Baile De Mago...A Magic Dance

In Canary Islands, the summer months, June, July, August are the months of Fiesta and Siesta. Canarians are happy people and you can see the aura of happiness everywhere. Throughout the summer, different parts of the island have festivals that exhibit the typical Canarian food, have live cultural shows and have mini fairs where they exhibit the typical Canarian art work. During late evening, you see them dressed in the traditional ´Mago´ dress and dancing together in the dance called ´Baila de Mago´ (Magic dance). There is a popular song that is favoured amongst Canarians,with beautiful lyrics : Con el baile del mago Haces tú lo que yo hago Giras tú la cadera Dando vuelta y ya está Con un poco de magia Un hechizo tú lanzas Y al pobre de al lado En sapo convertirás This Saturday, ´Baile de Mago´ was organised at our club in Icod. The criteria for attending and participating in this event is that you have to be dressed in the traditional dress. The club was dressed for the festival with seating arrangement all around the pool.Front side was reserved for dancing and orchestra, the remaining three sides of the pool had long rectangular tables that could accomodate a group of twenty people. The food that was served was typical Canarias that included croquets, roast chicken, salads, tortilla, French fries and many more varieties of food. Some families had brought extra food to share with their friends. At 11pm, the orchestra started and the people started leaving their table to go to dance floor to dance to the music. and the music played... Si a veces sientes que tú estás triste, no hay problema, lo olvidarás Con este juego que ahora comienza, todo lo malo desaparecerá Adiós a las penas, adiós problemas, si ya estás listo, tú puedes jugar En una línea todos se paran y así formados ya brincarán Brinca pa’un lado, brinca pa’l otro Da media vuelta y listo estás And for next five hours they did forget their problems and pains and danced, sometimes in circles, sometimes in pairs, coming to their tables only to refresh themselves with a glass of wine or munching the assorted fruits and tapas that did their rounds throughout the event. During the wee hours of morning, after a cup of warm coffee, they returned home to snooze away the blues.

How to identify a safe beach in Tenerife

Tenerife, being an island, has beaches on all of its sides. But not all the beaches are safe for swimming. It is important to identify the safety of the beaches by the color of flag that you see at every beach. Different beaches display different colored flags. It is important to understand their significations by their colors before taking a plunge. They are red, green, yellow and blue. The beach with blue flag is a five star beach. It is clean, has all the safety precautions, has active life guards, has instant first aid services, restaurants, clean toilets, sea beds and all the facilities to enjoy the day at the beach. When you see a green flag, it indicates that the waves at this beach are well behaved and are trained not to display their bad temper. Yellow flag indicates that you have to make your own decision and swim at your own risk. All the safety precaution might not be available and you are in charge of making your own decisions. If you see the red flag, don’t even bother changing. On such days, the best option is to walk along the sea shore on the paved path that has colorful rock gardens or simply just patronize the café bars that have spread their furniture on those promenades.

Beggar Artist

Each time, my vehicle stops at the traffic signals in Mumbai, I am surrounded by swarm of beggars who invent different tricks to attract my attention and I always practise yoga to be able to ignore them if I am not feeling too generous. But here in Tenerife, it is a different story. First of all, there are hardly any beggars. Sixty percent of the population are floating tourists who come here to breathe fresh air and the government supports its local population by either creating a job for them or paying them a substantial amount till they can find a job, but they make sure to keep them off the streets. Unless, The beggar has extraordinary begging skills Like this man who was dressed in white from head to toe and his hands and face painted in white too. He stands there in the busy tourist area, in a perfect pose, still, like a statue, frightening the passer by, every time that he makes a slightest move. It is a pose that requires skill to stand there without even blinking for five complete minutes. Many people stop and click his picture and wait till he changes his next pose. Children walk over to shake his hand, placing coins in his hand and clicking pictures with him. Now that is the art you just cannot ignore! Technorati Profile

Spanish Rice Dish Called Paella

Every country has its own speciality of rice dish. In India, we enjoy Biryani, Indonesians like Nasi Goreg, Chinese like fry rice, Thais like Khao paat, and Spanish like Paella All the rice dishes have common ingredients of vegetables and meat of your choice, but the only difference is the method of its preparation. Even the utensils differ from country to country. It could be a deep pot containing layers of coloured rice, covered tightly, and cooked under steam, or it could be opened wok to simply stir fry the rice with mixed veggies and meat. Spanish use a huge flat pan. Vegetables or meat stock is separately made which is used for boiling rice instead of plain water although some may just use veggie or chicken cubes. My niece made for me veggie paella and it was quite delicious. She put 2 tablespoons of olive oil and fried the ground paste of one large onion and one teaspoon of crushed garlic. Next she added one tin of Soya bean chunks and stir fried till light brown. She then added assorted veggies such as carrots, beans, mushrooms, corn, green peas, red and green capsicum, tomato paste and also tomato puree. When she saw the oil bubbling, she added five hundred grams of par boiled rice, and then added veggie cube, five glasses of water, paella powder, saffron strands, perejil powder and salt. She covered the pan with foil and steamed it till it was tender. For garnishing, she put slices of lime. Non vegetarians use chicken, pork, clamps, octopus and shrimps Spanish can’t eat chillies, not even a pinch of chilli powder; I find their food very bland. Thank Gawd, I carry my own bottle of chilli sauce in my purse whenever I go dinning in a Spanish restaurant.

Evening Walk by Puerto de la Cruz

The evening stroll from Playa Martinez to Lago ( in Puerto De La Cruz ) makes an interesting walk. The streets are even tiled and well-lit path; it is a no traffic zone, it is laced with waterfront on one side and rows of shops and restaurants on other side.This place is a walker’s paradise Puerto De La Cruz is the interesting place in the north of this island. The climate in Puerto de la Cruz is pleasant throughout the year and is flooded with tourist all day long. In the mornings, you will see them bathing at the beach or at Logo (which is the group of swimming pools) and evenings, you will see them jay walking, enjoying the sea breeze. There are lots of activities in this area, even during late hours when the restaurants host live musical shows that are not only entertaining their customers but also to people out on the streets. The restaurants have chairs and tables spread out on the streets. I was tired of walking so I sat and enjoyed sipping coffee and the cool sea breeze and watched the continuous stream of tourist walking at easy pace, It was interesting to stop by to watch the street performers or getting the picture painted by those street painters.