The typical Canarian style is a house with a patio and balconies. The most famous mansion in Orotava is called the Casa de las Balcones, which of course translates as 'the house with the balconies'. This house truly has a lot of balconies, they're even on the inside, along the patio.

Inside the Casa de las Balcones you can find a handicraft shop. And on the second floor there's also a small museum, that's well worth a visit.

We also visited the church in Orotava.

And on the square we found a lot of flags with Chinese symbols. We think it has something to do with carnaval, as we can't find a Chinese restaurant.

In Puerto de la Cruz we visit the Botanical garden. We like botanical gardens and visit them all over the world. Compared to all those other ones we've seen, this one is:

• very busy
• expensive
• not very interesting.

La Laguna de Christobal used to be the capital before Santa Cruz. It was founded in 1492 or so, just after the Spanish conquered the Guanches. The city is a Unesco World Heritage monument.

The monastery, you see on the picture below, is usually probably not so busy as the day we were here. We think some-one important died, but it could also be related to the carnaval.

In the church of Candelaria there is a famous black Madonna. Ehh, just one Madonna ? The church is crowded with them. Everywhere you look, there is another statue or a painting. Even the stained glass windows are swarming with Madonnas.

Outside the church, there is a row of statues of Guanche kings. In our opinion, these guys are supposed to be very sturdy and brave. But the way they are represented here doesn't look good. With all the parked cars in front of them, hotels in the background and some garbage containers around them, they look like the gay needlepoint club of Tuitjehorn in the Netherlands.

To give them the respect they deserve, we'll show you some photos without cars or garbage containers.