Brolly shaped Christmas lights, and roast chestnut stalls bore witness to the fast fading year, but a whopping 31 degrees of bright sun greeted me as I arrived in La Laguna. Normally it’s a good few degrees below the Tenerife capital of Santa Cruz, where I had swapped my Titsa public service bus from Los Cristianos for the smooth glide of the tram.
After a few months of neglecting my travels, it was good to see the UNESCO Heritage Site city bustling with people. The Palacio Nava looked resplendent with its balconies, balustrades, and columned tower. The Plaza del Adelantado opposite was a leafy oasis, scrubbed clean in recent years and a popular meeting place. A wide circular walk around the city centre brought me into the Plaza de la Concepcion and the church tower with its distinctive bell chimes. All life was converging in the pedestrianised streets below, a few unusual vehicles lurked on the edges, as their owners took coffee and snacks in the thriving cafes and bars.
Ending up back at the La Trinidad tram terminus, I was lured down track by the wonderful murals painted on the buildings, and was lucky enough to catch one being created. He was quiet happy to be kept in shot, a Policia Local copper walked past us and just smiled. La Laguna was the temporary home of famous painter Oscar Dominguez , and the University has a large fine arts faculty. I followed the road down to the roundabout, where Padre Anchieta’s statue stands vigil on a grassy island. Planes were coming in low from the coast for Tenerife North (Los Rodeos) airport. It´s quite a traffic hub there, The modern Titsa bus station stands opposite, and down below, the tram line stop is handy for the University.
My only real interaction with the University campus came around 10 years ago when seeing Echo & The Bunnymen playing part way down a free line up for an outside concert. It was time to update my education, so I wandered through the grounds of the modern part of the campus, an inspiring mix of ancient and modern. The large attached garden boasted a statue of a very learned looking founding father. The tram is a wonderful, cheap way to link Santa Cruz with La Laguna in just over 30 minutes, and the views as your carriages snake their way upwards, or now on my return, downwards, adds to the journey.
The harp like herald of the tram announcements signalled my return to the Santa Cruz terminus, just outside the bus station, and opposite the Auditorium. The hook nose always beckons me across, a walk around the perimeter concourse is always a 360 degree education for the view out to sea, the port, and inward to the capital city as it rises into the mountains. The cafe bar open to the ocean side has made it a popular stop off for many visitors, and the ticket office has now expanded into selling merchandise featuring the distinctive hook nosed building.
One of my main calls in Santa Cruz was to see the completed look of the long delayed opening up of the port approach into Plaza de España. This final stage has taken 16 months, 3.5 million euros, and covers 18,400 square metres from the Cabildo HQ on the south side, to the ferry port, basically the area that the coast road now runs under. There is a cycle lane, exercise area, large circular pergolas, benches, and flower beds. It looks loads better for the thousands of cruise ship visitors that arrive weekly, and is a restful place to contemplate Tenerife´s relationship with the ocean and the lands beyond. There was a nice scattering of admirers taking the late afternoon air, stretching their muscles, and even a few young couples having a romantic canoodle.
A few more calls had slipped from my list, but there would be other opportunities, and there´s always something new to see. It was good to be wandering again, I could feel my old bounce coming back. Hopefully my final stop, CD Tenerife v SD Huesca, wouldn´t puncture the mood.