Blog
Fiestas del Pilar in Guanarteme: what to see and when to go
For almost two weeks, the neighbourhood at the end of Las Canteras lives in its square. There are galas, dances and concerts, but what makes this fiesta different is a set of cardboard figures with enormous heads and one night of fireworks over the beach.
Garajonay: the forest that outlived its own era
A forest extinct on the continent for millions of years, watering itself here by combing the fog. How it works, and why the sunny day is the worst one.
The Canarian health card: how to get it and what it covers
The health card is the document that unlocks everything else: without it you may have the right, but you have no way of proving it, and in practice that complicates every appointment. The good news is that the process is simpler than it looks, and the piece that unlocks it is almost always the same one.
Cochineal: the insect that was 90 per cent of what these islands sold
Twenty one years of boom, 1845 to 1866, and an ending that started at a London exhibition. What cochineal is, why it makes sense again, and what you see today.
Canarian lighthouses, and the one that marked the end of the world
The western edge of the known world sat on an El Hierro headland for seventeen centuries. The lighthouse came three generations ago, and the others map the hazards.
Buying property in the Canaries: what to check before you sign
Most of the bad stories about buying here are not about price. They come from three things the listing does not show: what class of land it sits on, what the registry says, and whether that house can legally be let to tourists. All three can be checked before you sign anything.
What kind of eruption could happen on Tenerife?
Earthquake swarms since February 2026, traffic light green. The useful question is not whether it will happen but what shape it would take: fissure and fluid, as in 1909.
The Canarian salt pans: how salt is still made by hand
A chessboard of water running from green to pink with the concentration. How the process works, why it only happens here, and how to visit the two active pans.
Autumn begins: what to look for in the Canarian sky
Nights lengthen faster than at any other time, the calima eases and the sky reshuffles. What you can see through November with no equipment at all.