The Guanches lived in all over the Canary archipel but it seems they did not have connections between the ilands. What they all had in common with each other was the language. The word Guanche means the native people from the Canaries. Some words of this language are even found in todays language or dialect.

By the 14th century the islands were conquered by the Europeans and they discorvered the Guanche society. Many Guanches were killed or enslaved. The concquerors described the Guanches as tall and strong people, many of them with blond hair and blue eyes.

Today we find in memory of the Guanches, in front of the main square of Candelaria, statues of the last kings-guanches, callled Menceys. It´s worth to visit the Guanches of Candelaria one day and enjoy the surroundings of Candelaria on the Isle of Tenerife.

The unique combination of spectacular landscapes, live music, sunny weather and first of all the great fun is common for this island.

Additionally, a lot of festivals promote folk and rural traditions. For example “romeria” festival is a well-known-way to honor different patron saints. It is a pilgrimage of folk music and traditional Canarian clothes and what is more, of colorful oxen-drawn carts.

One of the most popular traditional “romeria” festivals takes place in Tegueste, a municipality of the northern part of Tenerife in Santa Cruz de Tenerife province.

The Romería de San Marcos in Tegueste is a famous traditional festival, which main aim is to honor Saint Marcos. The festival promotes, but first of all conserves and cultivates old Canarian traditions. That is why; it is a great and unique opportunity to experience some of time-honored activities, Canarian dress, wonderful folk music and dance of traditional folk groups.

If you would like to experience a great atmosphere and to find yourself in the middle of a colorful and traditional festival, where the locals know exactly how to celebrate, the Romería de San Marcos would be perfect for you.

You can admire wonderful landscapes of vulcanic origin and fertile, green areas abundantly covered with exotic plants.

Tenerife is an ideal tourist destination at any time of the year. The island can be reached in only four hours of flight from Germany.

Many flights arrive and leave daily at the two airports of the island.

Tenerife offers a huge supply of accomodation like for example exclusive hotels, rural hotels, country houses and appartments.

The tourist infrastructure of the island of Tenerife is ideal for all kind of holiday makers, for those who like shopping centers, beaches, restaurants, museums, hiking paths, discotheques, bars, sports facilities or wellness facilities.

The town’s original Museum of Contemporary Art first opened way back in 1953. But it closed within a couple of years and the collection has been gathering dust in storage ever since.

But a new home has been found for the works of art on the top floor of the town’s old customs house, the Casa de la Real Aduana, overlooking the picturesque fishing harbour.

The collection was put together by the artist and critic Eduardo Westerdahl and his French wife Maud Bonneaud, herself a noted artist, the surrealist Oscar Dominguez and architect Alberto Sartoris, with assistance from the Institute of Hispanic Studies.

There are 45 pieces in the gallery, which will initially be open only in the morning. Entrance is free until the end of the summer. After that admission will be one euro

The island capital of Santa Cruz has a full programme of films throughout June, July and August, the biggest of which are staged in the Parque Cultural Viera y Clavico.

Details of individual screenings can be found on the Santa Cruz town hall website, www.sctfe.es

In Los Realejos, the cinema takes to the beach in August with movies being shown on the Playa del Socorro.

Open-air cinema is also part of the Los Realejos programme of activities for the Carmen Festival between July 6-14.

Three films are being shown this week (July 9, 10 and 11) in the Plaza de San Agustín.

More details are on the town hall website at www.ayto-realejos.es

The week-long event will be attended by a number of Hollywood and Spanish composers and will include two concerts by the recently-formed Tenerife Film Orchestra and Choir.

The first will be in the island’s oldest theatre, the Teatro Guimerá on Saturday July 14 and will features works by Mychael Danna, Sean Callery and Angel Illarramendi.

The festival will draw to a close the next day, Sunday, with a concert in the Auditorio de Tenerife, this time featuring scores by Diego Navarro and Don Davis.

The programme for the first five days of the festival includes a series of conferences and discussions featuring the guest composers.

More information on the event can be found on its website www.fimucite.com

A full range of events is planned for the week-long festival, starting on Sunday April 29 and continuing through to Sunday May 6.

They take place across the city, but mainly in Plaza del Príncipe, Parque García Sanabria and Calle La Noria.

The colourful series of events include an International Marionette Festival, several other puppet shows, an exhibition of flowers, a concert of Canarian music, and a flower crosses workshop and competition.

The whole city will be decked out with traditional floral crosses and the highlight of the programme will be on the evening of May 2, a Great Canarian Fiesta with traditional Canarian dress a prominent feature.

In 1999, the party, known as the Dance of Magicians, went into the Guinness Book of Records when 8,000 people ate, drank and danced in the streets in traditional costume.

The fiesta week is centred around May 3, the date on which the city was founded way back in 1494.

The tapas competition is another popular feature and is now in its sixth year. Restaurants and bars specialising in tapas will compete in three classes – traditional, creative and Canarian.

Participating establishments will not be revealed until nearer the date, though generally they are concentrated around Calle La Noria and surrounding streets, which make up the old part of the city.

The winners will become part of a ‘Ruta de la Tapa’ (Tapas Route) through the city, a great way of exploring the ancient capital while at the same time tasting some of its best gastronomic offerings.

May is a great month of celebration in Santa Cruz and the rest of the island, reflecting the traditional culture, history and religion of the island, and is marked by processions, pilgrimages and sporting contests.

The Prime Minister of Spain, José Luis Zapatero, had to deal with just such an allegation in the build up to the country’s forthcoming elections when he took part in a live question and answer session on television.

Did he know the price of a cup of coffee, he was asked by a member of the audience.

He thought it was about 80 cents, a response that was greeted with much laughter by those in the studio, who were quick to accuse him of being out of touch with reality.

The following day the Spanish press, quick to latch on to his obvious discomfort, despatched reporters to all corners of the kingdom to conduct a nationwide survey.

They discovered that in most towns and cities across the peninsula a cup of coffee costs between one euro and 1.20.

The Prime Minister was roundly condemned as truly being out of touch.

But riding to rescue came the people of Tenerife, who reminded the newspapermen that on their fair island a cup of coffee could indeed be purchased for 80 cents.

And they invited the PM and anyone interested in this thorny issue to visit the island and see for themselves.

And it has given those whose job it is to promote the merits of Tenerife as a holiday destination an opportunity to stage something of an advertising coup by demonstrating that the cost of living in the ‘island of eternal spring’ is indeed lower than the rest of Spain – certainly where a cup of coffee is concerned.

In my experience, 80 cents might even be considered a little on the high side because there are many establishments in Tenerife still serving café cortado – a small, strong espresso with a dash of milk, usually served in a glass – for 70 cents and even the odd one or two who still have it at 60.

The years in question are from 1850-1950 and the exhibition includes more than 60 items of clothing that were once worn by men and women of the island, the grandparents, or even great-grandparents of today’s younger generation.

The purpose of the exhibition is to show the rapid evolution in the design and use of materials in that time.

The lingerie items that make up the exhibition are particularly well conserved because many of them have been hidden away in the depths of the museum for many years.

Bodices, girdles, corsets, petticoats, nightdresses and other, more intimate items, including a heavy hand-knitted brassiere worn in the early 1900s, are included in the exhibition, part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of Casa de Carta in Valle de Guerra, La Laguna.

The ‘Letter House’ is an 18th century Canarian family mansion now dedicated to the popular culture of the archipelago, featuring ceramics, furniture and traditional dress down the ages.

The underwear exhibition continues until May 31 and the museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 7pm. Admission is free.

The event is based around the playground resort of Playa de las Americas in the south of the island from April 21-28.

Taking the lion’s share of award nominations is a Canadian film, ‘Tripping the Wire’, which is nominated in six of the eleven categories, namely best film, best actor and actress, best supporting actor and actress and best director.

A two-hour murder mystery set in Montreal and directed by Canadian director Stephen Surjik, Tripping the Wire stars Clark Johnson as street-wise detective Stephen Tree, who is struggling to keep a past crime of his own secret as he attempts to solve the brutal murder of a man set on fire.

The film is made by the Canadian company Galafilm.

The Tenerife festival also includes categories for best documentary, best short film, best foreign language film, best animated film, and best music video.

The International Street Arts Festival, now in its third year, takes place in the central streets, squares and around the harbour of Puerto, with a staggering 73 performances lined up over the three days. Entry to most of the activities is free.

Last year the festival drew an estimated 15,000 visitors to the town.

This event is a cultural showcase for Canarian innovation in comedy, theatre, dancing, music, photography, painting.

These include shows such as a vertical dance group, who perform on the sides of buildings; a theatre company who out their audiences in boats to tell them stories about sailors and fishermen; a story kitchen where tales are told to the accompaniment of the flavours and aromas they feature; and a competition for human statues.

The first event, body painting, starts at 6pm on Friday and various other activities follow across the town until well after midnight.

On Saturday, the day’s programme starts at 11am and again continues beyond the witching hour.

Sunday’s activities start at 10am and festival draws to a close around lunchtime

The tour will begin in Houston, Texas’s largest city, on June 28, moving on to historic San Antonio – scene of the famous Battle of the Alamo in 1836 – on June 30.

San Antonio, now a city of over a million people, was founded in 1718 by settlers from the Canary Islands.

Further concerts are scheduled for Fort Worth on July 2, Laredo on July 4 and Corpus Christi on July 6.

•The Auditorio de Tenerife, home of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra.

Over 100 musicians and technicians will make the journey from Tenerife for a programme of music that will be typically Spanish in flavour, featuring zarzuela, or light opera, and works by Granados and Falla.

The orchestra will be conducted by Edmon Colomer, while the soloist will be Tenerife soprano Raquel Lojendio.

The Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife (OST) has a long history, dating back to its formation as the Chamber Orchestra of the Canaries in 1935.

The orchestra is no stranger to touring, having appeared in all of the major cities on the Spanish mainland and featured regularly in music festivals across Europe.

The OST is based in the island capital of Santa Cruz, at the city’s recently-opened magnificent concert hall, the Auditorio de Tenerife.

Also battling for the coveted nomination will be the mainland cities of Cordoba, Cuenca, Cáceres, Burgos, Tarragona, Pamplona, Zaragoza, Segovia, Valencia and Alcalá de Henares.

And while Santa Cruz may not have some of the glamour of its peninsula rivals, it need not feel inferior in any way.

The stunning Auditorio rivals any concert hall anywhere in Spain for sheer architectural magnificence, while the annual carnival is hugely popular both locally and internationally.

It also has in its environs the World Heritage Site of La Laguna and the sheer natural beauty of the Anaga Mountains.

The European Capital of Culture is designated by the European Union for a period of one year during which the city has a chance to showcase its cultural life and development.

A number of European cities have used the City of Culture year to transform their cultural base and, in doing so, the way in which they are viewed internationally.

Conceived as a means of bringing citizens of the EU closer together, it was launched in 1985 and was the brainchild of the Greek Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri.

Since then, the initiative has become more and more successful, having an increasing cultural, social and economic impact on the chosen cities.

Three Spanish cities have so far been honoured – Madrid in 1992, Santiago de Compostela in 2000 and Salamanca in 2002.

Glasgow is thus far the only UK city to be honoured, though Liverpool takes the accolade in 2008.

A team of American and Greek doctors and researchers announced their conclusions at the end of a six-year study, declaring that a 30-minute nap during the middle of the day could reduced by 37 per cent the risk of death from a heart-related disease.

Furthermore, working men who opted for a siesta were 64 per cent less likely to suffer heart problems.

The team studied nearly 24,000 Greek male and female volunteers between the ages of 20 and 86 over a period of six years.

The research team concluded that siestas helped to reduce the incidence of heart problems because it helps to relieve stress, considered to be a major factor in cardiovascular disease.

It has been long known that countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain, where most people take siestas, have lower rates of heart disease than might be expected.

The traditional siesta in all of these countries and in other parts of the world is under threat as globalisation spreads the workaholic lifestyle becoming predominant in Western culture.

In Tenerife, the siesta is still very much a part of local culture, with most shops shutting from 1pm or 2pm for a few hours, re-opening at 5pm or 6pm.

Other recent studies have suggested a biological need for an afternoon nap. The body is on a 24-hour body clock, which makes you wind down between 1am and 6am and again in the three hours directly after lunch.