Canary Islands Day: Curious Facts You Didn't Know

On May 30, the Canary Islands Day is celebrated in Spain ; a special date in which the first session of the Parliament of the Canary Islands is commemorated, which took place on May 30, 1983 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, since until that moment, the archipelago had not been able to govern itself.

From that day on, it was also decided the shared capital of four-year periods between the cities of Santa Cruz and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. This is just one of the curious facts about the Canary Islands . Here are others that are unknown, even for the majority of the inhabitants of these islands.

Canary Islands Day: 10 curiosities

1. Since 2018 they stopped being 7 islands to become 8. The eighth island is called La Graciosa and it is a great paradisiacal beach.
2. On the island of El Hierro, also known as the island of the meridian; the smallest in the archipelago, is the Hotel Puntagrande, considered the smallest in the world with just 4 rooms, a dining room and two lounges with views of the Atlantic Ocean.
3. The Canary Islands is the autonomous region that has the most national parks within its territory, the Teide Park being the best known.
4. The oldest rum factory in Europe is located on the island of Gran Canaria. It is about the Arehucas Rum that has existed since 1884 and is found in the town of Arucas.
5. In the Canary Islands it is the only place in Europe where coffee can be grown thanks to its weather conditions.
6. In the Tenerife municipality of Icod de los Vinos is the Cueva del Viento; the fifth most lake volcanic tube in the world and the most complex on the planet due to its morphology of several levels and passageways.
7. Its name does not come from the canaries; as many think, but because of the large number of wild dogs that surprised the Castilians when they arrived, so they decided to call it "The island of dogs" which over time became the current name.
8. It houses the first underwater museum to open in Europe. It is located on the island of Lanzarote and houses a large collection of sculptures by the artist Jason deCaires.
9. It is one of the cleanest points on earth to observe the sky.
10. The peak of El Teide casts the largest shadow over the sea because it is one of the highest points in Europe and Tenerife is one of the ten highest islands on the planet.