The bus stop in Los Abrigos where the adventure began. The buses here are called Guagua, pronounce 'WahWah' and is the same term as used in Cuba and Venezuela. This happened to be the first bus I took in the direction of Los Cristianos so that I could get hold of a timetable. If you are visiting the south coast of the island you can get a timetable from the bus stations, 'Estacions', at Las Americas (also referred to as 'Costa Adeje (pronounced 'Adeke'), Los Cristianos and Granadilla de Abona. My journeys are all based around 'Las Abrigos' as the start/end point as this is where I live for the next year but, once you get the hang of it, they routes can be varied to suit and are especially easier if you are living or staying in or near the bus stations at Las Americas and Los Cristianos. If you are intending to make more than one journey, are a family or this will be a regular mode of travel don't forget to buy your 'Bonobus' ticket first. Get on the bus through the front door and tell the driver your destination inserting your 'bonobus' card face down (i.e. blue to the bottom) and the top printed end of the white surface into the reader which will either be just in front of the driver or on the vertical bar just behind his head. The driver keys in the destination on his console and the ticket pops out. If you are travelling as a group reinsert the card as many times as there are people in your party. (
If you pay cash the driver will not accept anything higher than a 20.00 Euro note.) You will see how much the journey cost and the amount of credit you have left. The system will give you discounts and sliding scales of fare so that for some journeys you may not pay anything at all if the two routes combined are the only way to reach your destination provided that you start the second journey within, I believe, 2 hours. If you do not have enough credit for the journey you will be able to pay the difference in cash but you still get the discount.
If you have luggage or pushchairs these must be placed in the storage space under the bus (where we put our cases on long distance coaches in the UK) before you get onto the bus thus there is no limit to the number of families the bus can carry. When you reach your destination you must exit by the middle door, this allows the driver to deal with passengers joining the bus.
Thus armed with your ticket and your timetable we set off. The hard part is recognising where to get on/off so my albums attempt to show what the respective bus stop(s) at each destination looks like so that you can spot it in advance. If you do not ring the bell the bus will not stop, similarly if you do not put out your hand when waiting for a bus it will drive on past. The rest of the album shows the destination as I walk around as if you were with me. I try to find things of interest and explore the back streets. Sometimes there is an interesting find sometimes not but I hope to give the feel of the place or event. My photographs are not intended to be competition standard and, generally, in the order I have walked or journeyed so that you can find your way should you wish to explore as I am. I am also trying to show that there is more to Tenerife that sun, sand and sangria whilst you are here. And so the adventure began on 1st November 2011 and I hope to explore every bus route whilst I am here taking in as many of the varied festivals and events as I can. I hope that you enjoy!
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