Romería

A romería is a celebration of Catholic origin consisting of a journey or pilgrimage (in festooned carts, carriages, on horseback or on foot) that goes to a sanctuary or chapel of the Madonna or the patron saint of the place, typically located in a country setting or mountain.

Romería attracts legions of people dressed in the traditional manner of the islands, singing folk songs and offering the most representative culinary products to the present people. This gives this event a colorful and an excellent opportunity to learn about an important aspect of canarian and spanish culture.

We started from morning decorating our wagon with the flags of the participating countries in the exchange and some logos. We also prepare some food to be handed out later.

Romería food preparation

In summertime, in Canary Islands and in many towns in Spain, there are many romerías, a mix between pilgrimage, parade and feast. In these parties, local people use to step onto wagons or carts and distribute food to the public in the streets. It is a very popular feast where everybody wear traditional costumes, sing, dance and share.

We took part in Romería de San Benito, the most important in La Laguna. So we needed to prepare a lot of food to share during the parade. We worked in groups to do some gofio. We also put on little bags “chochos” or “altramuces”, lupines in english; it’s a salty fruit eaten as snack.

Teide and La Orotava

Mount Teide is the highest mountain in Tenerife. Its 3.718-metre-high summit is the highest point in Spain and the highest point above sea level in the islands of the Atlantic Ocean.

The volcano and its surroundings comprise the Teide National Park. The park has an area of 18,900 hectares and was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on June 29, 2007. Is also one of the most visited National Parks in the world, with a total of 2.7 million visitors (ISTAC, 2011).

Slovenian presentation

Slovenian participants presented their country. They have brought sweets and welcome us with heart-shaped cookies. Let’s meet sLOVEnia!

In the part of the country where Brigita and Monika live, there is a great tradition in the honey production. The beehives are made from natural materials and are bell-shaped. In addition, each beehive has at its door a small table with drawings. The drawings depict traditional scenes and are very old. They are different for each hive, so bees can locate the hive in which they live.

Playa jardín & Puerto de La Cruz

Puerto de La Cruz was the place where tourism began in the Canaries. In 1886, this small port of La Orotava Valley established the first hospital of the Canary Islands to welcome sick tourists . It was also the first Spanish european resort. Nowadays remains as common destination for visitors from Germany, Britain and Spain, mainly.

It was originally a fishing village that grew as the local trade increased. The sugar trade was replaced by wine trade, establishing its export boom in the second half of the sixteenth century, giving way to a process of social and economic development.

Ecological footprint & Canary Islands presentation

This time we attend to two workshops to know more about environment an how human impact is changing the world as we used to know it.

Our ecological footprint

The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on Earth’s ecosystems. Indicates the amount of land and sea surface biologically productive than a given population need to regenerate all resources consumed and eliminate the waste produced. By this measure we can calculate the number of planets similar to ours that would be needed to maintain consumption that carries certain lifestyles.

“Baile de Magos”

In “Bailes de magos” (peasants’ dances), people from Tenerife wear their traditional dresses and enjoy the traditional music and cusine. They are named like this because “mago” is an expression that, in islands own speech, means peasant or countrypeople.

These dances are very common in Tenerife traditional parties and there is only a few municipalities that don’t celebrate it. These dances usually take place outdoors and it is compulsory to wear the traditional costume to enter in the hall of dance.

Video Edition Workshop, putting the ideas in pills

The workshop about the video edition was the first step for the participants in order to gain knowledge to make the “pills” that later will constituted one of the most visible results of the project. Following the indications of the speakers, participant could see how to make a video beginning from some of the interviews they have done the same day to people on the streets.

Ecological agriculture

This time we visited different farms and greenhouses in the area of Tejina and Valleguerra, in North Tenerife. This visit was possible thanks to Ataretaco Foundation and to our guide this day: Manolo. Ataretaco is a big organization specialized in integral formation, social and labor integration of disadvantaged groups and the environmental protection.

We began our visit in the greenhouses of Cuplamol, a company that prepares seedbeds, especially bananas and papayas’ for their later commercialization. The facility uses water from rain falling on the greenhouse, it is collected for later use in irrigation. We have observed different varieties of banana in a plantation with constant 60% humidity and a temperature between 20 and 35 °C. Then we visited a papayas‘ greenhouse where we can see and taste the different varieties of papayas that are planted in the Canaries. In this two facilities there are young inmigrants learning and working thanks to the social commitment of these companies.

Salsa dance evening

Canary Islands always has been a bridge between South America, Africa and Europe. As an example of that statement, to learn and also to have fun a little bit, participants enjoyed a little workshop with the basic steps of salsa dance.

Samuel, an experienced dancer, showed us some simple figures. We danced in couples, changing partners from time to time. This was another chance to mix participants from different contries.