It is another gorgeous day here - cool, sunny, with quickly passing clouds. Try as we might, we are still ready far too early for our museum tour, so we try to cool our heels around the ship, but then decide to just go walk – why not sit outside in the sunshine while we wait, instead of inside the ship?
Again, its a nice walk out of the pier area and into the town. Today we have 2 other large ships with us in port, and we have already been forewarned that there will be 6 – 8,000 extra people here. Because we are such early birds though, we get the pleasure of walking through nearly deserted streets watching while Tenerife slowly wakes up on this beautiful Saturday morning.
Passing Plaza de Espana, we stop for a bit to watch an MG road rally that is just starting. Ed is of course absorbed in the cars, as he owned MG’s (and a Fiat X19)and maintains they were among his favorite cars.
Still having too much time on our hands, we slowly make our way to the Museo de la Naturaleza y al Hombre (Natural History Museum), passing the Iglesia de la Conception with its lovely little tree filled square and great bell tower….
…then sit on a bench outside the museum waiting for opening time. Punctually at 9:00am, the doors open up admitting us into the 3 story building. We make the desk guy laugh when he asks if we are jubilado (we’ve got that down now!) and I point to Ed, while Ed points to me and shakes his head no. The audio guide is free through the museum wifi, so we don’t have any decisions to make there, as we walk up the steps to the 2nd floor to begin learning the evolutionary history of the Canary islands. This place is massive with tons of what are probably really interesting displays. Sadly, though, the wifi isn’t working, which means we have no guide and every explanatory sign is in Spanish. Ok, so we get to test our Spanish skills, and when all else fails, make up stories about what we are seeing! There are the history stories of pirates and how the islands were populated, big displays with flora and fauna, we learn about pine forests and other woodlands on the island, the animals, including the rato gigante (yes, it was a giant rat) that lived here years ago. The displays are really well done, and a lot are interactive – where you push or pull a drawer or cabinet to find more information. It truly is an amazing place – and we’ve got it all to ourselves – there isn’t a single other person in the place during our entire time!
The amazing thing is, there is no security around either. It’s all the honor system. While we’re certain there are cameras around, there isn’t anything or anyone else (except little signs asking you not to touch) that would stop you from climbing up on some of the animal or fish models, or doing anything else “untoward,” so to speak. Maybe during busier periods they have more staff, but clearly not today. It almost feels like Night at the Musuem for us.
Room after room, we learn (or make up) more about the islands. But the main attraction are the Mummies. We came for the Mummies – and boy did we ever get them! The museum has a collection of Mummies and mummified body parts found in the islands that are around 1,000 years old. They are amazing – feet, hands, skulls with teeth and tons of different panels of explanation about bones that appear to be broken, scars, tooth loss, and more. Fascinating! (Maggi – skip right over these pictures.)
Ok, a little creepy, yes, but fascinating all the same. We wandered around more displays, went up tot he 3rd floor, and after finally exhausting every mammal, invertebrate, flower, tree and other miscellaneous pieces of Canary Island history, make our way down to the ground floor level to leave. But wait! There’s more! There is a lovely little enclosed garden area (with trees recently trimmed – or actually cut way back – I’m thinking storm) where we wander a bit, but then hear noises from inside rooms that surround the garden. Hmm…
We enter through a black curtain and find a whole series of video presentations on the flora and fauna (in English as well as Spanish), as well as a fantastic series of volcanic eruption videos that are engrossing. Of course we have managed to come in the exit door, so we are seeing the series backwards, but, it still is pretty amazing, even if we walked back through the evolution. Taking a bit of a breather, we sit on one of the benches in the garden to reconnoiter and chart out our course to the Belles Art Museo on the other side of the old town.
It is still so early, we just sort of meander our way across town. Because we have so much time, we decide to stop for cappuccino at a cafe on one of the main pedestrian streets leading from the seaside promenade. It is enjoyable sitting outside, in the sun, watching all the people wander by, and guessing which cruise line they are on. LOL. There is more English (or I should say British) spoken here than Spanish. But, it’s a pleasant way to spend a half an hour or so, just hanging out (oh, and the cappuccino were only 1 Euro each!)
Now, we're on our way to the Bellas Artes Museum, that we’ve read has tons of art and works from the Prado. It’s an unassuming building, with an open doorway across from the Plaza de Principe, a lovely looking park perched up on what looks like old fortress walls. The museum was founded in 
1840 and is free to the public. I don’t think we knew there was no charge, because we walk in and I start digging in the backpack for my wallet, but the security guard says “Es gratis,” and explains there are 3 floors (I’m getting better at Spanish!). The whole museum has 14 rooms, and the first floor is a series of about 5 rooms with lots of large paintings from a variety of artists and a neat clothing exhibition depicting gowns in various stages of creation and one odd mannequin dressed in work clothes of a country woman (or peasant) from Lanzarote in the 19th and 20th century. It looks almost Amish, which is sort of understandable, farming, country, but what makes it so odd are the strange “glove” like coverings on her hands. I can’t translate the explanation, except to know they are made of serge and have laces (cordones) to tie them on.
The second floor has only 2 rooms, but oh my, what rooms they are! It is like a storage room of art – hundreds of paintings line the walls, with more in hanging cart like holders in the middle of the room, it’s like walking into someone’s stash of stolen artwork. i feel like we’ve just walked into one of those news stories you read occasionally, or even the Monument Men Movie, where people have all that art that they bought on the black market and can’t show anyone, but want to enjoy it themselves? That’s this place! Crazy.
And the artwork is wonderful. It’s a mix of old and new, traditional and contemporary. There are some wonderful local artists as well, all with completely different styles.
In the very back of the room next to a series of pen and ink drawings, is an entire wall of old labels for paintings. We’re curious as to why they are there, but, we figure maybe it is just a display of how the paintings were originally described. As we are wandering, the security guard comes over and asks if we need help, then proceeds to explain the layout of the rooms (there are laminated sheets that are legends for what paintings are on the walls. She’s so nice, and so helpful, I decide to ask about the labels on the wall. She misunderstands me, and thinks I am asking about a specific label – La Lamento - and says, well, you aren’t allowed in here, but….and opens these old wood doors into what is their restoration area to show us La Lamento, a statue of a blind boy with a dog, holding his hat out. She said people were putting coins in the hat! Then she giggled and said, no! It’s a statue! So sweet. She kept chatting away, showing us different painting. I noticed-and remarked on – the beautiful designs on her nails – which of course mandated a conversation about her nails. She explained how the girl who does them is an artist and how she hand paints everything in layers and sometimes paints things as a surprise. I’d like to have someone like that! At any rate, it was a nice little
Upstairs we look through large scale paintings, one of which is being restored because someone put a fist through it (we don’t know if it was accidental or malicious – our friendly security guard didn’t tell us and we didn’t think to ask at the time). The painting is so large, that it has to be restored in place, so that room is closed, but we can at least peek in and see how they are starting to fix the canvas.
After that thoroughly delightful visit, we head back out into the streets in search of lunch. We had scoped out a tapas restaurant across from Plaza de Espana yesterday that looked interesting so we head in that direction. It is still a bit early (by Spanish standards) when we arrive, but there are a ton of people sitting at tables under the awning, so we join them and hang out for a bit until the waitress approaches us. We ask if they have started tapas, and we are in luck! So we order the Tablita de quesos canarios (when in the Canaries, we must try the local cheese!), Queso ruulo de cabra frito con mermelada mango (I’m not passing up fried goat cheese with mango marmalade) and of course, brochetas de pulpo frito con ali oli de aguacate (fried octopus with avocado aioli). Makes for a great midday meal – our last off the ship until we return home!
Now it is back to the ship, with a pit stop at the Spar grocery store for a few supplies. OMG, this store has been hit and hit hard! With so many ships and so many crew members, the shelves are barren in many places – particularly in the snack aisles. Too funny. We grab a couple of things, then walk back to the ship with plenty of time to spare, before our afternoon tour of Teide.
