The best place to be if you need a reminder of why you love Tenerife
Sometimes events conspire to make me wonder why on earth I continue to live in a region of Spain.
A week or so ago I was chatting to my brother who lives in the UK and after my groans about the stagnant feel of the tourist market at the moment and the slowness of work, he said:
“Oh well, the World Cup starts soon so at least that’s something to look forward to.”
Except that it wasn’t. Well, it was…and it wasn’t, because although I love the World Cup and would happily watch every single game (in the unlikely event that deadlines permitted), Spain is one of the few countries in the world that is not actually airing all the games on free-to-view TV.
“But the World Cup is all about embracing nations in the love of the beautiful game! For God’s sake, Andy, get out of Spain and get back to Britain where you can at least watch the footie!” said my bro’.
I laughed and explained that the list of reasons in the ‘for living in Tenerife‘ column far outweighed the ones in the ‘against living in Tenerife‘ column, but a seed had been planted.
Only showing one live game a day and concentrating on Spain performances is indicative of a country that exhibits astounding levels of insularity. Hamstrung by outdated monopolies and an autocratic business culture, Spain has a complete aversion to looking outside itself for anything, and ‘best practice’ and ‘benchmarking’ are not just conspicuous by their absence – they’re an anathema to Spain. When the rest of the world saw the financial crisis looming and took damage limitation measures, Spain carried on with business as usual which is why it’s now facing financial melt-down. I could go on…
A couple of days later Jack and I walked the Chinyero Volcano route for a new walking guide we’re preparing and within 5 minutes of setting off I had mentally registered any number of things I loved about Tenerife. The smell of the pine forest; the fact that I could see the sea from almost everywhere on the island; the unrestricted ability to walk wherever I wanted; La Gomera and La Palma on the horizon…
Some time ago, when we first set up Tenerife Magazine, Joe Cawley wrote a short piece entitled ‘10 things I hate about living in Tenerife‘ and clearly it rung a bell with lots of people who added their own pet hates to the list. So when I got back from my walk, I compiled a list of ‘10 things I love about living in Tenerife‘ – mainly to remind myself why it is that I continue to live in Spanish territory. It’s not an exhaustive list, it’s just the ones that popped into my head and I’m sure others will have their own reasons which will be nothing like mine.
I just wish Tenerife wasn’t in Spanish territory and could sub-contract its World Cup coverage from the BBC. That’s number one on my ’10 things I wish about living in Tenerife’ list.
I love your list, but I also agree with almost everything on Joe Crawley’s. For some years I have kept two running lists – one pros and one cons, but I’m still here, for now.
Nowhere is perfect, of course, and there are times when England looks attractive, as it did to me this Spring, then I remember why we moved here.
I think it’s good to question, wherever we are, thus we don’t stagnate.
Wise words, islandmomma. One of my mum’s (many!) sayings was ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’ and like all sayings, is clearly rooted in fact.
The difficulty I have is this: where else can I live that has such a beautiful climate, stunning scenery, family-oriented culture and personal freedom as the Canary Islands? If I can find all those and leave behind the insularity and incompetence of the Spanish, I’ll move tomorrow. But then I suspect that if such a place existed, I’d be killed in the rush!
Actually for me , the insularity is what make defiant countries such as Spain magnificent and still its own country. You can still get Spanish food and drink without much of an issue on a daily basis. In the UK you’d have to by pass about half a dozen kebab houses , Burrito joints before you can find a remaining traditional fish and chip shop.
Perhaps if the UK had been more resistant to change our own native country would not be so culinarily and culturally raped and devoid of a meaningful national character today. Our own political leaders have sold the country down the river into a chaotic sea of free market globalisation and you want the Spanish to through themselves under the same Starbucks shaped wheel as well ?????
I for one relish being able to walk down the street in the morning get coffee made the Spanish way , latter on walk into a Spanish bakery get a Spanish snack and so on through out the day , a tourist or a foreigner living in the UK would be hard pressed to write back home and say they did the same.
Despite a lot of Brits whinging about Spain being too Spanish , I think deep down they know that was the key reason for them moving over in the first place I doubt the county would
What with high streets filled with the likes of Costa Starbuck’s McDonalds ,
about the only thing British you will get if your lucky is a soggy Greggs sausage roll and then its pot luck whether its fresh or not. Even the British pubs are fast losing their national character and either you have the cater for all tastes cheap ethos of a Wetherspoons or some hipster exclusive type thing going on.
Granted Barcelona , Madrid and Valencia are slowly going the way you want the whole nation to full of Chinese bizarres , soulless global brands and Americana many young Spaniards seem to have a distain and contempt for their own language and speaking English is seen as a good prosperous thing.
I’m open to different cultures and customs but when I visit or live in a country I want to know I’m there and not feel I’m a perpetual departure lounge.
Many Brits feel bad about the way they are treated over here yet loads dont bother to learn the language , or go into the culture deeper then their mind set tourist brochure. A fair few expect the Spanish to be perpetually grateful or over the moon that they can speak a few random words or rusty phrases.
As for the customer service issues I don’t see what the difference is between here and the UK at least here I can still walk away knowing that I did not pay a hefty price for the surly service (unlike the UK) and in most cases got the products I was after without issue customer complaints are a major industry in the UK and the same industry is virtually no existent in Spain. I wonder why that is could it be that the service despite being brusque and moody at times is often correct where as in the UK its far worse.
In todays UK on the whole the service if fake and friendly like its been ripped out of a 1950s Yanks customer service manual , but over all people in the UK are far more meaner ,self absorbed two faced and pathologically more aggressive then people over here.
At least you can still visit Madrid and feel you are in Spain to a large extent the same can not be said about Edinburgh or London with respect to the UK.
Well, ‘Grane’, you and I clearly see two different things when we look at the modern world. I for one cannot abide insularity of any kind, whether it be in shops, industries or thought. I find that whole ‘keep Britain the way it used to be’ little more than thinly veiled disdain for multi-culturalism and the free movement of people. I love the fact I can get food from across the globe in Britain, as opposed to in many parts of Spain where all I can get is Spanish or Chinese food. I disagree strongly that the UK has been “culturally and culinarily raped”. Having just come back from an extended visit I was once again struck by the quality of food on offer everywhere from the humblest of cafes and pubs to the top end restaurants. And as for Spanish coffee, it’s far from the best in the world. I don’t frequent Costa or Starbucks but I like a good cup of coffee and I’m certainly not guaranteed that in a Spanish coffee shop.
I’m not suggesting Spain should give up its Spanish-ness, nothing in my post even vaguely suggested that, but looking outside of your own shores to see who’s doing things better is simply good sense and something that to date, the Spanish appear to have a complete aversion to doing. Until they do, I fully intend to watch the next World Cup from somewhere outside of Spain 🙂
It would be wonderful if we all had complete freedom of movement, wouldn’t it? I have a theory that different places are right for us at different times in our life. Nowhere is absolutely perfect, but some places suit our needs better at different stages.
For me, this was a terrific place to bring up children. They had a lot of the freedom I remembered having as a child, a “real” childhood, they always prefered doing stuff outdoors to sitting in front of tv for instance……still do! At the same time, the quality of their education was something always on the scales. Had we been in UK and solving an education problem would have been easier, then my son’s asthma would have been on the other side of the scales constantly.
I am also not quite sure of the extent to which living on a small island influences our possibilites and perceptions. When I use the word “Spanish” I try to stop to consider whether this is, really, a ‘Spanish thing’ as opposed to a ‘Canarian thing’. Oddly, Canarian friends seem to agree about the frustrations, whilst friends from the mainland seem to make more allowances.
But I agree, if the frustrations suck so much that one finds oneself complaining all the time, then it’s time to move on. Goodness but we have freedom of movement throughout Europe now!
Yes – the Spanish vs Canarios issue I’m also constantly aware of, particularly living in the north where there’s such a strong ‘somos Canarios, no godos!’ culture.
Unfortunately, when it comes to debilitating insularity, I fear that the mainland sets the bar and the Canario island mentality raises it…a double whammy!
I can certainly see how Tenerife must be a wonderful place to raise a family – a childhood filled with sunny days and laughter but, like you clearly did, I would worry about the lack of achievement ambition when it came to education standards. But it’s just as you say – swings and roundabout.
Different places for different times in our lives is a nice idea. Maybe I’ll abandon myself to the whims of the Gods and see where life’s tide washes me up next.
Wonder about the volcano? It’s come up recently on-line as potentially exploding and causing waves here in the USA.
>>>>>>Maybe I’ll abandon myself to the whims of the Gods and see where life’s tide washes me up next.
That’s the way I like to look at it :=)
I found out about this post because Im thinking of moving to Canary Islands from Portugal, and if Boy-racres are the worst thing you get, I still want to move in – But please, my friend, please – Judging a region because of football coverage ??? Have you ever heard about Netflix or paide per view Internet ‘ Cumónnnnn is that all you got ??? Bad fooftball coverage ???
Hi Carlos, thanks for reading and for leaving your comment. In response, I would make two comments: 1. If you look at the date of this post you will see that it was written in 2010, long before Netflix or pay-for-view existed 2. the football coverage (or to be more precise, the lack of coverage of the World Cup outside Spain’s games) was used simply as illustrative of the rather blinkered approach taken to many aspects of life here and I particularly mention “outdated monopolies and an autocratic business culture” which, if you intend being self-employed when you live here, you will soon get to experience first hand. So, welcome to Tenerife – I hope you’ll be very happy here, I have certainly loved living here for the past 14yrs 🙂