Motor Show at Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Bus Routes:
470[Granadilla] to San Isidro, 111[Santa Cruz]
Return: 111[Costa
Adeje] to San Isidro), 470[Los Cristianos] to Las Abrigos. If you
wish to return late catch the 111 to Las Chafiras and taxi to Las
Abrigos.
Ola, ¿Cómo
está?
Well
this week I managed to complete route 111 all the way to Santa Cruz
and back and discovered that the longer the trip the cheaper it gets
using the BonoBus ticket. When I went to Candilara it cost me about
3,60 Euros and this time it cost me 2,90€.
Catching the 470 (1.05€)
to San Isidro then the 111 north. I was somewhat deflated when I
returned and it cost me 3,95€
back to San Isidro however when I caught the 470 back to Los Abrigos
it was free. As I mentioned before the BonoBus ticket is credited
with 12€ and one can
supplement the balance with cash if there is not enough credit left.
I have always made sure that I have had substantial credit as I was
not confident enough to sort through small change with a queue of
people behind me. I made some enquiries about this 'no charge' as it
had happened to me once before. It transpires that when you start a
journey up to three changes of bus can be made to reach your
destination and the fair is worked out over the whole trip hence the
cost of the 470 to Los Abrigos was already included in the fare back
from Santa Cruz. It would also appear that some local journeys are
charged on the way out and free on return. They have a clever
computer system and this is the advantage of a 'national' bus
service.
My
travels are also starting to make sense of some of the structure of
things out here. I picked Granadilla as my first destination because
it was the end of Route 470 not realising that its full title is
Granadilla de Abona. Having now visited Candelaria and discovered
about the kings and the regions, Granadilla gets its full name
because it is the regional 'Capital' or 'County' town. The mayor is
responsible for Los Abrigos and the locals pay their taxes and apply
for licences there. Similarly Santa Cruz has the full title Santa
Cruz de Tenerife because it is the capital city of Tenerife where
once it was the seat of the King of Anaga, and also, along with 'La
Palmas' in Gran Canaria, the Canary Islands as a group (the
Canarias).
Now
why did I go to Santa Cruz? 'cos the 'Feria de Automóviles' was on
of course! Again there will have to be further trips here because
there is so much to see and it is 'Carnival' in February, second only
to Rio. Anyway as you can see I got off the bus in this large well
appointed terminus and asked a passing driver how to get to the motor
show as I was sure that there would be special buses laid on. He
shrugged his shoulders and pointed in the general direction of the
opera house which could be seen in the distance. Fortunately the
Tourist Information Office which also housed a TITSA enquiry desk
opened in 15 minutes at 10am. Time for a coffee! It turned out that
the driver was right, walk out of the bus station (Estación de
guagau – I have discovered that the Canarians along with the Cubans
call the bus guagua not autobus but you will not find that in most
dictionaries.) down towards the opera house and turn right along the
main road – about 5 mins walk. It was. There was a crowd of people
waiting and, sensibly, they opened a ticket office so that the crowd
could purchase their tickets before the show opened at 11am. I had
my 4 euros ready but she shook her head and said something I couldn't
catch never mind understand and no she would not give me a ticket. I
wondered if this was just for Canarians and there was a more
expensive ticket office somewhere else, I moved to one side as there
was a large queue behind me and she served the next man. I wandered
off to see if I could find another entrance but no this was the only
one. I took the photos of the tanker whilst waiting for the queue to
disappear. Oil and gas are delivered by tanker and Santa Cruz is a
major port hence a major storage area. I took out my Kindle and
looked up the expression for 'How much does it cost to get in?' in
one of my phrase books then returned to the empty window. Made the
statement ¿Cuánto cuesta entrar? She shook her head, I showed her
my Kindle in case she couldn't understand me then she took out a
piece of paper and wrote +65, I could get in for free. I was so
surprised I told her I wasn't and she took my money. By this time the
show was opening and in I went to be greeted by the 'Mini' in pride
of place next to the door. It was and excellent show of new, old and
second hand for sale along with themes and sales and models. The
custom cars outside were deafening in their competition to see who's
sound system was the loudest – one even had disco smoke at
intervals – I hope not whilst he was driving! It looked as though
the oil storage depot had joined in but they are always painted like
that. The refreshments were reasonably priced 4€
for a bottle of beer and a chicken and salad Bocadillo (12” bread
stick), it would cost you that or more for the beer in the UK motor
show. After a good look around and lots of photos I made my way back
to the entrance and asked if there was a shop where I could buy a
guillotine to take back to Los Abrigos – a tall order I know but
after some discussion they came up with the name of a shop a couple
of blocks past the shopping centre across the road. Being adventurous
I thought that I would try out the shopping centre or 'mall'. Turned
out there were three floors with a massive 'Cafours' on the ground
floor who had a 'Trimmer' which would do the job. Whilst looking
around I took the last two photos on my mobile phone as the camera
battery had run out. The display for the children could have been any
shopping centre on the UK and the 'display' for adults would have
been behind closed doors – as it was it occupied one of those spots
in the walkways in the arcade where you normally see sweets, mobile
phone cases or fish nibbling peoples feet!
Well
my camera had run out of power and so had my legs so I decided to
return to the bus station and home and leave more exploring for
another day.
P.S.
I am writing this on the second national holiday this week – more
of that in my next letter.
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