The Los Cristianos Carnival

For some reason this year the carnival in Los Cristianos is a week later than normal. It is usually the second Sunday after Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day for you heathens! However, this year it's all happening a week later, with the main parade 19 days after Shrove Tuesday.

The good news is that the format for this year will be the same as previous with the core 5 days being as follows:

Thursday 12^th March. Gala election of the Junior Carnival Queen.
Friday 13^th March Carnival Ball for the Senior Citizens and Grand Gala election of the Carnival Queen.
Saturday 14^th March. The Carnival Ball.
Sunday 15^th March around 5 pm The Main Parade
Monday 16^th March. Burial of the Sardine, followed by the Widow's Ball.

Some of the events leading up to it; such as the presentation of the candidates, opening parades, etc., which this year are happening on the weekend before the core events of carnival.

For further information check Arona town hall for the programme. You may need to use Google’s Translation services.

Its Carnival Time!!!

Whilst we celebrate lent in the UK with pancakes – the Canarians celebrate with carnival. Traditionally carnival was the day of finishing up meat (carne va or meat goes) before the period of lent so families would have a big feast and often neighbours would be invited and as usual in Tenerife it didn’t take much to turn this into a general get together and fiesta with everyone taking to the streets to celebrate. Its more fun than tossing pancakes!!!

During the run up there are carnival events somewhere on the island, but if Carnival itself isn't enough for you, this year the after party, After Carnival 2009, starts at 5 a.m. each morning at Discoteca Dreams in Santa Cruz, from Sunday, February 22nd through to Sunday, March 1st.

Following from the USA which now has its first black President and the Santa Cruz Carnival elected its first black Carnival Queen. The 18 year old Ana María Tavárez Mata, representing the newspaper El Día, with a costume entitled Embrujada (Bewitched) designed by Leo Martínez, was chosen from among the 18 candidates in an almost 3 hour long gala!!!

Feebird becomes a victim of the recession

Unfortunately, I have learned that Freebird Sailing has now become another victim of the world wide recession. They were well known in Tenerife for their Dolphin and Whale trip excursions and their commitment to helping Atlantic Whale Foundation. http://www.whalenation.org
Obviously this charity is now going to be receiving less income so if you do go on a whale watching trip when you are on the island please make a donation to this charity.
We used to include Freebird in our information booklet to our clients who booked our apartment on the island but alas no more.