Culture & history
The Guanches and their history, the Cueva Pintada, the Güímar pyramids, cochineal, Nelson's attack on Santa Cruz, the silbo whistled language, the timple, traditional sports, Canarian Spanish and legends like San Borondón.
Silbo gomero: how you speak Spanish by whistling
Not a shepherds' code and not a separate language: it is Spanish, carried in whistles across entire ravines. How it works, how it nearly died and what saved it.
Dácil: the princess who has been real for four centuries
Dácil's name lives on street signs and birth records in Tenerife. Her story, though, is not oral tradition: it is an epic poem printed in 1604.
The invisible map of Tenerife: nine territories between the sea and the Teide
Tacoronte, Icod, Adeje, Güímar: today they are motorway exits and town halls. They were borders first. Nine territories divided Tenerife, and the centre of the island belonged to none of them. A walk through the map that is still under your feet.
The Guanches after the conquest: what a cave in Buenavista del Norte tells us
The conquest ended in 1496, and with it, so the usual summary goes, the Guanches ended too. A cave in the north-west of Tenerife says something else: people cooked, kept animals and buried their dead there for generations after that date.
The Guanches: who the first Canarians really were
The Guanches reached the Canaries over 2,000 years ago from North Africa. Who they were, what still survives of them, where you can see it — and why 14 August in Candelaria is the best chance of the year to do so.
A Canarian Spanish glossary for tourists: 20 words that will save your holiday
Guagua, barraquito, cotufas, ¡fó!... Canarian Spanish has its own flavour. 20 must-know words so you don't get lost (or look like a clueless guiri) on your trip to the islands.