As you fly over Tenerife, large earth coloured polytunnels show up around the coastline; unexpected, considering the sunny warm climate – and some really are large. This oddity is even more marked on the south side of the island, where the earth is rocky and bare, there is more sun and it’s hotter – yet they…

Having escaped 16C in La Hermigua and made our way back to San Sebastian (a 30 minute drive and a balmy 21C when we arrived), the catamaran back to Los Cristianos was smooth, easy and quick.   There were still problems with doors though (this time for foot passengers). The last two nights of this trip…

Over 20 million years ago, the Canaries started to emerge from the sea from East to West.  (So Fuerteventura and Lanzarote as a joined mass first).  All of the islands were of volcanic origin (no, still don’t know why when they aren’t on a fault line), with La Gomera emerging in the second to last…

Getting to La Gomera requires a ferry journey, or a connecting flight fromTenerife.  From La Palma, the ferry goes into Los Cristianos (on Tenerife) and then leaves for La Gomera. The night before we left La Palma, the heavens opened and rain stair-rodded down most of the night.  By morning the sky was blue looking…

And wind!  Lots and lots of wind. And horizontal rain. There were two T-shirt graphics that sort of encapsulated the La Palma experience. La Palma has been interesting mostly for the outdoors (as opposed to museums, archaeology,  art etc).  The food has been, overall, good, the local wine has been good and the people have…

El Taburiente national park was designated as such in the late 1950s and the park occupies most of the caldera formed by the Taburiente volcano and the various vents and volcanoes that surrounded it.  Fun fact, ‘caldera’ for the centre of an extinct volcano was coined in the early 1800s by a German geologist, after…

Like the rest of the Canary Islands, La Palma owes its creation to volcanic activity.  (Quick aside, I can’t seem to find out why this is the case when the archipelago doesn’t occupy a tectonic plate boundary – but maybe I just don’t understand what I am reading.) In the case of La Palma, it…

La Palma was one of the last of the islands to be ‘conquered’ by the Spanish.  Like the other islands, it had an existing population; in this case they were tricked into submission by a turncoat who promised peaceful talks only to have the Spanish attack as they came down from their mountain hideouts. The…

We left El Patio in time to saunter gently down to Los Cristianos, hoping to stop off in a few places and have lunch before heading to the ferry port. Our first stop was Los Gigantes, the southern side of the row of giant cliffs we saw from Punta la Tena.   Interestingly, as we went…

The Atlantic meets Tenerife in a mighty rush, particularly when there is any wind to lash up the waves. For 24 hours the wind blew solidly from the north, resulting in some spectacular shows of boiling frothy water and spray. The sea here provides tourist attractions like boat trips and swimming, and in many places along…