Tenerife & The Canary Islands

Tenerife - el teide - The Canary Islands lay about 40 miles of the north western coast of Africa and were formed 20 million years ago by volcanic eruptions and consist of seven large islands and six smaller ones. Now split into two autonomous regions Santa Cruz de Tenerife covering Tenerife, La Gomera, El Hiero and La Palma and La Palma de Gran Cararia covering Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and the smaller islands.

Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands has a long history and is known to have been inhabited two thousand five hundred years ago. The first settlers are believed to have been the Guanche, a beautiful, tall, muscular race with blonde hair, believed to originate from north-west Africa or the Vikings. They were a peaceful race and relied on farming, herding and hunting and mainly lived in caves; with a basic almost stone age existence with wheels unknown. Their arrival on the islands is somewhat of a mystery as they appear to have had no knowledge of boat building.

The name Canary comes from the latin word ‘canis’ meaning dog after the local dogs a roman settler ship found on the islands.

Tenerife comes from the words ‘White Mountain’ referring to the snow capped peak of Teide.
In the thirteenth century when the Europeans started to arrive, Tenerife was divided into nine tiny kingdoms and in memory of the Kings stone statues have been erected in Candelaria, on the sea front.
In 1341 Europeans started to settle in the Island.

The French were to the first to invade Tenerife in 1402 and many more attacks on the islands by the Portugese and Spainish ended in 1495.

Santa Cruz was founded in 1492 until then it was just the harbour for La Laguna and in the same year Columbus witnessed the eruption of Mount Teide during his first voyage to the new world.

The Gaunches hold on the island had gone, with many being sold into slavery. Those that remained had married the Spanish conquests or fled the islands. Spain continued to hold onto the islands through the next three centuries despite attacks by the Moroccans, Dutch and in 1656 Admiral Blake wreaked havoc in Santa Cruz harbour, sinking 16 Spanish galleons carrying Mexican gold. The islands became a smugglers haven with pirates attracted by the bullion ships that regularly called at Santa Cruz en-route from the Philippines and Cuba.

The first crops grown on a large scale was sugar cane and by the middle of the 16th century Tenerife had twelve sugar mills in operation. Wine became the principal export, a sweet wine, like a sherry. By the end of the 17th century 10,000 pipes were arriving in London each year. Honey and tomatoes were subsequently introduced to Tenerife and it was not until 1855 that bananas were first introduced to Tenerife from China.

In 1706 Mount Teide erupted destroying the port of Garachico until then the capital of Tenerife, encouraging the development of Puerto de la Cruz. The most famous attack of all was by Lord Nelson in 1797, when he suffered his only failure, and lost his arm in the battle for Santa Cruz. The Islands were then declared Spanish and have remained so ever since.

From 1812 to 1927 Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the capital of all the Canary Islands when they were split into two provinces, to the east Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura and the west Tenerife. La Gomera, La Palma, and El Hierro.

By 1886, 500 tourists a year, mainly well-to-do British came to the northern resorts of Puerto de la Cruz and Santa Cruz, for the mild weather that Tenerife is known for.

The last volcanic eruption was in 1909 near the village of Santiago de Teide, in the west of Tenerife. Mount Tiede formed by volcanic eruptions is 3718 metres above sea level, the highest mountain in Spain and attracts many thousands of tourists each year.

The north of Tenerife has more rain because of the mountain and it is often covered in snow during the winter months. Much of the fine architecture still remains in the north of the island and the beautiful balconies made from the pine forests on Tenerife are still a joy to see.

The south of Tenerife is officially classed as desert and has very little rain throughout the year although the towns in the south do not reflect this. The fine architecture in the towns in the south is still evident of times gone passed. The inland towns of Arona, (the county town for Los Cristianos) Adeje, (the county town for Playa de la Americas) and Villaflor (village of flowers) are all worth a visit. Walkers will not be disappointed as there are many guide books explaining in detail the routes to take and the best of the views in the south of Tenerife.

Mass tourism began in the 1960s when direct flights to Tenerife began and within 10 years the number of beds available to tourists had grown from 600 to 23,000. In 1977 Tenerife suffered a tragic air disaster when two jumbo jets collided on the ground at Los Rodeos airport killing 500 people. In 1978 with the opening of the new airport in the south of Tenerife, Los Cristianos, a small fishing village had started to develop with hotels and apartments.

Tenerife is now one of the top destinations for european tourists, flights arrive at Reina Sofia daily from dozens of countrys and the tourist trade is well and truly booming.

To book a holiday in Tenerife please browse our website and discover more about Paloma Beach, the apartments in Los Cristianos.