Title: Book Fair
Location: Parque Garcia Sanabria, Santa Cruz
Description: Browse the books and this gorgeous park just up from Plaza de España. Open all day and FREE.
Start Date: 2010-05-29
End Date: 2010-06-06

We’ve been battered by hurricane xynthia and saturated by monsoon rains and in between we’ve had the warmest winter since the 1920s. The press have labelled it ‘the winter of storms’ and Tenerife’s weather has had more news coverage in the rest of the world than our camera shy little rock in the Atlantic is used to.
But I awoke on Sunday morning to the ‘hoop, hoop’ song of the hoopoe bird newly returned from his over-winter in Africa and my thoughts turned to long, lazy mornings over a pot of tea and the Sunday supplements in one of Tenerife’s park cafes.

So, in the fervent expectation that the wild extremes of winter are now safely behind us (was that a clap of thunder I just heard?), here at Tenerife Magazine we thought we’d join the hoopoe and trumpet the imminent arrival of spring with our guide to the best places to enjoy a cup of tea in the company of nature’s bounty.

Parque Los Lavaderos (Avenida Los Angeles, El Sauzal; open 08.00-19.00 in winter, 08.00-21.00 in summer; admission free)
Los Lavaderos clings to the side of the cliff in a series of terraces which lead down to the natural springs of a former laundry, with stunning views of Mount Teide and the lush north coastline. Quirky garden follies and giant structural plants characterise the landscape set around the Chocolaté café which serves speciality teas and bite-sized snacks in a deliciously bohemian setting.
Go now and you’ll get the perfumed benefit of the wall of jasmine right below the café.

Risco Bello (Parque Taoro, Puerto de la Cruz; open every day from 09.30 – 18.00; entrance free to café, €4 to water gardens)
Set alongside the gardens of the iconic former hotel and casino of Taoro, these decadent water gardens are Puerto’s version of ‘Through the Looking Glass’. Paths, steps and bridges weave their way through green tunnels to emerge at Monet-style lily ponds and hidden lakes set with cascading falls. Charming and intriguing in equal measure. Alongside the duck pond on a tranquil lawn where weeping willow trees bend to kiss the waterside is a small café with tea, sandwiches and a time warp to the 1950s.

Parque García Sanabria. (Rambla General Franco, Santa Cruz; admission free)
Set in the heart of Santa Cruz and known as ‘the lungs of the city’, Parque García Sanabria is an open air art gallery set amongst tropical landscaped gardens where Santacruceros come to relax and to play. Strolling through its 67,000 square metres of botanical gardens, you’ll encounter the bare bosoms of ‘Fecundidad’ and the green eyes of ‘The Cat’ amongst its many treasures. Head to the constantly changing floral clock on Calle de Méndez Núñez for the Gaudi-esque décor of its pavement café.

Sitio Litre (Camino Sitio Litre, Puerto de la Cruz; open every day from 09.30-17.00 (18.00 in summer); entrance €4.75)
Patronised in its time by such luminaries as Agatha Christie, William Wilde (Oscar’s dad), the explorers Richard Burton and Alexander Von Humboldt and the botanical artist Marianne North, you may consider ordering Earl Grey at the café outside the mansion in Sitio Litre. Tenerife’s oldest surviving gardens, Sitio Litre also boast an impressive orchid collection and a 300 year old Drago Tree; don’t forget to crook your pinkie for this one.

“One Santa Cruz, there’s only one Santa Cruz…” Well Hispanic countries have quite a lot of them, but I was unaware there was one in California, and even more surprised to find that the Tenerife capital has been twinned with it since 1974. Shelby Graham (left), Director and Curator of the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery, University of California, is doing her best to strengthen those Atlantic links. Our coffee cups collided on my way to the Cielo/Sky Part Two exhibition at the Parque Garcia Sanabria.

As luck would have it, Shelby was joined by Miriam Durango (right), Curator of Circulo Bellas Artes in Calle Castillo, who helped set up part one of the exhibition in California last November. She proved to be an instrumental contact for Shelby: “I used the internet to research art and digital media in Tenerife and found Miriam. That led to 13 Canarian artists displaying their work with us, and now we are here with the work of 12 Californian artists, which runs until 11 March”.

So why is sky the theme? “It’s the whole vast concept and looking at it from different perspectives” explained Shelby. “Andrea Borsuk sees it from a feminist view, women bearing the weight of the sky; Jim Denevan makes giant patterns on sand by using a truck and they have to be viewed from high above”.

Entering the exhibition hall inside the park, the first work to strike me was Victoria May’s suspended local volcanic rocks.  Shelby was quick to point out that they are of course only on loan. In the background a wall of small digital photos from Isabelle Jenniches had another link to Tenerife. “ These are of Japanese volcanoes and taken from internet webcams to give a compound view from high altitude”.

Some of the art is very cutting edge, I met Jennifer Parker and Barney Haynes and Barney explained their Sonic Sense project. “We are exploring solar winds and showing them in visual graphs on screen and using open source software to produce sound variations from gentle breezes”. Two large strips of suspended foil added a visual centre point for the exhibit. “When we saw this large glass sided room with the trees and plants outside we thought the Mylar, a foil developed for the space programme, would produce the ripples and distortions of star and sun tones”. I walked the channel between the foil and the collision and refraction of light was particularly eerie.

Back in the park Shelby told me a little more about the twinning link. “Santa Cruz California (above)  is a university city close to San Francisco. We have great beaches and it’s popular with tourists and surfers, so you can see the similarities. I went to the opening parade of the Carnaval here last night, that was amazing and reminded me of a cross between our Halloween and Gay Pride celebrations. I think the twinning got overlooked for many years but hopefully this art project will lead to more exchanges between our cities”.

Cielo/Sky Part Two is on at Parque Garcia Sanabria until 14 March, 11am to 1pm and 6pm to 9pm Monday to Saturday, 10am to 3pm Sunday, entry FREE.