La Sonrisa del Sol

As a travel lover, I am also interested in the way countries and specific areas present their destinations. I have just seen “La sonrisa del sol”, the latests Canary Island promotion film and it has really touched me. The film tells the history of eleven Greenlandic Inuit, of ages between one and 64 years and belonging to the group of Ammassalimmiut, which visited the Canary Isles last May in the frame of an anthropological project which aim was to observe and to record the reactions and emotions that these population of Greenland, a place with an extreme and permanently overcast climate of ice, would experience during their stay in the archipelago, the place with the best climate of the world.

The expedition took Gran Canaria as their base, and from here excursions were realized to the other islands of the archipelago. This group Inuit, which for the first time in their life was going out of their territory, came to the Canary Islands to live through experiences completely away from their commonness. The members of the group – hunters, fishermen and their families – could experience how it is to live under a climate so sunny and different from his one, discovering unexpected situations, like feeling the sand of the beach, to bathe in the sea or to touch a tree, simple gestures that for them suppose the whole vital experience that has been filmed in the documentary.

The group of Inuit that took part in this project barely knew of the existence of the Canary Islands, an archipelago formed by seven islands that enjoy a privileged climate, with nice summers and very soft winters. An eternal spring of sunny days, blue skies and stable temperatures, without big oscillations throughout the year.

This kindness and climatic stability is made possible by five elements: the geographical location of the Canary archipelago in full Atlantic Ocean, the control of the anticyclone of the Azores, the permanent trade winds, the influence of the cold oceanic current and the relief of the Islands. When interacting among themselves, these factors provide smooth temperatures and humidity, giving the Canary Islands a unique, pleasant and varied climate. Not uselessly, different international studies have qualified to the Canary climate as one of the best of the world.

This climatic uniqueness allows the archipelago have a great biological and landscape diversity. It is not so surprising that the Inuit , accustomed to the permanent frost picture of their village, be surprised by the variety of landscapes and natural environments in which they lived intense and exciting experiences during the nine days that remained in the Canary Islands and unlikely forget.

This climatic uniqueness allows the archipelago to have a great biological and landscape diversity. Is not weird the Inuit, accustomed to permanent frost picture of the village, to be surprised by the variety of landscapes and natural environments in which they lived intense and exciting experiences during the nine days that remained in the Canary Islands and they hardly forget.

As indicated during the trip Francesc Bailón, the unique Spanish anthropologist specialized in the Inuit culture, “For them it will be a unique experience without precedents, but also for us it will be an experience watching them. We do not know how they will react when they see for the first time a palm; what they will think when they are in a beach and could bath in the sea for the first time in his life; or how it will be his smile when these hunters of the ice lie down under the Sun … “.

I leave you with the music of Rosana, one of the most important Canary Island singers who´s rhythms will transport you to the Spanish islands of happiness.