The kids and I accompanied Gaga on the bus to Santa Cruz yesterday. She had a medical appointment and according to the Titsa schedule we should have made it in bags of time. Unfortunately the driver of the bus we took would have made an excellent hearse-driver as he maintained a stately crawl the whole way. By the time we finally got off the bus, Gags was already 5 minutes late for her appointment and she still had to make it to Candelaria.
She shot off to get a taxi and I herded the kids in the direction of the Mercado de Nuestra Señora de Africa. I let them bore themselves silly in the little playground outside and then we took a turn around inside the market. Inside you’ll find flower stalls, fruit and veggies, herbs, spices, fresh meat, bread and pastries and garden plants. There is also a pharmacy which has some interesting odds and ends tucked away inside – ampoules of pure Retin A and various lotions and potions that promise to stem the march of time. This shop has a good little pet supplies locale attached.
Further round the market you’ll come across another pet shop except this one sells live animals and it is absolutely filthy inside. Grubby looking rabbits and guinea pigs huddle in dirty cages with various types of bird displayed above them. To a kid any rabbit is cute and I watched a Spanish man trying to drag his daughter away from this horrible place. Guaranteed that if he had given in and bought his daughter that conejo she’d be heartbroken over its dead body in a week.
By the time we’d wandered through the market and stuffed our faces with churros in a cafe outside I was hoping Gags would be all done with her business. But no… This is Tenerife after all and she was at least 15 minutes late for her appointment (despite bussing it all the way from the South). She now had to wait for the second shift.
So the kids and I walked on down towards the Plaza Iglesia and up again past the old houses and smart cafes to the General Serrador Bridge. There was no need for our detour other than killing time and normally we would just have gone straight across the bridge towards Calle de Castillo. The little side trip threw my daughter for six and she was convinced we would never find our way back to the main drag and retrieve poor Gaga again.
By the time we’d reached Calle de Castillo and were walking down to the Plaza, Gags was on the phone and we met up at last near the tower, yakking on the phone until we practically bumped into each other. Apparently while the poor soul had been waiting all that time, so was an obnoxious old man. He managed to upset everyone else present by hawking and spitting up phlegm on the floor and smoking in the waiting room. My Mum who is usually quite shy to use her Spanish found herself in the bosom of a clutch of indignant Spanish grannies all ready and willing to lynch the nasty old bugger.
Sales are on now of course so its not a bad time to visit the shopping centre of Santa Cruz. I accidentally tripped and fell over the doorstep into Zara and came out 20 minutes later and €30 poorer with 10 t-shirts. 10 for €30! It’d be rude not to, don’t you think?
We wandered on, stopping here and there until we eventually made it back to the bridge. In a romantic little flurry from the city councillors this bridge is called after General Ricardo Serrador whose wife is the Señora de Africa for whom the market is named. It quite fitting for the bridge to lead us back there from where we can carry on back to the bus station.
I know a couple of drivers here that hate making the journey to Santa Cruz. Whether it is to get to the Carrefour or Alcampo malls or to the Candelaria hospital or their national embassy or for a business meeting, navigating through the spaghetti junction of roads as you get closer to the capital is a nightmare.
On top of that, parking is no walk in the park. If you are aiming for Calle de Castillo, the underground car park nearby will do fine but try to visit anywhere a little further out and you would probably be easier to park there and get a taxi anyway.
Going to Santa Cruz by bus takes a lot of the hassle out of the journey. Just jump on the guagua and by the time you’ve read the paper and the kids are winding up for their first “Are we there yet?”, you are there already. Taxis are available right outside the bus station to take you further afield but if you are heading for Mercado Señora de Africa and the shopping centre based round Plaza de Candelaria a five/ten minute walk will get you there.
As you can see from the picture, the Santa Cruz Bus Terminus is much like any bus station anywhere. As long as you know what bus number you are looking for you can’t really go far wrong.
