A hunting we will go, well that was my intention as I headed for Santa Cruz and La Laguna with ducks on my menu. The capital was the first stop, there was a buzz of activity to mark the Plenilunio, a rare alignment of the planets, something to do with getting the moon in Uranus – painful. Maybe I should seek a more scientific explanation from Prof Stephen Hawking at next weeks Starmus Festival.

Down at Plaza de España I was expecting a flotilla of yellow plastic ducks to raise money for Cruz Roja (Red Cross) and their campaign to help hospitalized children. The ducks were a little shy so I jumped on a tram to my other target, La Laguna, the Fiestas del Cristo were approaching the final week and Plaza del Cristo and the church entrance were decked out in bunting and a giant stage and large sand pit (for Canarian Wrestling) dominated the plaza itself. Parque de La Constitucion was my target and hopefully some live, recently evicted ducks. When the Cathedral was finally restored earlier in the year, the ancient duck pond outside was cleared for a new water feature (still not completed) and the army of ducks that had lived there since before orange sauce was invented, were removed to a temporary home amid much consternation. To silence the quacks of protest 100,000 euros has been spent on a new duck pond and house in Parque de La Constitucion but I found it has no water yet, let alone any joyful feathered friends.

So a wasted afternoon? No such thing in my book, I had spotted another interesting looking park nearby so popped into El Parque La Vega and what a beautiful place it is. Built around a large central café, it has a stream ambling its way between a spread of trees and waterfalls. Chunky orange fish darted around waiting for breadcrumbs from visitors and the banks were lined with turtles basking in the sun. There were plenty of sports courts and play areas, rest zones, and even a little roller skating zone. This and the other parks in La Laguna open from 7am to 10 pm daily and are well worth a look.

Taking a wide arc back to the centre of town I found myself on the long, leafy Avenida Universidad (La Laguna is home to a modern and thriving University) and spotted a castle complete with turrets set back from the road, It seemed a bit out of place and the gates were chained locked but a sign on the front named it as Castle Lan. A bit of later research showed it to be a centre for computer game fans but most of the information I found said it was now closed. I hope to find out more and see if the castle is just a modern folly as the too clean façade seems to indicate.

Time to tram it back to Santa Cruz and see what was splashing at Plaza de España. The good news was the ducks were on patrol, it wasn’t quite what I had been expecting but was still entertaining. I thought the 4,000 ducks would all be let loose on the water at once but a small protected corner was filled with a few hundred at a time and people were being charged one euro a time to scoop a duck up in a net to keep, the young children were loving it. I had a go but gave my squeaky duck to the nice lady helper, the yellow colour would clash with my football beliefs – if only they had some blue ducks. I was quite amused to see they had a security guard on duty, not sure what sort of problems they were anticipating, those ducks can get a bit stroppy at feeding time.

All around the other Plenilunio events were springing to attention, a couple of bands warmed up on the stage in Plaza del Candelaria and there were loads of smaller stages spread around the city. In Parque Garcia Sanabria the start and finish arches were being put in place for the evening fun run and outside the streets were being cleared of illegally parked cars by an army of gruas.

Cutting through La Noria on my way back to the bus station I ran into a display of classic cars gleaming in the evening sun. I’ve seen quite a few of these before and will no doubt see them and many more at the Boulevard Motor Show at the Recinto Ferial in a few weeks, I will have the full low down on that very soon. The silver lady in the photo was perched on a Packard Eight and the winged creature is on a Chevrolet.

The live music, food stalls, running, and other promotions were set to run late into the night. For me though a couple more routine stops edged me closer to my return bus to Los Cristianos, well it’s going to be a busy week and I have a lot more places to dip my beak.