Party Like a Local: No 5 of 10 things to do in Tenerife which won’t cost a fortune

In my experience no-one knows how to party more than the Senegalese, but even a Senegalese friend once said to me that he’d never seen so many excuses for celebration as there are on this island! I don’t have the patience to work it out, but if you are mathematically minded, I would not be at all surprised if you could  prove that there is a fiesta or a romeria or a carnival somewhere in Tenerife every week of the year.

About Carnaval, I will try to be brief because there is, simply, too much to say, and most of it has already been said  by people far better qualified than I.  I touched on it last year, and found some YouTube videos I thought reflected the atmosphere quite well   http://islandmomma.wordpress.com/2009/02/

The Carnaval in Tenerife is the second biggest in the world, the first being in Rio.  It’s the same thing as Mardi Gras, for my American friends, which means it is the day we know as Shrove Tuesday in England (oh my gosh, when we get to eat pancakes in the UK!).  It’s also known as Fat Tuesday, because it marks the beginning of Lent, so that in days of old all fats and goodies were gobbled up before fasting before Easter.  It is hugely important here.  Banks close at 12.30 usually during Carnaval week – oh, not only in Santa Cruz, but throughout the island.  This so that revellers can sleep in the afternoons, because they will be dancing all night, getting home at dawn and a quick change before going to work.  Yes, some people do that every day for the week.  The entire celebration actually begins a couple of weeks before that, with various competitions, but moves out onto the streets in that final week.  The final act is known as the Burial of the Sardine, and after that a kind of watered down version takes place in other municipalities – Puerto de la Cruz and Los Cristianos most notably, but elsewhere too…..so much for fasting for Lent!!   There is no obligation to get legless every night.  In fact, I know lots of people who get high just on the dancing and the vibe, which makes it a very cheap night, especially if you share a car, although buses run all night to different parts of the island, which means no-one will fall asleep at the wheel, or just wait until it comes to a town near you.  Fancy dress, by the way, is optional, but indubitably adds to the fun!  And the dancing?  Salsa rules, but if you can’t it’s really easy to watch and pick up the basic steps – NOBODY will care about how good you are!

Next on the list, so far as partying goes, would be a local fiesta.  Every town on the island has one usually to mark the feast day of its patron saint.  If it’s your first year living here you will know when it’s coming up when they begin to put up the bunting at the beginning of the week, and the town square sprouts barriers, portable bars  and portaloos.  In Los Abrigos I always knew that was when it was time to move into the back bedroom for the week.

It was founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, who wondered about why the devil should have all the best tunes, but I figure that the popes of yore knew a thing or two as well, because essentially these are supposed to be religious festivals, but the night time is devoted to music, whether it’s more salsa, folk or just plain pop .  Usually, at least on the Sunday of the week, the statues are taken from the local church, bedecked with flowers and ribbons and candles, and paraded through the streets, sometimes this happens on other days as well, and the procession is always accompanied by loud, and I mean LOUD rockets.  So far, I haven’t delved into the origin of those.  I’m betting on warding off evil spirits maybe.    In coastal towns they are taken down to the harbour and out to sea.  The idea being that they will bless the land or the ocean and bring in plentiful bounty (I wonder if anyone has told them about over-fishing in the North Atlantic?  But, hey,  I digress).  An open air mass is said before or after the procession returns, depending on where you are, or how the priest is feeling on the day.

Blessings and prayers having been taken care of, the statues are next placed so that they have a ringside seat for one of the best firework displays you will ever, ever see.  When I eventually got to go to Disney World the only thing which disappointed was the firework display in Magic Kingdom because the ones here are equally as good.  Sometimes all of that happens on the Saturday night, and is followed by a more seriously religious version during the daytime on Sunday, like I said, it depends on where you are or who’s organized it or whatever.  If you are somewhere like Los Cristianos please remember this is NOT a tourist attraction, this is part of the local culture, the fireworks are part of the celebration, and not an attraction that starts bang on time, go to Disney World if you want punctuality.    After the fireworks, there is dancing till dawn again, in the local square or designated area.

http://www.guiatenerife.com/fiestas.asp for a list of fiestas throughout the island.  You would be most unlucky to be here for a couple of weeks and not find one!

If you look at that list you will see that some fiestas are described as romerias.  Romerias to my mind are more like a harvest festival kind of celebration, although they take place throughout the year, but then the climate here means that growth is a continual thing, so that there is no harvest season as such.  Romerias, for instance, happen in inland villages, and center around a weekend procession with an agricultural theme.  Carts pulled by oxen and animals are very much part of the parade, and decorations are more, well, kind of harvest-like, as well as the usual bunting.

For me these are the best if you want a local experience, and a sense of the island’s history.  They are most definitely not aimed at tourists, but as a foreigner you are made more than welcome.  Canarians love to share their culture.  There will be ladies in Canarian dress walking around offering you bites of gofio kneaded together with nuts and honey, empanadas or local cheeses swimming in mojo (no…you’ll have to look those up or wait for when I talk about it again).  Sometimes there is an entire free meal, meatballs, rabbit stew or something authentic, although I did have paella once, and that is Spanish not Canarian.  The drink is not free, but is way cheaper than in tourist resorts of course, and sometimes there is a glass of wine included, although I suspect La Crisis will be curtailing some of these goodies this year.

Once the parade is over, mass said, and thanks given, local dance groups take over the town square to demonstrate their skills.  These Baile de Magos (peasant dances), the ladies in their dirndl skirts and the guys in their waistcoats and cummerbunds remind me of the English country dancing we used to do at school.  I suppose that somehow or other maybe all the folk culture of Europe can be connected.  After the display is over, as dusk begins to settle, a band strikes up for – guess what – dancing till dawn – again.

You will find information here about dates of romerias  http://www.todotenerife.es/index.php?sectionID=45&lang=2&s=10&ID=4934

Joining in any of these events will give you a much better idea of who Canarians really are.  I have never felt more welcome, as a stranger, than at any local romeria.

There are other one-off fiestas too, like El Día de las Tradiciones in the tiny village of Chirche, above Guia de Isora or Las Fiestas del Mayo in any town with the word cruz (cross) in its title – it’s the celebration of the Holy Cross.  If you want to check these out, and if you can manage it, try researching the Canarian sites rather than the English language ones to get a wider view, many of them, like the ones I’ve included here, now have English translations. Websites for local town halls are useful, just put in ayuntamiento guia de isora tenerife, for instance, or any other municipality and you will find the section for fiestas or community events.  Some of these sites are really excellent, modern and full of information, others are a bit lacking, but will give you some basic information which you can check with other sources.

There are also events like Noche de San Juan in June, which you won’t find on any official calendars.  On this shortest night of the year people gather around bonfires and rid themselves of the emotional or spiritual rubbish they have attracted, and make resolutions for the future.  If you have anything symbolic of the bad luck you’ve had and which is safe to burn, then you can toss it into the fire.    To signifiy your “rebirth” you jump over the fire.  Not, of course, the main bonfire, which rivals those of Guy Fawkes Night in England, but a smaller one you can make to your own specifications.  More usual, if you attend a bonfire on the beach you can wash away the evil by going for a midnight swim.  You might think sub-tropical climate, June, swim – ok, but believe me it can be chilly, so have something warm to grab when you come out!  There is some control over the larger events these days, but many are privately organized, just like the November bonfires I remember as a kid.  I’ve been going to the one in Las Galletas on the beach the last, few years, and it is amazing.  Most people take a barbeque or a picnic, and there is always music, people with guitars or African drums.  Really, it’s a senseless, fun night.  If it falls on a weeknight it will probably mostly be over by 1am, but if it’s a Friday or a Saturday expect to watch the dawn come up.

If you are visiting and are here for New Year and find the entertainment in your hotel a bit boring, then head for the town square of the nearet municipality to see what’s going on.  Here in El Médano there is the full “works” – salsa band, fireworks (of course) and bars selling drink and food…..and need I add, dancing till dawn :=)

There is more, things have come to me as I’ve been typing, but, quite honestly you’ll get too bored to read any further.  If you are living here – ask around, check the town hall, the local newspapers for dates, and if you are coming to visit then check these things out online.  It really doesn’t cost a bomb to have a good time!

This post was part of a series, here are the others:

Be a beach bum!

Take a drive through the Teide National Park

Barbeque in the “Great Outdoors”

Mooch the Markets

Party like a local!

Follow local sports

Free Summer concerts

Try Shanks’s Pony!

Mooch the Markets: 10 Things to do in Tenerife which won’t cost a fortune No. 4

Ok – I didn’t say that these things were totally free, just that they are easy on the pocket, and if you go to the street markets there is no onus whatsoever on you to buy for goodness sake!  Mind you, if you do, it’s going to dent the budget far less than the posh shops in Costa Adeje or Santa Cruz :=)  I am addicted to markets, even though, in general I don’t like crowds strangely enough, and pushing my way through heavily perspiring people who seem to have no concept of “personal space” gives me the creeps.  Somehow or other, maybe because it is so big and sprawling, the Sunday Rastro in Santa Cruz always seems to stop well short of feeding my phobias.

It meanders around the streets leading to the permanent agricultural market of Nuestra Señora de Africa, and it really is the sort of day out where you can wander around the stalls, looking at things and not buy, and still not get bored.  This comes from me – who hates window shopping!  You are also far more likely to find local crafts, original items from different countries and antiques than in any of the other markets.

The long car park which runs alongside the docks, is virtually empty if you get there early enough on a Sunday morning, and I’m not talking crack of dawn here, just 9 or 10 am.  Make sure there’s nothing else taking place that Sunday, though, like Carnaval or the Santa Cruz Half Marathon, because then you will have a problem parking .  There are excellent bus services, run by the local bus company, TITSA, from the south of  the island and from Puerto de la Cruz, which will deposit you at the bus station five or ten  minutes walk from the outer limits of the market. The buses are comfortable and air-conditioned, and rarely full and they run Sunday services – so check the times before you set off.

The only problem in taking the bus is having to carry around your purchases, of course……remember there is the produce market too, and whilst I am happy to cart around the couple of books, a picture, a couple of pareos, and a pair of earrings, which might represent a typical morning’s haul for me, I can’t count the number of times I’ve cursed at not having the car handy when I’ve spotted lush papaya, juicy mangos or scarlet tomatoes with that just-plucked smell, and then had second thoughts about carrying them around with me for the rest of the morning.

The agricultural market in its present form was opened in 1943,  and as well as fruit and vegetables you can buy fresh meat and fish, flowers, bread, spices and herbs as well as one or two other speciality things.  Surrounding the building itself you will find permanent stalls on some of the streets, selling pots and pans, cheap clothes and leather goods, but it is on Sunday that the atmosphere really comes to life, when stalls sprawl along street after street, down to the limits where people have simply spread out their merchandise on a blanket.  Bargains to be found include second hand books in several languages (a real find if Spanish is not your first language), sweet-smelling candles and incense, seriously cheap cotton goods and other clothing, jewellery you won’t find anywhere else, as it is handmade by the stallholders, often in silver, and, increasingly, bric a brac of the type you find in antique markets.

When you need to rest the plates of meat, or the sun gets a bit too much you can sit in the pleasant courtyard of the permanent market, or one of the little bars close by.  What you won’t find is somewhere to grab a quick drink when you are on the outer reaches of the market.  Santa Cruz is notorious for trying to attract business from cruise lines, but not providing the masses streaming off those ships with much to do on a Sunday.  Away from Plaza de España many shops and bars have their doors closed. I have gone with elderly people for whom it’s just too much to take in the entire market.

Serrano hams hanging in one of the bars by the market at Christmas

Presuming you don’t give up, the perfect place to lunch afterwards and gloat over your purchases is one of the lovely restaurant/bars in Calle Noria, but be warned – if you arrive before 1pm you won’t find anything there either.  Viable alternatives are scooting up to San Andres for fish, or down to Radazul to eat harborside.

Outside of Santa Cruz the south of the island has a market chain which offers the al fresco shopping experience Alcalá on Mondays, Playa San Juan on Wednesdays, Los Abrigos on Tuesdays, Los Cristianos on Sundays and Torviscas (really a part of Playa de las Americas) on Thursdays and Saturdays.  Those, three last venues are the busiest and bring out my aforementioned horror of crowds.  Nevertheless, I usually manage a visit to the one in Los Cristianos once or twice a year, usually once at Christmas to find bargains and stocking-fillers not available in the shops, and another time when visitors are here.  The first, two are located in small villages, so it’s very pleasant to spend the morning shopping, and then afterwards stroll through the village and sample eateries less geared to mass tourism. Of the two, Alcalá is the more local experience, but Playa San Juan is very pleasant, having been tarted up very nicely in recent years.  The Los Abrigos market in an evening affair, which means that afterwards you can sample one of the decent fish restaurants for which the village is still famous.

Obviously, in the smaller venues there are less stalls, and perhaps obviously they all offer more-or-less the same stuff – cheap Ts, sunglasses, watches, tablecloths, pareos, jewellery, and leather goods, all imported, many from China, and to be found the world over, but with “Torremolinos”, “Tarpon Springs” or “Florida” printed or engraved on them instead of “Tenerife”, which isn’t to say that they aren’t decent value if that’s what you need at the time. Immigration in the last few years has brought us lots of color in the form of African crafts and clothes – remember we are only 200 miles from the coast of West Africa.   Look for the obvious, though – I treated myself to a handbag a few weeks ago.  I examined it fairly carefully, and it seemed good value, and what I needed, which was a small bag with lots of compartments.  It cost me 15€.  Only, after a couple of weeks the pulley thing on one of the zips to one of the compartments broke, and a couple of weeks later another.  It was then I realized that it was almost inevitable, because they were made of very thin plastic, and I hadn’t noticed when I bought.  So far the zips themselves are holding out, and I’ve improvised on the pulley thing, so no big deal – basically, I got what I paid for!

Mixed in with the tourist tat, however, there is some interesting stuff; handmade jewellery, and greeting cards, wonderful and cheap cottons from Thailand and Indonesia, second-hand books and local craftwork, as well as colorful clothes and hats from Peru, so don’t dismiss it as not worth the bother.  They are great places for Christmas shopping on a budget, for instance.

Where I live, in El Médano, there is a Saturday morning market, which for me, has a more bohemian kind of atmosphere.  That’s probably largely because the town in general is more like that.  There seems to be less on the tat and more on the individual traders.  One lady who offers clothes I’ve never seen anywhere else also displays her husband’s paintings, and another guy sits actually making the jewellery whilst waiting for customers.  Around about you often find mime artists and other buskers, giving the whole thing a much more relaxed and happy mood.  Normally not too crushed either, and there are great places to eat cheaply afterwards.

In other venues:  In the past I’ve visited a weekend market just outside of Puerto de la Cruz, and a craft market in Garachico.  So far as I can see, the former is still going, but I fear the one in Garachico has fallen by the wayside.  However, I will go check one day soon!  I’ve come across information online for one in Icod de los Vinos, but not a working link with any information.  I’m not sure why anyone would want to go to a car boot sale when they are on vacation, but people do, and there is an increasing number.  The one in Guaza, just off the motorway, on the way to Las Galletas, is long-established and constantly evolving, and there are now regular ones in Adeje and in Los Gigantes, as I learned just this week.  I’m sure there must be more, and that once you are in a place, local information will abound.

You may have sensed my enthusiasm for the Agricultural Market in Santa Cruz (“No, not really,”  did you say?), and Tenerife is no exception to the boom in Farmers’ Markets which seems to be happening all over the western world.  Again I’m not sure just if anyone might want to spend vacation time doing this, except that if you are in a vacation rental, what better way to experience local culture than to shop in one of these instead of in the cookie cutter supermarkets.  One of the differences here is that they are year-round, where in northern temperatures they are seasonal.  You can find one in La Laguna overflowing with an abundance of local produce, and also in Tacaronte, which I haven’t visited so I can’t elaborate on.  I am sure that by now there are more, in fact, the two I use in the south don’t show up in a quick internet search.   Remember the other industry which sustains this island, other than tourism, is agriculture. My local one is in San Isidro and I adore it, and ten minutes away in Las Chafiras, if I want a change there is another equally as good.

If you seriously like markets, then it would be possible to spend a week’s holiday, or more, checking them all out…..but it would only be cheap if you stuck with the window shopping!

This post was part of a series, here are the others:

Be a beach bum!

Take a drive through the Teide National Park

Barbeque in the “Great Outdoors”

Mooch the Markets

Party like a local!

Follow local sports

Free Summer concerts

Try Shanks’s Pony!

Musings on Blogging

I am wondering what I am doing here.  Is it possible to make money out of this and still be true to myself?  I haven’t liked recent posts much.  I haven’t written anything I don’t believe in, but it’s not my style, and having struggled for years to accept my style, and consider it valid, I am now wondering what the hell I am doing.  Of course, I could forget all about trying to make money and just continue to jabber away to my friends and acquaintances and the odd person who stumbles across my blog, but then that seems like too much of a time suck, not to mention the fact that I do need to generate income.

There is a reason I haven’t upgraded this blog yet, gone for a more complex but interesting format and a domain name, and it’s because I am still experimenting.  On the other hand, just when does one stop experimenting I wonder?  There are so many blogs out there now that people would take one look, if I don’t get it right, and not return, so it does have to be right first time.

The other thing which gives me pause is the privacy issue.  Hot news – privacy, of course.  Are my personal opinions of places, books or people private, in the sense, do I really want to pontificate to the world at large on these subjects?  On the other hand I have believed since I was in my teens that communication is the most valuable tool we have in understanding the world.  I tell you about Tenerife or Guildford or North Carolina, and you tell me about Thailand or Goa or New Zealand.  We all learn about each other.

What I do not want this to become is “another Tenerife blog or website”, which I am afraid it has become of late.  There are plenty of those around.  Most of them are crap, but there are some very good ones, and I have no intention of committing to attending every fiesta or event, most particularly in the ex-pat community, nor of providing “tips for living in Tenerife”.  I don’t fancy myself as a journalist.   My experience of this island is personal, and it reflects my own interests.  But, then, it’s my own fault if I have fallen into that trap I suppose.  I was stung into this “things to do in Tenerife which don’t cost a fortune” by some miserable comment I read on TripAdvisor or somewhere from some idiot who commented that they would never come back because there is nothing to do here.  What I have begun I will always finish, stubborn that way, so I have 7 to go yet.

Mayhap all these ruminations are because I am, as I am well aware, islandbound for the foreseeable, and despite my best intentions to view life as the journey and not the destination, there are times when I crave change.  Thoughts like these often follow a short trip, especially if it’s somewhere new (like last month Guildford) or interesting (like last month London).  Having a glimpse at that green grass over the hill, but not for long enough to for the novelty to wear off seems to be the problem.

Then again, asking myself the question “What am I doing here?” begs the answer, “Enjoying myself”.  Can my mind actually encompass the notion that it’s possible to make a living of sorts doing something one likes, as opposed to doing something which one has to do in order to survive, and for which one despises oneself?  “Isn’t what you are doing actually putting off doing something more imporant, surely?” suggests the gremlin on my shoulder.

And then again, maybe it’s because I am not just getting on with this, letting myself get bogged down in too much detail….speaking of which, time I got on and stopped gibbering.

The Estrelitzia

Well, just because I downloaded this picture by mistake I will tell you that the estrelitzia, also know as the bird of paradise flower, has a little secret, which I didn’t know for years and years.  These exotic plants, which symbolize our gorgeous sub-tropical climate here have two lives.  Once the primary flower is wilted and begining to dry up, tease it gently out of its bed in the “head” of the “bird”, and then even more gently coax out the second flower, which is hiding underneath.  It won’t be quite so bright and gaudy as the first one, but it will give your display longer life.

Barbeque in the Great Outdoors! – Ten Things To Do in Tenerife, which won’t cost a fortune – No 3

I wonder where else in the world you could spend a New Year’s Day in a bikini top and shorts, lying on a blanket, after stuffing yourself with barbeque, and the next year spend the same day in a parka, wrapping your fingers around a hot chocolate to keep warm, after having a snowball fight with the kids a bit higher up the mountain? Welcome to, as I keep saying, the diversity that is Tenerife.

The specific place in question was a barbeque area called Las Lajas, which is a click above Vilaflor. Now, when I tell you that Vilaflor is the highest village in Spain it might clarify things. Were we further North, then Vilaflor would spend the Winter under snow, but in the subtropics, well, let’s just say, it can vary, but, of course it doesn’t have to be Winter! In fact, people don’t tend to go there in winter. Last time I was there was mid-March, and there were only a couple of groups barbequing. It was a pleasant day, it had been warm on the coast, but when we arrived at Las Lajas we’d donned sweaters or light jackets, nothing heavy. During the time we were there mist rolled in from time to time, hiding the surrounding hills from view, and playing amongst the trees.

Las Lajas is set on the edge of the forest, just as the trees begin to thin out, and the road climbs up to the stark landscape of the caldera. The most frequent similarity I’ve heard when taking visiting friends up there is that it’s like Canada. That’s a comparison I have yet to draw – Canada being high on my list of places still to visit, well, other than a day spent at Niagra Falls! The forests on this side of the island are dominated by the Canarian pine (Pinus canariensis), but in the North, where it is more humid, you will find eucalyptus and laurel. To be honest, given the reason you’re going this day, i.e. to barbeque, you’re not likely to see an awful lot in the way of exotic fauna, but if it is quiet enough, and if you listen and keep your eyes open, then probably you’ll spot some woodpeckers flitting about the trees.

Smoke from the barbeques filters up through the branches, as the sunlight filters downwards

This particular area, and 18 others, were created by the Environmental Ministry of the Canarian Government. You will find a map, showing where they are all sited here:

http://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/cmayot/medioambiente/medionatural/equipamientosusopublico/guia_equipamientos_naturaleza/guiaequip.jsp?id_isla=40&id_tipo=2

I still haven’t visited them all, even after all these years. For residents of, or visitors to, the South of the island, Las Lajas or Chio are the nearest. Everyone I’ve visited has running water, barbeques, and natural, wooden tables and benches. After that, facilities vary. In Las Lajas in high season, for instance, there is a bar/café. It used to open in Winter too, serving delicious lumumbas on a chilly day.  Lumumbas are a marvellous concoction of hot chocolate liberally laced with rum, so not to be indulged in if you are designated driver, I’m afraid! You can click on the map in the link to find out if you want to know more about the sites and the facilities at each one.

Las Lajas

The barbeques are attractive, built from volcanic stone, they blend into the landscape perfectly,  and are large, so if you are a big group, no worries, you’ll all be able to sit down together to share the feast. In Las Lajas they are dotted around the area, back-to-back, so that when you are cooking, you’re facing the “chef” of another group opposite to you. In this one, below,  in the Mercedes Mountains they are sited in a long line.

The terrain is different here, less flat space to dot them around. Whichever setup you find, there is no doubt that you will be exchanging cooking tips and a beer with your neighbor.

In Summer, to be sure of securing the table and the space you need for your group, get there by midday at the latest and stake your claim, by mid-afternoon people will be queuing for the barbeques, but always with good humor, when someone sees that yours is free, they will ask if they can use it now, and if they don’t have a table, they will picnic close by. Select your table with care, remember the position of the sun will change, and whilst you don’t want to be eating with the sun baking the back of your neck, neither do you want to be in too much shade, where it can get surprisingly chilly, even on a sunny day, except in high summer.

Get as big a group together as you can, and if there are any musicians amongst your friends, and they play a portable instrument, persuade them to take it. One guitarist can set the scene for everyone. People take radios and stereos, and no-one seems to object to the noise. Leisure and social activities in the Canary Islands generally are noisy affairs, whatever you’re doing or wherever you are. The only time tranquillity descends is during the hours of siesta. It goes without saying, too – take the dog. It will love the food and the freedom to root about the forest, if you are on vacation, borrow one, so you won’t feel so much like a tourist!

In Summer the fire risk is high, and in an especially dry one, the areas will be closed and barbeques banned for the duration. To prevent willy nilly, and illegal, cutting and pruning of trees the forestry service cuts and stacks logs ready for you to use. Not a bad idea to take an axe, though, as sometimes the logs can be a bit unwieldy. For kindling you have tons of pine needles in the woods around you. Smoking is not recommended, by the way, because of the fire risk (not to mention the health risk, but that’s another story, eh?). If you must, please, please, please make sure you put them out properly or throw them onto the fire.

Things you need to remember: cooking utensils – the barbeques are large and wide, so a big pair of tongs/other utensils to reach across; if you don’t smoke don’t forget the matches or lighter to get it going; crockery and cutlery – you don’t have to be environmentally unfriendly or go to the expense of  buying plastic versions, check that the place you choose has running water, most, if not all, do, so you can rinse off your plates and dishes before packing them up to take home; sun cream – the air is crystal clear and the sun can be fierce, just because you aren’t going specifically to sunbathe doesn’t mean you can’t burn; and our running joke for years used to be “who remembered the toothpicks?”

Other than that, the ideas are yours, anything that can be cooked on a barbeque at home, and more, can be cooked here. I’ve seen paellas, soups and stews bubbling away, as well as Western barbeque dishes, and your near neighbors will most certainly offer you a taste of whatever they are cooking, whether it’s spicy, local sausages or lomo, fish or sweet black puddings, so make sure you have enough to return the favour. For fun we used to take something English too, so that we could have our very own inter- cultural exchange. Cumberland sausages always go down a treat, and an Egyptian friend used to make kofta kebabs on the spot, mixing in all the spices at the table, and arousing much curiosity. It goes without saying that anything cooked and eaten outdoors tastes SO much better than stuck under the grill at home!

After eating what to do next is a hard decision (note the smile). You can simply spread out a blanket under a tree and read or snooze, or you can spread it in the sun, at the right time of year, and snooze and toast. If you have small children, choose a site which has a playground, with slides and swings made from natural wood. If the kids are a bit older then there are pitches on some sites, where you can organize a game of football, cricket, baseball, or whatever….you can challenge another group, or take enough people to make up a game! There are walks through the surrounding woodland on all the sites I think, so that’s always a pleasant alternative, especially if you’ve taken the dog and/or the camera.

Climbing the hill at the side of the football pitch at Las Lajas will reward you with this gorgeous view of the island of La Gomera on a clear day.

Mental snapshots from the years include a huge family group, carrying a frail granny, or probably great-granny, to sit under the shade of a tree, where she smilingly watched the family cooking, playing and interacting, and each of them taking time to spend with her; groups of old timers playing cards and other games, as they swig local wine from flasks; some best memories of my kids’ childhoods, exciting games of “A Team”, hiding behind trees and hillocks and lobbing “grenades” (pine cones) at the approaching enemy; and one of the best school sports’ days ever, when the boys were little, was held at Las Lajas. I think I have somewhere a picture of me wobbling to first base in a game of rounders…happily before digital days, so you won’t be seeing it here!

End of the day, the rule is leave behind only footprints and take with you only memories, although I’m reasonably sure it’s ok to take a few pine cones to use as weather indicators or to jazz up for your Thanksgiving or Christmas table centrepiece. For sure everyone does it. There are ample rubbish bins, so there is no excuse for leaving behind trash, and it is amazing how people do respect that. I’ve often been amongst the last to leave a place, and no garbage in sight at all. Whilst I’ve seen recycling bins in the National Park in places, so far I haven’t spotted any in these recreation areas, but how difficult is it to bag it and pop it in the bins when you get back?

Don’t drink and drive, of course, the road down is winding, it might be misty (I’ve driven on these roads when you couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead, and the mist can close in in the time it takes to snap your fingers), and if you have a carful you have precious cargo. Wait for the well-earned sundowner when you get back to the coast.

As well as these wonderfully organized places run by the Environmental Agency many local municipalities have their own versions, which are in regular use year round, and often the scene of children’s birthday parties. Off the top of my head, within a bit over a half hour at most from where I sit in El Médano, I could find one in San Miguel de Abona, in Granadilla, in La Camella, in Santiago del Teide, and I am sure there are more.

Where you won’t find them is in tourist resorts, and you will rarely hear anything other than Spanish spoken when you do venture up to one. Thankfully, so far, they remain a very local experience, which makes it all the nicer – so please be careful with whom you share this information ;=)

This post was part of a series, here are the others:

Be a beach bum!

Take a drive through the Teide National Park

Barbeque in the “Great Outdoors”

Mooch the Markets

Party like a local!

Follow local sports

Free Summer concerts

Try Shanks’s Pony!

In Memory of My Mom Who Died May 20th 1976

Some days are imprinted on our memories forever, and it’s a shame that so many of these are days we wish had never happened.  It took years for me to arrive at May 20th each year, and remember the life that ended that day, rather than the day itself.  It was the day my mom died.

As these things go, breast cancer, her death was mercifully quick, but by the same token, more of a shock.  She was 49, an age I passed long ago now.  I have a couple of issues concerning her death, but they’re not for public consumption.   Had it been today, she would, I think she would, have overcome it, and lived to see her grandchildren.  At the time, there were reasons I couldn’t show my grief.  I had to bottle it up (or thought I did), so it took me a long, long time to come to terms with it, to understand things.

My mom was one of those people who lit up a room with their smile.  She didn’t have a particularly easy life, but she always had that smile, and she always thought the best of everybody and everything.  I was giving her a lift to work once, and spotted a woman walking along in pointy red shoes and a green coat (a definite fashion faux pas in those days, if not any more).  I made some sarky, bitchy comment, and mom said “Well, maybe she doesn’t have any more shoes”.  That shut me up.

That was how she was, always thinking the good thing.  She always looked her best too, not in a showy, false way, she just always wanted people to have something nice to look at when they looked at her.  She didn’t need the nice makeup or the clothes though.  I think, off the top of my head, she is the only person I’ve ever known who had a natural radiance.

She had some prejudices, which had been drummed into her by her own parents, who had  complicated stories of rejection and abuse in their lives, but her natural tendency to be fair and just always overcame those prejudices as she came up against them in life.

I wasn’t fair to her, and I never let her know that I regretted that.  She didn’t have the best education.  She was maybe the last generation where girls weren’t expected, particularly, to have one, but of the two jobs she had in her life she excelled, was respected and loved, and in the second one, which she had for only a couple of years before she died, she achieved rapid promotion.  All of which makes her much more successful in her careers than I have ever been, but there was I, frustrated by her not knowing the things I’d been taught, and instead of explaining them to her, floundering in my own lack of direction, I was dismissive of her capabilities.  It took me years, it took becoming a mom myself to “get” how awful I’d been, and then it was too late to say “sorry”.  I hope she understands that now.

Whenever I feel trapped by the guilt, I remember my last birthday before she  died.  I was 29, which meant that the following year she would be 50 and I would be 30 – milestones.  Our birthdays were four days apart, so we planned to do something really special.  We arrived at my parents’ house, about an hour’s drive from where we lived then, and she enveloped me in a hug which I can feel today in its warmth.  The truth was that I’d forgotten it was my birthday, (It happens some years.  It’s 3 days after Christmas, so it can be an anticlimax, and especially was in those childless years, when the festive season was just one, long party anyway.) but she hadn’t  -  of course.  Maybe she even knew then that she was ill, because the hug was so fierce and strong, and so welcoming.   When I’m low and need a hug I can conjure that up from the mists of memory, and still feel it, and I guess that’s what she intended.

She loved to cook and try new recipes.  Until I was around 11, we’d lived with her parents, money being short in those post WW2 years.  She was so happy when we had our own home at last, and she could do all those things she had dreamed about, being mistress of her own domain, even though she still had to go out to work.  She worked a five and half day week in off Season and a six day week in the high season Summer months, and the rest of her time, basically, was spent on housework.  She was very much like Peter Rabbit’s mom, come to think, everything shining like a new pin, and special, lovingly prepared dinners on the days she didn’t work.  My favorite was one she culled from some magazine,  a yummy pork casserole called Chuck Wagon Stew.   It was always a good Winter evening when we sat down to that!

When I got older, I undertook to cook  Saturday dinners, and make my own experiments, and she never complained when the complicated things I chose delayed dinner until 8 or 9 o’clock (very late for the English to eat dinner back then),  even though she came in tired from a long day on her feet, and nor did she complain about  sourcing the exotic ingredients I needed, which, even in those days, she managed to find.

Maybe my very best memories are of when I was little, and we were living with my grandparents, though.  We lived on the very edge of town, just where the houses filtered out and the countryside began, so on her half days off, which were Wednesdays, we always did something together, as there was no housework at that time.  In the Winter we would set up a shop in the living room, where I would sell all manner of odd things, and she would come and buy them.  In the warm Spring and Autumn days we would go for long walks in the countryside, along lanes laden with blossom or berries, and across fields newly planted or freshly harvested.  In Summer she had to work those half days, but it seems to me that there were far more balmy days in Spring or Fall then than here are now.

To my mom I owe my love of books and reading; any good manners I have (and I let her memory down all the time on that score, but I did, by some miracle pass on her lessons to my children);  anything I did right in raising my kids; my basic “glass half full” view of life;  and you would not believe how often, still, I reference that red shoes/green coat incident…..I am so much more of a bitch than she could even imagine, but she makes me try to be better, still.

I referenced the life lessons she had taught me constantly when the boys were young.  I couldn’t have managed without her, but the saddest thing is that they never knew her, and she would have been the bestest grandma ever.  She had so much love to give, and I just hope that I managed to pass a bit of it on to them.

I could probably sit here and write about her all day, but she would have hated that.  She continues to be my guide to what’s right or wrong in this world, and my memories of her will always be one of the best things about my life.  Needless to say, if everyone were like her, what a wonderful world it would be.

…….still trying, mom, oh, and by the way, I’m sorry and I love you.

Drive through the Teide National Park – 10 Things to do in Tenerife which don’t cost a fortune No. 2

Hands up if you’ve seen “Clash of the Titans” yet?  If you have, then even if you don’t live here,  you have already made a virtual visit to the weird and awesome scenery that is the Parque Nacional de Teide.  “Clash” isn’t the first movie to have been filmed there, the original “Planet of the Apes” comes to mind for another.  The National Park will have been chosen in both cases because it isn’t quite like anywhere else on earth.  When the mountains, which now form this island, thrust their way from the ocean bed 16 million years ago they surged and jostled their ways into strange and wondrous shapes, which are the landscape of prehistory rather than our familiar green/blue orb, and by luck or foresight that landscape has scarcely been touched by man.

Whether you choose to cruise the landscape in comfort or hike it, there is no way it will fail to impress you. But here we’re talking about “a day out”, so I am assuming that you’ll come from the coast.  As in most everywhere in the world the mass of the population hugs the coast, and buildings dwindle as you climb into the mountains…..so can the heat, so be sure you throw warmer clothing in the car.  The locals will be secretly laughing when they see you shivering in your skimpy top and reefs, but more importantly, if you’re cold you’re not going to enjoy this majestic scenery.  Even if you go for a “ride out” you’ll want to jump out of the car to take snaps or just stand in silent meditation of Nature.  If photography is your hobby, here’s your chance to take pictures where you can be sure there will be no telegraph poles or wires spoiling the view, so make sure your battery is fully charged and your card has enough capacity too.

Over the 23 years of living here it’s tickled me frequently to prove to folk that there is more to this island than sunshine, British bars and nice beaches.  Even quite well-informed (but thankfully open-minded) pals arrived having no idea of the variety we enjoy here.  One of our favorite trips in the early days was to cram guests and family into the SUV and head up towards the northern airport at Los Rodeos, we then took the road up towards El Rosario and on up to the National Park. You don’t need an SUV though, the roads are good and you can make it in any decent car.   At one point there is a mirador, or viewing place, where you can pull over to look down on the capital, Santa Cruz, and on a clear day to the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria, a magnificent view.  It’s your first “Haaah” of the day from your guests.

Here’s where I have to point out one of the downsides of life here.  The lifeblood of this island is tourism, and where there is tourism there is lowlife which will feed on it.  Up to now it’s mostly non-violent, so long as you don’t go looking for trouble, but it can ruin a vacation, needless to say.  The last time I took friends on this particular jaunt, we pulled over as planned.  Our belongings safely stowed, so we thought,  out-of-sight in the car boot, nothing on display on the seats,  but foolishly we didn’t lock the car, as we were going to stand only a few feet away for a fairly short time, and I kept turning to check the car.  Even so, when we stopped for lunch an hour or two later we discovered Jean’s bag missing, and had to hurtle back to make a police report and cancel their credit cards.  A lesson well and truly learned….ALWAYS lock the car!  Thievery here is mainly opportunist, and they don’t lack opportunities, sad to say, neither do they stick to the teeming resort towns, as we learned that day.

Anyhow….so you won’t be leaving the car unlocked at any point, will you?  So let’s carry on.

Onwards and upwards you wind along what is, essentially, the backbone of the island, through farmland (the only cows I’ve ever seen on Tenerife), woodland, and pretty villages.  Having spied Gran Canaria, next you will see La Palma floating sleepily off the coast to your right, and you will want to stop somewhere about there (remembering to lock the car!) to take a peak down, where you will see lush pine forests, and slopes much greener than the South leading down to Puerto de la Cruz.  It might be that you have driven up through cloud and mist, and have emerged above the Mar de Nubes, or Ocean of Clouds, so you won’t be able to see the town, but regardless, it’s a breathtaking sight and your second “Haah” of the day, so as leader of this little party you can give yourself a pat on the back.

Just a bit further and you will get the next one, as Mount Teide comes into view.  El Teide is a spectacular site, no doubt about it.  The highest mountain in Spain, known to the original, pre-conquest inhabitants of the island as Echeyde, it dominates the island from almost any angle, but this is one of the best views.  My favourite time is Winter, when it’s covered in snow, making for many a happy Kodak moment.

The road takes you next over barren hillsides, and being the road less travelled still, it can even be a bit spooky when those clouds begin to finger their way up the mountainsides and across the road in front of you.  Hound of the Baskervilles anyone? If you step out the car here on such a day a chill will go through you.  The air is clear and crisp, and this is why it is the site of the observatory of the Instituto Astrofisico de Canarias even those buildings look a bit spooky from a distance, but the clean air gives them optimum vision of those other worlds out there.  It seems appropriate given what is becoming a slightly other-worldly feel to your surroundings now.

One last downhill and you come to a crossroads, the right fork would take you down to Puerto de la Cruz, through those leafy, shadowy forests you saw from above, but you are going to take the left fork and drive right into the huge volcanic crater that forms the National Park. It might be a good idea to stop for a drink at one of the bars at the crossroads, or even to eat, the food is basic but cheap enough, and if there is no bus parked outside, then it will be quiet enough too.

Now, this is where your guests are going to have their breath taken away, and not by the altitude.  It’s going to be, well, really, exactly what you might expect it to be like driving through a volcanic crater.  Rocks thrown up millions of years ago lie looking as if it happened yesterday.  There are fields of fierce, black rocks and there are fields of small, pumice stones.  There are fantastical, twisted shapes, and places where you can see festoons of lava preserved as they ran down hillsides, and flows of lava which stopped, perched for eternity atop a hill.  You will see rocks of every shape, size and color you can imagine, some fused together by heat which spewed them out.  If you want well presented information, you are going to pass the Visitors’ Center just a few minutes after leaving El Portillo.

All along the road, which clings to the mountain in places in a disturbing manner, there are miradors, viewing points, where you can stop to take photos or to picnic in your car if you choose.  The National Park became a World Heritage Site in 2007, something of which the island is immensely proud, and it is meticulously maintained.  On a recent visit I didn’t see one scrap of garbage.  Visitors obviously respect the environment here.

In May or June you will see the landscape transformed by tajinastes, these strange and colorful plants grow nowhere else on earth outside of the Canary Islands.

About half way between El Portillo and the Cable Car there is a flat stretch of road with three or four cafés and souvenir shops.  They aren’t impressive by any scale, but you can’t have everything can you!  At this point you are well over 2,000 meters, and Teide, as it looms larger by the minute, as you head South West, stands at 3,718, so it still towers over all.  If you want to go higher you can take the cable car to 3,555 meters.  It costs (last I checked) €24 for non-residents, but only €12 for residents, so it depends on just how cheap you want this day out to be.  When you get off the car there is a short walk, and you are rewarded with some stunning views.  It’s not a difficult walk, last time I did it there were two guys with us who each had a prosthetic leg, and they didn’t find it hard at all.

After the cable car the road runs straight for a while, you are now deep in the enormous caldera.  This is where you will find the parador, one of the government sponsored hotels, well worth a visit on another occasion.  Today you might want to check out the Visitors’ Center if you didn’t stop into the previous one, or have a drink in the café before you begin to head down.  Opposite to the parador is another mirador, where you can gaze over the enormity of the West side of the caldera, which is flat and dominated by a huge, gothic-looking rock formation, locally known as the cathedral, and the famous Roque Cinchado, which you will recognize from so many postcards.

You have two routes down, now, you can fork right just at the end of the crater and down towards Chio or Los Gigantes, or down through Vilaflor and Arona to the resort town of Los Cristianos.  Either way will take you through forests and back to the deserts of the South West coasts.  You will find more places to stop, maybe the Ocean of Clouds or the coastal panorama to admire.  You are almost certain to see the island of La Gomera, and if you’re lucky you will be able to see El Hierro too, which will mean that including the one you are on, you will have seen this day five of the seven Canary Islands.

The day will be fading now, and if it is it will be worth parking somewhere, you have a good chance of taking in one of the most glorious sunsets you will ever see.

This is just one suggestion.  There are several ways you can get up or down the mountain.  There is a deeply forested road which turns off of the main road we took up from El Rosario which emerges in Güimar, there are the roads to Chio or Puerto de la Cruz we mentioned, or when you get to Vilaflor, instead of coming through Arona you can take a turn for San Miguel.  Whichever way you elect to go, en route you will find bars, bodegas and handicraft places most tourists don’t even know exist, you will meet friendly people who are not inured to tourists and you will, hopefully, find the “real” Tenerife.  It’s a small island.  It really isn’t that hard!

Tour operators also run bus trips.  I’ve never tried one.  It isn’t my cup of tea.  There may be circumstances in which you might want to try one (some friends of mine here for just a day and a half on a cruise found it excellent).  There are also local bus services from both Playa de las Americas and Puerto de la Cruz, but only once a day.  That restricts how far you can go, and how long you have to spend, again, maybe worth it in some circumstances.  I hate to be non-environmentally friendly but truly for a great day a car is the best option.

You will pass both walkers and cyclists on your drive – OK so they are fitter than you are, but you have taken in a wide variety of scenery over the course of the day, and without a doubt you will have some excellent snaps to prove it.  I began these posts  in a flurry of anger when I read a comment on TripAdvisor or somewhere to the effect that there was nothing to do in Tenerife.  I don’t intend them to be detailed observations of anywhere or anything, I’ll leave that to another day.  They are just my knee-jerk reaction to a silly comment from a person with no imagination, and what I have begun so I will continue and finish :=)

This post was part of a series, here are the others:

Be a beach bum!

Take a drive through the Teide National Park

Barbeque in the “Great Outdoors”

Mooch the Markets

Party like a local!

Follow local sports

Free Summer concerts

Try Shanks’s Pony!

10 Things To Do In Tenerife Which Don’t Cost a Fortune – No. 1

I was chatting to Guy on the phone a couple of nights ago, and we were both bemoaning that lack of funds cramps social life.  There is no spare cash around at the moment for restaurant meals, movies, theater, concerts etc, in other words the sort of stuff you do with pals as a part of a normal UK social life.  Guy doesn’t drink, so going to the pub is kind of boring for him, and anyway, not, necessarily that cheap.  The rain was beating on his window as we spoke, so even going for a run with a friend was out of the question just then.  If he’d been here he could have gone surfing, running, cycling, swimming, snorkeling, or just crashed on the sand to watch the parade of bikini-clad girls stroll by.

It made me realize how lucky I am to live here, where it is still possible to meet up with friends and do things together which don’t send your bank account spiraling into red, and I began to make a mental list, and then thought maybe it’s worth sharing.  According to my research we have 300 days of sunshine per year, but my own common sense tells me it’s more than that.  It’s a rare day on the South Coast of the island when there isn’t sunshine for at least a part of the day, and temperatures are such that you can go to the beach year round, though it might be cooler in the North in the Winter months.  So you can ring a pal tonight and make plans for tomorrow without much fear of  “weather not permitting.”

The one thing which possibly all these activities will require is transport, though, but not necessarily much for some of them, and if there is a group of friends, then that can be minimized of course.

No 1 – GO TO THE BEACH (Let’s get the obvious out of the way first!)

Living here, as opposed to coming on vacation, you may see things somewhat differently.  Tenerife has a huge variety of beaches, so surely there must be something for everyone!  There are the well-maintained, some of them European Blue Flag, tourist beaches.  High season they may well not be everyone’s cup of tea, they certainly aren’t mine, but low season, like now, they are fine.  There are no school-age kids screaming and throwing sand around, and especially on weekdays it can be just as relaxing as driving out to a more remote beach.  You can hire a sunbed or not to keep down the cost of the day.  Usually there are showers, bars nearby and life guards on duty.

On the opposite extreme you only need to drive for fifteen minutes or so if you live near the coast (and probably about 30 if you live well inland) and you can find a rocky beach which, on a low season weekday, you can have to yourselves.  Apart from being prettier and more private there are less rules and regulations, which means that you can light up the barbie, leave your wine and beers in a rock pool to keep cool, and even play your music loud I suppose – if you must, and there really is no-one to disturb….or you can just enjoy the peace and silence!  You might have to leave the car at the top and walk down, but it will be worth it, and you can pretend you’re on a desert island.  Just make sure you have plenty of water and suncream, because you won’t want to leave to go in search of either, and take a first-aid kit, because the Red Cross won’t be there.

In between you have dozens and dozens of beaches which haven’t been tarted up to tourist standards, but are more accessible, and have been made user-friendly and safer.    These are the ones used by local people at the weekends and on holidays, but to be honest even the small, rocky ones will be busy on an August holiday date.  Almost every small, coast village has one, and on a Sunday it seems as if the entire village is camped out there, but, again, weekdays they can be much more appealing.

Speaking of camping out, there is a tradition amongst some families here of camping out at the beach once the Summer heat makes sleeping indoors difficult.  Temperatures drop as the light fades, and even in Summer it can be chilly outside, but walls retain the day’s heat, and sleep can be elusive.   It’s mainly the youngsters who do it.  They take a tent down to  a quiet beach and set up shop until the heat subsides in early Fall, returning home daily to shower or collect whatever they need.  It’s kind of cheating camping, but sounds like fun, sitting around the fire until you really want to sleep, chewing the fat, enjoying the local wine, fishing for your supper and cooking it over the fire.    What marvellous memories for your old age!

But you don’t have to stay overnight, just get a group together and go!  If restaurant meals are a bit too steep right now, you take your own.  If there are fishermen amongst your friends you might even be lucky enough to enjoy the freshest fish you’ve ever had – straight from rod to pan!  Would you get anything that good in a restaurant??  Even if preparing a feast seems like too much trouble, don’t even sandwiches and fruit taste better eaten outdoors?  A lovely memory I have from years ago was barbequing next to a local family on a quiet beach one weekend.  Their menfolk had been snorkeling and had come back with spikey sea urchins, and they were cracking them open to cream out the roe inside, and shared with us.  I doubt I’ll be doing that myself any time soon – I don’t think I could ever get the knack of opening them without doing myself some harm, but they were delicious, and it was an marvellous way of getting to know people and learn about a local delicacy that you don’t see on the menus of the local tapas bars!

This sharing is typical of life here.  You hardly ever cook outdoors in a public place without someone offering you a taste of whatever they have cooking away.  We learned to take some traditional English stuff with us too, so that we could exchange cultures a bit.

If you take a picnic then the only cost to a day in the sunshine is the cost of getting there, and for many of us, this doesn’t even include that, as we simply slip on our sandals and walk there.  And now, if you don’t live here, and are thinking of coming you’re thinking “Why hasn’t she listed these beaches?”, aren’t you?  Well, it occured to me that I might make it a project for this Summer to try as many as I can find and get to comfortably.  I think I will exclude weekends, when it’s busy, but I am thinking of adding a new tab to the blog  just for this…..or maybe I just need an excuse to get away from the computer and get down to the beach! So watch out for islandmomma’s beach guide, and more almost-free things to do in Tenerife!

Update: Links to subsequent posts on this theme:
Take a drive through the Teide National Park

Barbeque in the “Great Outdoors”

Mooch the Markets

Party like a local!

Follow local sports

Free Summer concerts

Try Shanks’s Pony!

The Diversity that is Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Returning home when I’ve enjoyed a different location, even if it was only a short stay, unsettles me.  In England I miss the sunshine of Tenerife; when I’m here, I miss the all the yummy choices I can find in English supermarkets; in West New York I missed the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Europe; in cities I miss the peace of the countryside, and in the countryside I miss the buzz of cities.  I suppose the only answer is to keep travelling……if only it was feasible!

Returning last week wasn’t nearly so bad as usual though, because the following day I shot straight up to Santa Cruz to meet some friends who had a brief stopover on their cruise.  The pleasure of meeting up and spending time with friends apart, it  refreshed my fondness for this delightful, little city, as I whizzed them around a small part of it, and so made me appreciate where I am.

Let me give you a virtual version of the whirlwind tour, which I hoped showed off the variety of the capital of the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, as well as the island:

If you land in Santa Cruz on a cruise, or if you drive up from the South your first stop will almost certainly be La Plaza de España.  It is, for many people, the heart of the city, although, not, I think if you live there.  It is framed on one side by the sea and the docks for the “nice” boats (the cruise ships, yachts, sometimes tall ships and the ferries), on another by the island government offices and the Post Office, and on the other two by cafés and pleasant, tree-lined avenues, at the moment with jacarand in glorious bloom, and beyond those the spectacular Anaga Mountains.  We walked up from the security post, which was a near to my friends’ ship as I was allowed, and emerged onto the Promenade just opposite the Plaza.

Almost two years ago a complete remodelling of the square was completed.  The central roundabout, on which stood the War Memorial, had become a complete traffic snarl-up, and the noise and fumes definitely detracted from the pleasure of sipping an expresso in one of the bars or cafés thereabouts…..remember this is a year-round good climate, and coffee sipping is almost always conducted outdoors.

Me a couple of days after the opening of the remodelling.

The area is now dominated by a shallow, modern, ornamental pool (I can’t bring myself to use the word “lake”), from which spurts every now and then (cannot fathom the times out) a huge water spout.  It looks quite effective, as you can see in the few photos I have ever managed to get of it functioning, but it has caused consternation amongst local cab drivers, whose cars get sprayed every time it is in action – given that there is almost always a constant breeze from the ocean!  Other than that, it has been controversial in general.  Being a modern design, does it compliment, detract or enhance the existing architecture?   Personally, I like it, and think it will improve with time.  On its “banks” are three very low-rise buildings, which resemble caves (this I presume to be intentional, since ancient cultures here were cave dwellers, so I assume it is a nod in the direction of history, as there are other aspects of the design which are similar acknowledgements of the island’s past).  They are covered by local plants, so that from some angles they don’t even look like buildings, and given time the plants will grow and spread, and look, generally, much nicer than they do right now.

It was interesting to note, though, that it was the pool rather than the 1930s Memorial to the Fallen which grabbed my friends’ attention.  The typical-of-its-era Art Deco-ish tower rises high above the Plaza, and dominates the Square.

Most tourists from Plaza de España will head straight up the adjoining Plaza de la Candelaria and to the pedestrianized walkway, where they will find plenty of bars and shops directed purely at them.  Many of the façades have been renovated in recent years, or are being renovated at the moment.  It’s pleasant, the shops reflect current fashions or offer the so-called duty free goods for which the Canaries are famous in Europe, but it isn’t really representative of Tenerife, unless as a symbol of the tourism on which we so much depend.

But my task was to show my friends glimpses of the city they probably wouldn’t otherwise have seen, so our little tour instead diverted to take a look at Teatro Guimerá  and the impressive sculpture which sits outside.  The theater opened in 1851, and inside is all red velvet and gold, as you would expect, reminiscent of theaters seen in old Western movies.  It is, in fact, the oldest theater in the islands, and to sit in the gods there is a seriously scary experience!  Outside, is, for my money, so representative of the blend of old and modern in this city,  this stunning sculpture by Igor Mitoraj.  Mitoraj’s work can also be found in Canary Wharf and in Yorkshire Sculpture Park by the way.  This one is entitled Per Adriane, and, no, I hadn’t a clue who he was until I looked him up!

In the photo course I am doing at the moment we just touched on HDR, and I can’t wait to go back and make an attempt at a better photo, but this will have to do for now!  See how the sky fades to white – but I’ve seen that on professional photos of this same scene, so maybe not so bad as I think!

From the theater we crossed the Serrador Bridge over to the Mercardo de Nuestra Señora de Africa.  I never cease to take pleasure in this market which showcases fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers and meats in the good, old-fashioned way.  A central courtyard provides a place to sit for a while if your  packages get too heavy…….note: the coffee is good, and the service top-class friendly with a grin, and there is a shady, little childrens’ playground too, which my friends’ little girl loved.   The present building dates back to 1943, when the city outgrew the old market, and a bigger one had to be built.  It has an interesting story of reinventing itself over the years.  Perhaps another time?

From the market we ambled back towards and under the Serrador Bridge to stroll down the delightful Calle Noria.  The first time I came across this street, by accident, some years back, it was in the final stages of restoration, and reminded me of pictures I’d seen of the colourful streets of old Habana.  Since then the restored premises have been taken by restaurants and bars, and a vibrant nightlife centers around the street.  It even has its own Facebook page, listing coming events http://www.facebook.com/#!/calledelanoria?ref=ts   I think I’ve eaten in all of the restaurants over the past few years, and they were all, without exception, absolutely first class, but if I had to chose one it would be “Bulan”.  If you get chance to eat there, do go inside too, to look at how the old interior has been decorated to make it an original venue with lots of ambience.  To get a good look, you need to go during the day, when it’s quieter, at night it fills up with trendy, young city folk.

At the end of the street sits la Iglesia de la Concepción, the city church of Santa Cruz.  It is sometimes referred to as a cathedral, but it isn’t, the island’s cathedral is in La Laguna. The church is now a little worse-for-wear after storms in February, when many archives, stored in the basement, which flooded, were lost.  At the moment the entrance is still blocked by sandbags, but local tv reports that many, willing volunteers are helping to restore and repair this building, which dates back to 1500, when construction began to replace the small chapel first built where the area fell to the Spanish Conquistadors.

For our next stop we needed to go by car, and in contrast to what I think of as the Spanish-colonial style architecture of the church and the old buildings we seen, there rose in front of us next, as we headed for the car park, the magnificent Auditorio de Tenerife.  The building seems to curve, like a huge wave from ocean to earth, and is a the purest white, sparkling in sunlight by day or dramatic lighting by night from the thousands of pieces of purest white mosaic which adorn it…..imagine Gaudi, but stunning, stunning white.

My snap does this magnificent structure no favors at all.  I snapped it quickly from the roof of the bus station a while back,  and one day I must get some decent photos.

Designed by world-renown architect Santiago Calatrava, it was inaugurated in 2003.  I know very, very little about architecture, but have come to now often recognize the flowing lines typical of this brilliant architect/designer, one of whose current projects is the new transportation hub in the new World Trade Center complex.  Do check out his website, which is awesome http://www.calatrava.com/main.htm .

This Opera House is well used, and truly is a community center for the island, if not the province.  As well as operas I’ve attended symphony concerts, jazz and blues concerts, and world music events, and friends have been to ballet, dance and musicals staged there.  It has also hosted some major conferences.  In addition to the acoustically perfect main auditorium, there is a small, intimate venue and a huge outdoor space, where you are cooled by the sea breeze on hot Summer nights, and feel as if you are a part of the performance you are watching.

This day there was no time to visit, only to admire from afar, cruise schedules being what they are, and given the need to at least dip a toe in the warmer shores of the North Atlantic, so we headed for the local beach at Las Teresitas, about ten or fifteen minutes drive towards the mountains.

This beach, amazingly, is not much frequented by foreign tourists. It is easily the prettiest beach in Tenerife, nestling under a stunning mountain backdrop, and boasting a glittery yellow/white sand which was imported from the Sarhara Desert in 1973,  before exporting sand from there was no longer feasible because it ceased to become a Spanish colony (oh, that’s a long, long story too).  It often features on postcards, but its surroundings are virtually undeveloped.  Rarely does a day pass without some local newspaper or other carrying a story about the scandal and corruption surrounding the proposed upgrade and improvement.

I always kind of bemoan the advancing tide of tourist-aimed “improvements”, but my brief visit on this day decided for me that this is a case where it’s needed.  The beach itself is delightful, one of the few on this breezy island where palms sway, and the only one with sand of this color to give it that tropical feel.  Amenities, however, are few and dingy.  I hadn’t been for a while, and imagined it had changed for the better, as beaches in the South have, but when we entered a dirty hut, which served as a bar, in search of ice cream our request was  answered by scruffy man in dirty clothes, who seemed a bit threatening,  with a brief “no”.  It took me right back to the “old days”…… obviously he had never heard of the “Tenerife Amable” (Friendly Tenerife) campaign which the government was promoting a couple of years back…….more thoughts on that another time.

Ice creamless, then, we headed back to the harbor and the floating mini-city of luxury, where, I realized ruefully, my friends would be able to get all the ice cream they desired, and served with a smile.

Santa Cruz is a beautiful, vibrant city of contrasts – contrasts of architecture, of peoples, and sadly, contrasts of attitude.  This was just a short tour.  I’ll take you on another some day if you like.

Home Thoughts From Abroad

Somehow, a detailed description of a week in England just wouldn’t come, so here are some random thoughts.

Overall, once the airport idiots were history, people seemed much friendlier than I remember. OK Tube etiquette dictates no eye contact, but how can you resist commenting to the owner of a super-cute French bulldog about how much you like it? Response? Friendly-  probably relieved I wasn’t moaning about having a dog on the Tube? I come from the North of England, where, tradition has it, folk are warmer, but not my experience on this trip.

Surprised how little coverage the General Election is getting. Weird, in fact. OK, yes, it was on the news, but very few posters in windows, billboards, discussion unless you mentioned it first. Is this because people are apathetic or sophisticated? The few posters in windows I saw …. 100%  Lib-Dem. Should be interesting!

Spring is most definately sprung – obviously I lived in a seasonal desert in the North West, because I always thought Spring much overated, but in London and surrounds I could see it was luxuriant, vibrant and very pretty.

The London Marathon ROCKS!!! From the Expo to the (divine) Richard Branson news conference to the day itself it was an exhilarating, eye-opening, inspriring and awesome event…..and I was only a (partisan) spectator!

It is, according to Virgin, the biggest charity-venue-generating event in the world. Now, with that many people with good in their hearts how could it be bad? I didn’t realize until much, much later that I had lost my voice in cheering on the ones who looked on their last legs, the wheelchair participants, the ones who were joking and winding up the crowd. Guy’s presence was a matter of minutes for me, so it was the general atmosphere which had gotten me going!

And, afterwards, struggling down the Tube, waiting for a taxi, everyone seemed to be carrying the red bags which marked them as runners. OK – please don’t be cynical – yes, it’s great publicity for Virgin, and they freely admit it. So if they do well they will be able to sponser next year, if they don’t turn a profit ? What? Warm fuzzies knowing my son was greeted by strangers on the street with a thumbs up, asking his time, saying “Well done”. Marvellous feeling of community!

Food? Less expensive than expected.  Likewise hotels and hostels with the exception of the NH Harrington Hall, which bumped up its price from the advertised 97 pounds a night to 150 pounds per night for the experience of resting my head on one of their pillows overnight (no time for breakfast!) , because it was Marathon weekend.  Part of me thinks “They are trying to survive a crisis”, but the other part of me? Simply couldn’t really afford it.  I know it’s central London, but it really wasn’t anything special.  No way would I recommend it.  I would recommend the good, old YMCA in Guildford, and also Ibis Hotels from whom I got good deals in both London and York (cheaper than the B & Bs I looked at – whilst B & Bs (especially somewhere like York) have a lot of charm, there is also a lot to be said for the convenience of low-cost hotels.

Trains?  Great!  Scored good deals on London to York and York to Manchester Airport.  Clean.  Pleasant and helpful staff.  Sorry can’t remember which company ran each line.  I understand that if you book last minute it is expensive, but you qualify for advance booking only two days before the date of travel.  York to Manchester Airport was less than half of what I used to pay.

Manchester Airport?  Hate the changes.  This is my “home” airport,  the one from which I have flown most often, so I kind of liked it the way it was – thanks Osama, I put the changes down to you, with the exception of the dive through duty free one has to make to get a cup of coffee, but that, I suppose, is the times.