Tenerife By Bus

Trusty TITSA continue to run the 111 every half hour from south to north. I boarded at Las Chafiras this time and arrived in Santa Cruz an hour later.  After a week of competitions the opening parade is the kick off to the second week of carnaval.  The parade starts around 21:00 hours and the final floats will pass some four and a half hours later. This time I managed to photograph the event without my batteries running out as the did on my first venture here in 2012. I hope that you will enjoy them as much as I did attending. Once the parade had passed I had hot chocolate and churos at a cafe with a lady I met at the parade before wandering back for the 02:30 bus back to Las Chafiras and an early morning taxi home (bed by 4 am!). View my full 'Carnaval Opening Parade 2014' photo album

Bus Route: 470 [Los Cristianos] to Las Chafiras, 111 [Santa Cruz]. Return: 111 [Los Cristianos, Las Americas] to San Isidro, 470 [Los Cristianos] to Los Abrigos. Having spent most of the season at Santa Cruz I decided to complete the festivities there with the Festividad de los Reyes Magos (Festival of the Three Kings) to see how it compared with the activities in Los Cristianos last year. The day (and public holiday unless it is a Sunday) of the 6 th is when children by tradition in Spain open their presents. The evening before (the 5 th ) sees the parade of the Three Kings on camels through various towns and villages so that children can give their wish lists to the 'Kings' much as we do with Santa Claus. In Santa Cruz the 'Three Kings' arrive by helicopter at the main football stadium where a show is put on for the benefit of the spectators. I was going to try and get to the stadium but things went slightly awry with my travel plans and I missed that bit...

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: 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: 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.