Busy week for ship-spotters in Tenerife

The port of Santa Cruz in Tenerife is set to receive no less than 15,600 cruise passengers from today until Sunday 28th March.

As well as scheduled weekly calls into their home port by Island Escape (pictured) and Aidaluna, today both the Costa Marina and MS Ventura are due.

On Tuesday, the MSC Lirica docks, followed by the MSC Musica on Saturday.

The Costa Marina and the Ventura coincide in port today between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., when the Costa Marina departs for Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira. The Ventura - the largest cruise ship built for Britain, accommodating 3,100 passengers - leaves at 6 p.m., bound for Southampton.

As every Friday, the Island Escape, which operates in the Canary Islands and the Western Mediterranean under Thomson Cruises, will arrive from Arrecife in Lanzarote, with her 1,100 passengers disembarking on the island at the end of their Atlantic cruise, while another 1,100 will embark for the start of theirs, leaving at midnight for Las Palmas in Gran Canaria.

Similarly, AidaLuna will drop off her 2,200 passengers coming from Santa Cruz de La Palma, to collect another 2,200, leaving for Funchal at 8 p.m.

The week's final caller, MSC Musica, will arrive in Tenerife with 3,800 tourists on board, 2,800 passengers and 1,000 crew. She will be in port from nine in the morning, until five in the afternoon, when, just as her sister ship the MSC Lirica had done earlier in the week, she will set sail, bound for the Caribbean.

Puerto de la Cruz: City in crisis without end

According to an article in El Dia (via territoriosred), Puerto has become the least profitable resort in Spain, lost 150,000 visitors in 2009 and has duplicated its number of unemployed since 2007.

Tenerife's first tourist development is sinking financially, with the numbers suggesting that it is doing so in free fall.

In 2008, 61% of Puerto's tourists were Spanish, while in 2009, they made up 62% of the total even though, in raw numbers, there were 82,500 less of them. Conversely, the markets with "greater acquisitive power" (German and Nordic) have reduced.

The current mayor of Puerto de la Cruz, Marcos Brito (CC) reckons things have reached rock bottom. Meanwhile, it is said that Puerto Town Hall, with it's debt in the millions, isn't in any condition to re-launch the languishing city.

Gomeran Fishermen propose Sea urchin business

Considered a delicacy throughout Japan and many Mediterranean countries, the sea urchin has suffered only bad press around the Canary Islands in recent years, where it's numbers have risen to plague and pestilence levels and campaigns for eradicating them have taken on military style proportions.

So the Gomeran fishermen have come up with the novel idea to control the plague and create jobs by turning this proliferation of urchins into a "new seafood resource" for the islands.

(Always hoping that the ones plaguing the islands are not one of the vast majority of the 750 odd sea urchin species that are unfit for human consumption. I mention this only to warn you that it probably isn't a good idea to harvest your own.)

From March 25th they have an exhibition, which has already travelled around various parts of the archipelago, showing off the urchin's possibilities.

Did you know? A 'riccio' is a hedgehog in Italian. A 'riccio al mare' is a sea hedgehog or in other words a sea urchin, just as in Spanish it's erizo de mar (sea hedgehog - an old meaning in English of urchin is the same). (Usually minus the snorkel.)

Here are a few things you can try when the new delicacy hits the shops:

• Sea Urchins with Creamy Vegetable Sauce
• Tagliolini ai Ricci di Mare
• Linguine with sea urchin
• Edible sea urchins
• Sea Urchin recipes

Untravelled Minds

"Those who visit foreign nations, but associate only with their own country-men, change their climate, but not their customs. They see new meridians, but the same men; and with heads as empty as their pockets, return home with travelled bodies, but untravelled minds." - Caleb Colton

I found this sad, but thought provoking quote while I was poking around at 43places, but the quote is so apt to so many people who come to Tenerife and, I mean both tourists and expats alike. I don't mean to unkind: it's just true.

They appear to want "Blackpool with sun" and that's what they get.

In Playa de las Americas, for instance, they go to English bars to drink English beer (yet the local variety is both cheaper and nicer). They eat Full English breakfasts and Sunday Roast dinners, in British restaurants, served by British staff who speak no Spanish. And I have to wonder why they didn't just buy a sun lamp!

Tenerife in March

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Teide from Teno Alto

This is the view to Mount Teide, from the remote village of Teno Alto (circa. 100 inhabitants). Springtime is the best time to see these fertile valleys.

 

Tenerife Weather in March

Tenerife features the lowest temperature 'difference' between summer and winter for anywhere in the world. The minimum and maximum annual average air temperatures in Tenerife are about 15C in winter and 24C in summer.

March Averages	Tenerife	UK
Daily hours of sunshine	7.1	3.4
Daytime temperature C	18.6	9.3
Sea temperature C	18	-
Days with rain	5	12.1

In March, you should enjoy an average of 7.1 daily hours of sunshine in Tenerife (in contrast to an optimistic 3.4 hours in England).

The average daytime temperature in March in Tenerife is listed as 18.6 degrees centigrade. This is, of course, an average for the entire island. And, no matter where you are on the island, it is sure to be better than the English equivalent, given as a maximum of 9.3 degrees centigrade.

The sea temperature in Tenerife in March averages at 18C.

Although there are an average of 5 days with rain in March, this means any amount of rain from a short sharp shower. Better than the 12.1 days in the UK.

Tenerife Fiestas in March

Carnaval’s Main Parade, the Coso de Carnaval, in Santa Cruz in 2011 is on March 8th. For other events see Tenerife Carnaval Dates 2008 – 2050.

Depending on the calendar, Easter may fall in March. In 2011, it is in April.

March is the ideal time of year to explore the fertile valleys of the north of Tenerife as this is when they are usually full of the most abundant spring flowers.