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 Facts at a Glance
Full name: The Canary Islands
Area: 7447 sq km (2904 sq mi)
Population: 1.605 million
Capital city: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (pop 356,000)
People: Spanish, North African, small Latin American and northern European communities
Language: Spanish
Religion: Roman Catholic
Government: Spanish autonomous region
Prime Minister: José María Aznar
 Environment
Slightly smaller than the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, the Canary Islands consist of seven main islands and six islets, which are the tips of a vast volcanic mountain range lying beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Their nearest neighbour is Morocco, about 95km (59mi) east of Fuerteventura. The islands pack a huge variety of landscapes into a small area, including weird volcanic plateaus, cloud forest wreathed in mist, cliffs lashed by Atlantic squalls and green fields growing grapes and olives. Not to mention the block after block of apartments, international hotels and beaches coated in wall to wall holiday makers that are now as much a part of the Canaries as the natural attractions.
The volcanoes that form the islands' backbone saw the light of day at about the time the Atlas Mountains were formed in North Africa millions of years ago. The highest volcano, Tenerife's Teide at 3718m (12,195ft) is Spain's tallest peak and the third tallest volcano in the world after two in Hawaii. All the volcanic activity has ensured that the soil is very fertile, but there are no rivers and the islands have been periodically plagued by water shortages. Most of the drinking water on some islands comes straight from desalination plants.
The varied altitude and rich volcanic soils have combined to create several biological treasures in the Canaries. About half of the islands' 2000 plant species are endemic, including the Canary Island palm, the Canary pine and the dragon tree, an ancient survivor that thrived before the last ice age. Microclimates in the islands allow for great variation in vegetation, from the UNESCO declared world heritage sites of laurisilva, with lichen-covered laurels, holly, linden and heather, to the dry scrublands and semi-desert areas where saltbush, palms and the rare, cactus-like cardón de Jandía grow. The most interesting indigenous animal is the lagarto del Salmor, a large (up to 1m, or 3.2ft) and particularly ugly lizard found only on El Hierro. A couple of bat species inhabit the islands and so do more than 200 species of bird, although many are no more than migratory visitors. The canary, of course, is found in the wilds, but don't expect the dainty caged varieties: the wild cousin of Continental Frilleds and Gloster Fancies is a dirty brown colour.
Theoretically, the Canary Islands are one of the most extensively protected territories in Europe, with 42% of the the land mass falling under some category of park land. The four national parks are the Parque Nacional de las Cañadas del Teide, with Teide volcano as its centrepiece; the Parque Nacional de Garajonay, with a beautiful ancient rainforest; the Parque Nacional de Timanfaya, with active volcanoes; and Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente, which encloses an enormous eroded rock cauldron. The Parques Naturales form the second most extensive tier of parks, but they've generally seen a greater level of human intrusion, such as villages, farms and roads, than the national parks.
The Canaries bask in an eternal-spring climate, with mean temperatures ranging from 18°C (64°F) in winter to 24°C (75°F) in summer. On a hot day at the beach, it can still be pleasantly cool if you get up into the mountains, and you'll definitely need warm clothes if you reach any high altitudes during the winter. Except for Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, the northern side of the islands is sub-tropical, while the south, including the first two mentioned islands, is drier and slightly warmer. There is not much rain except on parts of the windswept northern coasts, and what there is tends to fall on the northern side of the more mountainous islands. The flatter islands, with no mountains to trap rain clouds, receive hardly a drop of rain. On occasion, especially in summer, the sirocco (the hot wind from the Sahara) blows in from Africa, turning day into twilight and coating everything with grime. It's at its worst in the eastern islands, and is known locally as the kalima.
 History
The islands are estimated to be 30 million years old, relatively young by geological standards. Their existence was known, or at least postulated, in ancient times, and in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias, Plato spoke of Atlantis, a continent that had sunk beneath the ocean floor in a great cataclysm that left only the peaks of its highest mountains above the water. Whether Plato was being allegorical is uncertain, but the islands gained an almost mythic reputation, passed down from one classical writer to the next, as a Garden of Eden. This also fits in with the islands' latter day nickname, the Fortunate Islands. There is no evidence, despite all the purple prose, that the Phoenicians or Greeks ever landed in the Canaries.
Carbon dating has placed the earliest settlement at around 200 BC, although earlier settlement is possible. It was long suggested that Cro-Magnons, the Neolithic predecessor of Homo sapiens, first inhabited the Canaries, although that is not generally thought to be the case now. One clue, apart from the ancient skulls of the original inhabitants, is the conquering Europeans' 15th century descriptions of locals. Mainly on Tenerife, they found tall and powerfully built people with blue eyes and long fair hair. These people called themselves Guanches, from guan, `man', and che or achinch meaning `white mountain', in reference to the snow-capped Teide volcano. Suggestions for the origins of the Guanches have ranged from Celtic immigrants from mainland Spain or Portugal, to Norse invaders, supplying a possible explanation for the blonde hair and blue eyes. Berber immigrants from nearby Saharan Africa almost certainly inhabited some of the eastern islands, and place names bear a striking resemblance to Berber tribal languages. Occasionally blue eyes and fair hair crop up among the Berbers as well, so the Guanches' origin is still open to question.
By the time the Europeans began looking around the islands in the Middle Ages, they were inhabited by a variety of tribes often hostile to one another. Tenerife alone was divided into no fewer than nine tiny fiefdoms. The Guanches relied on limited farming, herding, hunting and gathering, and the majority of them lived in caves. The first vaguely reliable account of a landing by Europeans comes in the late 13th or early 14th century, when the Genoese captain Lanzarotto Malocello came across the island that would later bear a version of his name: Lanzarote. A host of dreamers looking for the legendary Río de Oro (River of Gold) that many thought flowed into the Atlantic at about the same latitude as the Canaries, missionaries bent on rescuing souls and slavers looking to fill their holds passed by or came to stay, but it took a Portuguese-Italian mission of 1341 to finally put the Canaries on the map.
The first Europeans to attempt to conquer the Guanches were Normans from France in 1402, and the final campaigns more or less ended in 1495 under a Galician soldier of fortune. The century saw massacres, warfare and Guanches sold off wholesale into slavery, and within another century their language had all but disappeared, and the survivors had intermarried with the invaders, converted to Christianity and taken Spanish names.
Spain's control of the islands did not go unchallenged. First Moroccan troops occupied Lanzarote in 1569 and 1586, then Sir Francis Drake tried a little gunboat diplomacy off Las Palmas in 1595. A Dutch fleet reduced Las Palmas to rubble in 1599, then in 1657 the Brits under Admiral Robert Blake defeated the Spanish at Tenerife. The score: Spanish treasure fleet annihilated, British lose one ship.
Spain managed to hang on, though, and the Canaries were declared a province of Spain in 1821. Santa Cruz de Tenerife was declared the official capital, adding fuel to the already low-level bickering between Tenerife and Gran Canaria. The inhabitants of Gran Canaria demanded that the province be split into two, which it was for a short and unsuccessful period in the 1840s. Several agricultural commodities followed boom-bust cycles on the islands: sugar cane, wine and then cochineal for making dyes all had their day, followed by bananas and to a lesser extent tomatoes and potatoes. The WWI British maritime blockade of Europe destroyed the banana trade, and Canarios voted with their feet and fled the poverty at home in droves for a new life in Latin America.
The short period of hope that followed WWI was dashed when Spain fell into the chaos of civil war in 1936. In March of that year, the Spanish Republic transferred General Franco to the Canaries, under the (well founded) suspicion that he was involved in a plot to overthrow the government. Franco seized the islands in July then flew to Morocco to continue the fight, leaving the Nationalists to round up Republican sympathisers in the islands.
The Canaries suffered from the same post-war misery as Spain, and again thousands fled, although this time clandestinely and mainly to Venezuela. In the 1950s 16,000 fled, and a third of those who attempted the journey perished in leaky boats. By the early 60s, Franco decided to throw the country's doors open to sun-starved tourists. The latest and greatest boom - and the one that transformed the economy so miraculously and parts of the islands, well, less so - began. Millions of sun-seeking hedonists now flock to the islands annually.
The Canaries became a comunidad autónoma (autonomous region) in 1982, and the Coalición Canaria played a large role in the right wing Partido Popular's win at the general elections in 1996. They have lent their support to the government under the condition that consideration be given first and foremost to their needs, putting the interests of the islands before any national considerations.
 Economic Profile
GDP: US$219 million
GDP per head: US$ $14,000
Annual growth: 3.5%
Inflation: 4.3%
Major industries: Tourism.
Major trading partners: France, Germany, Italy.
 Culture
The symbol of the Canarios' musical heritage is the timple, a ukelele-style instrument possibly introduced into the islands by Berber slaves shipped in for farm work by the Norman invaders early in the 15th century. The timple has travelled widely and been incorporated into the musical repertoire of Cuba and other Latin American countries. At traditional fiestas the instrument will accompany dances such as the isa and folía and, if you're lucky, the tajaraste, the only dance said to have been passed down from the Guanches.
The Guanches left cave paintings dating from the 13th and 14th centuries scattered around the islands, particularly in the cuevas (caves) of Barranco de Balos, Agaete, Gáldar, Belmaco, Zarza, and the Cuevas de El Julán. They mostly depict human and animal figures. It took centuries after the Spanish conquest for any artists of note to appear on the scene, but foremost among them was Gaspar de Quevedo, who painted in the 17th century. More notables from later centuries include Valentín Sanz Carta, who depicted the land in his 19th century works, and Manuel González Méndez, who was the islands' main exponent of Impressionism in the early 20th century. All the great currents of European art washed up on the Canaries. Among the abstract artists, César Manrique enjoyed a degree of international recognition. He is revered around the archipelago for his imaginative works and his tireless efforts to preserve Canary culture under the onslaught of mass tourism.
The Guanches do not appear to have known writing, but Italian historian Leonardo Torriani translated many of their ballads. Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920) is considered by some to be the greatest Spanish novelist since Cervantes, and he grew up in Las Palmas and moved to Madrid in 1862. Isaac de Vega has been one of the Canaries' most outstanding novelists this century, and his novel Fetasa is a disturbing study of alienation and solitude.
Spanish, or more precisely, Castilian, is the official language of the Canaries, and only place names from Guanche survive. Roman Catholicism gained an early foothold in the islands, and although many Canarios' religious faith may be doubtful, the Church still plays an important role in people's lives. Most Canarios are baptised and have church weddings and funerals, although less than 50% regularly turn up for Sunday service.
People normally socialise in the streets, and dinner parties and gatherings in people's homes are the exception rather than the rule. Canarios enjoy Mediterranean hours, with a late morning start, a long break for lunch, siesta and family gathering from around 2 to 5 pm, and then a few more hours work before dining and more socialising well into the night.
 Events
Like many of their mainland cousins, Canarios kick back and celebrate at plenty of fiestas and ferias throughout the year. Carnaval in February/March is the wildest time, and brings several weeks of parades, fancy dress and general good times across the islands. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the party rivals the Rio Carnaval. From 21 to 30 June, the Bajada de Nuestra Señora de las Nieves is the premier religious festival on Isla de la Palma, but is held only every five years. The most important religious celebration held on Gran Canaria is the Fiesta de la Virgen del Pino, and festivities last for two weeks, culminating on 6 to 8 September.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria hosts several important arts festivals, including the Festival Internacional de Música (January); the Festival de Opera (February-March); the Festival de Ballet y Danza (May); and the Muestra Internacional de Cine, an international film festival held every two years in October and November. If that's not enough, the Encuentro Teatral Tres Continentes draws theatre companies from Europe, Latin America and Africa to Agüimes (Gran Canaria) in September.
 Facts for the Traveller
Visas: Spain (of which the Canaries are a part) along with Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal, forms part of the border-free travel zone known as the Schengen Area. US, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and Israeli citizens are among those who may enter the Canary Islands as tourists without a visa and stay up to 90 days. EU passport holders can come and go as they please.
Health risks: The worst you are likely to get is a hangover or digestive problems if you're not used to olive oil in cooking. No vaccinations required unless you have come from a yellow fever infected area - check with your local Spanish embassy.
Time: GMT/UTC
Electricity: 220V, 50 Hz.
Weights & measures: Metric (see conversion table)
 Money & Costs
Currency: Peseta (pta)
Relative costs:
- Budget room: US$10-20
- Moderate hotel: US$20-30
- Top-end hotel: US$35 and upwards
- Budget meal: US$3-5
- Moderate restaurant meal: US$10-20
- Top-end restaurant meal: US$30 and upwards
Daily living costs are marginally lower than those in Europe, and budget travellers could manage on about US$40 a day. You would have to share rooms at the cheapest pensiones and apartments, eat only one restaurant meal a day (a cheap one), and get around slowly on foot, local bus and ferry. Flying soon burns a hole in your pocket. A more comfortable budget would be US$60-100 a day, which would allow you to move up a little in the accommodation stakes, eat more comfortably and possibly include a few days' car hire. The sky's the limit if you have no budget; you can spend US$30 or more on a halfway decent meal, stay in international hotels, fly everywhere between islands, go on tours and then eat baked beans for the rest of the year.
You're best off carrying your money as travellers cheques and plastic, with plastic probably nudging ahead as the best way to spend. There are plenty of exchange offices throughout the islands, and most hard currencies are widely accepted, although the New Zealand dollar could pose problems. It's not a bad idea to get your cheques in large amounts, at least the equivalent of 10,000 ptas, to save on per-cheque commission charges. Major brands of credit cards are widely accepted, and if you can, try to take more than one card, and try to keep them separate in case of theft or loss.
Tipping is a matter of personal choice in restaurants, because the menus include a service charge by law. If you're satisfied with the service, leave some small change - 5% is usually plenty. The only places you may be able to bargain are markets, although even there fixed prices are generally the rule. You may be able to bargain in some cheap hotels, where you might be able to negotiate a price for a long stay.
 When to Go
Go whenever - the weather is great year-round. December to February are the islands' busiest months, bringing the thickest crowds and higher prices. Being winter, the weather is also slightly cooler. The best value on airfares is offered from November to mid-December and even better, March to May (with the exception of the Easter rush).
 Attractions
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
The largest town in the Canaries, Las Palmas unmistakably has a big city feel. It sits on the north-eastern tip of Gran Canaria and has begun swallowing up La Isleta, a small island to its north. The old historical centre is around the Vegueta and Triana districts in the south, and the city hugs the coast up a series of long boulevards a good 3km (1.8mi) to the bustling Santa Catalina and Puerto de la Luz. The 3km (1.8mi) long beach Playa de las Canteras is on the western edge of the land bridge to La Isleta, and at Playa de las Canteras you'll find the tourist office, the bulk of the hotels, the bars and more bars, shops and more shops. It is probably the only city in the Canaries where you may need to use the bus service to get around.
The Casa/Museo de Colón is a gorgeous example of Canarian architecture with fine wooden balconies overlooking two patios. Although it's called Columbus' house, it's uncertain whether he stayed there, and most of what you see was the residence of early governors. Inside is an odd assortment of navigational charts and pre-Colombian artefacts brought back from Latin America, with a few model ships and Hispanic-Flemish school portraits thrown in for good measure. The Catedral de Santa Ana is the city's main place of worship and took 350 years to complete. Nearby, the Museo Diocesano, set on two levels around the Patio de los Naranjos contains the standard collection of religious art and memorabilia, including old manuscripts and wooden sculptures.
The Museo Canario is the city's main museum, and is dedicated to chronicling Gran Canaria's pre-conquest history. It boasts the world's largest collection of Cro-Magnon skulls and displays Guanche implements and a collection of pottery. The Centro Canario de Arte Moderno is the city's main museum of modern art and shows temporary exhibits. Traditionally, the Calle Mayor de Triana has been the main shopping street in Las Palmas, and is now a pedestrian mall. Ciudad Jardín is a curious relic of the late 19th century, when the British dominated the economic life of the islands, and is an odd mixture of architectural styles ranging from British colonial to Andalucían.
The hotels of all classes are clustered around Santa Catalina beach and the port, although there is also a good choice around Vegueta and Triana - if a little more down-market. Vegueta, Triana, Santa Catarina and the port are the best places to go looking for food as well, with restaurants and bars ranging from the humble to the magnificent, offering an assortment of food from Bulgarian fare and Argentinean beefsteaks to international fast food.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is one of the busiest ports in Spain, and its long harbour sees countless container ships, cruise liners and a host of inter-island ferries and jetfoils. Everything of interest lies within about 1km (0.6mi) of Plaza de España. The town has three museums, of which the Museo de la Naturaleza y El Hombre is easily the most interesting. It houses several Guanche mummies and skulls, a handful of artefacts, and a natural sciences section. The Museo de Bellas Artes is home to an eclectic mix of paintings by Canarian and Flemish artists, including Breughel, and war buffs will probably enjoy the Museo Militar de Almeyda, displaying the cannon that supposedly blew off Nelson's arm when he attacked Santa Cruz.
The Iglesia de San Francisco is a gorgeous baroque church built in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the austere façade of the Teatro Guimerá nearby belies a sumptuous interior. The city's oldest church is the Iglesia de la Concepción, which has a beautiful bell tower. African slaves were traded at the 17th century Castillo de San Juan on the waterfront. When you've had it with sightseeing, the Parque de García Sanabria is a great place to relax with a coffee at a shady teraza table, although you'll find cafes and terazas all over the city.
There are two airports on Tenerife and you can fly there from the Spanish mainland, a host of international destinations and all the other islands except La Gomera. You can also go by ferry, hydrofoil or jetfoil from all the other islands and Cádiz in mainland Spain. Santa Cruz is 95km (59mi) north-west of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Playa del Inglés & Maspalomas
The party part of the Canaries, this is where millions of sun-starved snowbirds from northern Europe congregate year-round to sun, swim, do the sex thing and break each other's heads open. From lager louts to Swedish sun worshippers, they're all here within a couple of kilometres of suntan oil-soaked sand and tour operator-infested city blocks. When you tire of the water and sand, you can try a host of theme parks like Palmitos Park, a subtropical oasis crammed with exotic flora and 230 species of birds; Mundo Aborigen, with about 100 model Guanches posed to look like how the real thing used to look; or Sioux City with, believe it or not, good and bad guys shootin' each other up for your entertainment. The dunes at Maspalomas are probably one of the best parts of the beach and are a protected park. That doesn't stem the tide of the great unclad from the nearby nudist beach wandering through after a hard bake.
At the heart of Playa del Inglés is Yumbo Centrum, a four-level shopping jungle with international food, traditional breakfasts from various parts of Europe and all sorts of goods on sale. Around the block you will find banks, doctors, supermarkets, telephone and fax offices and laundrettes. By night the area transforms into the gay capital of Europe on hols, with gay bars, drag shows, saunas and sex shops doing a roaring trade.
Bus 66 goes to the airport eight times a day, and buses also link regularly with other points along the south coast of the island and up to Las Palmas. Playa del Inglés is on the southern tip of Gran Canaria, just over 40km (24mi) south of Las Palmas.
Parque Nacional de Garajonay
The island of La Gomera's outstanding natural attraction is the ancient laurisilva (laurel forest) at the centre of the 4000 hectare (9880 acre) national park. Cool Atlantic trade winds clash with warmer breezes, creating a constant ebb and flow of mist through the dense forest, and as little light penetrates the canopy, moss and lichen grow everywhere. Forest like this grew over most of the Mediterranean until the last ice age, which wiped it out. Most visitors head for the Alto de Garajonay, the island's tallest peak from where you are rewarded with great views. Another good stop is La Laguna Grande just off the highway.
The park is about 13km (8mi) west of the capital, San Sebastian de la Gomera, and daily buses serve all the main destinations on the island. Until the airport is completed you can reach Gomera by hydrofoil or ferry from all of the other islands.
Isla de Lanzarote
It hardly ever rains on Lanzarote, so all the water you drink and wash in is likely to be desalinated sea water. It's an incredibly arid place, and at first glance may not appear to offer much, but UNESCO has declared the entire island a Biosphere Reserve. The volcanic terrain is bizarre, and it's worth taking your time to move around the island away from the three main resorts. It's not worth spending much time in the capital, Arrecife, as Cueva de los Verdes & Jameos del Agua are probably the main attractions. The first is a 1km (0.6mi) long chasm that is the most spectacular part of an 8km (5mi) lava tube, formed by an eruption 5000 years ago. There is a beautiful, azure lake in the middle of the Jameos del Agua, another lava tube. Bars and a restaurant have been installed around the lake as well as a concert hall seating 500, with wonderful acoustics. Tiny, blind crabs live in the water.
The Parque Nacional de Timanfaya on the south of Lanzarote experienced one of the world's greatest volcanic eruptions in 1730. The eruption lasted for six years and spewed thousands of tons of molten rock into the air. The 52 sq km (20.3 sq mi) park is almost like a scene from a science fiction movie, with twisted and swirling mounds of solidified lava sticking up like warped licorice sticks, punctuated by volcanic cones. The restaurant in the park cooks its food on a volcano-powered barbecue. A few kilometres south along the road that crosses the eastern edge of the park is the Museo de las Rocas, a geological museum that will fill you in on the park's full details.
Lanzarote is 200km (124mi) north-east of Gran Canaria, and you can fly there from many international destinations and from the other islands in the archipelago. Ferries make regular connections with nearby Fuerteventura, and less regularly with Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Off the Beaten Track
Isla de El Hierro
El Hierro is about as far as you can get from the tourist hordes, bars, international restaurants and oil-streaked, cavorting naked Swedes. It is a rural island largely untouched by tourism, and the green farmland divided by rough stone walls is more reminiscent of the Irish countryside than a subtropical beach resort. The capital is Valverde, the only Canaries capital not on the coast, and it's a lovely, red-roofed town of about 1600. The walking is good on the island, and you can pass through hamlets such as Echedo, in the heart of wine growing territory, or the cheese producing village of Isora. In the damp and misty centre, some of the towns have been deserted, but a few herdsmen still run small flocks of sheep, goats and some cattle.
You can fly to the island from Tenerife and Gran Canaria, and there are also frequent ferries. El Hierro is about 245km (152mi) west of Las Palmas.
Santa Cruz de la Palma
Santa Cruz is a small town, and most points of interest lie within a few blocks of the waterfront Avenida Marítima. The heart of the old town and the prettiest part of it lies around Plaza de España and Calle de O'Daly. On O'Daly you'll find the 17th century Palacio de Salazar, now home to the tourist office, and along both sides of the street is a mix of shops, bars and offices, most of them in centuries-old Canarian mansions. On the rise behind the Plaza de la Constitución is the modest 16th century Ermita de Nuestra Señora de la Luz, one of Santa Cruz' few small chapels. Some beautiful old houses lie on the waterfront, brightly painted and with a wonderful assortment of balconies. If you go north along Calle de O'Daly you come to the heart of old Santa Cruz, with the 16th century Ayuntamiento (town hall). The hall's interior has magnificent tea tree ceilings, as does the nearby Iglesia de San Salvador, which dates from the same period. At the Casa del Tabaco you can see cigars being hand made.
There are frequent air connections to Tenerife, but fewer to Gran Canaria. Some flights link Santa Cruz direct to mainland cities in Spain, and ferries sail to Tenerife and La Gomera.
Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente
This was the fourth national park declared in Spain, in 1954. Its massive wall of volcanic rock is about 10km (6mi) in diameter, and its only real opening, the aptly named Barranco de las Angustias (Gorge of Fear) lies to the south-west. The walls drop away in some places as much as 2000m (6560ft). The park covers 4690 hectares (11,584 acres) and at its lower levels is covered by dense thickets of Canary Island pine. Landslides are not infrequent as the forces of erosion are hard at work. Although calderas are volcanic craters, Caldera de Taburiente is not a crater but the result of slow excavation by erosion over millions of years.
The park is easily accessible by bus or car from Santa Cruz de la Palma, 8km (5mi) to the east.
Betancuria
In 1405 Jean de Béthencourt thought this the best place to set up shop, on Isla de Fuerteventura, and he gave his name, corrupted over time to Betancuria, to a tiny settlement of his house and a chapel. The island's proximity to the North African coast meant that North African and European pirates overcame the town's natural defences several times and sacked it, and only 600 people live there now. You can see ruins of the island's first monastery built by the Franciscans, and the 17th century Iglesia de Santa María watches over the centre of the settlement. Pirates destroyed the original gothic building in 1593. A short walk from the church is the Museo de Arte Sacro, containing religious art, gold and silverware. The Casa Museo de Betancuria houses a mildly interesting collection of Guanche artefacts.
A couple of kilometres north of town is the Mirador de Morro Velosa, which offers mesmerising views across the island's weird, barren landscape. South of town is the Vega del Río de Palmas, a dry watercourse that is nevertheless wet enough below the surface to keep a stand of palms going.
You can fly to Fuerteventura from all of the other islands except La Gomera, or take the ferry from Las Palmas. Once you reach the capital, Puerto del Rosario, though, you may have to hire your own transport, given the poor state of public transport on the island.
 Activities
The most in-your-face activity in the islands is beach-lazing, but you don't have to look hard for more active pastimes. Mountain bikes are readily available, and the islands lend themselves to cycling. Plenty of tracks in the country are fine for hiking, and by the coast conditions for surfing and windsurfing are excellent. For windsurfers, the Bahía de Pozo Izquierdo is the best beach on Gran Canaria, which is the windiest of all the islands. The swimming is generally better in summer, as the Atlantic has powerful swells in winter. Go snorkelling or scuba diving and you might see rays, grouper, barracuda, turtles, tropical fish and the occasional shark. Deep sea fishing and sailing are good for those with a little more money to spend, and the fishing off Gran Canaria is excellent.
 Getting There & Away
All the islands except La Gomera have airports, and one is under constructions there too. Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Lanzarote accept the bulk of the international flights and those from mainland Spain. You can fly to the Canaries from most European cities, with or without stopovers in Spain. If you are flying from North America, flights usually go to Madrid, where you pick up a connecting flight. Your best bet may be to fly to London, or even Munich, and pick up a cheap flight from a bucket shop there. There are no direct flights from Australasia, so the best option is to fly to Madrid or another European capital and fly from there to the Canaries.
There is a weekly ferry from the southern Spanish port of Cádiz. Departure tax from the Canaries is on a sliding scale from about US$6.50 to US$32.50, depending on how far you are flying.
 Getting Around
Flying is not cheap, but is infinitely faster than the alternatives of bus and ferry. The islands are connected by roll-on roll-off ferries, hydrofoils and jetfoils. Binter is the local airline, and can take you to six of the seven islands, until the airport at La Gomera is finished. Buses are known as guaguas, which will bring a smile of recognition to anyone who has travelled in Latin America. Each island has its own service, which will get you to most of the main destinations, but the number of runs is disappointing, especially on the smaller, less heavily populated islands where most people have their own wheels. All the big rental companies are represented in the Canaries, and there are also local operators. It may be worth booking a car in advance if you intend to stay for a reasonable length of time, but if you decide to rent a car after you arrive, shop around to avoid the sharks. You can also take taxis wherever you go, but that is definitely the pricier alternative.
 Recommended Reading
- In Le Canaarien, Alexander Cioranescu has collected texts by the islands' conquerors, Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de la Salle.
- The Guanches - Survivors and their Descendants, by José Luis Concepción, looks at the fate of the islands' first inhabitants.
- La Biblioteca Canaria has published El Arte en Canarias, a comprehensive review of art and architecture in the islands.
- Flowers in the Canary Islands by Juan Alberto Rodríguez Pérez, is available in English and German and is one of the most comprehensive books on the subject.
- Pleasures of the Canary Islands: Wine, Food, Beauty, Mystery, by Ann and Larry Walker, is one of the few introductions to Canary Island food in English. More portable than the above book, but available only in the Canary Islands, is The Best of Canary Island Cooking, written by various authors.
- A Birdwatchers' Guide to the Canary Islands, by Tony Clarke and David Collins, is the perfect companion for a pair of skyward-pointed binoculars.
 Lonely Planet Guides
 Travellers' Reports
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