341 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
341 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
sponsored
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travel
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spanish_tourist_board
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canaryislands
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7079564
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-----
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# El Hierro: stunning views, rare lizards and big green ideas
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## El Hierro is the smallest and least populated of the Canaries archipelago,
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but no less worth visiting.
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![Canary Islands: Canarian Wrestling][1]
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Image 1 of 6
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Canary Islands: Canarian Wrestling
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![Canary Islands: Mirador de La Pena in El Hierro][2]
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Image 1 of 6
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Canary Islands: Mirador de La Pena in El Hierro
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![Canary Islands: the trade winds bend sabina trees in El Hierro][3]
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Image 1 of 6
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Canary Islands: the trade winds bend sabina trees in El Hierro
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![Canary Islands: Frontera from San Andres in El Hierro][4]
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Image 1 of 6
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Canary Islands: Frontera from San Andres in El Hierro
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![Canary Islands: Roque de Bonanza in El Hierro][5]
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Image 1 of 6
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Canary Islands: Roque de Bonanza in El Hierro
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![Canary Islands: Frontera in El Hierro][6]
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Image 1 of 6
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Canary Islands: Frontera in El Hierro
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4:33PM GMT 26 Jan 2010
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Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, Fuerteventura. Even La Gomera.
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But El Hierro? It's a sad fact that most people have never even heard of the
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smallest and least populated island in the Canaries archipelago.
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But even in comparison to the very best in this hotspot of spectacular
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panoramas - from the summit of Mount Teide on Tenerife to the Taburiente
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crater on La Palma - El Hierro has some of the most memorable landscapes of
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them all.
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Hardly surprising, perhaps, that the great Canarian architect Cesar Manrique,
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a man who knew a thing or two about views, decided to build another of his
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extraordinary creations here.
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Indeed, the Mirador de la Peña, with its roof garden, restaurant and lookout
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within, is - justifiably - the most famous view on the island, looking out
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over the plains of El Golfo, inspiring the spirit to soar and the legs to
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explore further.
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Just a stone's throw away, the route of one of the island's best walks, the
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Camino de Jinama, wends its way down the mountainside.
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## Related Articles
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* [Canary Islands: sun, sea and truly stunning skylines][7]
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26 Jan 2010
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* [Tenerife: an elegant land erupting with nature and history][8]
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26 Jan 2010
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* [El Hierro: stunning views, rare lizards and big green ideas][9]
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26 Jan 2010
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* [Gran Canaria: an exotic blend of ancient and modern][10]
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28 Jan 2010
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* [Fuerteventura: a little reserve amid all the action][11]
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28 Jan 2010
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* [Lanzarote: a blast from the past illuminates the present][12]
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28 Jan 2010
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* [La Gomera: a small corner of whistles and love][13]
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26 Jan 2010
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* [La Palma: sitting pretty in starlight][14]
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26 Jan 2010
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The landslide that created this epic view is thought to have shifted more than
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70 cubic miles of earth and to have produced a tsunami 1,000ft high - which
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reached the coast of what is now America. In a matter of minutes, mountains
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6,500ft high had been reduced to their present day height of 2,300ft. The
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result is a natural masterpiece that seems appropriately majestic for this
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final outpost of Europe; Columbus's last view of the Old World and
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civilisation's last signature before the beckoning unknown beyond.
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El Hierro, which was once designated the world's Prime Meridian by ancient map
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makers, is also peppered with some of the natural world's most unique
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offerings. These include ancient Canary palms, dragon trees and the centuries-
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old Phoenician juniper trees of El Sabinar in the west, gnarled and bent
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double by direct exposure to the ferocious winds that hurtle in off the
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Atlantic.
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The island also has the largest variety of reptiles in the Canary Islands,
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including tree frogs, geckos and skinks. The most famous is the critically
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endangered giant lizard which was thought to be extinct until 1975 when an
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amateur German scientist found a tiny population living on remote cliffs. A
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small population of the lizards - which can grow up to two feet in length - is
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now being bred in captivity and can be visited at the recovery and research
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centre in Frontera.
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Nearby is the Guinea Eco Museum, where visitors can discover how the original
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inhabitants of the island, the Bimbaches, used to live in volcanic tubes
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called juaclos prior to the arrival of the Spanish. The Garoe tree, worshipped
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by the Bimbaches and one of the island's landmarks, is the focus of one of El
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Hierro's most enduring legends, in which a native princess betrays its
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whereabouts to the invaders after falling in love with a Spanish sailor.
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The original tree, which condensed moisture from the trade winds in its
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branches, was a valuable water source. It was destroyed by a hurricane in
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1610, but a similar tree planted in 1949 has now replaced it.
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But perhaps the most remarkable of El Hierro's many qualities is its
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commitment to sustainable living. Its tidiness and high level of cultural
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preservation strike you from the moment you arrive, but its social policies
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also seem refreshingly enlightened. These include paying unemployed
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construction workers to maintain the distinctive drystone walls of the
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interior field systems and managing sustainable forests for firewood that is
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then provided free for all islanders.
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But the crowning glory is one of the island's most recent green energy
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projects, due to be completed this year. This is an ambitious plan to make El
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Hierro the first island in the world to be self-sufficient. The idea is to
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store excess energy from a 10mW wind farm by pumping water to a reservoir
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higher up the mountain that can then be released back down again to generate
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electricity when the wind is no longer blowing. Clever!
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**Key facts **
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* _Capital:_ Valverde
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* _Size:_ 104sq miles
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* _Population:_ 10,560 Highest point: Malpaso at 4,925ft
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* _Protected nature reserves:_ Seven. The whole island is a Unesco Biosphere
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Reserve
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* _Website:_ [**www.elhierro.es**][15]
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**Island highlights **
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_**Camino de Jinama**_
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Most walks on El Hierro enjoy** **views of both the mountains and the sea.
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Joining the highland villages of the northeast with the lowlands of the Valle
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de Golfo, the Camino de Jinama was used for centuries by the goatherds of the
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island for their biannual change of pasture land. Passing the famous Mirador
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de la Pena, it is a steep climb (either up or down) rewarded by some of the
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best views on the island.
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_**Mirador de la Peña **_
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Another of Cesar Manrique's trademark creations, this restaurant/lookout has
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been built into the volcanic mountainside and looks out over the plains of El
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Golfo where, some 50,000 years ago, a third of the island collapsed into the
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sea after a gigantic earthquake resulting in a tsunami that probably reached
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the west coast of what is now America.
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_**El Sabinar **_
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On the barren west coast of the island, centuries-old juniper trees have been
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bent double like enchanted witches by the winds howling in from the Atlantic.
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Their contorted shapes form one of the emblematic images of an island that is
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a Biosphere Reserve in its entirety.
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_**Bimbache Petroglyphs**_
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The original inhabitants of El Hierro, the Bimbaches, left behind them
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undeciphered signs and symbols carved into the rocks that can still be seen
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all over the island. Some of the best can be found at the archaeological site
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of El Julan in the south-west of the island.
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_**Diving**_
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With a coastal shelf that drops off to nearly 330ft very close to shore, El
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Hierro has arguably the best diving in the Canary Islands. Volcanic tunnels,
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arches, walls, caves and dropoffs make for a spectacular underwater terrain
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while, unlike some of the other islands, the marine life is dense with
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tropical species.
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_**San Borondon **_
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Don't be entirely surprised if you never actually get to see the island of San
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Borondon, because it's a ghost island off the coast of El Hierro and a
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favourite myth of the islanders. Nonetheless, it was believed to exist for
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many centuries and sightings are still claimed to this day!
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[X][16] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][17]
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* Share: [Share][16] [ ][18] [ ][19]
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[Tweet][20]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/travel/spanish_tourist_board/canaryisland
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s/7079564/El-Hierro-stunning-views-rare-lizards-and-big-green-ideas.html
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Telegraph
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## [Canary Islands][21]
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* ### [Sponsored »][22]
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* ### [Travel »][23]
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* ### [Spanish Tourist Board »][24]
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[X][16] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][17]
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Share:
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* [ ][16]
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* [ ][18]
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* [ ][19]
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* [Tweet][20]
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* [![Canary Islands holidays][25]][21]
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[1]: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01567/CANARY_P22-24_CM_C_1
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567746c.jpg
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[2]: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01567/CANARY_P22-24_CM_M_1
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567731c.jpg
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[3]: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01567/CANARY_P22-24_CM_T_1
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567729a.jpg
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[4]: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01567/CANARY_P22-24_STB__1
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567727c.jpg
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[5]: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01567/CANARY_P22-24_STB__1
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567723a.jpg
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[6]: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01567/CANARY_P22-24_STB__1
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567724c.jpg
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[7]: /sponsored/travel/spanish_tourist_board/canaryislands/7079816/Canary-
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Islands-sun-sea-and-truly-stunning-skylines.html
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[8]: /sponsored/travel/spanish_tourist_board/canaryislands/7079200
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/Tenerife-an-elegant-land-erupting-with-nature-and-history.html
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[9]: /sponsored/travel/spanish_tourist_board/canaryislands/7079564/El-
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Hierro-stunning-views-rare-lizards-and-big-green-ideas.html
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[10]: /sponsored/travel/spanish_tourist_board/canaryislands/7080193/Gran-
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Canaria-an-exotic-blend-of-ancient-and-modern.html
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[11]:
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/sponsored/travel/spanish_tourist_board/canaryislands/7091725/Fuerteventura-a
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-little-reserve-amid-all-the-action.html
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[12]:
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/sponsored/travel/spanish_tourist_board/canaryislands/7091935/Lanzarote-a
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-blast-from-the-past-illuminates-the-present.html
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[13]: /sponsored/travel/spanish_tourist_board/canaryislands/7079510/La-
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Gomera-a-small-corner-of-whistles-and-love.html
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[14]: /sponsored/travel/spanish_tourist_board/canaryislands/7079397/La-
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Palma-sitting-pretty-in-starlight.html
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[15]: http://www.elhierro.es
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[16]: #
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[17]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/4590190/Share-this-
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article-What-are-these.html
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[18]: mailto:?subject=A Telegraph reader thought you would be interested in
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this article&body=Depending on your email program, you may be able to click on
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the link in the email. Alternatively, you may have to open a web browser, such
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as Firefox or Internet Explorer, and copy the link over into the address bar.
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%0A%0Ahttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/travel/spanish_tourist_board/canary
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islands/7079564/El-Hierro-stunning-views-rare-lizards-and-big-green-ideas.html
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%0A%0AFor the best content online, visit www.telegraph.co.uk
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[19]: javascript:print()
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[20]: http://twitter.com/share?via=Telegraph
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[21]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/travel/spanish_tourist_board/can
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aryislands/
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[22]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/
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[23]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/travel/
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[24]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/travel/spanish_tourist_board/
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[25]: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01569/sponsor_canaryisla_
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1569739a.jpg
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