Whichever island you are coming to, The Spanish Sun would like to wish you a very happy holiday. We hope that you will find our pages both informative and amusing. After you have returned to the uk, perhaps there’s someone or something that made your stay extra special? Let us know about it. Or maybe there was something that spoilt your holiday? Whatever you want to say, good or bad, let us know by writing to: hola@elsunnews.es. Please include your home address and the place you stayed in the Canaries.
Few places can boast such interesting landscapes as the Canaries. These islands possess more than enough natural beauty to captivate any visitor and each island has its own delightful personality, which makes each one unique.
The Canaries form an archipelago made up by seven main islands and 6 islets. The Islands are located in the Atlantic Ocean near the Tropic of Cancer, in front of the African coast of Western Sahara. Within the archipelago there is a variety so extreme that it is easiest to refer to it as a mini-continent. The isles share an eternal spring climate but they differ dramatically amongst each other. Exploring the Canaries you move from sub-tropical vegetation to volcanic semi-deserts, from verdant cliffs and gorges to sand dunes by the sea shore. The Canary Islands have a climate of their own, due in the first place to their geographical position; secondly because of their place in the path of the trade winds, which are responsible for their climate; and thirdly, because of the variety of their geographical features, ie, the more mountainous islands have more rain, such as Tenerife, La Palma and Gran Canaria, and the less rugged ones, such as Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, have less rain. Consequently, the mountains have a direct bearing on the amount of rain that falls and not the proximity of the African continent, as is commonly believed.
Modern contact with the Canaries began to develop in the Middle Ages as sailors from mainland Spain arrived to plunder the isles of their orchids, which were used to make dye, and of their inhabitants, who were enslaved.
The original inhabitants of the Canaries were a race known as the Guanches, a name derived from guan, meaning man or people, and achinch, meaning white mountain in an obvious reference to Tenerife’s snow-capped MountTeide. The natives lived a Stone Age existence of shepherding and very rudimentary agriculture. In Tenerife, the leader of the tribe fiercely resisted the conquistadors, while in Gran Canaria the ruler welcomed the European strangers and established truces.
The islands began to realise their potential and before long the Canaries were to become the vital link in transatlantic crossings, a stepping-stone between Europe, Africa and the American continent. As trade and travel increased, the first hotels began to open in Tenerife. Since then commerce and leisure have spread and never ceased developing throughout the archipelago.
Few places can boast such interesting landscapes as the Canaries. These islands possess more than enough natural beauty to captivate any visitor and each island has its own delightful personality, which makes each one unique.
The Canaries form an archipelago made up by seven main islands and 6 islets. The Islands are located in the Atlantic Ocean near the Tropic of Cancer, in front of the African coast of Western Sahara. Within the archipelago there is a variety so extreme that it is easiest to refer to it as a mini-continent. The isles share an eternal spring climate but they differ dramatically amongst each other. Exploring the Canaries you move from sub-tropical vegetation to volcanic semi-deserts, from verdant cliffs and gorges to sand dunes by the sea shore. The Canary Islands have a climate of their own, due in the first place to their geographical position; secondly because of their place in the path of the trade winds, which are responsible for their climate; and thirdly, because of the variety of their geographical features, ie, the more mountainous islands have more rain, such as Tenerife, La Palma and Gran Canaria, and the less rugged ones, such as Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, have less rain. Consequently, the mountains have a direct bearing on the amount of rain that falls and not the proximity of the African continent, as is commonly believed.
Modern contact with the Canaries began to develop in the Middle Ages as sailors from mainland Spain arrived to plunder the isles of their orchids, which were used to make dye, and of their inhabitants, who were enslaved.
The original inhabitants of the Canaries were a race known as the Guanches, a name derived from guan, meaning man or people, and achinch, meaning white mountain in an obvious reference to Tenerife’s snow-capped Mount Teide. The natives lived a Stone Age existence of shepherding and very rudimentary agriculture. In Tenerife, the leader of the tribe fiercely resisted the conquistadors, while in Gran Canaria the ruler welcomed the European strangers and established truces.
The islands began to realise their potential and before long the Canaries were to become the vital link in transatlantic crossings, a stepping-stone between Europe, Africa and the American continent. As trade and travel increased, the first hotels began to open in Tenerife. Since then commerce and leisure have spread and never ceased developing throughout the archipelago.
