La Laguna historical center was declared World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1999. Starting in 2003 the municipality started an ambitious Urban Plan to renew this area, that was carried out by the firm AUC S.L. (Arquitectura Urbanismo y Cooperación). The city was the ancient capital of the Canary Islands.

It is home to the University of La Laguna which is home to 30,000 students. La Laguna is considered to be the cultural capital of the Canary Islands. Also there is in the habit of being calling the “City of the Anticipated ones”, for having been the first university city of the archipelago.

The city is capital of the autonomous community of Canary Islands (shared with Las Palmas), sharing governmental institutions such as Presidency and ministries.

Santa Cruz is the second largest city and metropolitan area of the European Union outside Europe. Located in northeast quadrant of Tenerife, about 210 kilometres (130 mi) off the northwestern coast of Africa within the Atlantic Ocean.

Between the 1833 territorial division of Spain and 1927 Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands, until 1927 when a decree ordered that the capital of the Canary Islands be shared, as it remains at present. The port is of great importance and is the communications hub between Europe, Africa and Americas, with cruise ships arriving from many nations. The city is the nerve center on domestic and inter-island communications in the Canary Islands.

One promising technique for finding these “biosignatures” – which could be pockets of organic molecules or even microbial life – is to entice them to glow in the dark using an ultraviolet laser mounted on a robotic probe. A camera on the probe would then detect the…
Lewis Dartnell, planetary science postdoc. >>> Read more

The two ports were placed third and fourth in Europe for the most active markets during 2010, with a total of 1.3 million passengers, an increase of 13.7% with respect to 2009.
Last year, the Spanish ports notched up a record when they welcomed more than seven million cruise ship passengers.

The Canary Islands, Barcelona, the Balearics, Málaga, Valencia and Vigo were the main locations, with the arrivals representing 12.5% of the Spanish tourist sector (52.6 million international tourists visited Spain during 2010).

The ports in the archipelago are busy throughout the year but particularly so during the autumn and winter months. They are the third most active market in Europe, with a total of 1,358,767 passengers, an increase of 13.7% with respect to 2009 (1,19,536 passengers). Santa Cruz received 740,022 passengers last year, 54.46% of the total for the islands and 26.97% more than in 2009.

Only Barcelona with 2.3 million cruise passengers and the Balearics with 1.5 million surpass the numbers received at the port in Santa Cruz. Las Palmas had 618,745 arrivals, up 1.15% on 2009 and 45.53% of the 1.3 million passengers who berthed in the Canary Islands in 2010. This places it fourth in the traffic list. In 2009, Las Palmas (611,701 passengers) surpassed Santa Cruz de Tenerife (582,835 passengers).
In one decade, cruise passengers in the Spanish ports has tripled from two million to 7,132,505 people. The biggest rise was in 2010 when the figure went up 17.7% to 7.12 million.
Figures show that the average cruise ship passenger spends between 50 euros and 75 euros a day at stopping off points and between 200 and 300 euros if the liner uses the port as its base.

According the official release  the film go on to shoot in Surrey and Wales, then heads to the Tenerife, Canary Islands, a place that film fans may recall where parts of the original “Planet of the apes” shot decades ago. It’s expected that the movie will be using the barron landscapes of Mount Teide on the island.

More info: www.thehollywoodnews.com

The initiative was presented at the Fundación Biodiversidad headquarters. “Oceana’s proposal addresses EU requirements,” points out Ricardo Aguilar, director of research for Oceana Europe. “After evaluating the Natura 2000 Network in the Canary Islands, the European Commission determined that the current network of marine areas does not guarantee protection for the habitats and species present in the Canary Islands. Because the Habitats Directive calls for their protection, the network should be expanded.”

More info: http://eu.oceana.org

El Cielo de Canarias / Canary sky – Tenerife from Daniel López on Vimeo.

Some scenes of the video:

- “The Cathedral” in the plain of Ucanca, night shot with the planet Jupiter across the scene.
- El Arbol de Piedra (Roque Cinchado) with a Tajinaste pointing to Polaris.
- Tajinastes “night”, The Red Tajinaste, endemism Canario blooming in spring.
- The “hat” in the Teide. Formation of a cloud known as cap at the peak of Teide.
- “Waterfalls of clouds crossing the mountains and rivers of multicolored clouds.
- Sea of clouds crashing against the mountains as it did the sea.
- Large pool of water in the plain of Ucanca lenticular clouds where stars are reflected.
- Tajinastes night with the Milky Way taken out on the horizon with a dolly track.
- Video of the sun setting and a double green flash. ”
- Pleiades and the Andromeda galaxy between rocks in the mines of San Jose.
- Scenes spectacular sunset in the Teide National Park with clouds and moving dolly.
- ArcoIris from the Teide National Park.
- Multicolor Halos around the moon.
- Clouds remain stationary hours at the site are changing their colors as the sunset

¡Enhorabuena!* Daniel.

(*Congratulation)

The STARMUS FESTIVAL is a unique scientific, artistic and musical event that will take place in the Canary Islands, a touristic and astronomical paradise in Spain. Tribute is to be paid to the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin at an event in which renowned colleagues and astronauts, such as Alexei Leonov, Valentina Tereshkova, Jim Lovell, Bill Anders and Buzz Aldrin will be taking part.

Legendary musicians will also attend the event including guitarist Brian May who is also astrophysicist by education and the member of the festival’s advisory board, the Tangerine Dream group and other space music composers.

Astrophotography, space-art exhibitions, documentaries, talks and conferences are some of the activities that will delight music and astronomy fans alike.

More info: http://www.starmus.com

Gran Canaria ranks second place with 2.7 million seats (230,000 more than last summer, a growth of 9.4%) followed by Lanzarote, with 1.7 million (200,000 new seats, an increase of 13%), Fuerteventura, with 1.5 million (242 more, 19%), and La Palma, with about 116,000 seats (7,900 additional compared to 2010, a difference of 7.3%).

The airlines will offer a total of 12.5 million seats, compared to 11.4 million in 2010. In keeping with the cautious optimism that the authorities are transmitting, the head of the regional government, Paulino Rivero, predicted that the Canary Islands will close 2011 with 12 million tourists visiting the islands.