Tenerife By Bus

Bus Routes: 483[Playa Americas Est], 416[Icod] to Santiago del Teide, 355[Buenevista] to Masca Return: 355[Santiago del Teide], 416[Playa Americas Est], 843[El Medano] to Los Abrigos Masca is a hidden jem reached by a narrow winding road, originally a goat track up and over the mountain from Santiago del Teide down to the village. The sea is some 3 hours walk away on a well trodden path running down either side of the gorge. Once you reach the sea you have a choice of a pre-arranged boat trip back to either Los Gigentes or Los Cristianos or you can turn around and take about 5 hours to walk back to the village as you are now travelling up hill. You need to be pretty fit as the path is rough and the temperature quite high but, I am told, well worth the effort as the scenery, flora and fauna are spectacular.

Bus Routes: 483[Los Cristianos, Playa Americas] to Golf del Sur, 115[Santa Cruz] bus station, 015[La Laguna] bus station, 050[Punta Hidalgo] to Tegueste however on the day of the romeria the non-scheduled 052[Tegueste] runs a continuous service to Teguese. Return: 052[La Laguna] bus station, 015[Santa Crus] bus station, 111[Los Cristianos, Playa Americas] to San Isidro, 470[Los Cristianos] to Los Abrigos/Golf del Sur. Romeria means pilgrimage so this event published in the paper is the pilgrimage of Saint Mark where Canarians would walk to the church in Tegueste to celebrate the Saint. My friend Kev's holiday on Tenerife was drawing to a close so I thought this would show him a bit a local 'colour' then I began to wonder if it was a bit too far to travel if nothing much happened but we decided to go. I caught the 08:41 483 over to Golf de Sur and we retraced our route up to Santa Cruz. A ten minute wait for the 015 to La Laguna began to reassure me that we has made th...

Bus Routes: 483[Los Cristianos, Las Americas Est] to Golf de Sur, 115[Golf Sur, Santa Cruz] to Santa Cruz bus station. (246[Taganana, Almáciga]) Return: (246[Taganana, Almáciga])111[Los Cristianos, Las Americas Est] to Las Chafiras, 483[El Medano] to Los Abrigos A friend of mine from England arrived in Golf de Sur at the beginning of the week after emailing to ask if I would provide more details of using the 'guagua'. [The square brackets denote the destination displayed on the front of the bus in my routes.] We met up at his hotel, conveniently the bus stop is just outside the 'Cordial Golf Plaza'. After a coffee and a tour of the facilities we went out to the bus stop so that I could explain how the local timetables work as, this being a one way system, both directions are displayed on the same stop. The times are also shown using the 24 hour clock with the hours along the top row(s) and the minutes underneath. I noticed that the 115 between Las Galletas...

On Tuesday whilst I was away in Adeje a stage mysteriously appeared in the village square followed a couple of days later by a connection to the electricity supply.

Bus Routes: 470[Los Cristianos] to Los Cristianos, 417[Guía de Isora] to Adeje. Return: 416[Los Cristianos] to Los Cristianos, 470[Granadilla] to Los Abrigos. I took this shot on my  first visit to Adeje. I decided to pop over to Adeje this afternoon for lunch (3pm ish) and to see if I could get inside the church. On Good Friday the right hand nave as you face the altar had a large blue curtain across it and I was curious to see what was behind. Mission successful, I managed to take some additional photographs too particularly of the right had nave entrance which had a carved screen and balcony with organ instead of the usual entrance porch. (I have added them to the 'Adeje' Photo Album.) I decided to have a wander down the street down from the fort which I had viewed but not followed on my original visit in January just to see where it lead to. Wandering down I came across some street sculpture and a rather nice amphitheatre and sports groun...

Bus Routes: 470[Granadilla], 111[Santa Cruz], 015[La Laguna] total journey time 2.0 hours Return: Travina (tram) to Santa Cruz, 111[Los Cristianos, P Americas Est] to San Isidro, 470[Los Cristianos] to Los Abrigos.  In the quest to see a procession of the cloaked brotherhoods in the full regalia I decided to go up to La Laguna on Easter Sunday. (Unfortunately it is the Good Friday procession when this takes place.) This is the first time I have been there but appeared to be a reasonably easy journey to make even on a Sunday. I took the now well travelled route to Santa Cruz setting off at 08:00 as I was not sure about how long it would take to find the Cathedral from the bus station at La Laguna. As it turned out it was a straight forward journey arriving in Santa Cruz in time to catch the 015 'Directo' and arriving in La Laguna to find that the 'estacion' has now been moved nearer the centre of town. The location is now on the Autopista del Norte (TF-5) exit l...

Bus Routes: 483[Los Cristianis, P Americas Est], 473[Los Gigantes] Return: 473[Los Cristianos], 483[El Medano] I had both read and heard about the 'Passion Plays' at Adeje so had decided this was one occasion not to miss especially at it starts at the reasonable time of 12 noon. Catching the 08:41 843 from Los Abrigos to the Estacion Costa Adeje enabled me to catch the 09:15 473 to Adeje on its way to Los Gigantes. Thus I arrived just after 10am giving me time for a view of the stage set, a cup of coffee and a Tuna salad bocadillo, and a look around the interior of the church which was closed when I visited the town in January. If you are on the Island on Good Friday this performance is well worth a visit. There is the house of the 'Last Supper', the 'Garden of Gethsemani', the 'Temple', 'King Herrod's Palace', 'Potious Pilot's Residence' and at the bottom of the street 'Golgotha' as main stage sets with activity al...

Bus Route: 843[Los Cristianos, Las Americas] to Los Cristianos. Return: 843[El Medano]

Bus Route: 483[Los Cristianos, P Americas] to Los Cristianos Return: 470[Granadilla] to Los Abrigos As I have mentioned in previous blogs I use the calender in the 'Island Connections' free newspaper to find out what is happening around the island. I will add the web address to the useful links so that you can have a look at coming events if you are booking a holiday. It has had a running item of a 'Folk' festival i.e. traditional Canarian, on a Thuirsday in Los Cristianos and Friday in Playa Americas running from Nov till the end of March. As it is nearly the end of March "ALREADY"  I thought I would track this down as no specific location other than 'Paseo Maratimo' in the former (Checking a map I thought that this might be the far end of the beach.) and the 'Centre' in the latter was given.  I thought this might be an afternoon entertainment so hopped on the 11:05 bus into Los Cristianos. 

As the title suggests this was a 'laid back' day for me after all of the carnivals attended recently. It turned out to be an eventful day in its own right without leaving Los Abrigos so no buses this time unless you are visiting (470 & 483) .

Bus Routes: 470 & 483 to Los Abrigos if you don't live here. Just as I thought carnival was over I was walking through the square this afternoon when I saw speakers and microphone stands being erected. I asked around but no-one knew anything about it. Later the square was filled up with chairs so I thought this must be something big. At around 18.00 there were signs of activity with people in costume and eventually a parade commenced from the harbour up to the square. Once there a performance started on the stage with the main attraction being the 'Murga' Los Retorciditos. I managed to find out, and I hope I got this right, that they represent Grandilla de Abona which Los Abrigos belongs to and probably have some people in the group.  They won their section in the competition at Santa Cruz Carnival 2012 no mean feat! Their enthusiasm and skill gave a rousing performance and I have tried to capture some of that in my photographs. Once again children and youn...

Bus Routes: 483[Los Cristianos, P Americas Est] to Los Cristianos. Return: 111[Santa Cruz] to Las Chafiras then taxi home. As you can see from the first photograph in the album I was not alone when I caught the 18:31, which actually arrived at 18:45, to Los Cristianos!  We arrived in ample time for the start of the procession at the 'Cultural Centre' where the 'Sardine' had been lying-in-state.

Bus Route: 470[Los Cristianos] - The 14.05 terminates at Costa del Silencio so a change of bus to the 467 is required. If you use a Bonobus ticket the fare is valid for the whole journey. Return: 483 [El Medana] last bus approx 10:10 otherwise 111[Santa Cruz] to Las Chafiras then taxi. After showing you some of the run up events to carnival, I have included the photographs from Saturday's fun day in the album which can be accessed from the previous blog, I was not going to bother going to the 'Gran Coso' - main parade or the 'Burial of the Sardine'. However I decided that this would complete the 'Carnival' season with differences in scale and, for those of you who visit the south on a regular basis but miss the event a view of what goes on.

Bus Routes: 483[Los Cristianos, P Americas Est] to Los Cristianos. Return: Either the 483[El Medano] at 22:10 (last bus) or 111[Santa Cruz] at 00:30 to Las Chafiras then taxi. (If you are on holiday in Los Cristianos or Playa Americas walk) I have mentioned in other 'Carnival' blogs that the 'Grand Parade' and 'Burial of the Sardine' are the end of a week or more of activities the grander the carnival the more there are. In fact, once the carnival is over and the theme is announced the designers will start on the costumes for next year. I thought that I would show you some of the run up week at Los Cristianos.

Bus Routes: 483[Los Cristianos,P Americas Est] to Costa Adeje. Return: 111[Santa Cruz] then taxi home. We have visited the MagMa Art and Conference Centre at Costa Adeje before so have a look at the blog on Costa Adeje (January) for photographs of the building and the concert I went to. Carnival South 2012 kicked off in various centres and villages on 3rd March, I don't know if it was coincidence or planned but this show was taking place at 21:00 following the opening carnival parade in Los Cristianos.  I had already booked a ticket for this event before I realised this. Hopping on to a 483 from Los Abrigos I got off at the bus station at Costa Adeje/Playa Americas as the map seemed to indicate that the parade was, in fact, mid-way between the two. The parade was due to start at 19:00 so I thought that I could catch a good bit of it before wending my way back up the hill to the MagMa Centre. I was proved wrong, I couldn't find the parade and eventually asked someone wh...

Bus Routes: 470[Granadilla], 474[Vilaflor, La Escelona]. Return: 482[Los Cristanos], 470[Granadilla] home. I thought that we would have a change of pace between the 'North' and 'South' Carnival seasons so I decided to take at trip to Vilaflor, the highest village in Spain at 1,400 metres (4593 feet 27⁄64 inches). I am told that is higher than any mountain in the UK!  It is difficult to imagine that you are only about 30 minutes away from the beach in Los Cristianos when you see the photos:

Added some photographs to the Los Abrigos and Air Sea Rescue albums: In the former it is surprising who or what you meet in a cafe/bar out here and I had a wander around the changing harbour. In the latter I spotted some activity and managed to get some shots as the drama unfolded at the extreme maximum of my zoom lens. The air/sea rescue helicopter is based at the airport. The mission took place on the 23rd February at 13:02 hours and shows the skill and bravery of the pilot and crew. I don't know any of the details of the recovery but it shows that, whether walking in the mountains or pursuing some activity in the sea we must not take nature for granted even in such a picturesque place as Tenerife. It can put someone else's live(s) at risk! View my 'Los Abrigos' Photo Album View my 'Air Sea Rescue' Album

Bus Routes: 470[Granadilla] to San Isidro, 111[Aeropuerto Sur, P Americas Est] to Airport South, 343[Aerpurto Norte, Puerto Cruz] to Puerto de la Cruz. Return: 103[Santa Cruz sin parada], 111[Aeropuerto Sur, P Americas Est] to Las Chafiras, taxi home. Having used the direct route to get to Puerto de La Cruz last time I decided to try out a different route this time to see if I could do it cheaper. The Carnival parade did not start until 16:00 so there was plenty of time available. I caught the 470 to San Isidro getting off at the roundabout (rotunda) and waiting for the 111 at the same stop to take me back over to the airport. This second leg of the journey was 'no charge' as you cannot get directly to the airport from Los Abrigos and I wasn't moving 'forward'. At the airport I caught the 343 to Puerto de la Cruz saving me 4-5€ on the journey. The downside was that, for some reason, Titsa miss out the bus at 10:50 on a Saturday so I had to wait until 11:50. T...

Bus Route: 843[Los Cristianos, P Americas Est] to Las Chafiras, 111[Aeropuerto Sur, Santa Cruz]. Return: 111[Aeropuerto Sur, P Americas Est] to Las Chafiras, 470[Granadilla] to Los Abrigos.

Bus Route: 483[Las Cristianos, P Americas Est], 111[Santa Cruz] Return: 111[P Americas Est] then taxi or if you have the stamina the early 470[Granadilla] or 483[El Madino] View my 'Santa Cruz Carnival 2012 Parade' Photo Album Hello and off we go to Santa Cruz Carnival 2012, reputedly second only to Rio and I can well believe it! Thinking of a day out, forget it, this party goes on and on. Prior to the opening parade which started at 20:00 on Friday 17th February there has already been a month of competitions for Carnival Queens, marching bands, dancers and choirs culminating in a week of finals in held in the 'Exhibition Centre' and ticket only. I managed to watch a little of the final of the selection for the 'Queen' these are not just dresses they pull them along on a trolley, about all the poor girl can do is wave her arms and smile.