Hmmmm. Interesting. Anybody ever hear of the Guanches? The indigenous people of the Canary Islands? Massacred by the 'civilising' Spaniards and practically wiped out, though there are supposed to be some people on the remotest of the islands, El Hierro, that still have some Guanche blood.

Many of them committed suicide rather than be subjugated. When the Spanish arrived, on their way to conquer America, the Guanches were still mainly living in caves. There's spiral-type rock-art on the island of La Palma, a place I want to go to, hopefully this year. Most of this stuff has been related to me by my mate Oscar, a Canario who loves the Irish megalithic sites.

There's a very high bridge over a gorge on the north of the island of Gran Canaria which is often used for suicides. Someone has grafittied 'Atis Tirma' beside the bridge, words in Guance roughly translated as 'fuck you, you won't take me alive'. Travel up this gorge and you will get to El Cenobio de Valeron, a Guanche cave structure for storing grain. It's a cool place to visit and the opposite of most peoples' idea of the Canaries.

Andy