife:

Flights from England to Tenerife
Birmingham (BHX) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1849 miles (2976 kilometres)
Blackpool (BLK) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1904 miles (3064 kilometres)
Bournemouth (BOH) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1748 miles (2813 kilometres)
Bristol (BRS) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1764 miles (2839 kilometres)
Doncaster Sheffield (DSA) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1926 miles (3100 kilometres)
Durham Tees (MME) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1979 miles (3184 kilometres)
East Midlands (EMA) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1881 miles (3027 kilometres)
Leeds Bradford (LBA) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1936 miles (3116 kilometres)
Liverpool (LPL) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1880 miles (3026 kilometres)
London Luton (LTN) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1846 miles (2971 kilometres)
London Gatwick (LGW) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1809 miles (2911 kilometres)
London Gatwick (LGW) - Tenerife North (TFN) - 1775 miles (2857 kilometres)
London Stansted (STN) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1861 miles (2995 kilometres)
Manchester (MAN) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1893 miles (3046 kilometres)
Newcastle (NCL) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 2007 miles (3230 kilometres)
Source: Great Circle Mapper and Metric Conversions Via: Yahoo Answers.

Flights from Scotland to Tenerife
The distance to Tenerife from Scottish airports will be a wee bit further:
Aberdeen (ABZ) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 2132 miles (3431 kilometres)
Edinburgh (EDI) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 2034 miles (3273 kilometres)
Glasgow (GLA) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 2013 miles (3240 kilometres)
Prestwick (PIK) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1988 miles (3199 kilometres)

Flights from Wales to Tenerife
Cardiff (CWL) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1752 miles (2820 kilometres)

Flights from Northern Ireland to Tenerife
Belfast (BFS) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1909 miles (3072 kilometres)

Flights from Eire to Tenerife
Cork (ORK) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1695 miles (2727 kilometres)
Dublin (DUB) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1828 miles (2941 kilometres)
Shannon (SNN) - Tenerife South (TFS) - 1746 miles (2810 kilometres)

We were quite amused by World Airport Codes who not only quote the distance between London Gatwick (LGW) and Tenerife South (TFS), but also estimate how long it would take in various types of aircraft. It's a pity the Boeing 747 or Airbus A340 are not operated on the route, because the estimate is that they'd cut the time down to 3 hours and 12 minutes. However, be glad your holiday flight isn't in a Cessna SkyHawk, as they estimate the journey time from Gatwick to Tenerife in one of those as 12 hours and 46 minutes. 


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A complete idiots guide to Tenerife

Tenerife's elephants at the Loro Parque. Photo: Gerald England.

From research carried out by The Association for British Travel Agents (ABTA) and Thomas Cook, The Telegraph this week has compiled a list (via Boing Boing) of 20 ridiculous complaints made by holidaymakers (obviously, a companion guide to their 20 stupid questions asked by tourists.) Stories like this make me want to crawl into a hole or apologise profusely for being British, but it helps one to understand why people have some pretty weird perceptions about Tenerife, when you discover that this is the way some folk's brains work.

So, for those who still harbour misconceptions, here are answers to just some of people's stupid questions, as they might apply to Tenerife:
 

Lots of the sand in Tenerife is black. It's not yellow (except the imported bits) and it's not white. It's black and this doesn't mean it's dirty. It may still be too sandy for some people, but the colour is a bonus, designed so you can see the grains in your egg sandwiches (paraphrasing TV presenter Juliet Morris on a visit to Puerto de la Cruz.)

You'll generally have to leave the resort to see too many (Canarian) Spanish people in Tenerife! It only takes about 4 hours to fly back to the UK (depending which airport) from Tenerife, about the same amount of time as it took to get there. And, if it makes you feel better, it will take the Americans much longer, because it's their turn to cross the pond. 

You'll need swimming trunks (or cozzies) and towels at water parks, because the water in Tenerife is still wet.

Ray Ban sunglasses bought from street vendors in Tenerife are still fake.

Al Campo, La Villa Shopping Centre in La Orotava

Shopkeepers are often still lazy (!) and take siestas in towns and cities like La Laguna and Santa Cruz, but have no fear they're far too keen to take your money in the big shopping malls or the resorts to slack off at these times.

Putting a 3,718 meter / 12,200 foot volcano in Los Rodeos flight path was not the cause of the 1977 disaster.

There's no lake at La Laguna (it means lagoon, or lake), nowadays, but you can find man-made lakes at Erjos where you can go bird watching. But the Teide National Park was not man-made! And all of the caves and galleries are underground. Get used to seeing topless, bottomless and totally naked sunbathers. As well as naked male hikers, apparently.

Unlike Wales, Tenerife is not closed in winter: it's Eternally Spring year round.

The mosquitos still bite in Tenerife and, while it's not considered a risk area for humans (for neither malaria nor West Nile virus), for those of you who live on the island and have pets, it IS inside a risk area for heartworm. 

Don't worry, there won't be fish in the sea for long, if the authorities get their way and contaminate it with their industrial port in Granadilla.

They don't turn the mist off in the island's Laurisilva cloud forests, ever.

Scottish shortbread on sale in Al Campo, La Villa.

They do sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts in Tenerife, as well as Bourbons, many other brands you'll recognize and whole racks of Scottish shortbread, for some unknown reason. (Ironically, their own - French - brand English Breakfast Tea is the nicest I've had anywhere in the world.) 

There are a LOT of hills and some dodgy pavement surfaces in Tenerife, so you might not want to wear high heels, unless you're a bloke at Carnaval, of course.

Queuing is a whole lot different, more relaxed and casual, in Tenerife, but if it's being done outside, you'll still find that there's no air conditioning!

To get from one Canary Island to another, you should catch the same type of bus as you might to get from the Orkney Islands to the Shetland Islands!

Mojo sauce spread over Canarian wrinkly potatoes

If you don't like spicy food at all, you're in luck in Tenerife, because the locals seem to be scared stiff of it too. Just steer clear of the red mojo sauce.

People (women, mostly) get pregnant in Tenerife in much the same way as they do anywhere else in the world and still just as unexpectedly (but if you stay on the island to have the baby, you'll find the level of care far exceeds the UK.)

Sorry, we don't have any information about Samantha Fox's boobs either, but apparently we did have some data concerning Jennifer Lopez' bum.

A Playa is not where the Gangstas live in Tenerife. Actually, scratch that!

And, finally if you're a man of a sensitive nature, coming to Tenerife for your honeymoon, you'll be relieved to know that the elephants pictured above are the only ones we know of in Tenerife (at the Loro Parque) and, hopefully, that's as aroused as they'll ever get.