A-Z Challenge = CONTRASTS & CARNAVAL

C is for CONTRASTS

If you leave the CANARIAN tourist towns and drive into the COUNTRYSIDE, the CONTRAST is sudden and stark. Los CRISTIANOS is typically touristic – beach, bars, restaurants and shops – but there’s another side to Tenerife that many people don’t see. Just a COACH TRIP into the mountains can be an adventure and give your sunburn a chance to heal. This is the road to Masca - until recently it was only a goat track, and the inhabitants must have thighs like Rugby players!

CARNAVAL in Tenerife is reputed to rival those in Latin America. Almost before one fiesta is over the authorities have announced the theme for next year. This at least give the Carnaval groups time to design their COSTUMES, which can cost thousands of euros and become more elaborate every year. 

 This chap must have trained at the gym all year to be able to carry this one ...

.. whereas some outfits seem to have been made as skimpy as possible...

... and it’s strange how many macho men dress up in drag for Carnaval..

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COFFEE IN LOS CRISTIANOS - a bit of verse

Sitting quietly with a coffee

Watching people pass

All their lives a mystery

Leaving me to guess.

 That girl with the box of cakes

Celebrates tonight

Some special anniversary?

Or then again, she might

Be having friends round for a meal

And works Canarian hours

So she won’t have the time to cook

As well as take a shower.

And that man looking nonchalant

pretending that his dog

isn't messing on the pavement - 

he'll go in my blog!

CARNAVAL or HOSPITAL?

This is the official poster for Tenerife's Carnaval 2014. The theme is Animation, and the costumes are as fantastic as ever - there is a woman in there somewhere, though how she carries all that weight is a mystery.

Last night - Saturday 1st March - was the first night of the festivities, and the crowds numbered in the thousands.

So perhaps it's not surprising that the first report I read in the local paper this morning was about the number of people who needed treatment in the temporary tented Hospital de Carnaval organised by the Cabildo and Cruz Roja.

The statistics were: 84 adults and 8 children treated.
40 due to alcoholic intoxication: 6 due to 'stupefying substances' - don't you just love that euphemism! :5 'ordinary illnesses: 7 'traumatic injuries': 5 falls: 11 injuries caused by aggression: 9 due to other causes.
Of these only 9 ended up in the standard hospital, so the temporary one is obviously doing a grand job.

Oh yes - and to end on a positive note - there were no arrests. When half of the very macho Tinerfeno men are dressed like this, the police were probably too bemused to arrest anyone!

CALIMAS, COLUMBUS, CAVES & CARNAVAL

CALIMAS blow in from Africa and can be as insubstantial as mist or thick as a CLOTH. CLOUDS can flow down the mountain like treacle over a pudding, or CLIMB as the sun heats the ground. It can be difficult sometimes to tell the difference between cloud and calima until the sinuses fill up with CATARRH. Then it’s a calima. The last one must have had a nasty African virus stuck to its sand-grains because I've had a CATASTROPHIC CHEST infection and hacking COUGH for two weeks. Yet still I managed to keep up the blogs – I hope you’re impressed.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS CALLED in at the CANARIES on his way to America, and the history books tell us that he picked up supplies. What most of them fail to mention is that he also COMMANDEERED some slaves, so when Spain CELEBRATES Columbus Day, we have Dia de Canarias. To the English it is ironic that the Spanish port named after him is Puerto COLON.

The CONQUISTADORES didn’t get everything their own way, though. There are CUEVAS (CAVES) all over the island, many of them almost inaccessible, and the locals who lived in them waged guerrilla warfare against the invaders for years.

Many caves are still used for storage, primarily of wine and CAVA, the local CHAMPAGNE. Some are still inhabited, with walls at the front, extra rooms CARVED out at the back, electricity and water installed.

I heard of one family who lived for years in a cave with a ladder as the only access - imagine CARRYING the shopping home!

.

And of course, no C would be COMPLETE without mentioning CARNAVAL – that month of madness that CULMINATES in a parade of COSTUMES so vast that only the strongest can wear them. The buses fill up with transvestites as the macho males reveal their feminine side, the CRUZ ROJA sets up a tent hospital in Santa Cruz, and every COLEGIO has its own COLOURFUL parade.

Carnaval

Another bank holiday - and you thought they had enough in England! This one is for Carnaval - (Shrove Tuesday - Mardi Gras in New Orleans) Which gives me a chance to get to grips with blogging.
Wish me luck - I'm new to this game!