 GENERAL INFO (Jump to Diary)I actually spend 14 days on Tenerife, way back in 1992, but I have no photos, no diary nor any memory. I figured I had to return, especially as I was in transit anyway. It is the largest of the islands in the Canaries archipelago with 2,034.38 square kilometres, and hold the capitals of the archipelago and the highest point in the entire country; Teide. It is also the most populated island with close to a million inhabitants along with 7,400,000 tourists every year. While they are generally found in the southern beaches, I will mainly explore the old towns and nature elsewhere. The  name 'Tenerife' likely
originate from Tamazight, but there is no consensus
on its correct interpretation, as the name given to the island by the Benahoaritas (the indigenous peoples of La Palma) was derived from the words
teni ("mountain") and ife ("white"). And the 17th-century historians Juan
Núñez de la Peña and Tomás Arias Marín de Cubas, among others, suggested
that the indigenous peoples might have named the
island for the famous Guanche king, Tinerfe, who ruled Tenerife before the
Canary Islands were conquered by Castile.The  island's indigenous people was the Guanche Berbers,
arravling from Africa around
200 BC, but traces of man can be dated back to 600 BC. The Spaniels started
the conquest in 1464 and only succeeded 30 years later.The main climates are the hot semi-arid/arid climate (Köppen: BSh and BWh) and the subtropical Mediterranean Climate (Köppen: Csb and Csa) inland or at higher altitudes. I hope for 24-26C along the coast, and fear considerable lower in the mountains. Tenerife is a rugged volcanic island, sculpted by successive eruptions throughout its history. There are four historically recorded volcanic  eruptions. The first recorded occurred
in 1704, when the Arafo, Fasnia and Siete Fuentes volcanoes erupted
simultaneously. Two years later, in 1706, the greatest eruption occurred at
Trevejo. The last eruption of the 18th century happened in 1798 at Cañadas
de Teide, in Chahorra. The most recent eruption in 1909 formed the Chinyero
cinder cone in the municipality of Santiago del Teide.The island of Tenerife has a remarkable ecosystem diversity in spite of its small surface  area, which is a consequence of the special environmental conditions on the
island, where its distinct orography modifies the general climatic
conditions at a local level, producing a significant variety of
microclimates. This diversity of microclimates allows some 1400 species of
plants to exist on the island, with well over 100 of these endemic to
Tenerife. The fauna of Tenerife includes some 400 species of fish, 56 birds,
five reptiles, two amphibians, 13 land mammals, thousands of invertebrates,
and several species of sea turtles and cetaceans. I'll like to see them all.
HUSK AT RENSE TEKSTEN FRA MOBILEN
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Time to head on in Diary 2. |
