In the most sunny month of the year is July with an average of 10.6 hours of sunshine a day. There highest temperature with 25 °C are reached in the month of August. The water temperature reaches the highest temperature of 23°C in September and October. The islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma and also Gran Canaria form also part of the Canary Islands and are known to have the warmest climate of the whole seven islands. The islands arose by volcanic activities approximately 5 – 7 millions years ago.

The mountains of Anaga and the range of Teno are geological the oldest area of the island of Tenerife. The Pico del Teide is with 3.718 meters of altitude the highest mountain of Spain.

In the variety of vegetation you find numerous species of plants, which are found only in the Canary Islands. The best known plant is surely also the Canary dracaena called Dragon tree. The oldest example of a Dragon tree can be found in Icod de los Vinos.

Just a few weeks after the launch of the new tram service that connects the island capital of Santa Cruz with the neighbouring town of La Laguna, the island bus operator, TITSA, has announced a raft of improvements to services in the north of the island.

The frequency of services between the northern town of Icod de los Vinos and Santa Cruz (service 106) has been boosted by an additional eight journeys a day.

Line 363, which runs from Puerto de la Cruz to Buenavista del Norte has been increased from an hourly to a half-hourly service.

In Los Realejos, the new service will operate between San Vicente and Las Llanadas.

The company is pledged to develop more routes to meet government demand to get commuters, shoppers and visitors to the island out of cars and on to public transport.

TITSA island has a reputation for providing cheap and efficient bus services across the island.

The new road, between Adeje in the south west and Santiago del Teide in the north west, is one of the few remaining sections required to complete the island’s equivalent of London’s M25 orbital motorway.

The civil engineering challenges to be faced in the project are huge, with tunnels, viaducts, underpasses and overpasses all figuring in the construction work, which it is estimated will cost a staggering €168,000,000.

Critics of the scheme, led by the environmental lobby, say it will cost much more than that.

The building of another section of the road, between San Juan de la Rambla and Icod de los Vinos, is already well under way and another segment, to connect Santiago del Teide and El Tanque, is due to go out to tender in the near future.

That leaves just one remaining stretch – between Los Realejos, where the northern section of the ring road currently ends, and San Juan de la Rambla – still on the drawing board.

Much of the motorway already in place has been built close to the coast where gradients are much less of a problem than on the Adeje-Santiago del Teide section, which will cross a total of 19 ravines.

The Dragon Tree, or Drago, is one of the iconic symbols of Tenerife.

It is very slow growing, but when it attains maturity it usually has a thick trunk which is crowned by a thick umbrella-shaped canopy of dagger-like leaves.

It gets its popular name from the secretion of a reddish resin, know as dragon’s blood, which appears when either the bark or leaves are cut.

It is thought that the original inhabitants of the island, the Guanches, used the blood-red sap from the tree in medicines and as an embalming fluid.

Because it grows so slowly, generally taking ten years to reach a height of one metre, many of the taller specimens are believed to be hundreds of years old.

The oldest, in the town of Icod de los Vinos (pictured above) in the north of the island, is reputed to be a thousand years old, though it is generally accepted in the scientific community that in reality it is somewhere between 600-800 years old. It is, nevertheless, a popular tourist attraction.

The difficulty with accurately determining the age of a drago is that it does not display annual growing rings, but instead can only be dated from the number of times it has flowered.

Bragging rights were comprehensively claimed by supporters of CD Tenerife after their 3-1 defeat of their big rivals from Gran Canaria, UD Las Palmas.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man and in 19-year-old Iriome González CD Tenerife certainly had the man for the occasion.

Iriome struck twice in the first half with goals in the third and 29th minutes to put his side well in control at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez in the capital of Santa Cruz.

Las Palmas pulled a goal back in the 64th minute, but the home side restored their two-goal advantage from the penalty spot two minutes later, Ayoze converting the kick after substitute Cristo was fouled in the area.

As derby passions rose, the ‘blanquiazules’ – as Tenerife are known because of their blue and white strip – had Clavero sent off near the end but his dismissal was too late to change the course of the game.

For the home fans, Iriome’s match-winning performance was all the more special because he is a home-grown talent, hailing from the town of Icod de los Vinos in the north of the island.

Iriome is a rare talent who has already attracted the attention of some of the biggest clubs in Europe.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez, who managed the Tenerife team back in the 2000/01 season, is hoping to persuade the youngster to join the Reds in the summer and a fee of £1.5million has already been mooted.

But Iriome, who only forced himself into the Tenerife first team just before Christmas, does not think he is ready for a move to the Premiership so early in his career and has so far resisted the Merseyside club’s overtures.

Rivalry between the Canarian two teams is just as passionate and intense as it would be back home for derby games between Everton and Liverpool, Manchester United and City, Rangers and Celtic, Arsenal and Tottenham etc.

This weekend’s meeting between the two Canarian teams had the added edge of both sides fighting to haul themselves away from the relegation zone in the Spanish Second Division.

The moneybags London club’s director of football, Frank Arnesen, is getting regular reports on the progress of 19-years-old Iriome from his Spanish scouts after the youngster broke into the Tenerife first team just before Christmas.

Iriome, a product of the Spanish Second Division team’s youth system, is a gifted 6ft 1in right-sided winger/midfielder.

Chelsea’s Premiership rivals Liverpool remain favourites to sign the youngster in the summer because of manager Rafael Benitez’s strong connections with CD Tenerife, where he was first team coach during the 2000/01 season.

Iriome, a native tinerfeno, was born in Icod de los Vinos, a small town in the north of the island.

Manager Rafael Benitez has been tracking the progress of 19-year-old right-sided winger/midfielder Iriome González González through the youth ranks of the island team for a number of years.

But Iriome does not believe he is ready for a big-time move to the Pemiership so early in his career and has thus far resisted the Merseyside overtures.

The Anfield boss was hoping to persuade the highly-rated 6ft 1in teenager to join the Reds in the summer for a fee of around £1.5million.

A number of other leading European clubs also thought to be interested in the CD Tenerife youngster.

Iriome has only recently forced his way into the Spanish Second Division side’s line-up, though Benitez has been aware of his potential for many years.

Benitez has strong connections with Tenerife’s top team, managing them in the 2000/01 season at the start of a mercurial rise in his fortunes. The following season he took charge at Valencia, leading them to the Spanish League championship in his first season and a league and UEFA Cup double in 2003/04.

Young Iriome has yet to complete the 10 games that Spanish regulations require for him to qualify for a professional contract. He broke into the first team just before Christmas and scored the decisive goal for his team in their 2-1 victory over Almeria at the end of January.

Iriome hails from Icod de los Vinos in the north of Tenerife, a town better known for its production of quality red wines rather than top notch footballers.