Me and my family enjoy staying at Puerto de la Cruz. The town has a long tradition as a tourist center, well known for its relaxing atmosphere. During the daytime the sand beach and the lush, tropical gardens of the city invite for some hours of sunbathing and swimming. In the evenings the restaurants in the area around Plaza del Charco offer good food and family entertainment.



One of my familie´s favourite passtimes is hiking and we find Tenerife to be an ideal place for this acitvity. The Anaga mountains in the northeast offer many romatic hiking paths that we enjoy because of the breathtaking scenary and the untouched nature. Hiking is popular on the island and guided tours can easily be arranged. We have always felt safer on the guided tours and of course there is the benefit of getting explanation about local vegetation and wildlife.

The Pico Teide is with about 3,700 meters the highest mountain in Spain. Hiking here is for experts but there is a cable car that takes visitors up to a station near the mountain top. The view from here is fanastic. You can see all of Tenerife but have a view also over the Atlantic ocean and the neighboring Canry Island.



While on vacation on Tenerife, a trip to the island´s capital of Santa Cruz is a must. There are many historical sights that remind us of the island´s ancient history and it´s native inhabitants, the Guanches. Many parks offer the opportunity to relax and downtown we find the best shopping on the island.

However, Playa Jardin, which is a black beach close to Puerto de la Cruz town, belongs to the most famous on the whole island.
The black colour of the sand has the volcanic nature. Few people know that a direct skin contact with the black lava sand has an anti-rheumatism effect.

In consequence of Tenerife’s evolution, only a few natural beaches were formed. Due to the increasing number of tourists, the growing demand for public beaches appeared. Beaches created by men are the constant element of Tenerife landscapes. Created around the tourist resorts, they are of the best quality and cleanliness, with access to restaurants, bars and water-sports.

Playa de las Teresitas is one of the best beaches situated near by the capital Santa Cruz. The extraordinary thing about it, is the fact that its sand was importet directly from Sahara.

One of the latest attractions in northern part of Tenerife is the Lago Martianez and the Martianez Beach in Puerto de la Cruz, which is being developed and modernized since the end of year 2007. The beach offers perfect conditions for surfers.

The Teno-range in the west of Tenerife and the Anaga-mountains are a famous destination for active holiday makers and those who like hiking and exploring.

The visitor finds many small original villages, which escaped from the mass tourism because of their location far away from the popular beaches and the big cities. One learns about the roots of civilization of Tenerife and can enjoy the intact landscape and meet the autochthonous people living there.

We explored the moste interesting and charming places of the island to give you some usefull tips.
One of the most beautiful beaches, called Playa de las Teresitas, is situated in the north-east of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital of the island. Playa de las Teresitas has been created artificially with sand from the Sahara desert, you can enjoy a safe bathing pleasure as well adequate for children.

In the south of the island of Tenerife you can find different natural sandy beaches at El Medano and artificially created ones in the tourist resorts like Las Americas and Los Cristianos.

La Tarta:

The splendid gala to nominate the annual carnival-queen is among the most impressive moments fullo of rhythm, colours and fun without limit.

Thousands of joyfully celebrating dressed ups are dancing on the streets and enjoy themselves till the early morning hours.

The carnival of Tenerife is a great spectacle, which you should’nt miss in any case, surely you will be impressed.

The so called queen of the Canary Islands guarantees temperatures of over 20 °C in winter as in summer with many sunny days to take a sunbath. Over all the south of the island is well known for nearly any cloudy or rainy day. Most beaches are situated near the holiday centres like Los Christianos or Playa de Las Americas.

The holiday-maker has a lot of hotels and a perfect tourist infrastructure with appropriate restaurants, amusement parks and much more on his disposal.

It is a quite special experience for every tourist to visit Santa Cruz during the carnival time the months of January and February. Thousands of people dressed up with colourful costumes dancing and celebrating on the streets of the capital of Tenerife.
The carnival is accompanied by Salsa, Merengue and Samba rhythms. The carnival of Santa Cruz is after the one in Rio de Janeiro the most popular worldwide.

So, you see, you have many possibilities to escape from the cold winter months in Germany.

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

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.

Early reports indicate a wide range of discounts available in the stores of the island capital of Santa Cruz, with some stores offering just 20 per cent off, while others have bitten the bullet and gone straight in, cutting prices by as much as 50 per cent.

But seasoned Canarian shoppers won’t be taken in by these headline offers.

They know that the sales will continue until the end of August and if they keep their powder dry – and their purses clamped firmly shut – that the bargains will become even more tempting in a few weeks time.

It’s an annual game, one the Canarians love to play.

It requires nerves of steel, an icy determination and, most important of all, the instinct and experience to know exactly when to strike.

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 new light rail system, or Tranvia, as it is known on the island, has been ready to go into service for a week or two now but its inauguration was delayed because of local elections due to take place on May 27.

Officially, the tram service’s political masters did not want to be accused of taking advantage of the opening.

The cynical among you are probably thinking that they might also have considered that voters might not be favourably disposed towards them if the service hit unforeseen snags during its early days of operation.

Tramcars are already a familiar sight in the business centres of Santa Cruz and its near neighbour La Laguna, the two areas linked by the new service.

The metro system is designed to relieve congestion in the two cities, which, unless checked, will cause traffic gridlock in five years time – New tram system to relieve traffic congestion.

The Tranvia was involved in its first accident during trials being carried out in the run-up to the opening when a woman was struck by a moving tram while she was distracted by her mobile phone. Fortunately she was only slightly injured.

The incident led to a number of safety concerns being voiced by some citizens, who claim the trams will be a threat to pedestrians walking along previously traffic-free streets.

The incident has prompted the operators of the new service to embark on a safety campaign in the build up to the opening, reminding citizens and shoppers of the need to be vigilant when walking near the tramlines.

The Sheffield-born star, who will be 63 by the time of the concert, starts a mammoth Europe-wide tour in June that takes in Spain, Greece, Georgia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, France, Ireland, England, Holland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Norway and Denmark – a punishing schedule of 34 venues in all in little over two months.

He has two dates in the Canary Islands, at the Auditorio in Santa Cruz on July 10 and Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, the following day.

Cocker’s musical career, which spans over 40 years, kicked off when he had his first UK number one in November 1968, a cover version of the Beatles song With a Little Help from My Friends.

He had a second UK hit with Delta Lady but the real focus of his career switched to America, following his appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969, where his gravelly voice proved popular, leading to several chart entries.

His progress was interrupted briefly by problems with drugs and alcohol but he bounced back in the 1980s and 1990s, notching up a string of hits, most notably Your Are So Beautiful, Unchain My Heart and the classic Up Where We Belong, the Grammy Award-winning song from the movie An Office and a Gentleman, which he performed with Jennifer Warnes.

The set for his European tour will include all of his hits mentioned above, plus other chart successes such as You Can Leave Your Hat On, Cry Me A River, I Put A Spell On You, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window and Maybe I’m Amazed.

A 7.5-miles line will operate between the island capital of Santa Cruz and the neighbouring city of La Laguna.

The metro system is designed to relieve congestion in the two cities, which, unless checked, will cause traffic gridlock in five years time.

The route of the new service will mean that more than half of the 350,000 population of the two cities will have no more than a five-minute walk to their nearest tram stop.

The overhead electricity power supply to the tramcars will be generated by ten specially-commissioned wind turbines, making it a totally zero-emission system.

Initially, trams will run every five minutes, with a journey time of 37 minutes. Stops are situated every 500-600 metres and the whole line has double track.

The tramcars, built in Barcelona, have been specially adapted to cope with the steep gradients along the route, the track climbing 600 metres in 12km. The 32-metre trams are driven through all six wheels, enabling them to average 20km per hour on the journey. They have a top speed of 70km per hour.

The system will have 20 tramcars available at start up, each capable of carrying 200 passengers, 60 of them seated.

The operators, Metropolitano de Tenerife, expect around 44,000 journeys to be made each day in the first year, removing an estimated 10,000 cars from congested city streets.

Trams will run from 5am-midnight during weekdays and 24 hours a day at weekends and during festivals.

Future plans for the system include an extension taking the line from La Laguna to Tenerife’s north airport at Los Rodeos and a branch line to serve the district of La Cuesta, another heavily populated area.

The book, ‘The Secret Son of Franco’, claims the child was the product of an affair with the wife of a lieutenant under his command.

Spanish author Fernando Gracia will launch his new book in the Tenerife capital of Santa Cruz next week (April 20).

The book will allege that the child was born just before Franco launched a failed attempt to overthrow Spain’s Socialist government in 1936, an action he directed from his base in La Esperanza, Tenerife, and which set in motion the bloody Spanish Civil War.

He became leader of the right-wing Nationalist movement during the Civil War and became head of state when the Republican forces were defeated in 1939. He ruled until 1975, presiding over what was for many years a harsh and brutally repressive regime.

Franco was a staunch supporter of the Roman Catholic church while in power, which is why the new book will be seen in Spain in such a controversial light.

No violent deaths were recorded in the city last year.

Bear in mind we are talking about a city with a population of almost a quarter of a million, which is a major port, hosts the second biggest carnival on the planet and entertains hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world every year.

It is just one of a number of startling facts revealed in the latest set of government statistics for the island, which also show a reduction of more than six per cent in the overall crime rate in the city.

Furthermore, burglaries were down by a staggering 38.3 per cent, credit card thefts down by nearly a quarter and car thefts down by nearly 20 per cent.

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.

Long before holiday revellers brought head banging from the London clubs to the nightspots of Playa de las Americas, Tenerife had its own variation of the phenomenon

A study of the skulls of the island’s original inhabitants by scientists at the Canarian Institute of Palaeopathology and Bioanthropology in Santa Cruz found that fractures were common among males in their 20s and early 30s, according to the Journal of Paleopathology.

The scientists examined over 400 skulls pre-dating the Spanish invasion of the island in 1496.

Some 10 per cent of the skulls showed circular cranial fractures, an injury rarely found among archaeological human skeletons.

The pre-Hispanic inhabitants of the island, the Guanches, had weapons similar to the Argentinean bolas – two or more heavy balls attached to a cord.

Over 80 per cent of the fractures show clear signs of healing, says the report, though the scientists suspects that brain damage must have resulted from the injuries.

Los Rodeos is only six miles from the Tenerife capital of Santa Cruz and 12 miles from the popular resort of Puerto de la Cruz and the historic 500-year-old town of La Orotava.

A new VIP lounge opened recently, part of an ongoing programme of improvements soon to include a new transit lounge, new ticket sales desks and the expansion of domestic and international arrivals areas.

Despite being the first airport to open in Tenerife way back in 1930, Los Rodeos was forced to take a back seat as far as tourism was concerned when Reina Sofia airport opened in the south of the island in 1978.

But after a sharp increase in passenger numbers during the 1990s, Los Rodeos underwent substantial modernisation between 2002 and 2005, with a new car park, motorway access ramps, a new four-storey passenger terminal with 12 gates a separate terminal for inter-island flights.

As well as offering domestic and international connections, Los Rodeos has become an important inter-island hub, connecting with all six of the other islands in the Canaries archipelago.

Last year the airport handled over four million passengers.

New services from the British Isles include BA’s Gatwick flights, operated by its GB Airways subsidiary, Ryanair’s from Dublin and winter charter flights from Gatwick and Manchester operated by Britannia Airways.

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.

Thousands saw it, mostly in the east and north of the island, describing a brilliant fireball that flashed across the night sky shortly after 10pm.

It happened on Sunday May 7 and hundreds of people called the Canarian Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) seeking an explanation of the phenomenon.

Because it happened at a weekend there were many witnesses to the unusual event. Sunday had been a fine day on Tenerife and many people were returning to their homes from a day at the beach, in the mountains or with friends and family.

From the many hundreds of eye witness accounts, scientists were able to paint what they believe to be a fairly accurate picture of what happened.

It was around 10.30pm that radio stations on the island broke into their normal programmes to broadcast calls from witnesses who told of having seen a huge light in the sky.

Some said it had the appearance of a meteor but was much brighter, others feared it might have an aircraft crashing in flames.

That latter theory was quickly discounted by aviation authorities, confirming that no aircraft were unaccounted for. The object had not registered on air traffic control, military radar or on any of the many reconnaissance satellites that girdle the earth.

Many witnesses said it had been visible for around five seconds and looked like a comet with a long tail, others that a bright flash of light was seen as it disappeared.

A family in Tegueste reported that the final flash of light was so bright it lit up the inside of their home. An amateur astronomer in Santa Cruz reported hearing a noise, while others spoke of hearing a dull rumble in the distance.

In Puerto de la Cruz, two observers described the light as disappearing to the north. Some spoke of seeing Mount Teide lit up briefly, while in La Laguna reports described watching it disappear over the Anaga Mountains.

After studying the many reports from Tenerife and adding those from eye witnesses in the neighbouring islands of Gran Canaria and La Palma, IAC scientists concluded that it had indeed been a meteor and furthermore they had been able to plot quite accurately its progress across the night sky.

So sure were they of their findings that they were able to say with firm conviction that the meteorite had weighed around half a kilogram, that it had passed over the Atlantic Ocean, had started to burn up between the islands of Gran Canaria and Fuertaventura and travelled north west before exploding and falling into the ocean some 75 miles north of Tenerife.

Any surviving fragments might have yielded further information but they were well out of reach on the ocean floor at a depth of 3,000 metres.

We were a mixed bunch, some staying here permanently, some as winter swallows spending up to six months a year, while others are fortunate enough to be able to holiday here two, three or even more times a year.

Of course, we’re all familiar with the tourist blurb that talks about the island of eternal spring, the warm all-year-round climate and the endless hours of sunshine, all of which are good enough reasons in themselves for wanting to spend as much time here as possible.

For many of us, particularly those now living on a pension, the attractions are financial, prompted by a much lower cost of living than back in the UK, with household bills a fraction of what they are back home, petrol at less than 50p a litre, cigarettes little more than £1 a packet, greatly reduced fuel bills… and so the list goes on.

Others point to the friendly, welcoming and open nature of the Canarian people, who seem more than happy to share their delightful island with hordes of incomers from northern Europe.

Health is also a key factor, the everyday natural warmth soothing away the aches and pains of those in their later years.

Some enjoy the contrasts of the island, from the hustle and bustle of the island capital of Santa Cruz to the serenity and beauty of the rural forests and mountains.

Tenerife, we all decided, has allowed us to experience and appreciate once again some of life’s simple pleasures.

In what is regarded as the biggest air disaster in civil aviation history, a Boeing 747 operated by the Dutch airline KLM began its take off while another 747 belonging to the American carrier Pan Am was still taxiing on the runway.

The airport was shrouded in fog that day, March 27, 1977, a contributing factor in the collision between the two aircraft.

All 248 passengers aboard the KLM plane perished, while just 61 of the 396 on board the Pan Am flight survived.

Ironically, neither flight was due to touch down in Tenerife that day but should have landed instead on the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria, where many of the passengers were due to board a cruise ship.

But a terrorist bombing on Gran Canaria resulted in the aircraft being diverted to Los Rodeos to sit out the threat.

As a result of the accident, sweeping changes were made to international airline regulations and to aircraft operational safety procedures.

Aviation authorities around the world introduced requirements for unambiguous standard phrases for dialogue between pilots and air traffic controllers, with greater emphasis placed on the use of English as a common working language.

On the 30th anniversary of the disaster this month, Spanish, Dutch and American surviving relatives will attend a memorial service, together with representatives of their respective governments, after which the commemorative steel sculpture will be officially unveiled.

The memorial takes the form of a spiral staircase and was designed by the Dutch artist Rudi van de Wint. It will be sited on Mesa Mota mountain in La Laguna, overlooking the scene of the disaster. The memorial service will be held in the Auditorio de Tenerife in the nearby island capital of Santa Cruz.

A new addition to the Naviera Armas fleet, the Volcan de Tamadaba, will operate the service.

The new vessel, due to come into service in May, will be one of the biggest, fastest and most modern in the company’s fleet, with a top speed of 24 knots and a payload of up to 1,000 passengers and 500 cars.

The ship will sail from Santa Cruz on Saturday evenings at 10.30pm, arriving at Funchal, the capital of Madeira, at 8am on Sunday morning.

The return journey will see the vessel leaving Funchal at 7pm on Sundays, arriving back in Santa Cruz at 10am on Monday morning.

Fares start at 50 euros for a one-way trip in a reclining seat and 95 euros for a cabin berth. The cost of taking a car is 95 euros each way.

In order to encourage Canarians to make good use of the service, Naviera Armas are offering free ferry transport from the islands of La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro to Tenerife to link up with the new sailings.

Groups will also be offered special rates in the hope that cultural and sporting exchanges between the two islands will be extended.

The 12-strong team left the island capital of Santa Cruz aboard the new British research ship, RRS James Cook, to examine an area some 2,000 nautical miles south west of Tenerife where the earth’s mantle is exposed to the sea floor.

Their investigations will be made possible by the latest high-tech equipment on board the new vessel, including a robotic device called Toby, which will extract rock samples at the site and film for the first time the planet’s ‘green’ interior.

The hole is some 16,000 feet below the ocean’s surface and located along a globe-spanning ridge of undersea volcanoes where the Atlantic tectonic plates have separated.

Normally, lava surges up to fill such gaps in the earth’s crust, but in this case instead of a layer of crust several kilometres thick the mantle of the earth, a very dense leafy-green rock that makes up the core of the Earth, has been exposed.

Scientists are puzzled by the appearance of this ‘open wound’ on the ocean floor, which was first detected by sonar readings taken by a surface vessel. The phenomenon defies conventional theories about how the Earth works.

The area to be studied by the scientific team is part of an underwater mountain range that spans thousands of square miles. The hole itself is reckoned to be between 10,000-13,000 feet in diameter.

The 90,000 tons luxury liner, being built near Venice at a cost of over £250 million, is due to be launched in December of this year before embarking from Southampton on a ‘Maiden Canary Islands Festive Celebration, on December 21.

The 16-night cruise will take in Vigo and Malaga in Spain, Lisbon, Madeira, the Canary islands of Las Palmas, Lanzarote and Tenerife, Casablanca and Gibraltar.

The liner is due to dock at Santa Cruz at 8am on December 31, and a full day’s programme of excursions will be available for passengers, taking in the usual Tenerife attractions, such as Mount Teide, La Orotava , Puerto de la Cruz, Loro Parque, the Mercedes forest and the Pyramids at Guimar.

At the end of a hectic programme, the Queen Victoria is due to set sail from Santa Cruz at 11pm to see in the New Year at sea.

Queen Victoria, which can accommodate up to 2,014 passengers in her 1,007 staterooms, has on board an 800-seater theatre, a two-storey library, three-storey grand lobby, a winter garden, 4,000 sq ft of shopping arcades, a lounge with a 270-degree view, a night club, 1,000 sq ft dance floor and a traditional London pub.

Fares on the festive voyage start at just over £2,000, though Cunard are reporting that her maiden voyages are already sold out.

On her return from the Canaries, Queen Victoria is due to set off on a 106-nights world cruise.

The exhibition is at the Sala des Exposiciones de Caja Rural de Tenerife in Santa Cruz and features the work of Ricardo Montesdeoca, Joaquin Casado, Anastasia Medvedeva, Henrieke Strecker, David Cugnasca, Daniel Zrihen, Dmitry Rubinshteyn, Joseph Maria Ribas i Prous and Katie Cooke.

Some of the smaller towns and villages try to organise their events so as not to clash with the two giant events. But for all of them, carnival follows a traditional pattern of groups of music, dance and sumptuous costumes.

The burial of the sardine is another ritual conducted everywhere, though those in Los Realejos, La Orotava and Puerto de la Cruz are considered to be the best.

Each of the cities, towns and villages sets a theme for its carnival celebrations, this year’s being the ‘World of Fashion’ in Santa Cruz and ‘Paris of the 1920s’ for Puerto de la Cruz.

In La Orotava, the theme for 2007 is ‘Fiestas in Egypt’. The grand parade is on Tuesday, February 20. A parade of vintage cars begins the day’s actitivities at 10am from Plaza de la Constitución.

The carnival parade at 4pm sets out from Cruz del Teide to Plaza de la Paz. The partying carries on long after the parade has finished.

Thursday, February 22 sees a Drag Queen Festival at 9pm in La Orotava, featuring some of the best drag acts from Gran Canaria and Tenerife.

This year’s carnival theme in Los Realejos is ‘Atlantis – the Lost Continent’ and it runs from February 9-21, while in Los Gigantes it runs from March 1-5, the theme for 2007 being Mexico.

Los Cristianos stages one of Tenerife’s smaller carnival celebrations, though it’s still the biggest in the south of the island, from February 20-24, events including a masked ball, children’s carnival queen competition and a parade of horses.

Just as everywhere else, celebrants adorn themselves in the ridiculous, the daring and the unashamedly outrageous, converging on the streets and squares to the rhythms of congas, sambas, rumbas and the more traditional Spanish zarzuela – providing a good chance to take in some songs and dances indigenous to the island.

Some of the biggest and best of the celebrations are in the island’s northern resort of Puerto de la Cruz, which traditionally acts as an appetiser for the main event in the capital, Santa Cruz, generally regarded as ranking second only to Rio de Janeiro in world carnival terms.

It may all sound a bit sedate judging it purely on the list of events, but that would be to forget the Canarian appetite for having a good time and their stamina in making the celebrations last well into the wee small hours for the duration.

Make no mistake, ‘Carnaval’ in the Canaries is a raucous and riotous fortnight of revelry to be survived by only the strongest of constitutions.

Puerto’s International Carnival, the theme for which this year is ‘Paris in the 1920s’, started with the choosing of the children’s carnival queen on Sunday (February 11) and continued with the election of the 2007 Carnival Queen on Thursday (Feb 15) in the Plaza de Europa.

The rest of the programme is as follows

Saturday Feb 17, 8pm: Parade through the town to officially announce the carnival; 10pm: First of the Grand Balls held every night in Plaza del Charco and its surrounding streets.

Sunday Feb 18, 4.30pm (all in Plaza de Europa): children’s dance groups perform; 5pm: Children’s fancy dress competition; 6.30pm: More children’s dancing; 8pm: Adult dance groups; 8pm: Adult fancy dress competition; 9.30pm: More adults dancing. 10pm: Grand Ball in Plaza del Charco and surrounding streets.

Monday Feb 19, from 6.30pm: Ritual Matar la Culebra, or killing of the snake, at various locations throughout the town centre; 8.30pm: Exhibition of carnival groups, Plaza de Europa; 10pm: Grand Ball, Plaza del Charco and surrounding streets.

Tuesday Feb 20, 1pm: Parade of veteran cars centred around Avenida Colon; 9pm: More carnival group exhibitions at various locations around the town; 10pm: Grand Ball in Plaza del Charco and surrounding streets.

Wednesday Feb 21 9pm: Entierro de la Sardina, or funeral of the sardine, procession through the town culminating in a huge fireworks display and the cremating of the giant sardine on a funeral pyre. 10.30pm: Grand Ball, Plaza del Charco and surrounding streets.

Thursday Feb 22 9pm: ‘Exhibition of Fanfare’, Plaza del Charco.

Friday Feb 23, 8.30pm: Enrolment and scrutineering of heels for the 13th running of the ‘Mascarita Ponte Tacon’, or Men’s Marathon in High Heels in Plaza del Charco; 10pm: Race starts (and finishes) in Plaza del Charco; 11pm: Grand Ball, Plaza del Charco and surrounding streets.

Saturday Feb 24, from 4pm: Grand Puerto de la Cruz International Carnival Parade; 8pm: Grand Ball, Plaza del Charco and surrounding streets.

Sunday Feb 25, 5pm: Exhibition by senior citizens carnival groups, Plaza del Charco; 6.30pm: Grand Ball, Plaza del Charco and surrounding streets.

Check back again for more information on carnival plans in towns across the island.

The judge put to an end a worrying few days for carnival organisers after the earlier court hearing ordered the ban after some residents claimed that the carnival was too noisy.

Local officials and the Spanish government sided with carnival organisers against a group of some 15 residents, who claimed that the all-night revelry stopped them sleeping and violated their constitutional right to domestic privacy.

Santa Cruz’s raucous carnival dates back over 200 years and has survived famine, epidemic and the Spanish Civil War to become one of the world’s best-known. In world terms, it is considered to be second only to the celebrations in Rio de Janeiro.

Worried island officials had calculated that banning or restricting the the night-time carnival activities could cost the local economy a massive 5,000,000 Euros and seriously damage the island’s tourism reputation.

The carnival was officially banned during the 36 years of dictator General Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975. He outlawed carnival but many places, including Tenerife, openly defied the ban, continuing to stage the carnival celebrations but under a different name.

The theme of this year’s carnival in Santa Cruz is the world of fashion.

The celebrations in the capital always begin with the choosing of the Carnival Queen, a lavish all-night event which is screened live on television and attracts huge audiences across the island.

The carnival continues with wild street parties, loud music, dancing and thousands of people in costume. So numerous are the crowds that it seems at times that the entire population of the island is out partying.

Main events in the Santa Cruz Carnival are:

Wednesday Feb 14, 9.30pm: Gala Election Night of the 2007 Carnival Queen.

Friday Feb 16, 8pm: Evening parade through the streets of Santa Cruz formally announcing the start of the carnival celebrations. The parade is followed by a huge fireworks display.

Tuesday Feb 20, 4pm: The main event of the carnival, the Grand Parade, begins in the afternoon and continues for several hours. The parade is also televised. Another huge fireworks display follows at 9pm

Wednesday Feb 21, 9pm: Another big day in the carnival calendar, Funeral of the Sardine, when a giant papier-maché fish is paraded through the streets at the head of a mock funeral procession complete with a huge entourage of mourners in black and other celebrants in more garish costumes (men dressed as pantomime dames, for instance).

Saturday Feb 24, 6pm: Children’s Carnival Parade.

Sunday Feb 25, 10am: Morning parade of vintage cars; 12 midnight: Grand Fireworkds Display to conclude the carnival events.