We’ve setup camp in 📍Santa Cruz de Tenerife before heading out and crossing the island tomorrow. Based on our research, the city we should have stayed in San Cristóbal de La Laguna (often just referred to as La Laguna). Its historical center was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1999. However, finding lodging there was a challenge and we opted to larger city next to it. the two locations are a 45-minute tram ride from historical centre to historical center, so not a big issue.
Our day started by walking by the 📍Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martín. The seaside auditorium and art center is reminiscent of the Sydney Opera house… if you put it in the wash and it shrank a little too much. Located on the edge of the commercial port, the building is interesting nonetheless and makes for a quick stop on the way to the 📍Palmetum, a botanical garden specializing in palm trees. What’s most special about it is that it’s built on top of a former landfill. Once you learn that it makes sense that it’s on top of a hill. It just turns out that the hill is not rocky but “garbagy”. It offered some nice views and plenty of trees from around the world. We were going there to get a better picture of the Auditorio but were enchanted by the nature.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is an odd mix of industrial, residential and tourist areas. Next to the stadium you’ll find a refinery. Next to the Auditorium is the commercial port on one side and the water park on the other. Next to the cruise ship you’ll find an oil platform. The superposition is a little jarring to us.
Once done with the pretty nature, we headed out to visit 📍La Laguna. What was originally described to us as a cute village used to be the capital of the Canary Islands. It is the third-most populous city of the archipelago. We had to adjust our expectations on the fly. We followed our research and walked its three iconic streets finding it a little underwhelming. Yes we could see the cute Spanish style church with its towers and a couple of other cute spots and art but it had more hallmarks of a city than anything else. The architecture was a mixed Spanish colonial and modern remodeling.
While close to Santa Cruz, Laguna is higher and what we’ve discovered is temperature variance manifests quickly on the island. A mere 500 meters above sea level and a couple of kilometres inland meant a 3°C difference. Nothing to sneeze at.
We came out of the adventure unimpressed with the city. It did shorten our day so we had plenty of buffer to go for wine and snacks before dinner.
We choose dinner on two factors: being able to book online, a relatively rare thing in the Canaries, and being highly rated. We landed at 📍Etéreo by Pedro Nel. A Michelin recommended (no stars) restaurant that’s all about their dry aged meat. While looking at the menu we were disappointed with the lack of local meat but landed on a beautiful 1kg steak from a cow that grew up in the north of Spain. Let’s call it local adjacent. We were introduced to our steak before it being cooked like one does when serious about meat. To be honest it feels a little like the car salesman showing me the engine. Not sure why they need to do it and what comment I could make that would change the outcome but it’s something they do. Karine called it the Bisteca Canaria.
Places
Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martín · Av. la Constitución, 1, 38003 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
★★★★★ · Auditorium
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Palmetum · Av. la Constitución, 38003 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
★★★★★ · Botanical garden
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San Cristóbal de La Laguna · Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
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Etéreo by Pedro Nel · C. San Antonio, 63, 38001 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
★★★★★ · Restaurant
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