Santa Cruz - Museum of Nature and Man
Bus Routes: 470[Granadilla] to San Isidro, 115[Santa Cruz].
Return: 116[Medano,
Granadilla] to San Isidro, 470[Los Cristianos] to Los Abrigos.
(Looking at the bus
routes, if I had thought about it I could have got off the 116 at El
Medano and waited for the 470 by the beach. The 115 to Santa Cruz
happened to arrive before the 111 so I hopped on that going north.)
I decided to head north
once more to have a look around the 'Museo de la Naturalez y el
Hombre' or the 'Museum of Nature and Man' in English having now
walked past it several times. As I have mentioned previously the
building was originally the Civic Hospital and there are a couple of
pictures showing the wards on a display in the entrance lobby. This
must have been a light and airy place to be treated judging from the
layout of the museum and is built around central courtyards
currently containing a selection of trees of the islands, sculpture
and seating. The entrance fee was €3 and, I found out later, the
'Bono' bus ticket would have entitled me to a 50% discount. As the
exhibitions stretch over three floors I consider this good value for
money even though the exhibits are all described in Spanish. There is
wifi in the building so perhaps the use of 'Google Translate'? There
were some information cards in different languages including English
about the place but I suspect that a lot had been removed by selfish
visitors as a lot of the slots were empty. Do not let this put you
off, the interactive way that the various displays worked meant that
some things were also described in English, some one can follow the
visual display and some with a little translation can be 'figured
out'.
The area on the
formation of volcanoes and the islands was all very visual, the
display of various artefacts used by the guanches had a rolling video
above each cabinets showing how the implement, whether pottery, bone
or cloth was produced by the inhabitants all those years ago. Maps of
the island show the place of origin of the discovery so language is
not a barrier. An audio tape is available and there are marked points
to queue the tape though I did not try this myself. There are also
souvenirs to be had from the museum shop along with DVDs of the
museum, the guanches and other notable events in the history of the
island. I wonder how much Ryanair will charge to bring a mill stone
back to the UK? My photographs show the building and a sample of the
exhibits, I have tried to capture the different types of display and
the diversity of the museum for you rather than the whole collection
– go and see it for yourself!
The Islands have been
visited by many scientists in the 18th and 19th
centuries including Darwin, Humbolt, Verneau, Lyell and Berthelot
which resulted in many private and public collections which were
brought together in the 1950's by the island's council (Cabildo) into
the Museum of Archaeology and the Natural Sciences Museum. The two
museums have now come together under one roof which also provided
space for research, school educational projects, lectures, library
and a restaurant. When moving the material the project sought to
combine traditional display methods with modern advanced information
systems to give a rewarding 21st century experience
(condensed from their guide.)
After leaving the
museum I wandered along to the Plaza de Espana and found that the
Plaza Canelaria was devoid of stage and bunting so I was able to take
a photograph of the other side of the statute revealing the, up to
now hidden, two other Guanches guarding the Madonna. I also had a
beer and a very nice salmon salad (ensalada) in an open air cafe,
menu price €4.95, tourist price €3.00, I didn't query how that
worked!
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