A hand on one pre season trophy and a winning grip of another were just rewards for two more impressive CD Tenerife displays. Newly loaned forward Choco Lozano from Honduras is waiting in the wings and even a pea souper fog in La Orotava couldn’t obscure the hopeful signs.

Can it ever be a friendly against Las Palmas? Well the 4,325 crowd for the home leg of the Mahou Cup hinted that this wasn’t expected to be the full fire and brimstone of a league derby, but it had its moments. Performance was more important than the result but we got both, Nano got the nod ahead of Cristo Gonzalez for the main strikers role and looked lively, after 17 minutes he was chopped down by Culio when through on goal. Maybe this, and some verbals, led Javi Moyano to flat hand slap him on the half hour near the touchline, the pio went down theatrically and team mate Viera ran in and grabbed Vitolo by the throat as it got heated. The ref showed good sense to just book an offending player on each side, the police were less restrained and went onto the pitch to intervene – surely fines and suspensions for them?

Apart from that Tenerife comfortably shaded the first half, a neat Carlos Ruiz back heel went just wide prior to the break. The second half saw the pios struggle to produce a decent shot, Tenerife looked steady, Abel replaced Nano after 58 minutes and again pressed his claims for a league start. Subs flowed with the biggest cheer reserved for Suso’s first pre season appearance. A 0-0 looked certain but sub Nadjib scored on the rebound in the final minute after first hitting the post, the Barcelona born youngster was signed from Lanzarote youth football as Las Palmas weighed up a move. A good all round performance, especially as the touring 24 man pio squad won 0-5 at Mensajero the previous night and 0-3 at La Laguna the night after.

Onto La Orotava for the annual Teide Trophy, this year against Primera side Eibar. Heavy fog shrouded the pitch and a shipping forecast seemed more appropriate than a team list but both sides played some good football with Tenerife looking the more decisive. Jorge got a start in the centre of defence in place of Carlos Ruiz and Cristo Gonzalez got another chance to shine in attack. Dani Hernandez must have radar or Spider sense, he picked out two long shots that he can’t have seen coming. Abel made some clear chances and Cristo tested the Eibar keeper with a long drive. Pedro Martin was again a class act, playing a support role on the right he carved out a few openings, Nadjib nearly finished off one but it cleared the bar.

The opener came after 35 minutes, Cristo robbed a defender and drilled in a precise pass for Pedro to finish clinically. Just before the break Eibar leveled with a dipping free kick shot that beat the outstretched reach of Dani. Nano was on for the second half and was unlucky to get squeezed wide as he lined up a shot. Suso relieved Abel, Alberto swapped with Jorge and the Tenerife dominance continued, Nano chested the ball down for Pedro but the keeper did well to smother the ball at the base of the post. Eibar could have nicked it with a late free kick but hooked the ball high. Four straight penalties from Vitolo, Suso, Nano, and German, were too much for Eibar as Dani saved with his diving body and with his foot to give Tenerife the trophy.

Looking forward to an art exhibition and then finding it closed was not a good start but my exploring days are never wasted in Tenerife, La Laguna and Santa Cruz gave my little pea brain plenty of stimulation on a cracking summers day.

Julio Nieto is a master of metal art and after being wowed by his earlier giant works in Santa Cruz, thoughts of his new exhibition Kamasutra del Aire made my mind boggle. An early morning Titsa and tram combination from Los Cristianos had me in La Laguna before my corn flakes had time to settle but the tourist office gave me directions to the venue and the bad news that it was shut probably for the whole of August. I went to see for myself and sure enough it was locked up but no mention of why and for how long, the local papers still have it running until September 18. Calm Colin, calm, you know how bad publicity is on the rock.

Time for an old stand by, the former Convento de Canarias and its Instituto San Agustin welcomed me to their latest free exhibition by Santa Cruz artist Felipe Hodgson. A bit of a sexual theme was emerging to my day as the two halls featured sketches and paintings of nudes, some abstract, some surreal, but all with not so much as a vest on. A lady was showing her young son around, he had that mixed expression of delight and embarrassment and my mind sped back to trying to fish my comic off a newsagents shelf without disturbing the glossy artistic publications.

Back on the street I cast my eyes over the restored cathedral, there were quite a few squawks when the ducks were evicted from their ancient pond and stone shelters outside in favour of a new water feature. Finally the new version was complete and was pretty poor in my opinion, a few exotic fish gobbled crisps thrown in by some young tykes, at least I have seen the ducks new home across the city. I popped into the cathedral, it was as stunning as when I visited a few weeks after its resurection, if you get a chance, feast your eyes. Outside there are three plots of barely disturbed ground awaiting an archeological search for historic remnants of the original cathedral.

Santa Cruz is always regenerating, down at the port that was very evident. A large new welcome hub for cruise liners is well under construction, ironically today was one of the few days with no floating palaces moored up. Out by the marina area further improvements are under way, I usually have a nose around to see what floats my boat, nothing too wild this time except another floating oil exploration ship.

On the way back to the bus station I checked out the newly restored Puente de el Cabo bridge over the Barranco de Santos. It was once a link between the port and commerce but had become a rusty wreck. There’s no real need for it now as two bridges cross over by La Noria and the main road crosses a few yards away, but it is an iconic piece of history and looks good with its wide ramps and sturdy tructure. I must return soon and see what other changes are in the pipeline.