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DISCOVERIES
TRAVELLER
29
ILLUSTRATION TANG YAU HOONG
ON THE GROUND
An islandof two halves
EVERYONE KNOWS
Tenerife, don’t they? It’s
the place where, every
summer, young revellers can be
found hitting the pool by day and
then staying out ‘til the early hours
on Veronica’s Strip; the place where
everyone speaks English; it’s like
Britain in the sun and real travellers
would never set foot in it.
Or so you might think. Move away
from the purpose-built resorts
and I promise you will find a very
different Tenerife. Not many people
know this, but the island is really an
unspoilt place, packed to its colonial
balconies with tradition.
You don’t even have to stray too
far to find this different world. And
when you do, you’ll have travelled
back in time 50 years. In the hill
towns, where communities live
and work, oblivious to the sprawl
of coastal developments, life goes
on in much the same way as it has
done for centuries. Terraces are
laboriously planted and harvested
by hand and, when the day’s work is
done, families drift towards the local
plaza to spend time with friends and
neighbours over a
cortado
(espresso
with milk) or tapas.
In this other Tenerife, all
restaurants serve Canarian food,
everyone owns a traditional
costume, locally produced wine –
rather than alcopop – is drunk and
very few people speak any English.
Far frombeing the cultural black
hole that many people assume, the
island has a very distinctive and
colourful tradition. For centuries,
the
Tinerfeños
fled to the Americas
to findwork during tough times,
so language and family ties have
created a society that ismore
aligned to South America than to
Spain. Look out for Spanish spoken
without a lisped ‘th’ and Latinomusic
played everywhere – and everyone
seems to leave thewomb knowing
instinctively how to salsa.
Yes, if there’s one thing the real
Tenerife does well, it’s party. Nothing
to do with the bars and clubs of
Playa de Las Américas – it’s all about
the fiesta. Barely a week goes by
in the traditional towns without
the entire community taking to the
streets to party frommorn to dawn,
and visitors are warmly welcomed.
Summer
romerías
are a cross
between an agricultural fair and a
harvest festival, in which locals in
traditional costume freely dispense
food and wine to onlookers from the
back of decorated carts. The biggest
of these take place in Garachico,
La Orotava and Tegueste. Equip
yourself with a small glass and don’t
be shy – just watch out for flying
food as it’s thrown from the carts
to grabbing hands. One misjudged
catch and a hard-boiled egg could
have your eye out.
If none of this sounds like the
island you know, isn’t it about time
you discovered the real Tenerife?
Andrea Montgomery is a
Tenerife-based author, travel writer
and blogger at therealtenerife.com
Life goes on in much the same way as it
has done for centuries
Tenerife resident
AndreaMontgomery
says there’smuchmore here than you expect