the orotava This month, the Sabios y sabias project, which was launched at the beginning of 2020 to train volunteers over 55 years of age to work as altruistic guides in La Hijuela del Botánico, a garden of about 3,400 square meters located at the back of the Town Hall. Declared a Historic Garden in 1994 and an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) in 2008, houses a valuable botanical collection with specimens from Oceania, America, Europe, Africa and Asia, such as a dawn sequoia, native to China; a hackberry specimen; the Chilean palm, highly threatened; the Himalayan fig tree; the white sapote; glycine; the fan palm, or the magnificent Ginkgo biloba, the only living species of the ginkgoales genus, which appear in fossils that are more than 250 million years old.
This initiative was presented in January 2020, but the Covid-19 upset all the plans from March of that year and the wise men and women stayed with the desire to share part of what has been learned about La Hijuela del Botánico. The City Council of La Orotava participated in this initiative; the Office of Environmental Participation and Volunteering of the Cabildo de Tenerife; the La Orotava Acclimatization Garden, which belongs to the ICIA of the Government of the Canary Islands; the Telesforo Bravo-Juan Coello Canarian Foundation; the Orotava Canary Islands Foundation for the History of Science (Fundoro); the Tree Table; the Professional Association of Tourist Guides of Tenerife, and the Spanish Red Cross.
altruistic collaboration
All these entities joined forces three years ago to achieve that a team of citizens committed and altruistic will show the rest of the residents and visitors of La Orotava the main attractions of this emblematic 19th century gardenwhose historical and scientific importance still goes unnoticed by many villeros.
The initial forecast is that the routes will be offered on the second and fourth Thursday of each month
The Department of the Environment and Climate Change, led by Luis Perera (CC), is already working to resume this month the free guided tours, about 45 minutes long, which had been conceived in the pre-Covid stage. The mayor explains that the volunteers have received specific training that will allow them to “transmit their knowledge and effectively carry out the informative and interpretative work of this example of our natural, cultural and scientific heritage.”
Participation in these routes may be requested through an email from the collaborating entity Red Cross ([email protected]). The forecast is that visits are offered on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. Perera emphasizes that the project complies with the Volunteering Law of Canary Islands and has permits from the La Orotava Acclimatization Garden and the Professional Association of Tourist Guides of Tenerife. The routes are aimed at the entire population, but are designed above all for students and visitors.
The mayor of Ville, Francisco Linares (CC), welcomes the recovery of “this interesting and enriching initiative”, as well as “the social commitment of this group of volunteers from the slums, who become true ambassadors of our municipality by sharing their experience and knowledge about this emblematic place”. For Linares, “it is appreciated that they dedicate part of their free time to promote this unique garden, which is a benchmark in the Canary Islands.”
Fundoro recalls that «La Hijuela was raised in part of the site occupied in its day by the convent of San José, which served as a residence for a group of Clarisas nuns, its construction ended in 1601 and more than 250 years later it was demolished, in 1868 ». The site of the old convent is occupied by the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, the Town Hall itself and La Hijuela.
