Managing director Michael O'Donovan, 57, has assembled a workforce of 65 for the launch of AV8air, a subsidiary of Sale tour operator CT2, formerly Club Travel 2000 and he is planning to recruit 20 more cabin crew by the end of January.The carrier has leased two jets which will take 150,000 holidaymakers to Spain, the Canary Islands and South Africa in its first full year. Its maiden service in AV8air colours will be flight MNF217 from Manchester to Tenerife next Friday (5th December) morning.

Michael, a former RAF pilot, was approached by CT2 boss Brian Murfin in early April, while he was director of flight operations at Excel Airways. He said: "I started with a clean sheet of paper. It's been a challenge but very exciting."

He will take part in a ceremony in the Auditorium in Santa Cruz as the guest of the UGT and CCOO trade unions.

The new £50 million opera house (www.auditoriodetenerife.com) opened two months ago in the island’s capital, Santa Cruz, and has a main auditorium seating more than 1,600. Its winter programme includes performances of Mahler, Mozart and Brahms, as well as the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and Antonio Canales dance.

It will be so much easier to reach Santa Cruz this winter, with both GB Airways and bmi British Midland starting services from London to Tenerife’s north airport.

John Patterson, managing director of GB Airways, a BA franchise, said: “They are upgrading hotels and resorts on Tenerife to get away from its previous image. They are trying to ditch the old image and replace it with good stuff, as they have done in Benidorm and Palma.”

Tellingly for a leisure route, up to 44 out of 156 seats on GB Airways are in business class. The north of the island is expected to attract busy professionals desperate for a winter sun break: two thirds of the airline’s passengers are booking independently on the web.
Check out Apartments and Holiday accomodation on Los Gigantes Dot Com

The Chinyero eruption in 1909

"The publication of this collection of historic photographs is long overdue"

Nicolás Dorta
Santiago del Teide

Images for memory is divided in thirteen chapters which deal with not only the facts but the experiences that define Santiago del Teide. The first photos date from the end of the 19th century and subject matter includes agriculture, the sea, tourism, the home, politics, crafts, sport, landscapes, the streets, celebrations and the eruption of the Chinyero volcano.

There are photographs of the creation of the City council of the Santiago Valley in 1822, and its official constitution 1835. Conception García Suárez the municipality's only mayoress, chosen in 1933, and of course Pancracio Socas the last mayor of the 20th century for Santiago del Teide, who passed away on the 23 of May 2003 during an electoral campaign meeting

Other studies include Playa de la Arena and the Cliffs of Los Gigantes representing the two most important symbols for the tourist development of the municipality. The authors have also included the first photographs circa 1963, where the first urbanizations were built, and one of the internationally famous restaurant "Pancho's"

In fact the numbers show that the south has a greater population than Lanzarote, or La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro put together. Overall three in every ten new residents of the Canary Islands will be in South Tenerife.

The project is estimated to cost 86000 euros and will improve the embarkation facilities for people wishing to return to Los Gigantes by boat after having done the Masca walk .

According to a recent study by the Cabildo some 150 people do the walk every day, and the largest part of these do NOT walk up again, but return to Los Gigantes by boat from the existing slipway
The minister of the environment Wladimiro Rodríguez stated yesterday, that the Masca barranco is one of the most attractive locations in the Teno national park and the many people who come to do the decent, do not want to do the acent as it is very difficult, most of the visitors prefer to return by boat to Los Gigantess or Puerto Santiago. Up until now the slipway used for embarkation was a bit precarious, so it was for mainly safety reasons that the government have decided on the improvements.

SEND A VITUAL POSTCARD OF MASCA FOR FREE

Three men were charged with evading approximately £16,400 revenue on 96,760 cigarettes. The remaining five men and one woman were released without charge, pending further Customs enquiries. Among them were two men were from Ivybridge, near Plymouth, Devon, who allegedly had 63,320 cigarettes between them. Two men and a woman from the Southampton area are alleged to have had 91,020 cigarettes. One man from Wellington, Somerset was said to be carrying 36,380 cigarettes.

The normal duty free allowance of 200 cigarettes each apply to travellers from Tenerife.Customs spokesman Bob Gaiger, said: "This is a huge seizure for Exeter. "On most days we might seize a few thousand cigarettes from people who are bringing in more than their duty-free allowance. "The criminal gangs who target regional airports will be getting the message."

Non Trubada have shared the stage with the likes of Alan Stivell, Luz Casal, Celtas Cortos, Eduardo Falú... from Womad, Shooglenifty, Capercaillie, Afro Celt Sound System and Jaled and have had hits not just in the Canaries, but all over europe, such as their appearance at the 24th European Ethnic Music Festival in Italy

Some of you may remember our article in September (outnaboutarch28sep12003.htm) about the UK Meridian TV Company film crew coming out to film sequences for part of a Pilot Show for a programme called - I want that holiday!

Well last week Linda and Pete Smith from Bognor Regis in the UK got their dream holiday. The couple who had never visited Tenerife before, saw an advert asking for contestants on the television Company's web site and e-mailed in their details - and won! They were asked to select one of three envelopes and actually picked the walking tour based around the north of the island, staying in Garrachico and taking in Masca, but the couple who had never scuba dived before in their lives, were disappointed not to at least have had a go at the sport, while they were here. So show producer Graham Thomson contacted Neville Widdrington of the Los Gigantes Diving Centre and a try-dive was arranged for the couple.

Unfortunately sea conditions on the day chosen in the busy filming schedule were just too rough for novices to dive, but not daunted Neville and his sister Sheila Widdrington of Ocean Eye Video arranged for the practice dive to take place at the Royal Sun Swimming Pool, where the couple were supervised by instructor Andy Molloy. When asked what they had enjoyed most about their visit to Tenerife, Linda and Pete said they had been stunned by the scenery on their walking tours, but the diving experience had been the highlight of their stay, so much so, that they are seriously thinking of making Los Gigantes a base for their retirement - who knows? this time next year, they may be diving to feed the famous Los Gigantes Rays!

For more information about Try Dives see the Los Gigantes Diving Centre Advert Click Here

"Lagarto moteado de Teno" in Danger of extinction - Los Gigantes the only place where individuals of the species can still be found

A special meeting today of the Santiago del Teide town council unanimously approved the raising of a commemorative tribute to Don Efraín Hernandez, the man whose tireless conservation work has succeeded in averting the complete extinction of the Speckled lizard of Teno.

The Lagarto moteado de Teno - Speckled lizard of Teno while not as famous as its cousin the Giant Lizard of La Gomera, is according to the Ministry of the Environment in "Critical Danger" and is at high risk of extinction. Its natural habitat is around the cliffs of Teno and Los Gigantes and is mainly threatened by feral cats, rats, and by the fragmentation of its habitat. The Lizard know officially by it's latin name of "Gallotia intermedia" was discovered by Don Hernandez in 1995 and was unknown to science at that time, there are an estimated 281 - 460 individuals scattered in various sites, but each colony numbers only around 50 individuals. There has been some success with a breeding programme, the first creature born in captivity was born in 2002 in La Laguna at the "Fundación Neotrópico" and a cat proof fence has been erected to protect one of the two larger wild colonies.

A plaque in honour of Don Efraín Hernandez will be erected in Los Gigantes around the 13th of December.

The London World Tourism (WTM) trade fair opened yesterday, and as in previous years the Canarian stand was also inaugurated, with regional president Adán Martin performing the ceremony. Martin took the opportunity to call for a re-energising of the tourism industry here, and the importance of maintaining the number one choice spot for holiday makers from the UK and Germany. Promotion at the WTM for the island of Tenerife includes plugging the different kinds of holidays and short breaks available on Tenerife with a focus on quality, all of which is now much easier thanks to the spectacular rise in the number of direct scheduled flights to Tenerife from the UK since 1 November this year. Tenerife currently has an intensive advertising campaign on the British market, the biggest ever undertaken by the SPET. It features several promotions such as press adverts, a huge billboard on the motorway to London Heathrow airport, photos of Tenerife on city buses and adverts on the underground.

SAN SEBASTIAN, La Gomera- Juan Cabello takes pride in not using a cellphone or the Internet to communicate. Instead, he puckers up and whistles.

Cabello is a silbador, until recently a dying breed on tiny, mountainous La Gomera, one of Spain's Canary Islands off West Africa. Like his father and grandfather before him, Cabello, 50, knows silbo gomero, a language that is whistled, not spoken, and can be heard more than two miles away.

This chirpy brand of chatter is thought to have come over with early African settlers 2,500 years ago. Now, educators are working hard to save it from extinction by making school children study it up to age 14.

Silbo -- the word comes from Spanish verb silbar, meaning to whistle -- features four ''vowels'' and four ''consonants'' that can be strung together to form more than 4,000 words.

It sounds just like bird conversation, and Cabello says it has numerous uses.

''I use it for everything: to call to my wife, to tell my kids something, to find a friend if we get lost in a crowd,'' Cabello said.

In fact, he makes a living off Silbo, performing daily exhibitions at a restaurant on this island of 147 square miles and 19,000 people.

Silbo was once used throughout the hilly terrain of La Gomera as an ingenious way of communicating over long distances. A strong whistle saved peasants from trekking over hill and dale to send messages or news to neighbors.

Then came the phone, and it's hard to know how many people use Silbo these days.

''A lot of people think they do, but there is a very small group who can truly communicate through Silbo and understand Silbo,'' said Manuel Carreiras, a psychology professor from the island of Tenerife. He specializes in how the brain processes language and has studied Silbo.

Since 1999, Silbo has been a required language in La Gomera's elementary schools. Some 3,000 students are studying it 25 minutes a week -- enough to teach the basics, said Eugenio Darias, a Silbo teacher and director of the island's Silbo program.

''There are few really good silbadores so far, but lots of students are learning to use it and understand it,'' he said. ``We've been very pleased.''

But almost as important as speaking -- sorry, whistling -- Silbo is studying where it came from, and little is known.

''Silbo is the most important pre-Hispanic cultural heritage we have,'' said Moises Plasencia, the director of the Canary government's historical heritage department.

It might seem appropriate for a language that sounds like birdsong to exist in the Canary Islands, but scholarly theories as to how the archipelago got its name make no mention of whistling.

Little is known about Silbo's origins, but an important step toward recovering the language was the First International Congress of Whistled Languages, held in April in La Gomera. The congress, which will be repeated in 2005, brought together experts on various whistled languages.

Silbo-like whistling has been found in pockets of Greece, Turkey, China and Mexico, but none is as developed as Silbo Gomero, Plasencia said.

One study is looking for vestiges of Silbo in Venezuela, Cuba and Texas, all places to which Gomerans have historically emigrated during hard economic times.

Now, Plasencia is heading an effort to have UNESCO declare it an ''intangible cultural heritage'' and support efforts to save it.

''Silbo is so unique and has many values: historical, linguistic, anthropological and aesthetic. It fits perfectly with UNESCO's requirements,'' he said.

Besides, said Cabello, it's good for just about anything except for romance: ``Everyone on the island would hear what you're saying!''

(translated extract from "La Opiníon" newspaper)

Luis Sánchez is a psychologist and psychotherapist who qualified at the University of Salamanca but has been a resident in Tenerife for some ten years. After becoming interested in the regression therapy techniques of American psychiatrist Brian Weiss, he decided to use them in his own treatment.

For those practitioners that think of a human being as a machine and interpret emotions and feelings as mere chemical reactions, the regression therapy technique is science fiction, but the practice has demonstrated its effectiveness, not only for Luis Sánchez, but for hundreds of his colleagues. all around the world. What is achieved with two or three years of traditional therapy, can be obtained in a few months with the regressions , says Sanchez, who was transferred to Tenerife in 1997, after intermittent trips to the Island from 1993. Part of the reason for the success of the therapy here, he says, is the willingness of the "more emotional Canarians", to accept and be open to other methods of treatment, "they listen to their hearts", and that is a big help in the therapies.

A meeting took place today between representatives of Policing bodies and the Local council attended by the Mayor of Santiago del Teide Juan Damián Gorrín Ramos, Dña. Pilar Merino - vice delegate of the Government, D. José Ángel López Malou Lieutenant of the Southern Tenerife Area of the Guardia Civil, D. José Medina - sergeant at the local Guardia Civil office in Guía de Isora, Juan Yorgeni Socas - local councilor with responsibility for the Santiago del Teide Local Police force and Luis Puyol - Head of the Local Police force.

The meeting which is a step along the road to co-ordinating the effectiveness of Policing in the county, took place at the Santiago del Teide town council offices today. It dealt with such issues as:

The possibility of installing a sub office of the Guardia Civil, located in the same area as the Fire Station at La Caldera - which would be more accessible to the coastal region.

Increasing policing levels in recognised trouble spots between Playa de la Arena and Los Gigantes.

Instigating a formal weekly meeting between the Local Police and The Guardia Civil - over and above the normal contacts in the course of their daily work.

The Santiago del Teide will do all in its power to source a suitable site for the possible future construction of a Guardia Civil Station in the municipality of Santiago del Teide.

The participants agreed to meet again in six months time unless anything drastic occurred in the interim.

Although no concrete announcements were made, all parties declared themselves to be pleased at the tone the meeting had taken.

Sunday 16th November will see once again the annual celebrations to give thanks for the safe deliverance of the denizens of the village of Chinyero near Santiago del Teide town from the red hot molten lava flow which was about to engulf them. Locals are convinced this was a miracle brought about by the intercendance of Santa Ana whose statue had been taken to the very edge of the lava flow. This was the last volcano eruption in Tenerife and happened on the 18th November 1909. The festivities include an open air mass, firing of LOUD rockets a ceremony know as "the meeting of the saints" and consuming huge paella.

SEND A FREE POSTCARD FROM LOS GIGANTES

According to the councilor responsible for Tourism -María González Pérez there was an average 69% increase in tourist occupation in October for the area over last year's figures.

The figures were divided up as follows:

Playa de la Arena un 57 %, Los Gigantes 73% and Puerto de Santiago 75% increases

María González Pérez said the figures were more than satisfactory and showed the amount of work everyone involved in the tourist sector had done, but we should continue to promote the area for the winter season.

The Santiago del Teide Council has pleasure in inviting you all to attend the opening ceremony of the "3rd Island wide conference of Associations dedicated to the protection of the Island's Heritage" (III Encuentro de Asociaciones para la defensa del patrimonio de la isla de Tenerife) which will take place at the Centro Commercial Grama del Casco (In Santiago del Teide town) on Saturday the 8th of November at 10.30 am. The ceremony will be presided over by Island Government Councilor for Culture - Sr. D. Miguel Delgado Díaz, and our own mayor Sr. D. Juan Damián Gorrín Ramos. The proceedings will begin at 11.45 am with a talk by the geographer Don Fernando Sabaté Bel.

The council would also like to extend a invitation to the public to attend the official closing ceremony of the conference on Sunday 9th November at 11.00 am which will also take place at the Centro Commercial Grama del Casco. After the presentation of certificates of attendance to the delegates and some refreshment, guests will be shown the Casa del Patio, the Church of San Fernando Rey and the Pottery Museum at Arguayo. (Visit our local History Page if you are interested in the significance of these sites [click here]

The Guía de Isora local councilor for public works- Francisco Herrera Plasencia, declared his satisfaction tha the bridge roadworks on the access road to Playa San Juan were finally finnished. The spot had previously been renown for flooding after even the lightest rainfall, but with the new drainage improvements this will no longer be a problem.

A revolutionary sonic device that tests for osteoporosis will be available to anyone who wishes for the minimal fee of 10 euros a test, in the Los Gigantes area in early November. The Lions Clubs of Tenerife Sur and Santiago del Teide are bringing the machine from England for a limited period to allow inexpensive tests to look for the existance of the crippling bone disease. The Sahara Sonometer will be available in the Los Gigantes Plaza on the morning of Saturday 8th and in the Santiago Plaza during the Afternoon (Contact 666 362 092 to make an appointment)

Available times and venues are: Saturday 8th November: 10:30 hours at the Plaza Bouganvilla Los Gigantes and 14:00 hours at the Centro de Tercera Edad Amelia Martín in Puerto de Santiago.
Sunday 9 November: 10:30 hours, Centro Cultural Guaninfa in Tamaimo - 14:00 hours in the Centro Cultural Grama del Casco (Santiago del Teide) and 16:00 hours at the Centro de Tercera Edad inArguayo.

Water Rates in Guía de Isora remain amongst the lowest on the Island despite the huge growth in consumption announced Councilor Antonio Álvarez Rivero. He insisted that inspite of the improvements to piping and treatment systems the price of water was still a lot less to the consumer than it was in some other parts of the island and published the following tables to prove his point.

MINIMUM Consumption cost in Euros in each region
Adeje 10,04
Santa Cruz 16,45
Tegueste 18,20
Icod de los Vinos 13,36
Santiago del Teide 15,07
Arona 15,99
Tacoronte 14,54
La Orotava 14,20
Guía de Isora Antes: 8,30. Actualizado: 8,61
Granadilla d Abona 7,90
Candelaria 6,97

Up to 25m2 consumption: cost in Euros in each region
Adeje 26,55
Santa Cruz 26,30
Tegueste 25,76
Icod de los Vinos 24,61
Santiago del Teide 17,92
Arona 25,08
Tacoronte 21,44
La Orotava 18,89
Guía de Isora Antes: 16,15. Actualizado: 17,40
Granadilla de Abona 19,60
Candelaria 19,72

CEP Teobaldo Power school the second in the, intended, long line of Colegios Publicos to receive a brand new computer suite courtesy of the Lions Club of Santigo del Teide, held a Grand Opening Evening yesterday. The ceremony was attended by Headmistress, staff and children of the school, situated in Agua Dulce, as well as over 80 of their parents and visiting dignitaries including the Mayor of Guía de Isora, Pedro Martín.

This computer suite, which has been fitted out with purpose built desks 17 Computers, a scanner, two printers and an overhead projector and screen is part of a larger project undertaken by the Lions Club of Santiago del Teide, which would not have been possible without a donation of 250,000 euros in total from local businessman and benefactor Jens Peter Fulda.

As Lions Club President Steve Gilbert said “ there are many of us in the foreign community who want to give something back to our adopted land”

The Lions club of Santiago del Teide is part of an internationalNGO whose motto is – “We Serve” Nearly 1.4 million Lions members in 192 countries and geographic areas answer the needs that challenge the communities of the world. Lions tackle tough problems like blindness, drug abuse prevention and diabetes awareness as well as trying to improve the quality of life in their local communities by building parks, supporting hospitals and establishing safer environments and of course providing facilities for local schools.

Equipment provided and fitted by Click Here to See Our Advertisement

The Cabildo(Island Government)is to include the Teno National Park in a scheme to increase the quality of the tourist experience here on the island. The project, in its second phase includes 18 other areas of natural beauty or historic interest and is intended to improve the quality of the public services available at the sites.

According to the insular environmental advisor - Wladimiro Rodriguez, "the Teno park is a very unique open space and from an ecological point of view has an extraordinary wealth of species diversity. It is important that while we must do our utmost to conserve the natural richness of the area, we must acknowledge the right of people to enjoy this richness and we must provide facilities accordingly". These provisions are likely to amount to some 6.4 million euros over the next seven years.

The program includes a series of proposals, but one already agreed upon is the development of a museum in Masca and improvements to the footpath which descends from the village to Masca Bay, fees generated from the use of the pathway will be directly ploughed back into the village.

Access to Teno Bajo, the Monte del Agua, Las Charcas de Erjos and Los Partidos will be restricted and controlled. In addition, plans of a more general nature have been put forward, concerning communications, the provision of information and, environmental education, security systems, et cetera.

The Cabildo(Island Government) has re-opened a public enquiry in order to accept further complaints regatrding the compulsary purchse of land required for improvements to the access roads to Fonsalía (between Alcalá and Play San Juan) in the district of Guia de Isora.

The owners of the land in question attended a meeting recently, and they must now make their complaints within the next 20 days.

Following this, The Cabildo(Island Government) will respond to each of them before proceeding with the project which has a budget of more than 900,000 euros. Improvements are desperately needed for this stretch of road, which is located between two bends, both with very poor visibility, and has become more dangerous in recent years due to the increase in the volume of traffic.

copyright FRED A. BERNSTEIN http://www.nytimes.com Published: October 26, 2003

Mr. Calatrava is just back from Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the largest city on the largest of the seven Canary Islands. There, off the northwest coast of Africa, he has produced an astonishingly photogenic opera house. Above its main space — a 1,600-seat auditorium in the shape of a tilted cone — a winglike canopy rises almost 200 feet before swooping back to earth. The building can look like a turtle, a crescent moon, an eyelid, a cresting wave, a helmet, a palm frond or an erotic Georgia O'Keeffe flower.

That representational quality — everyone who sees the opera house wants to compare it to something — helps explain Mr. Calatrava's success. (At 52, he has completed 60 buildings, including train stations and airports throughout Europe, and has dozens more in the works.) "People need symbols, and Calatrava's buildings provide them," says David Marks, the London architect who with his wife designed the Eye — that city's sleek, popular Ferris wheel.

And now Mr. Calatrava has a chance to create a symbol for New York. Last summer, he was commissioned to design a $2 billion transportation hub at the World Trade Center site. In The New York Times, Herbert Muschamp called that commission "the clearest sign yet that the rebuilding of ground zero will be an achievement of cosmopolitan dimensions."

For the moment, Mr. Calatrava is speaking about the project only in general terms, under the watchful eye of his client, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. But clearly he has grand ambitions for the station. "It has to feel as important as Grand Central, or the old Penn Station," he says. It is also likely to have echoes of two other important New York structures: Eero Saarinen's T.W.A. terminal at Kennedy Airport and Pier Luigi Nervi's bus terminal at the George Washington Bridge (which Mr. Calatrava says he has investigated from every angle). Both make startling use of poured concrete, the material Mr. Calatrava has formed into buildings and bridges as if it were Silly Putty.

A revolutionary sonic device that tests for osteoporosis will be available to anyone who wishes for the minimal fee of 10 euros a test, in the Los Gigantes area in early November. The Lions Clubs of Tenerife Sur and Santiago del Teide are bringing the machine from England for a limited period to allow inexpensive tests to look for the existance of the crippling bone disease. The Sahara Sonometer will be available in the Los Gigantes Plaza on the morning of Saturday 8th and in the Santiago Plaza during the Afternoon (Contact 666 362 092 to make an appointment)

Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become fragile and more likely to break. If not prevented or if left untreated, osteoporosis can progress painlessly until a bone breaks. These broken bones, also known as fractures, occur typically in the hip, spine, and wrist.
Any bone can be affected, but of special concern are fractures of the hip and spine. A hip fracture almost always requires hospitalization and major surgery. It can impair a person's ability to walk unassisted and may cause prolonged or permanent disability or

even death. Spinal or vertebral fractures also have serious consequences, including loss of height, severe back pain, and deformity.

Millions of people are at risk. While women are four times more likely than men to develop the disease, men also suffer from osteoporosis.

Building strong bones, especially before the age of 30, can be the best defense against developing osteoporosis, and a healthy lifestyle can be critically important for keeping bones strong.
Osteoporosis is largely preventable for most people. Prevention of this disease is very important because, while there are treatments for osteoporosis, there is currently no cure. There are four steps to prevent osteoporosis. No one step alone is enough to prevent osteoporosis but all four may. They are:

A balanced diet rich in calcium and vitamin D
Weight-bearing exercise
A healthy lifestyle with no smoking or excessive alcohol use
And bone density testing and medications when appropriate

González maintains that the Government of the Canarys has carefully studied all workable possibilities in order to make the North South Island road connection and we have chose the one which causes the most people the least problems". The tunnel at Erjos will be the longest ever constructed in the Canary Islands the works will involve excavating under the Erjos mountain peak which is situated between El Tanque and Santiago del Teide.

"Although we are always willing to listen to the views of the various interested groups and organisations, it must be realised that we have taken two years to study all the options and have finally returned to the original proposal, as no better option has been put forward”. The authority to commence the work should be finalised in late 2004 or early 2005.

HOME