Enjoy Dia de Canarias 2026

Today it's Dia de Canarias day once again, the Canarian 'national' holiday when the inhabitants of the Canaries are allowed to proudly say ''Soy Canario'' (I'm Canarian) and celebrate their feeling of national identity under Spanish colonial rule. Towns and villages enjoy one of the region’s biggest annual cultural celebrations with all things considered typically Canarian. The public holiday is the anniversary of the first session of the Canary Islands Parliament in 1983 and is celebrated every year with traditional music, dancing, food, concerts and many other local events across all of the islands. Wherever you are in the Canaries you will find local events, some also before and after the actual day itself. Below is the poster for the main event in Valle Gran Rey, La Gomera, which starts at 2 pm in the harbour of Vueltas and continues all day until the early hours of Sunday morning:

Refuelling facilities for La Gomera airport demanded

A Binter Airlines commuter flight approaching La Gomera's small but beautiful airport GMZ to land 

The parliament of the Canary Islands has adopted a resolution calling for the installation of refuelling facilities at La Gomera's airport (GMZ) last Thursday. It was stated by the leader of the Canarian nationalist group in the parliament that La Gomera's citizens deserve to be treated like the rest of the Spanish population and that the Spanish airport authority AENA left the airport without a tanker to supply fuel and that there wasn't even lubricating oil for emergencies. He also said that several Spanish airports with less air traffic than La Gomera had all these essential basic services at their disposal. They weren't economically viable but essential and vital in case of emergencies, he concluded.

The resolution was adopted with the support of several parties and as one deputy put it ''because above all it stands to reason''
I think he's right. The shooting of the upcoming movie In the Heart of the Sea by Ron Howard involved several days of shooting from a special camera helicopter which needed numerous refuelling trips. Even though many scenes were being filmed in the sea just a very short distance below La Gomera's airport, the helicopter had to fly further away to refuel from a tanker truck that had been brought especially from Tenerife, meanwhile we were refuelling with smoothies and resetting the scene.
A couple of years ago a route from London Gatwick directly to La Gomera was to be opened and tickets could be pre-ordered online - until they discovered they couldn't refuel at the destination.