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Plaza de los Patos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Frog on the fountain, Plaza de los Patos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

The famous Plaza de los Patos (Ducks Square), in the so-called Barrio de los Hoteles (Hotels District), described as the Sweetest Square in Santa Cruz merits a visit. It's real name is the Plaza de 25 de Julio, so named after the failed attack on Santa Cruz on that date in 1797 by Admiral Horatio Nelson.


La reforma de la Plaza de los Patos

The plaza, built between 1913 and 1917, a symbol of Santa Cruz and an important part of the city's heritage, was reopened after refurbishment last year. The fountain has figures of eight frogs that surround the central goose. The most outstanding feature of the square, in addition to the central fountain, are the 20 benches, covered in ceramic tiles from Triana (Seville), bearing the names the companies who sponsored the construction of the Plaza.

Plaza de los Patos in 1920 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

From here, it's well worth taking a stroll north on the Avenida de Veinticinco de Julio (25th July Avenue - there's a bit of a theme here - to where the avenue crosses the Rambla de Santa Cruz at the corner of the Parque García Sanabria and stop at the Kiosco Numancia. Apparently, it has a reputation for being expensive (we didn't notice), but has such an interesting position right in the middle of the street where you can watch the world pass by on either side, with the tranquillity of the park next to it. A perfect coffee stop in a city.

Central goose in the central fountain

The central fountain clad in the tiles from Tiriana (Seveille)

Bench with advertising for one of the plaza's sponsors

Another sponsor's bench for Three Steamers Safety Matches

Bench advertising sponsor, Suchard Chocolate


Plaza de los Patos - Santa Cruz de Tenerife

San Cristóbal Castle Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Cañón Tigre - decisive in the defeat of English Admiral Horatio Nelson in his attempt to invade Tenerife in 1797 - currently on display in the San Cristóbal Castle interpretation centre.

Underneath the Plaza de España in Santa Cruz and marked by the black lines that can be seen in the lake from above, are the ruins of the Castillo de San Cristóbal (Castle of San Cristóbal). Portions of the castle ruins were uncovered during the refurbishment of the plaza carried out by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron in 2006 and these ruins are now open to the public via The San Cristóbal Castle Interpretation Centre. Reading that the centre was to be closed during carnival, we made this our first port of call after we arrived in the city.

Entrance is FREE, so it's well worth it to have a look if you're in the city and for those of a nervous disposition, I'll just mention that the steps are quite normal and the well-lit underground exhibit is not at all dark and dingy as I was expecting.

You don't need to be in Santa Cruz de Tenerife long before you realise that 25 July is a very important date! The whole centre is nicely done with information on various historical attacks on the city - not just the English ones, although that one always figures strongly in any history of the city and here is no exception - with good English translations under the information panels.

At the end of the 1990s, Santa Cruz de Tenerife still had not resolved the integration of the port into its urban core, a situation that led to the calling of several tenders. The Cabildo, the City Council and the Port Authority finally opted for the Herzog & De Meuron project, one premise of which was that the citizen, taking Calle del Castillo as a starting point, could move towards the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, following a longitudinal path in the manner of a previous project proposed by José Blasco Robles and José Luis Escario, which linked two existing squares – Candelaria and España – and a newly created one, the “Plaza del Agua”. In short, it was an ambitious staging that fused the metaphor of the gateway to the Atlantic with the protection of visible architectural vestiges, such as the Monument to the Fallen and the façade of the Alameda del Duque de Santa Elena, as well as other equally known but disappeared ones, such was the case of the Castillo de San Cristóbal. Some remains of its original walls appeared again during the remodelling works of the space and were incorporated under the surface of the recently created "Plaza del Agua". To access the find, a structure of galleries was set up to facilitate access to the venerable vestiges, a space that required the implementation of an interpretation centre. 

In this way, the San Cristóbal Castle Interpretation Centre was conceived, inaugurated in July 2008 and managed by the Autonomous Organism of Museums and Centres of the Cabildo de Tenerife through the Museum of History and Anthropology. The status of interpretation centre has eclipsed, to a certain extent, the nature of a site museum – the first in Tenerife – of the Castillo de San Cristóbal. Indeed, the aforementioned space offers citizens the possibility of visiting one of the most powerful heritage remains that have shaped its history, defending the island for more than two centuries against naval attacks.

In addition to the walls, the San Cristóbal Castle Interpretation Centre offers the possibility of contemplating other exhibits, such as the two tombstones that recall the name of the person who was the builder of the main fortress on the island of Tenerife, Juan Álvarez de Fonseca; and, of course, the presence of the “El Tigre” cannon, exhibited for the first time since it was put out of service, in the environment where it once played a more than outstanding role in the early hours of July 24 to 25, 1797, as evidenced by the testimonies of Monteverde and Grandi Giraud, protagonists and exceptional witnesses of the events.

From the very moment of the centre's inauguration, Tenerife Museums always had the suspicion that it would waste the museum space if it focused exclusively on the Gesta of July 25, an episode whose dimension and appeal have made us overlook the three previous centuries of history of the castle and, by extension, of the city. That is why it was proposed as a place for reflection on the history of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, conceived from the present to the past, taking into account the importance of the fortifications, but also in other episodes that date back at the time of the conquest. Since its inauguration, the San Cristóbal Castle Interpretation Centre has remained open to date, becoming a benchmark for citizens, both local and visitors. 


Restos del Castillo de San Cristóbal - Enrique Castrillo Núñez [CC BY-SA 2.5 es]

Arroz a la Cubana (Cuban Rice)

There certainly won't be any prizes for presentation with my effort!

My good friends over at Buzz Trips posted about this oddity of a dish named Arroz a la Cubana (literally, Cuban Girl's Rice) and I'm totally with them on their observation, "It's an odd mixture, but it works surprisingly well." And I've also found it on restaurant menus in Tenerife, but, as I mentioned to them, I've even had conversations with Cubans who have never heard of it, so I couldn't resist doing a bit of research to see what the deal is with this dish.

At RevistaCatalejo.com the writer says, "The first time I heard about Cuban rice was in a restaurant in Barcelona (Spain), a very curious fact if one takes into account that I am from Cuba and I never heard anyone mention the name of that dish, as such." In Cuba, she tells us, the dish doesn't have the tomato sauce, isn't known as Cuban rice, but is considered as 'food for whores', because it's very easy and quick to prepare, and, like 'those ladies', always in a hurry!

There's controversy surrounding the origin of Cuban rice (and everything else), apparently. According to the Spanish entry at Wikipedia, it's a dish of Cuban cuisine, very typical in the Canaries, of Spanish origin from the time of Captaincy General of Cuba (Colonial Era). In the English version, similarly, "Some authors consider that it may have originated from rice dishes with fried eggs from Cuba when it was a Spanish colony." At Huffpost, they report the claim that "the Spanish Creoles created this dish in America." There are nearly as many claims for the pedigree as there are versions of the dish! (In the Philippines meat is added.)

While some scholars claim that it is originally from Cuba, others claim that it comes from the Canary Islands. Another cubanaAna Mercedes Urrutia, assures us too that the dish is not Cuban and is Canarian, as do many others.

It hardly needs a recipe, but here's one: Arroz Cubano: Easy Cuban Rice

Tenerife in April 2019

Crown of thorns and a nail

Carnival 2019 finally comes to an end with the Burial of the Sardine on 1 April in Los Cristianos and so, we move on to the events of Semana Santa (Easter).

Plenilunio Santa Cruz
A new edition of the Plenilunio Santa Cruz (Plenilunio means Full Moon) will take place in the capital of Tenerife on Saturday 6 April. Over a dozen venues will host more than a hundred activities in a wide range of topics including leisure, culture, gastronomy and design, from 11 a.m. to midnight. On Sunday 7 April, the Parque García Sanabria continues the program with a wide range of food on offer from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Two of the novelties of the tenth edition of Plenilunio Santa Cruz will be the Moto Rock and Ecofest festivals, on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 April in the Avenida Marítima, Plaza de Europa and the Museum of Nature and Archeology.

The Motorrock Festival on the Avenida Marítima will combine music, vehicle exhibitions marke,t and gastronomy, both on Saturday from 11:00 am to 12:00 am and on Sunday 11:00 to 19:00 hours. The vehicle show, consisting of 40 motorcycles and 20 cars and several classic vans, will be complemented on Saturday by performances from musicians, bands and DJs. 

The Plaza de Europa will host the Ecofest Festival, in which, under an environmental theme, there will be music, gastronomy, children's activities and an ecological market, and which can be visited both on Saturday from 11:00 at 00:00 hours as on Sunday from 11:00 to 19:00 hours. The programming of the Ecofest Festival will be complemented with activities that will take place on Saturday and Sunday in the auditorium of the Museum of Nature and Archaeology.

On Saturday at 11:40 in the auditorium of the Museum of Nature and Archaeology (MUNA) a conference 'Let's talk about waste: Breaking myths' takes place, while at 12:30 is the activity 'Space to share - Eco Trends: Zero plastics', in which the problem of plastics will be addressed. At 16:00 hours activities focus on recycling and caring for the environment; and at 18:00 hours the film "Oceans, the mystery of lost plastic" will be screened. The Ecofest Festival program in the auditorium of the Museum of Nature and Archaeology (MUNA) will continue on Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., with lectures on waste, eco-trends, recycling and bio agriculture and, will conclude with the screening of the documentary 'Buy, throw, buy' from 5:00 p.m.

Other activities are taking place at the Plaza del Príncipe, Plaza de La Candelaria, Plaza de España, Calle La Noria, the Casa del Carnaval, Plaza del Chicharro, Calle Castillo and the Mercado de Nuestra Señora de África.

On 6th and 7th April 2019 the IX Feria del queso de Canarias (9th Annual Canary Islands Cheese Fair) takes place at the Museo y Parque Etnográfico Pinolere (Pinolere Ethnographic Museum).

The fair will gather more than 35 cheese makers from the islands, with cheeses that have won awards worldwide. During the fair there will be numerous stalls for the tasting and sale of cheeses from all the islands, which can be paired with wines from the denomination of origin of the Orotava Valley. At the same time you can enjoy other local products, as the fair will have the participation of the Farmer's Market that will offer tasting of various products of the land.

During the fair there will also be an exhibition of Canarian breeds of different animals: seven breeds of dogs, among them the Presa Canario and the Lobito Herreño; chickens; goats; sheep, black pigs; donkeys, camels; bees, birds ...

La Orotava acoge este fin de semana la IX Feria del Queso de Canarias

Sunday 14 April 2019Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday). The parades on this day have been described as "happy and less crowded celebrations". 

Thursday 18 April is a Public Holiday in the Canary Islands for Holy Thursday.

Friday 19 April is a National Public Holiday for Good Friday, with the biggest events being the Representación de La Pasión (Passion of Jesus) in Adeje and the processions of the Cofradías y hermandades (Brotherhoods) in La Laguna.

Easter Monday is not a public holiday in Spain nor the Canary Islands.

According to Google, the 2019 Semana Santa (Holy Week) in San Cristóbal de La Laguna [there's a clue in the title there] would begin on Saturday, 6 April and end on Sunday, 21 April. According to the extensive program, however, events actually began on Ash Wednesday, 6 March 2019, and continued right throughout Lent. We'll confine ourselves to the main events for Holy Week itself, starting with the parades on Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday) and those on Viernes Santo (Good Friday).

From Palm Sunday until Good Friday, various processions take place from the temples, to the Santa Iglesia Catedral (La Laguna Cathedral), accompanied by the different Brotherhoods (in their KKK-like garb), until all of the icons are all gathered at the cathedral and all then go out in the impressive Magna Procession of Good Friday.

On Palm Sunday, 14 April 2019, at 10 am at the Casa Mesa - Antiguo Colegio Nava la Salle - the palms will be blessed by The Most Reverend Bishop Bernardo Álvarez Afonso, followed by the Procesión Solemne de Ramos (Solemn Procession) to the cathedral, where Eucharist will be celebrated at 11 am. At 12 midday there will be the Procession of Jesus' Entrance into Jerusalem. Further processions follow at 5 pm and 6 pm.

Cathederal of La Laguna
Photo DailosTamanca [CC BY-SA 2.0],
via Wikimedia Commons

On Jueves Santo (Holy Thursday), 18 April 2019, from 10 am to 2 pm in the Plaza de la Concepción, a collection of foodstuffs for the benefit of those most needy in the city will be made by the Junta de Hermandades y Cofradías. There are various processions at 7:30 pm, 8 pm and 8:30 pm.

Viernes Santo (Good Friday), 19 April 2019, dawns in La Laguna with the smell of incense and the echo of "malagueñas" sung to the Cristo de La Laguna (Christ of La Laguna) as the Procesión de Madrugada (Early Morning Procession) at 02:30 hrs transfers the image from his Sanctuary to the cathedral. The two main 'attractions' are the Procesión Magna starting at 5 pm, and the Procesión del Silencio (silent procession) at 10 pm to move the image of the dead Christ to the Parish Church of Santo Domingo. Silence is broken only by the tinkling of bells in its slow pace through the dark streets of the city of the Adelantados.

Semana Santa en San Cristóbal de La Laguna

Thursday 25 April is a public holiday at municipal level in the municipality of Icod de los Vinos for Festival of San Marcos Evangelista (St. Mark the Evangelist), the Patron of the town, as it is in Tegueste

The municipality of Tegueste becomes 'a gastronomic epicenter' with the celebration of the twelfth edition of the Wine and Tapas Route, taking place between 29 March and 17 April, an already traditional event included in the "April, Month of Wine" program.

On this occasion there will be 14 establishments taking part: Bar La Cabaña. Rincón de Marino, Bar Cafetería Las Rosetas, Bodegón Brasas El Parral, Tasca La Viña, Restaurante El Ministro, Zenobio Casa de Comidas, Restaurante Tentados, Cafetería Antiguo Surtidor, Pizzería Te Gusta, Pizzería Dagigi, Bar Cafetería Mencey Tegueste, The Rumors Gastrobar, Restaurante Mauro and La Cantina del Mercadillo, allowing a tour of the different neighborhoods of the municipality.

A portion of Tapas will be priced at 3 euros. For more information the council's website (www.tegueste.es) has information about the participating bars, tapas and wine. People who complete the entire route will get a gift. 

Wineries are La Jalada, El Púlpito, L'Ambora, Jesús Hernández González, La Zafra, Lomo Sapiens (red and white), Barreto, Mederos, Zapatero, Mateo Gutiérrez González, Llano El Pino, Carlos Rodríguez Gutiérrez and La Collera.

The program "April, Month of Wine" this year, is organized by the Town Hall of Tegueste, with the collaboration of the Association of Entrepreneurs of Tegueste (ASEVITE), the Wine Association of Tegueste (AVITE), the Association of Oxherds (AGUAVITE) and the Farmers' and Crafts Market.


Commitment to raising awareness, through art and through social responsibility, Diverse Festival is presented in Puerto de la Cruz from April 24 to 28, as a meeting place between the arts and social movements that promote values ​​of equality and personal and collective freedoms, placing feminism and the problem that the LGTBIQ + collective is constantly facing in the focus of the debate. The Diverse Festival includes concerts, exhibitions, workshops, theatre and cinema, as well as meetings with activists, artists and writers.

White Wines of Tenerife

There is a Wine Tasting Workshop - White Wines of Tenerife (via) taking place on Saturday, 27 April 2019 at the Casa del Vino de Tenerife in El Sauzal. This tasting workshop covers the production processes, the aromas and the perceived sensations transmitted by the different white wines of Tenerife.

Art and Artisan Market

Also on Saturday, 27 April 2019 at the Craft Coffee Gastrobar (Calle Plaza San Cristóbal, 23, San Cristóbal La Laguna), on the last Saturday of each month, is the Mercadillo De Arte Y Artesanía Del Craft (Art and Artisan market in the Craft) (via) with several stalls, from 16:00 to 20:00.

Burger Fest 2019

A selection of the best Gourmet Burger restaurants of Tenerife, as well as a great variety of makers of Canarian and international craft beers will meet for this gastronomic event in the Plaza del Adelantado in La Laguna on Saturday, 27 April 2019. Music from Beat Creator and Dj Santee. From 5:00 p.m. to midnight. Free admission. More info.

Pinolere Trail

The sixth edition of the Pinolere Trail will be held on April 28 over three distances: 42, 27 and 11 kilometres. More than a thousand runners are expected to take part in the races that start from the Museum and Ethnographic Park of Pinolere and pass through some of the island's most inimitable landscapes. The inscription period has ended (a pity, because you probably need to run off the wines, burgers and beers), so mark your calendar for next year, provide encouragement from the side-lines.

Saturday, 27 April 2019 is the date of this year's XIV Ruta Camino del Hermano Pedro (Brother Pedro's Pilgrimage Route- a ~20 kilometre walk to honour Hermano Pedro (Peter of Saint Joseph de Betancur) who was born in the town of Vilaflor de Chasna in 1626, became a missionary in Guatemala and was canonised as the "first Canarian and Guatemalan saint" in 2002. 

The pilgrimage sets off from the church of San Pedro Apóstol in Vilaflor at 7 am (after mass at 6:30 am) and journeys downhill through San Miguel de Abona and Granadilla de Abona, to the coastal area of El Médano, which houses the cave where people go to worship the saint. Near to the cave is the 'ere' (a natural or man-made hollow formed in the rock which allows rainwater to collect and is used as a watering hole), where Brother Pedro used to take his flock to drink.

On the way, pilgrims cross some of the region's most unique and emblematic areas. They will see ancient farming terraces, native plant and animal species, and sites that have been declared Assets of Cultural Interest, such as the house of Casa de los Soler and the 
Plaza de San Pedro in Vilaflor."

Sunday 28 April the Romería Chica in El Tanque is scheduled, however, due to a General Election in Spain (Spain's PM calls snap general election for 28 April), other events, including the annual Pilgrimage of San Marcos Evangelista in Tegueste that usually takes place in April, have been postponed, so it isn't certain.

Monday 29 April is a municipal holiday for Santo Hermano Pedro in Vilaflor.

On Tenerife Rally Calendar 2019 there's the Rallysprint Atogo on 6 & 7 April, the Los Loros Hillclimb on 13 April and on Saturday, 27 April the Subida de Arico (Arico Hillclimb). 

Tenerife Land of Eternal Christmas

Sunbathing SantaDesert Island ChristmasScuba Diving SantaTropical Santa
Santa's Having a Whale of a TimeSurfing SantaWaterski SantaCamel Rodeo Santa
With a wide range of products in each design, click the pics (above) to see the full selections.