“Those are our founding fathers”, says Ken pointing to the row of three portraits looking down on us from their elevated status above the bookcases of the reading room. “Pointing them out is what we begin our school tours with, if we can keep the children quiet long enough to hear us.”

Keep them quiet? In a library? Surely that’s a given. But there’s no wall of silence here in the English Library in Puerto de la Cruz. Where you might expect covert whispers there’s a quiet buzz of conversation and where you might look for bespectacled librarians despotically maintaining strict cataloguing systems, you’ll find sections that shift wholesale to make way for the ever-expanding DVD library, and a hand written note pinned to a bookcase that reads “Humour has  been moved…”.

The English Library is not simply a repository for books written in the English language. For over a century it’s been a social hub for the British ex pat community for whom it has provided a source of knowledge, reading and entertainment along with a hefty helping of socialising, support and gossip exchange.

The First Edition
The first meeting of British residents of Puerto interested in the establishment of a library is recorded in ‘The English Library, A Brief History’ as being in 1900 when a Mrs Boreham, resident of the town, decided to put her habit of allowing friends and visitors to borrow books from her extensive personal collection onto a more formal footing. Ably assisted by the Parson, Reverend Humphries and the then Vice-Consul, Mr Peter Reid, the first order of books was placed, the library was named and the terms of Constitution were laid down. The following year Colonel Owen Peel Wethered pledged a donation of up to £500 including the site for a new library building. After some controversy, the proposition was accepted and work began on the building in Parque Taoro which today still houses the English Library.

I first visited the library six years ago when I was dropping off some magazines. At the time I was astonished at the existence of such an institution which appeared to occupy some parallel universe of England in the 1940s, staffed by genteel Brits who painstakingly hand wrote every title being borrowed into large ledgers while discussing the weather with their equally genteel customers. I felt as if I’d walked onto the set of a black and white Sunday matinee.

Revisiting the English Library to meet up with Ken Fisher who, until standing down at the recent AGM, has been President of the library for the past two years, some things hadn’t changed. Books were still being entered into ledgers by hand and the staff and clientele still appeared on the genteel side but there were noticeable differences. In the main reading room the large table was occupied by several people surfing the net on laptops, the bookcases on the long wall were filled with DVDs where previously video collections of TV sitcoms from the 1970s and 1980s had taken pride of place and outside, tables and chairs were busy with coffee drinkers enjoying the beautiful garden and warm sunshine.

“Is the WiFi free?” I ask Ken.
“Oh yes. In fact we have a computer support workshop now run by Peter and Mike.”
I tell Ken about my last and only visit.
“Well we only got a telephone installed two years ago when I got elected as President. I insisted,” he admits. Heady progress indeed.

The Latest Edition

Under Ken’s auspices, the English Library has taken a leap forward and newly elected President, Brian Arnold (above), is confident the library will continue to go in the right direction.
“We’re becoming a wider thinking library,” Brian tells me. “Catering to the needs of the English speaking community and finding ways to make their lives easier. We have good links with the British Consul for example and we’re a research resource for those ex-pats who over-winter in Puerto and don’t have access to WiFi or computers.”

Brian recognises that the days of being purely a lending library are behind them and that the future is bleak for the printed word.
“I believe John Lewis were selling one Kindle every 30 seconds over Christmas,” he says. “You can’t compete with that.”

Installing free WiFi and offering computer self help workshops is just one of the ways the English Library is adapting to better meet the needs of its customers. An ever growing DVD lending library is another. Unfortunately it means that the reference library is becoming less and less used but there are still some classics in there, including all volumes of the first edition Oxford English Dictionary, and the library is a valuable resource for researchers and anyone who has an interest in the history of Tenerife and of Puerto de la Cruz. They also sell novels at 50 cents and one Euro – perfect for holidaymakers who haven’t yet discovered the joys of Kindle.

Financed entirely through subscriptions and fund raising events, the English Library is run by a team of dedicated volunteers who manage not only to keep the book lending and cataloguing efficiently but also organise two coffee mornings a week (Saturdays and Wednesdays), nine or ten guest speaker events over the course of the year, a couple of hog roast garden parties and an annual dinner dance.

Finding myself engrossed in conversations with friends old and newly acquired, time slipped all too easily away at the library and I began to understand why so many people found themselves drawn to its smiling faces and familiarity. It’s like popping round to a friend’s house for coffee and a catch-up and I suspect it won’t be another six years before I return.

Epilogue
The English Library; Calle Irlanda, 5; Parque Taoro, Puerto de la Cruz; (0034) 922 383 098; open Monday & Friday 3pm-5.30pm, Wednesday & Saturday 10am-1pm. Annual membership €30, membership for those only resident for part of the year €12.
The next speaker event will be on Feb 23rd at 12 noon when guests will hear about the Churchill and Onassis visit to Puerto de la Cruz. Tickets €5 including “our world famous buffet” to quote Ken. Booking essential as all 60 places are invariably taken up.

Editor’s Note: Fresh from his revolutionising of the English Library, Ken Fisher will soon be gracing the pages of Tenerife Magazine with memories of life in Tenerife from 40 years ago. Watch this space, as they say.

Win a Week at Hotel Las Águilas and Experience North Tenerife.

Combine luxurious comfort with the rural charms of North Tenerife during a one week half board stay for two people at the four star Hotel Las Águilas on the edge of Puerto de la Cruz.
That’s the latest great prize from tenerifemagazine.com and all we ask of you is to answer a simple question.

What a great way to start the New Year, the natural beauty of Mount Teide’s national park , the wine growing regions around the La Orotava valley and even the designer shops of capital city Santa Cruz are all in easy reach of your hotel pools, tennis courts and restaurants.

The prize will be drawn on Tuesday 31st January and can be taken, subject to availability, within the next year. The prize is not transferable and must be claimed within 2 weeks of the draw or it will be re-drawn.

Keep your fingers crossed and think of that wonderful prize, and in the meantime keep up with all the wonders of Tenerife through tenerifemagazine.com

Good Luck.

Tenerife Magazine’s round up of some of the most interesting news stories of the week in Tenerife.

El Hierro Eruption Update
Despite continued earth tremors, the volcanic situation in El Hierro hasn’t changed much in the last few days. The stain on the ocean left by the volcanic discharge is moving slowly out to sea and residents of La Restinga have been allowed to return to their homes. Although some experts say that the eruptive process is possibly coming to an end, there are still some townspeople who are, understandably, nervous of actually staying in the town overnight.

For the moment El Hierro remains on a state of yellow alert whilst La Restinga stays on red alert.

Witchcraft on Tenerife
Appropriately in the week before Halloween comes reports of dark deeds and sorcery in the south east of Tenerife. Dead animals have been turning up at the entrance to the La Gallega cemetery in the hills above Santa Maria del Mar. Apart from slaughtered chickens wrapped in red handkerchiefs, coins and cards have been found at the entrance to the cemetery when dawn breaks – sure signs that witchcraft of some sort has been going on. But in true horror movie fashion, the jittery locals are keeping quiet, preferring to ignore the spooky goings on.

These stories turn up every year but no-one ever seems to actually hear or see anything taking place. Mind you, it would take a brave person to hang around La Gallega cemetery after dark, especially if they’ve seen The Wicker Man (the original).

The Mafia Sting
Tourists and residents were surprised by a massive police operation in Adeje last week which resulted in the arrest of 13 people (11 Italians, A Brit and a Moroccan) in connection with money laundering for the Italian Mafia. The operation was called ‘Pozzaro‘ – a Neapolitan word for hooded figures who cleaned out wells and probably a reference to the fact that the ‘family’ said to be behind the money laundering were from Naples. Most of the action was centred around the Marina Palace complex in Playa Paraiso. Anti-corruption officers indicated that the gang had been involved in illegal operations in the Adeje and Arona area relating to real estate and various other business sectors including hotels, restaurants and the sale of luxury boats and cars.

What was it La Orotava’s mayor Isaac Valencia claimed only last week? Makes you wonder if he knew something was afoot.

What is Geocad, the New Info Site About Tenerife?
The website says it’s a digital atlas for Tenerife and it does look as though it has loads of what could be interesting information about Tenerife. The new info site, www.atlastenerife.es launched by the Cabildo last week looks as though a lot of work has gone into creating it and, although there are a few glitches (some pages not being available in the languages stated and links not working), it’s still clearly work in progress.
We haven’t had time to fully study it yet but our first impressions are that although it appears to have information that isn’t currently available on other official sites, much of it isn’t particularly easy reading; some sections read a bit like a dissertation.
I found my attention wandering mid-way through paragraphs such as – ‘The Reworded Text of the Canary Islands Management and Natural Areas Acts hierarchically organizes planning, meaning that higher level plans (at island or regional level) draws a series of master lines that  lower level ones (sector, municipal or local) flesh out for each individual space and way of territorial use.’

Someone order me a black coffee.

And finally the TIT (This Is Tenerife) of the week award goes to…Puerto de la Cruz Council
We can all become frustrated when we hear the term ‘strike action’  being bandied about but sometimes workers have no other recourse. Take, for example, the situation with the cleaners and refuse collectors at Sufi Tarajal who are threatening an indefinite strike in Puerto de la Cruz from the 5th of December.

What’s their grief? They don’t want extra money or privileges or anything like that. They want assurances that they’ll be paid at the end of every month. Even though they are ostensibly council workers, it’s not a given that their wages will be in their bank accounts come pay day. This month they had to threaten strike action in order to force the authorities to pay their ‘overdue’ wages for August and September. If their wages aren’t in the bank at the end of October it’s ‘everybody out’. And who can blame them?

The culture of an aversion to paying people for work is rife in Tenerife – it makes the island seem backward and Third World in terms of business practice. But when you have some authorities setting examples like this what can we expect?

Tenerife Magazine’s round up of some of the most interesting news stories of the week in Tenerife.

Santa Cruz the Party Town
Summer in Tenerife’s capital is really set to sizzle with news that the council has relaxed the opening hours for bars and open-air terraces in parts of the city. The extended opening hours relate to establishments within the area that includes Avda. Marítima, Avda. Francisco La Roche, Rambla de Santa Cruz, Avda. de las Asuncionistas and Calle San Sebastián. Throughout summer bars can stay open till 4am, clubs till 6am, restaurants till 2.30am and open-air terraces till 3.30am (Sunday to Thursday) and 6am on Friday, Saturday and festival days. Not everyone is pleased with this news but if the city wants to promote itself as a serious city break destination it needs a thriving nocturnal scene to compare with the best of Europe’s top cities.

How to Attract the Crowds in Tenerife
To put into perspective the embarrassingly low figures that turned out for the Michael Bolton concert last week, here are some figures from the Virgen del Carmen celebrations in Puerto de la Cruz. According to official figures (some bloke in a cap counting 1,2,3…) 130,000 people visited the town for the celebrations with around an estimated 53,000 cramming into the harbour area to watch the embarkation. Of course local fiestas are free and instead of Michael Bolton crooning Dock of the Bay you get a local singer belting out Ave Maria –  so it’s no contest really.

Bow WOW – Tenerife’s Doggie Park
The council in Candelaria have created a park exclusively for the use of man’s best friend (should that be human’s?). The 5000 square metre park lies near the TF1 slip road at Punta Larga and is open for doggie business between 7.30am and 9pm every day. There’s one area specifically for small to medium sized dogs and another for the big guys – a bit of segregation there – and owners are responsible for cleaning up after their dogs as well as ensuring there’s no canine hanky panky…there will be young pups present after all. Apparently the municipality’s feline population are not a-mew-sed at this blatant display of favouritism.

What 110kph Speed Limit?
There’s been a lot of debate about the decision by the Spanish Government to reduce the speed limit to 110 kph earlier in the year. Doubt about its effectiveness continues with news that the result of a traffic survey revealed that only a third of Spanish drivers actually stayed with the temporary limit. Nearly 50% of drivers surveyed admitted to going over the limit every now and again whilst over 20%  confessed to more or less ignoring the limit completely. The findings won’t really come as a surprise to anyone who spends a lot of time driving on Tenerife’s motorways. Rules? It seems traffic laws are treated, as Captain Barbossa would say, more like “what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules.”

Problems in El Médano
It looks like café society is in danger of spiralling out of control in El Médano. Some residents are up in arms because they claim bars, cafés and restaurants have invaded pedestrianised areas with their tables and chairs; apparently making getting anywhere on foot in parts a difficult and risky business. The council are taking urgent action to stem the flow of tables and chairs especially as there are concerns that someone may get accidentally clobbered by a beach bag…clearly serious stuff.

And finally the TIT (This Is Tenerife) of the week award goes to…whoever is responsible for the English language movies on Tenerife
Whilst most of the world were treated to the last instalment of the wizard who has matured with a generation, film fans on Tenerife who prefer to see films in their original language had to make do with animated cars. It’s commendable that Gran Sur Cinemas screen an English language movie each week but by not choosing Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 they not only disappointed HP fans on Tenerife, they also shot themselves in the foot economically as well. You have to wonder if the person who picks which English language movies are screened is the same person who advises the Sun Live Festival organisers about ‘famous’ international singers. Before anyone suggests that film fans could always watch Harry in Spanish, here are two words that make that a serious non-option – Spanish dubbing.

Tenerife Magazine’s round up of some of the most interesting news stories of the week in Tenerife.

Movie Superheroes to Descend on Tenerife
Well that’s the plan if Mark Millar, the creator of the cult superhero flick Kick Ass, has his way. The movie, called Supercrooks, a cross between Oceans 11 and X-Men, has been given the green light by Universal Studios with filming scheduled to begin in January. But will it be filmed in Tenerife? The plot revolves around a gang of villains with super powers who descend on Tenerife to rob the richest man on the island – their logic being that Tenerife is full of fat cops who wouldn’t pose nearly the same sort of opposition that villains meet when they head for the likes of Gotham City. Millar wants to cast 10 top stars in the movie and no doubt another high profile movie would do wonders for tourism – but a script focussing on fat cops and crooks might not be exactly the image that Tenerife wants to present to the big wide world.

The Invasion of the Canary Islands
Muammar Gaddafi announced on Libyan television this week that the Canary Islands, Sicily, Andalusia and some Mediterranean Islands were all Arab lands that should be liberated. He clearly subscribes to the theory that Tenerife’s original inhabitants were descended from Berbers. Looks like those in the Canary Islands who want independence from Spanish rule and really want to embrace their Guanche heritage may get their wishes granted if the Libyan leader gets his way. Not sure this is what they had in mind though.

No Fun in the Sun in Puerto de la Cruz
For years the Dia de la Embarcación in Puerto de la Cruz has been a heady mix of wild and wet water party throughout the day followed by an emotive and serious procession as the Virgen del Carmen and San Telmo are carried through the streets of the town and loaded into their chosen craft to be taken on a trip around the bay. Dia de la Embarcación attracts thousands of residents and visitors and is an enjoyable mix of religious tradition and contemporary activities…but not this year. In the past the town’s elderly mayor threatened to ban water pistols from the celebrations but after being voted out of office four years ago he’s had to wait until his re-election to implement his plan to extract the fun elements from the day. As one person commented in a Spanish newspaper ‘this isn’t a fiesta for fun’. In that respect it’s mission accomplished.

Michael Bolton and Kenny G – How Was it for You?
The question is did anyone go? We didn’t (there are some things above and beyond and all that). Press reports were thin on the ground but suggested that around 4,500 thousand people turned up for the event. It was a very poor turnout for a concert on Tenerife where local Latino bands can attract much more. However, the concert was never going to attract high numbers. The artists weren’t ‘superstar’ names even in their heyday a quarter of a century ago and the low turn-out wasn’t helped by the fact that tickets only went on sale a couple of weeks before the actual concert. However, those who did turn up seemed to enjoy themselves and the organisers claimed that they were pleased with the result – what else can they say? If the Sun Live Festival people want bigger audiences they need to put more thought into the artists they bring to Tenerife. Whilst the island had Michael Bolton and Kenny G last week, neighbouring Gran Canaria has Sting this week. Sting’s not exactly at his peak but we’re willing to bet he attracts a hell of a lot more than 4,500 punters.

And finally the TIT (This Is Tenerife) of the week award goes to…The Tourist Office in Santa Cruz
Good first impressions of anywhere are vital, especially when you’re talking about a destination like Santa Cruz which receives thousands upon thousands of cruise passengers each year.
The contemporary curves of Plaza España are an attractive and promising start to visitors arriving in the city. But if they wander into the tourist office beside the fountain their impressions may change rapidly if our experience is typical.
Tenerife Magazine ventured into the office to carry out some research about the information available to new visitors. The welcome (if it can be described as that) was unexpected. A surly woman, clearly irritated at having to tear herself away from her computer, thrust a map under our noses, scribbled a few circles, mentioned a few names that would have meant nothing to people who didn’t know the place and dismissed us by turning back to her desk. She hadn’t taken the time to find out what we actually wanted to know…and we were speaking Spanish. God knows how she would have reacted if we’d tried in English.
In fairness, most (but not all) tourist offices on Tenerife are staffed by people who are very helpful. However, this is the capital, the first port of call for cruise passengers. Would it be too much to expect that tourist officers were trained to realise that it is of the utmost importance that the face they present to ‘guests’ in their land is a friendly and welcoming one?

Tenerife Magazine’s round up of some of the most interesting news stories of the week in Tenerife.

Tenerife’s Wines are the Best in Spain
Congratulations to Sociedad Cooperativa Cumbres de Abona and Bodegas Insulares Tenerife, S.A. who both picked up awards at the prestigious Baco Cosecha wine awards for Spanish wines harvested in 2010. The Sociedad Cooperativa Cumbres de Abona on Tenerife’s southern slopes picked up the gold medal for their Testamento Malvasia in the category for barrel matured whites, whilst north Tenerife’s Bodegas Insulares Tenerife, S.A. won the bronze award in the red wines category for their young red, El Ancón. It would be positively rude not to toast their success with a glass or two of each…salud.

Santa Cruz in the Top Forty
But this particular statistic is not one to crow about. A recent survey of more than 5000 local authorities in Spain that have some sort of debt (there are over 8000 in total in Spain, so respect to the 3000 who don’t have) revealed that Santa Cruz came in at number 37 with just over 97 million euros of debt. It’s an improvement of a few places since the last time the study was carried out but it’s not really the sort of top forty that you want to be in. However, there was one Canarian local authority who came out worse. Neighbours and rivals Las Palmas de Gran Canaria were seven places higher up the black list at number 30; a fact which no doubt softened the blow a little for the Las Palmas-phobes on Tenerife.

A Fishy Business
A story that made us smile this week was the news report regarding agents from the Canarian Police Force breaking up a heinous smuggling ring. In truth it wasn’t exactly heinous as the culprits were illegal fishermen caught red (snapper) handed on a beach in Los Realejos. But with a haul of over 30 kilos of fish and nearly 10 kilos of shellfish these guys were clearly no minnows. Every cloud has a silver lining however, and residents of a local old folks’ home found themselves the beneficiaries of the crime as the Canarian Police donated the fishy haul to them ( fish & dodgy hips perhaps). We don’t want to carp on about Tenerife’s police forces but at least the story provided a clue as to what the Canarian Police Force actually do. Finally, we’re still trying to confirm reports that the three perpetrators were all sporting mullets. Okay, that’s enough of that nonsense.

Camino de Socorro – A Site of Cultural Interest at Last
It’s only taken 21 years, but this week the historic pilgrims’ route of Camino de Socorro in Güímar was finally declared a Site of Cultural Interest. Thousands follow the route each year to commemorate the place where the Virgin of Candelaria was first sighted on Tenerife at the unassuming hamlet at El Socorro. Anyone who says that it takes a lifetime to get anything done on Tenerife is exaggerating…it only takes decades.

And finally the TIT (This Is Tenerife) of the week award goes to…the organisers of the Michael Bolton concert

With little more than a month before the big summer concert featuring Michael Bolton and Kenny G at Costa Adeje Golf  on 8th July there is incredibly, and worryingly, still no sign of tickets going on sale.
The official Sun Live Festival website still bears the legend ‘more information soon’ on its ticket information page.

Certainly it’s not the norm for a concert of this calibre not to be making tickets available way in advance of the date to maximise attendance and give visitors who want to plan a trip to Tenerife to coincide with seeing Michael Bolton time to organise their schedules.

Given that the organisers have experience of putting on concerts of this magnitude it seems unlikely to be purely down to inept marketing and planning (then again…) so it suggests that there might be another issue.

No doubt the mystery will be cleared up soon but, as one Spanish visitor to the organisers’ website commented, it is ‘muy raro’ indeed.

Tenerife Magazine’s round up of some of the most interesting news stories of the week in Tenerife.

The Battle of Acentejo
It’s worth remembering that just over 500 years ago this week, the primitive Guanche inhabitants of Tenerife, armed with little more than sticks and stones, went medieval on the Spanish conquistadors (aka mercenaries) with their more advanced weaponry and beat the hell out of them on the slopes of Acentejo near La Matanza (the massacre in English). The victory was celebrated as usual by a series of Guanche-themed events in the area on Sunday. It was an incredible feat and a real David versus Goliath scenario. Anyone who passes La Matanza on the TF 5 can clearly see from the image on the huge mural at the entrance to the town where local allegiance lies. The conquistadors returned a couple of years later to wreak their revenge at neighbouring La Victoria (named after the result of that particular battle). Interestingly that event isn’t celebrated quite as much.

The Sunshine City
At last the troubled waters of Parque Marítimo are once again calm. This Friday the swimming pool complex will open its doors to Santa Cruceros, cruise passengers and anybody else who wants to swap the city’s hot streets for a sun lounger. The complex has had a complete refurbishment and is looking all shiny and new in time for the summer. Parque Marítimo opened at the same time last year but, unlike in 2010, this time it actually is finished and all the pools are ready for some serious swim and sun action.

In Times of Crisis Hand Out Gold Medals
Paulino Rivero, the Canarian President, spoke this week of the need for politics to recognise the efforts of the workers and businesses who are helping to move the Canary Islands out of economic crisis. He then went on to award Gold Medals to Canarians who exemplified a philosophy of  collaboration and hard work. Two of the recipients were footballers David Silva (Manchester City) and Pedro Rodriguez (Barcelona), two players who have enjoyed exceptional success with their clubs this season…away from the Canary Islands. Unsurprisingly there was no mention of anyone from CD Tenerife receiving an award. Maybe the message Snr Rivero was sending to Canarios was, if you want to achieve – leave.

Adios Miami
For the last couple of years, Tenerife residents have been able to fly directly to Miami between June and October. However, Air Europa have decided not to continue the service in 2011. The airline company have announced that people on Tenerife can still fly to Miami…via Madrid; not really quite as appealing as a direct flight.

If You Go Down to the Woods Today…
Walking in the hills on Tenerife may result in surprises that involve more than discovering views that take the breath away as a young walker found this month. Spying a cave entrance in El Rosario he decided to have a look inside…and discovered some Guanche bodies. Scientists believe the site was a burial cave. There are undoubtedly lots more similar sites waiting to be discovered in Tenerife’s many ravines. If you happen to be the lucky person who stumbles over some primitive, mummified cadaver the official advice is to contact the authorities and not to touch anything. Pity, a Guanche mummy on the wall would make a great party conversation piece.

And finally the TIT (This Is Tenerife) of the week award goes to…Puerto de la Cruz…again.

We’re not deliberately targeting the Ayuntamiento (town council) of Tenerife’s first tourist resort but after sifting through news items desperately hoping to find a different candidate for TIT of the week, there were none that came close to the jaw-dropping exploits of a local authority that seems to have completely lost the plot. This week Puerto de la Cruz was informed that its main beach of Playa Jardín had lost its Blue Flag status. And the response from Puerto’s council?

They were completely perplexed as to why the Blue Flag status had been taken away because, as far as they were concerned, nothing had change since last year when Playa Jardín was still deemed a Blue Flag beach.
‘Nothing had changed’ – that’s exactly the problem and a major clue to what is going wrong in Puerto de la Cruz at the moment – inactivity seems to be the council’s main policy.

Tenerife Magazine’s round up of some of the most interesting news stories of the week in Tenerife.

This week’s election results on Tenerife have taken up much of the news over the past few days, but the inexplicable nature of some voting patterns is just too extraordinary to be even begin to try to summarise. We’re still scratching our heads as to why some residents continue to vote for politicians whose motives are quite clearly dubious…but that’s democracy for you. Or is it? There have been quite a few reports of dastardly deeds over the last week as some politicians turned to all sorts of schemes (allegedly) in a bid to attract more votes than the other guy (or gal). But we’ll steer clear of that political mire and have a look instead at some of the other snippets of news that came out of Tenerife this week.

Stay at Home this Summer
But only if home happens to be in the Canary Islands. Next month the Tenerife Cabildo (government) will launch a campaign entitled ‘Quédate en casa’ to encourage residents of the Canary Islands to spend their summer holidays on the islands (preferably Tenerife). The campaign includes posters which show images of famous natural landmarks to which homely items like sofas and lamps have been added (presumably to send the message that staying on Tenerife is as comfortable as being at home). The Cabildo are trying to exceed the 570,000 Canarian based visitors who had fun in the sun on Tenerife last year. With an economic crisis still affecting Spain, the chances are that many islanders might be looking for holiday destinations closer to home, so the Cabildo may just achieve their goal.

The Tram Hits a Milestone
Congratulations to one of Tenerife’s success stories, the Tranvia (tram) which has transported over 50 million passengers between Santa Cruz and La Laguna since it began operating in 2007.

Money for Nothing in Arico
Not quite worthy of the TIT (This is Tenerife) award but close, the fishermen of Tajoa in Arico have had to cough up an annual payment of €800 as insurance for a crane on the village’s picturesque dock. The problem is that the crane, initially designed for a harbour in Gran Canaria, isn’t suited to Tajao and hasn’t been operational since it was installed two months ago since when it’s been sitting uselessly on the dock like a….fish out of water.

The Money-Making Santa Cruz Tourist Bus
Statistics for the new Santa Cruz tourist bus suggest that it might be a winner despite a decidedly shaky start. Over 14000 visitors caught the tourist bus in its first 6 weeks in service; a figure that equated to an average of over €3500 in tickets sold daily. As expected most of the bus passengers (75%) were cruise visitors. The statistics didn’t reveal any information regarding customer satisfaction, but we can only assume that the service has improved a lot since its hilarious first outings.

And finally the TIT (This Is Tenerife) of the week award goes to…Puerto de la Cruz
This week the council in Puerto de la Cruz declared that the town would no longer tolerate the exhibiting of animals for commercial purposes. In future, circuses featuring animals won’t be allowed to set up their big tents in the town. It seems a commendable decision and would appear that the council is actually starting to take heed of what is happening in more advanced parts of Europe – apart from one vitally important factor. Puerto de la Cruz is also home to Loro Parque; one of Tenerife’s biggest tourist draws with its popular dolphin, sea-lion, parrot and orca shows. It’ll be interesting to see how the council gets round that one, if the irony of their decision has even occurred to them yet. Of course they may be fully aware of the implications of their announcement and have plans to close Loro Parque…Oh yeah?