Encouraged by the Icod esperience my Bournemouth friends Karen and Neal were ready for another TITSA bus tour of Tenerife, flicking through my memories I realised it was at least 3 years since I had been to Granadilla so it seemed a good a destination as any. Meeting in Los Cristianos the sun was bright and Roque del Conde stood proud as it gazed down upon us with its light and dark patchwork of colours. The 470 bus was bang on time and only half full so off we set along the TF1 motorway with generous diversions down into Guaza, Costa del Silencio and through Los Abrigos before heading up through San Isidro.

It was noticeable cooler at Granadillabut still bright and the quiet sedate streets oozed charm against the Villaflor and teide backdrop. Hermano Pedro the Canaries is never far from the thoughts in his home municipality and outside the town hall at the Plaza Gonzalez Mena his bust reminds people of his heritage. It’s weird but the town hall building was being white washed, I’m sure they had just started it on my last visit, well its nice to be thorough. The tight streets of Granadilla were decorated for christmas with minimal trimmings but also an impressive series of festive themed paintings on the end of each terrace of shops. Heading out to the main church od San Antonio de Padua we saw a handfull of hikers, Granadilla is a popular springboard to the walking trails above and beyond and a great advert for rural tourism.

A couple of clouds ganged up on us and sprayed us with rain through some watery sunshine so we adjourned to a nice cosy bar. The walls were covered with old photos of the local area and some more recent ones reminded me that the snows of Mount Teide reached down into the plaza here just 5 years ago, probably the nearest it gets to the coast, just glancing distance below. The rain soon dried up and we carried on our exploring, I was hoping to find the old spring that fed the town with water but it proved elusive, I was hoping it was the secret fountain of youth, I could do with some of that. Walking to the other end of town the views down to Montaña Roja, El Medano and the heavily laden orange trees in between were wonderful and added to the quiet beauty of Granadilla.

Next stop was El Medano for some beach life, the bus flew down with the odd bit of sudden breaking keeping us alert in our seats on the 30 minute journey. The weather was glorious in El Medano, kite and board surfers shot the waves, sunbathers crammed into every spare spot and the promenade cafes were sizzling with warm flesh. Earlier on our bus we had noticed that concertinas were the in thing, several potential buskers were front loaded and ready to squeeze out a tune, one was on the front at El Medano, his organ looked a bit discoloured but I believe you can get some ointment for that. I had to share my pancake craving so we popped into La Boheme in the walkway behind the recently saved Hotel El Medano, sweet and savoury delights as we watched the world and its large collection of assorted dogs pass by. A brief walk later we returned to the restaurant opposite and enjoyed a coffee on their terrace overlooking the sea, it was a natural sun trap and my gaze was torn between the young lady peeling down her top on the next table and the young ladies bathing below Рoh the natural charms of the bay and Monta̱a Roja also managed to turn my head.

With plenty of time to play with we decided to march up to the main road and at least part way out of El Medano before catching a bus, it turned into a fair old hike in the beating sun. We rounded the surfers beach, the nature reserve and the camping area before taking the shade at the bus stop just as a cloud rolled over and blotted out the sun. As it didn’t look quite so promising we decided to bypass Los Abrigos and stretch the Bono tickets to Las Galletas, a brief shower greeted our arrival but a drink stop in a cafe transformed the scene back to a bright evening. Las Galletas was fairly busy and a stroll along the front and a short exploration of the shopping precinct passed some more time wisely. That just left a short hop back to Los Cristianos to finish the day with some tapas and beer at El Faro, another TITSA triumph.