Up with the cock and in Santa Cruz by 8.30 am, early mornings are very lovely in Tenerife. Heading up the motorway on the 111 Titsa bus the sun rose up over the western mountains and bathed the coastline as hunters went about their business in the rocky wastelands beyond the laybys and bus stops. With plenty of time to spare I caught the tram to La Paz and caught up on a daily paper over a coffee and doughnut, the Spanish met office were predicting a record hot summer in the Canary Islands, pushing 40 degrees – maybe I wont need those thick socks.

I had a 9.30 am appointment at the Hotel Escuela with visiting Indian chef Ramamoorthy Swaminathan for www.tenerifemagazine.com . It was strange killing time around the desrted Heliodoro stadium, home to my beloved CD Tenerife and weird to think that despite the hotel entrance being a few yards opposite the usual Armada Sur turnstile, i had never set foot in there. Anyway it was a good interview and I had the full hotel tour from the helpful manageress, read it on www.tenerifemagazine.comÂ

Once in Santa Cruz I never ignore the chance to explore and check to see if anything has changed or there is anything interesting going on. My wanders took me down to Plaza Weyler and along to Parque Garcia Sanabria, always a lovely stop off. After reading that there is a new art exhibition in the park gallery, I had to pop in. Mecanic Comic by Oscar Perez turned out to be a collection of bright surreal paintings all with a very similar theme, it didn’t really float my artistic boat, bit too samey, I like diverse images. It is FREE so if up that way pop in from Monday to Saturday from 11am to 1pm and 6pm to 9pm or Sundays and holidays 10.30am to 1pm.

The park is a visually stunning set of leafy walkways centreing on a huge ornate fountain, there is always free expression going on, at Carnaval time it gets very expressive! I stopped to watch two big groups of mainly ladies going through their Tai Chi paces, very relaxing just to watch and they all seemed to be getting some benefit from it. Further down a group of amateur painters were dabbling on their canvas’s, maybe a new genius was among them, drawing breath is as good as I get so I admired their work for a while. Down by the flower clock I stopped for a cold drink at the cafe and watched the world go by – and all this before dinnertime. Sadly my interview notes were burning a hole in my pocket so it was time to head back to the south, inspired by another joñlly jaunt up north.