Vilaflor, Tenerife

Tenerife, Travel, ,

Feb 8 – today is a travel day, which is always its own kind of adventure. We had our last breakfast in our super modern apartment, and set out to catch the 9:15 bus. The bus stop was right where Google said it would be, clearly marked with the Titsa bus company logo and our bus number.

Because it is Saturday, the buses run less frequently. Note to self: don’t schedule travel days on the weekend! We have to catch two buses today, the first to Los Christianos, then about an hour’s wait for the bus to Vilaflor. Easy peasy.

We were chatting and waiting when a homeless (or maybe just a very dirty) man came up and told us that if we wanted to catch a bus, we should go around the corner. Sure enough, there were lots of people around the corner, as well as a big green bus! Nice person of Tenerife!

The bus left on time, but it was a local, and every stop added additional minutes to our ETA. Before too long, it seemed we would just make the connecting bus, and after a while we were absolutely certain we would miss it. When was the next bus? Not ‘til 5:30 this evening, or maybe not ‘til tomorrow. Cue the tense music!

Then we got to a stop where lots of people got on at once, and the driver declared the bus full, passing by the rest of the stops. We pulled in to Los Christianos with 5 minutes to spare! Cue “O Happy Day!”

We bought tickets to Vilaflor, jumped on the new bus and were stopped by the driver, who said our tickets were short by €1.25. We just purchased the tickets! How could this be? The driver was adamant, so Jim coughed up the extra euro and change. We couldn’t risk not getting on this bus!

We headed north and gained elevation ‘til our ears popped. The countryside was dry and brown and reminiscent of Arizona – cacti growing but not much else.

Although we had typed Vilaflor into Google Maps to track our progress, the destination automatically changed to Santa Catalina, and the bus was indeed heading to Santa Catalina, which had a T for terminal. Sure enough, at Santa Catalina everybody else got off the bus. Jim thought maybe there was one more stop, but Google said “You have arrived”. We pushed the stop button on the bus, but were a split second too late, and the bus took off again, careening up the mountain and up some more. Oh no! How long would it take us to walk back to town?

Well dear friends, the bus did have one more stop, with no big town, just a church and a sign that said Vilaflor.
We got off and checked the distance to our new apartment. A six minute walk! Jim was right as usual. Google let us down again…
There was a strange statue of a solitary arm holding a bell, with no signage to explain what it meant. We’ll have to see if we can find out more about it.
The church was open, and had a pretty altar. It is dedicated to Santo Hermano Pedro, the only saint from the Canary Islands, who was born right in this town!
And now we are in our new super modern apartment in Vilaflor, the smallest municipality in Tenerife, with the highest altitude of 4600 feet. Instead of 70 degree beach weather, the high expected here is 50F. It is chilly. I hope I brought enough clothes…

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