A body found in a barranco in La Gomera corresponds to 56-year-old Briton Richard Michael Lee, says the Guardia Civil. Mr Lee disappeared on 7 October while on a walking holiday alone to San Sebastián. His clothes and belongings had been left in his hotel room and it was feared that he had suffered an accident but no trace of him has previously been found. The body discovered this morning was in a very inaccessible area, and was recovered by helicopter. There was no evidence of any violence, so it does indeed appear that the poor man was the victim of a tragic accident.

It’s been held before, but never in the south. La Noche de Caridad Anual (annual charity night) will this year be held at 7pm on 29 June in the fabulous Gran Hotel Bahía del Duque, a Disneyesque fantasy castle of a hotel that has won awards throughout the world, frequently being voted best spa resort in Spain, if not Europe. The charity in question is the burns unit of the Gambo Hospital in Ethiopia, which has an agreement with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid for research: the hospital has some 150 beds and serves around a million people.   ... Read more...

The Tenerife Symphony Orchestra will be presenting a concert in south Tenerife once again in its third chamber music cycle. The performance is on 20 June at 8.30pm in the Valle San Lorenzo cultural centre. Entry to the concert is free, and those who attend will hear the following programme:

Update 18 June: A promise given yesterday by the Tenerife Cabildo that it will provide the abattoir with €200,000 to clear the backlog of workers’ wages has been met with total scepticism. The abattoir workers say they are not convinced by the promise and that the strike will continue if May’s wages are not in place by the 27th of June. The Cabildo minister for Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca, José Joaquín Bethencourt, says that the strike is unjustified because the payment will be made very soon – depending on bank negotiations. Rubén Bonilla, member of the abattoir’s works committee, however, says that the Cabildo has already “guaranteed” the payment previously – and that the employees were still waiting for it, and so they had no faith in the Cabildo’s ability or willingness to pay.   ... Read more...

Those who know me have all heard about the Corner family, comprising Mr & Mrs C, and Miss & Master C, and the Rose family who live in the original cottage wall under an ancient rose bush that has refused all efforts to dislodge it, and also Joe Smallweed, the cross lizard with the brightest coat imaginable (hence Joseph of the dreamcoat and Smallweed, the little ball of bitterness, from Dickens’ Bleak House). Many are also familiar with the giant lagarto of El Hierro …   ... Read more...

Update 17 June: And now, the sunbed issue is in the Courts. Councillor José Antonio Reverón (not the former mayor, who is José Alberto González Reverón) had just finished testifying in the Caso Arona (the latest in which scandal saw some 20-odd senior Arona Ayuntamiento officials have their corruption case trials confirmed and their appeals rejected just the other day), when he put what we might call the sunbeds case in the hands of the public prosecutor with a denuncia for corruption. Some are now just totting up the numbers of corruption cases in the Courts involving the Arona authorities. The sunbeds case is now popularly known as Caso Arona 5 …   ... Read more...

Tenerife has its own bonfire night, on the eve of the annual midsummer fiesta of San Juan Bautista (St John the Baptist). On St John’s Eve, 23 June, Tenerife is lit up with bonfires and fireworks, and many visitors often think that a summer fire has started early. It will be no different this year, so expect to see plenty of smoke swirling above the hills throughout on Sunday.   ... Read more...

Update 16 June: The Canarian Government is to allocate €15,000,000 to enable the TF1 extension between Adeje and Las Manchas in Santiago del Teide to be completed, the Tenerife Cabildo Roads Minister, José Luis Delgado, has confirmed. The money will come from increased borrowing which will be approved by the national government before the end of June, an approval which would release some €200,000,000 in total increased debt to the Canaries. Sr Delgado said that he was confident that 2014′s budget would allocate a further €15,000,000 for the project so that the road should be open to traffic at the beginning of 2015.   ... Read more...

Update 16 June 2013: Loro Parque has sadly announced that Vicky, the baby orca born last August, has died. The cause of her sudden death is still unknown, but vets and experts are working to find out the cause. They had noticed a change of behaviour over the past few days, it seems, and brought in outside specialists, including the chief vet from Sea World in the USA. Loro Parque says it is very sad indeed to lose Vicky, just 10 months old, and a playful and intelligent animal who won the hearts of the entire Loro Parque team and the visitors who saw her during her life. 
  ... Read more...

copyright Sir Old Golfer

Update 16 June: There was a real turnout for the triathlon this morning by the looks of it, and there are some fantastic photos of the event HERE - thanks to Sir Old Golfer Bill for the link, and for the above photo too. Fantastic images which really bring it all to life.

It’s for hardcore athletes all right, but it’s also a great spectacle for the less energetic! The annual El Médano triathlon takes place on 16 June from 9am, with several hundred taking part and, no doubt, just as many if not more lining the routes to watch the 1.5 km swim, followed by a 40 km cycle race, and ending with a 10 km foot race. Gruelling is not the word! For further details, the official website is HERE.