The dragging of the boards takes over the streets of Icod de los Vinos every November 29 and 30. Hundreds of residents of all ages take out their boards to slide down El Plano, Hércules or Los Franceses streets. These are days of emotion, speed, technique, tradition and some risk, which prevents most visitors from directly enjoying one of the most spectacular customs of the Canary Islands. Inspired by the tourist use of Cesto do Monte carts in Funchal, on the Portuguese island of Madeira, the Municipality of Icod de los Vinos has turned to virtual reality goggles so that anyone can experience the skidding of unfinished boards on a mountain of tires.
The mayor of Icod, Francis González (CC), was in charge of presenting this project, called Icod 360, at the 42nd edition of the Madrid International Tourism Fair (Fitur 2022). Augmented virtual reality, a QR code and simple glasses prepared for the user to take advantage of their own mobile device with a player mean that Icod’s tables can now be enjoyed throughout the year.
The mayor of Icod de los Vinos, Francis González (CC), presented this new promotional tool three times at Fitur, «which allows in a simple, easy and comfortable way to enjoy the sensation that is experienced when lying on a board through the steepest streets of Icod such as El Plano, Hércules or San Antonio». In addition, the tool is not limited to a single route, since the user can change lane and even “the board for a larger board”. González adds that “it also gives you the opportunity to experience what it feels like to go down right behind another person who is crawling at high speed.”
The pandemic cut short the plans in 2020, but despite the limitations of 2021, the local government commissioned a specialized company to record the descents that are now immortalized in the Icod 360 tool. An experience that allows you to “turn your gaze 360 degrees and enjoy , like its protagonists, of everything that happens around this deep-rooted tradition”, explains González.
The dragging of the tables in augmented reality is only the beginning of a much more ambitious project, since the aim is to use this technology so that “visitors and tourists can learn more about the tradition of San Andrés and the history of Icod.”
The initial idea is that these glasses be temporarily installed in the Drago Visitors Center, but the mayor works with the idea that they could be a claim for visitors to Icod de los Vinos to go to places like El Plano street to learn about this tradition “where it comes true every year.” In that area, options are being considered such as renting a place or setting up a space to create a center linked to this tradition.
Gastronomy
Francis González makes a very positive assessment of his stay at Fitur, during which he had the opportunity to present the Icod 360 tool and to present the star dish of Icodense cuisine to gastronomic journalists: the traditional rabbit meal, an icon of the Icod de los Vinos cookbook. The event was held at the Taramara restaurant in Madrid, where the Canarian chef Pablo Pastor created a traditional version of the condumio and the chef brothers Roberto and Sergio Hernández prepared a more traveler version: a Dim Sum de condumio with a Peruvian nod, which fused flavors from Asia, Peru and Icod de los Vinos.
In Francis González’s opinion, it was “a very innovative snack, but one that maintains the essence of our traditional rabbit meal with which, thanks to the Taramara chefs, we made it possible for diners to whet their appetites with a piece of Icod de the Wines on the palate to end the trip as soon as they can with a visit to our municipality».
González continues to miss more presence of a symbol of the Canary Islands such as the Drago Milenario in the promotions of Tenerife and the Canary Islands; regrets that the Icodense City Council was not given a space at the Canary Islands stand for the presentation of its Icod 360 project, and considers that places such as La Rioja or Navarra should be looked at “as regards the promotion of local wines, or in Valencia, which organized master classes on paella production».
Las Ciudad del Drago was also present for the first time at the post of the Association of Magical Towns of Spain, where it became known as “the municipality of the Canary Islands that preserves the most living traditions”. In addition, it is the first town in the Archipelago to join this group together with such illustrious names as Belmonte, Comillas, Cangas de Onís, Cambados or Combarro.
