The Big Trip: El Hierro

Well here we all are in the far west of Europe. The last stop before America, famous as the location of the original Prime Meridian. Funnily enough the inhabitants of El Hierro speak a beautiful Spanish, very different from that of other Canary islanders, because many political prisoners and intellectuals were exiled here in former times. It is still fairly remote, with only one hotel (a parador), although it is becoming quite popular with walkers, divers and hanggliders. We walked and walked and saw not a soul. In the villages people go out of their way to be helpful and courteous and we never had to worry about walking somewhere and not getting back to our car. There was always someone happy to give us a lift, although as there were 8 of us this sometimes took some creative packing. Above you can see my husband in the back of a truck after a long, hard day's walking.

Las Fiestas de Mayo

Meet Natasha and Alexander dressed in traditional Canarian costume in the famous Fiestas de Mayo. Actually, May, June and July are more or less one continuous fiesta ranging from the Romerias with horses, goats, oxen, dogs, lots of people, wine and great heat (for some reason it is always very hot during a Romeria even if it rains every day before and after), to the more civilised Corpus Christi celebrations when the streets are decorated with amazing flower carpets (see La Orotava above).

The Blogger: Living near Teide

This is me in sunny Tenerife with the ubiquitous bougainvillea behind me and Mount Teide on the right.

Life in Tenerife is driven by serious competitive things, like tennis, sailing and climbing Mount Teide, and others... like teaching and translating. Quite a lot of time is taken up by Supermum activities such as the school run, children's clubs, ranging from arts & crafts to football to piano (to and from) and homework, and then more homework. In this I am probably not unique.

Para los castellano parlantes, ya me conocen aqui, pero prometo hacer un 'posting' desde Inglaterra en verano.......