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The Canary Islands - A Volcanic Paradise

Once upon a time the Canary Islands were home to the lost race of the Guanches.

Now the archipelago is an idyllic oasis in the Atlantic Ocean - a land of dormant volcanoes and subtropical climate.

Their geology, weather, food and laid-back lifestyle, make the Canaries a perfect destination at any time of the year.

A Piece of Spain off the African Coast

Located in the Atlantic Ocean just off the north-west coast of the African continent, the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands consists of seven islands.

However, for admistrative purposes, it only consists of only two provinces - Gran Canaria, Fuerteaventura and Lanzarote have their provincial capital in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, whilst Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro look to Santa Cruz de Tenerife as their political centre.

I'm certain, though, that you're not reading this to find out about the Canary Islands' political profile.

The islands are a visitors' haven because of their sublime combination of geography, climate and culture.

Volcanic Paradise

The Canary Islands bubbled into existence as the result of volcanic eruptions that rose out of cracks at the bottom of the Atlantic hundreds of thousands of years ago - this geological reality makes the archipelago such a fantastic place for a visit.

All the islands are bestowed with gorgeous golden sandy beaches but, being an off-the-beaten-track traveller, I prefer the black volcanic sand of out of the way coves and secluded bays – just go in the opposite direction to the rest of the tourists and you'll find them easily.

What's more a trip inland on all of the islands – the ones I've been to anyway - will take you into a volcanic world unlike anything anywhere else on the globe. The sun beats down on your back, the earth literally boils beneath your feet whilst a refreshing breeze takes the heat out of the moment.

As a testament to this, the archipelago is home to no less than four national parks - Caldera de Taburiente on La Palma, Garajonay on La Gomera, imanfaya on Lanzarote and the magnificent Cañadas de Teide on Tenerife, with the eponymous Mount Teide as its centrepiece – at 3,718 metres, this dormant volcano is Spain's highest mountain.

An Ideal Climate

I have a friend in Barcelona who spent a year in the Canaries – she came back to the wet and cold of a Catalan winter because she said that the islands had no seasons and that she needed to catch a cold in order to enjoy the summer.

Point taken. But that doesn't really worry me when I'm thinking of going for a week's holiday out of season.

The Canary Islands' climate is subtropical – their geographical location, off the coast of Africa, plus the fact that they are ventilated by the trade winds mean reasonably high temperatures, which remain stable all year round.

This is just heaven for a tourist. You can book your holiday at any time of the year and be virtually guaranteed great weather during your stay.

Afro-Spanish Culture

Although the Canary Islanders tend to baulk at any suggestion that they're different from mainland Spaniards, the simple truth of the matter is that they are.

The geography, climate and food food all seem a little exotic and the fact that you can go for a ride on a camel while you're there, make any visit an interesting cultural experience.

Mainland Spain is much less laid-back than it used to be but the Canary Islands seem to have retained some of that happy go luckiness that made me fall in love with Spain.

In many respects, you get the best of both worlds – an African rhythm of life combined with the benefits and efficiency of belonging to one of Europe's most established and progressive democracies.

So What's On The Menu?

The mix of Spanish and African that I mentioned earlier makes the Canary Islands a great place for food, and although each island has its own specialities, a number of culinary oddities are common to the archipelago as a whole.

One of the things that will immediately grab your attention is a delicious hot sauce they call mojo. In fact, they don't seem to use the word salsa for anything - they even even consider ketchup to be a variety of mojo!

Mojo is a hot sauce made of olive oil, vinegar, salt and spices and there are many different varieties. So rabbit or pork is often served with a mojo called salmorejo and one of my favourite dishes is an untranslatable fish dish – sancocho de cherme - that's served either with mojo picón or mojo de cilandro.

Other dishes are quite Afro-Spanish in style such as the potato-based papas arrugadas or peladas and golfio – a kind of tortilla made from toasted cornflour.

There are some acceptable wines but what really strikes me is the locals' love of rum - often laced with honey and a very sweet way to get pleasantly sozzled in the evening. Banana liqueur is another drink that's very popular on the islands but I'm afraid that guzzling alcoholic banana is just a bit too exotic for a confirmed beer drinker like me.

Just as the alcohol is beginning to send you off to sleep, the waiter will bring round a plate of guindillas.

Guindillas look – and taste – rather like chillis but are actually the raw marinated pods of a plant called bird pepper.

A word of warning . . . Guindillas won't just wake you up. They'll Blow Your Head Off!

Lonely Planet Guide to The Canary Islands

The more guidebooks I read, the pickier I get - and the best guide I could find to the Canary Islands before our visit to Tenerife last year was this one by Lonely Planet.

It's a good, solid guide with plenty of information so it gave us the necessary background knowledge before we went, but once there I felt it tried to cover too much in one slim volume - after all, there are seven islands!

As I'm the kind of person that spends hours in Tourist Offices that wasn't a big problem, but to be perfectly honest I expect a bit more content.

Click Here for a selection of Canary Islands Guides on Amazon.Com and Here for Amazon.co.uk

Getting To The Canary Islands

There are actually six airports on the Canary Islands - Gran Canaria Airport (LPA) on Gran Canaria, Tenerife North (TCI) and Tenerife South (TFS) on Tenerife and Lanzarote Airport (ACE), Fuerteaventura Airport (FUE) and La Palma Airport(SPC) on their respective islands.

You can use the Search Box below to check for flights to the Canaries from all the major British Airports - the search works better if you use the airport codes for Spanish airports that I've included in brackets.

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