spain: canary islands: tenerife: santa cruz de tenerife, san andres, and igueste de san andres

There are seven main islands in the Canary Island group. My original vague idea was to visit 3 of them, one for each week of my holiday. Instead, I ended up only seeing two, but that was okay. 

After Las Palmas on Gran Canaria, the ferry took me to Santa Cruz, on the island of Tenerife. The ferry ride was smooth, even with the wind and rain outside. Ferries are the most common way of getting around the islands, there are regular connections between most of the islands.

It was easy to disembark, but I had a harder time figuring out where to walk to get into the city. There were lines painted on the ground, but I kept getting confused and couldn't figure out how to get out of the port area. I hope it was at least slightly confusing to others as well, that would make me feel better.

From just the first few minutes of walking I could see that Santa Cruz is surrounded by mountains, which got me excited for hiking possibilities.

On my walk to my hostel I passed a giant sign spelling out the city name, so I stopped for a photo. The not so wonderful weather meant there wasn't anyone else around wanting to take the same photo, though I have no doubt the sign was busy at other times.

The rest of the walk to my hostel was mostly uphill. I was sweating quite a bit by the time I arrived. Fortunately, I was able to check in early. My bed wasn't quite ready, but I was able to drop my bag, eat breakfast, and change clothes.

After a bit I walked out the front door and began exploring the city. My first sight was a park up the hill from my hostel. It didn't take long to get there, it was only a block or two away. Parque Garcia has a statue in the middle of a fountain in the middle of the park, with cemented paths leading away. One of the pathways had greens stretched over arches over the path, which were quite pretty. Another path took me next to trees with lovely red/orange blooms. There were benches in a few places which made for great people watching.

After the park I walked toward the city center, stopping at a supermarket along the way. I stepped into waaay too many bakeries too, though somehow I managed to avoid buying anything in any of those.

The buildings I could see were colourful, and didn't seem very old. What I could see in general made me think Santa Cruz was relatively new, though that probably isn't the truth.

There is a church listed on the sights of Santa Cruz, but it was closed, and the sign didn't mention any hours at all. I later found information saying it was open on Saturday; but I was not there on a Saturday.

Another sight listed was the auditorium/theater. The photos online clearly show unique, modern architecture, so I started walking in that direction. No one mentioned the interior, so I was happy just to stick with the exterior.

The auditorium was awesome. A very modern, very unique building. I don't know how to describe it, except to say that it's great for photography. A couple sets of stairs, soaring white stone, awesome. In setting up the photos I wanted to take, I ended up taking photos for several others, just because I'm a fan of group photos, without leaving anyone out.

There is a tiny fortress/castle next door, it was not open. I'm not sure what it did originally, but it was so small I have no idea how it ever could've done anything to protect the city or island. I could be totally wrong, of course.

As I was on the shore looking toward the fortress/castle, I noticed many of the large rocks had paintings of famous people on them. By famous I mean anyone well known. Modern celebrities, classical musicians, etc...

I found an Indian restaurant for dinner, which made me happy. The portions were big enough that I had leftovers for dinner the next day. Woo hoo!

The next morning I took advantage of the free breakfast included in my hostel price, but took a while to get moving otherwise. Eventually I got walking, and headed down the hill toward the coast, but in the opposite direction I'd walked the day before.

I found another statue in a fountain (though the fountain wasn't running) that made me think of 'victory' somehow. I'm not exactly sure what it was, or what it represented. I kept walking, eventually ending up on a sidewalk with the water/port on one side, and low hills on the other.

I found a small beach at one point, but it was rocky, and didn't seem like a place people went to spend any time. From there I could see a few really big ships, and structures out in the deeper water.

Eventually my walk brought me to the town of San Andres. It was small, but seemed cute. As soon as I arrived I realized there was a fairly large beach, but the weather was not good for hanging out on a beach. It was cloudy, and windy, and too chilly to wear a bikini. I wasn't the only one who thought so, but there were a few hardy souls out there.

I saw more paintings of famous people on the rocks near this beach, including the face of Christopher Columbus. There was a modern bridge crossing a small river/creek to get to the beach. Each arch had been painted in a rainbow of neon colours. Very photogenic.

The streets of San Andres were very cute, despite having some abandoned homes. I found a small church, but it wasn't open, darnit. As San Andres is a very small town, it didn't take me long to walk all the streets, or at least most of them.

I stopped into a cafe for a lunch of fish and chips, which was more than enough food after I made the mistake of ordering the big portion.

My feet were plenty sore by that point, as I was wearing jandals. I opted to catch a public bus back to Santa Cruz, and I knew they came along quite regularly. The bus dropped me off near the big city sign I'd seen the day before. At this point I realized this was wear the tourist information office was located, in a building with cacti on the roof. Weird.

The next morning I was up early so I could catch the not so regular bus up the coast to a place called Igueste de San Andres. One of the hikes mentioned in the hiking guidebook had a starting place just outside this town, and I could get there easily by public transport. I'd prepared for the hike by bringing my camelbak filled with water, snacks, extra camera batteries, etc...

After the bus dropoff, I made my way to the back side of the town. I found the small bridge mentioned in the guidebook as the starting point of the hike, then followed along. I kept getting the book out to see if I was following the right way, as it said there were only a couple markers. This ended up being untrue, I noticed a series of horizontal double stripes, one yellow and one white. When there was a fork that might be confused as part of the hike, the stripes were crossed, not horizontal parallel.

The hike took me up the side of a valley, every view was stunning. The trail was a combination of switchback up the side of the bowl, and moving parallel to the height of the ridge.

The trail took me through trees, cacti, and other random greenery. I stopped all the time to take photos, the views were incredible. I was enjoying myself enough that I seriously considered coming back to Santa Cruz just so I could do this hike again.

Part of the trail was over the ridge, looking over into the next valley/bowl. I wanted to hike that area too, there were probably a few trails there as well.

I was a bit confused in only one section of the trail, but luck had me making the right choice on which path too follow. I saw a couple homes on this section of the path, but they were very abandoned, falling into ruin.

The next part of the path took me to a road, which I followed for about 5 kilometers. At one point a police car driving in the opposite direction asked me if I was sure about where I was walking. I was confident in the path at that point, so I said yes.

The next section of the route took me down, rather steeply. It took me through a lot of trees, I had to watch out that I didn't trip over roots and irregular steps. Since I'd been going for a bit by this point, my whole body was tired, and keeping myself from tripping over roots was easier said than done.

As I said earlier, the views during the entire hike were awesome. I'd gladly do it again. Even when I was super tired at the end, I was constantly impressed everywhere I looked.

The path finally brought me back to the bridge where I started. From there I walked back to the bus stop and waited for the next bus. I wasn't hungry, (I never am during or just after exercise,) but ate some of the snacks I brought anywho, trying to prevent dehydration and a headache from lack of food.

I took the bus back to Santa Cruz and went back to the Indian restaurant for another dinner. Why mess with something that isn't broken?

The next morning I got up early to catch a bus to my next destination.