Excursion to Northern part of Tenerife - BEFORE LUNCH

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As we don't plan much sightseeing this holiday I'll create today's excursion in two halves - BEFORE & AFTER LUNCH.

Our day trip to the Northern part of Tenerife.

We were picked up at hotel this morning by a driver of an 8 seater vehicle. Just one other person collected from another hotel.

A short ride to a collection point where we transferred to another vehicle and were joined by a couple from Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

The lady was in a battery operated wheelchair so it meant just 4 of us in the vehicle which was great.

We formed part of a convoy of 4 people carriers - Irvin (from Holland but had lived on the island for 13 years) was our driver and Colin (From Scotland) was the tour guide who gave all the information from the leading vehicle which was linked via radio to each of the other vehicles. A very clear & efficient way to hear all the points of interest facts.



Our first stop was a small village on the coast where houses had been built into the caves - we didn’t stop long just enough time to take a couple of snaps.



It was then onto La Lugana. It’s full name San Cristobal de La Laguna is the second largest city after Santa Cruz and it is an important historical centre, so much so that it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its grid plan was designed in the 15th century and became a model for cities in the Americas including Cartagena de Indias in Colombia and Old Havana in Cuba.



We were dropped off close to the local market hall (probably because there was toilets, which I have to say were spotless.)



It must have rained quite heavily earlier as there were large puddles on the square outside the market but the puddle did make a lovely reflection for one of my photographs.



A mix of stalls selling meat, fruit, vegetables, cheese, dried fruit & nuts of every description plus 3 flower stalls which of course I had to take a photograph of.



We had just over an hour here ! We could have done with longer but I guess today is just a taster to enable people to consider returning to explore for longer.



The town which many years ago was the capital of Tenerife has a particularly high concentration of churches and religious buildings as well as fine palaces.



I wandered down the narrow street leading from the market, pretty balconies, interesting old doors and door furniture caught my eye.



There was not time to go inside any of the buildings but from one entrance it was easy to peep through the iron gates to the courtyard garden.



Before long it was time to head back to the meeting point to continue our journey up into the Mercedes Forest and Anaga National Park.



By now the clouds were coming in and as we drove up higher meandering through the winding roads it started to rain.

We stopped at a viewpoint, but to be honest despite assurances from Irwin the view sadly wasn’t that clear - We could only imagine what it was like on a clear day.



Las Mercedes forest was like a tropical forest with laurel, giant heather and many other plants including some giant looking dandelions (name escapes me) part of the same family as our dandelion in UK just much much larger.



The road wends its way along the ridges of the Anaga mountains which on a clear day would have given magnificent views.



It was still beautiful and the rain had eased.

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