spain: canary islands: tenerife: santa cruz and la laguna

I arrived in Santa Cruz after four glorious days in Puerto de la Cruz. The bus ride was easy, and short, only about an hour. The bus ride took me through fog and rain, arriving in more rain. I was not thrilled, to say the least.

I walked to my hotel, and was able to check in. It was a simple room, but good enough for me. I took a nap, since rainy weather is perfect for that. I also hoped that when I woke up the rain would be gone.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen. It was still raining when I woke up. For the most part, the rain didn't go away until late evening. Argh. I didn't let that stop me from going out, but it was rather miserable.

The day was 6 January, a Saturday. Spain is Catholic, which means 6 January is the 12^th day of Christmas, also known as Epiphany. This basically means nothing is open on the day. A few corner stores with convenience food, McDonalds, and very little else.

Walking around in the rain, when nothing was open wasn't much fun. At all. I wanted to buy ferry tickets to go back to Gran Canaria, but the offices at the marina/port weren't open. Argh. Several times during my walk the rain came down really strongly, I was not a happy camper.

The next morning the weather was slightly better, thank goodness. It was still very cloudy and windy, but it wasn't raining. Eventually I got going, my first stop was the port, for another attempt at buying a ferry ticket.

I ended up buying a ticket for a different company than the one that had brought me to Tenerife. It was a bit more expensive, but the ride would be less than half the time, and took me directly to where I wanted to go on Gran Canaria.

From there I walked to a giant mall, hoping to find a supermarket. It had occurred to me that I should get real food, since I hadn't had a proper meal in over a day. I ended up buying snacks, which weren't quite enough, but were good enough for the time being.

The bus station wasn't too far away from the mall. When I got to the station I waited in a queue to buy a ticket, only to be told that the ticket I wanted could be bought on the bus. Fortunately, the next bus to San Cristobal de la Laguna (usually called just La Laguna,) left less than ten minutes later.

The bus ride wasn't long, and took me to the main bus station of La Laguna. It was just off the highway, nowhere near the city center. I'm glad I had checked ahead of time where I wanted to go, and how to get there from the bus station. The street on which I walked was really quiet, there weren't any other people out, and very few cars.

The city center of La Laguna is Unesco designated, and is very cute. The entire city center is a pedestrian zone, which was perfect for my day visit. There weren't too many other visitors out in the city center either, probably for a couple reasons. One, it wasn't raining, but it was still rather dark, with strong winds. Two, it was a Sunday, and a Sunday right after a big Catholic holiday.

The first proper sight I saw was the Catedral de La Laguna. A pretty big church, in a rather small town. It was a surprisingly (to me) plain church. The part I liked best was the ceiling ribbing behind the altar, there really wasn't much other decor throughout the church. Part of the sanctuary was roped off, which made it easy to take a photo of the whole thing without anyone else in the way.

I found another church, but it looked ruined, and there was no open entry that I could see. Darnit. In one area of town I found a giant Christmas tree, I wonder who did the decorating.

I also found a third church, this one wasn't open either. It seems most of the churches I saw during this holiday trip were only open certain hours, not all the time. Booo. The bell tower of this church was beautiful, though it didn't match the church at all.

One of the sights listed on trip advisor was the Palacio de Pena, but it wasn't open. A bit of investigating informed me that it was almost never open to the public. Argh. The front facade was very grand, and photogenic, even if I had no idea what the building was supposed to be.

There wasn't much else to see in town, so I started walking back toward the bus station. Along the street I saw a couple buildings with huge murals on the walls. Even though I'd been out for several hours, I still wasn't seeing very many people out on the streets.

I didn't have to wait long for a bus back to Santa Cruz. When I got back I went back to my room for a few hours, until I remembered that I had seen a fertility clinic named after me on the map. I wanted to take a photo of the place, so I went for a walk. The clinic wasn't open at that hour, but I was still happy to take my photo.

The next morning I was up early to walk to the ferry port.

I don't feel the need to come back to Santa Cruz again, but it is a center of transport in this area of Tenerife, so I can't say I'll never be back.