Day 8: Tuesday

This was the second and last day of our two-day car hire. It was Assumption Day, for us a missable small note in a desk diary, but for the Spanish it's yet another public holiday when offices and most shops are closed. Apparently it marks the day when the Virgin Mary ascended into heaven.

We realised that El Corte Ingles in Santa Cruz would nevertheless be open and we did fancy another trip up the volcano, so off we set.

We ran along the southern motorway and arrived to a largely dead island capital city where, by accident, we didn't end up in the car park we planned to park in but in one nearby at a nearby shopping centre that had free parking!

We had a look round that shopping centre, particularly Primark, and found this tribute to Catherine and Andrew -

We then set off towards El Corte Ingles where we browsed the floors and had a snack lunch in the restaurant -

Heineken's Zero Alcohol beer is OK but dearer than one with alcohol - how's that with no alcohol duty to be paid?!

There was a good view over the port from the cafeteria, although the glass was tinted which didn't help. We could see P&O's Aurora docked there in its new livery with blue funnel - not sure about that!

We ended up with mixed feelings about El Corte Ingles. It's gone the way of Debenhams with designer brands everywhere and prices to match! They had a lot of sale items and I saw a nice pair of moleskin jeans at half price - they were €135 and were now only €67.50 and they had pairs of men's shorts for €59.50!

If you went to the upper floors you could find some cheaper items but the overall impression was that, with the pound now lower against the Euro and all the designer labels everywhere, you felt that you burned your fingers each time you touched a price label!

We knew there was an M&S in Santa Cruz so we set off on our 5-minute walk to find it. It came as a disappointment as it was a tiny shop and was closed for Assumption Day!

It was around 4.30pm by now and time to go. We set off up the dorsal past Tenerife's old airport and it didn't disappoint. The climb up the mountain on this route was as stunning as ever and an easy drive with few bends and some beautiful viewing points.

We had the usual obligatory stop at Las Raices where Franco plotted with other military figures to overthrow Spain's government which precipitated the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. All traces of any record of that at the site have now been removed.

Can you see the two faint humps of La Palma in the far distance?

We started back for Los Gigantes. As turned right to leave the top plateau and where you enter the lava fields before starting the descent, we would see a car coming towards us going very slowly with an animal walking alongside. As the largest indigenous creature in the Canaries is like a rat, we knew that it wasn't a wild animal. It turned out to be a medium to large emaciated dog, short-haired and of an indefinable breed walking along with his/her tongue hanging out. It had a chain collar on and the other car's occupants were clearly concerned about its chances of long-term survival in such an unforgivingly hot and arid environment. I was also concerned it could be rabid, although it looked well apart from its thin state and we had no water or any sort of bowl with us. The nearest habitation would be the Parador on the plateau, so what happened after we had moved on, we don't know. And how it could have come to be there, we can't imagine. I certainly got the impression that the middle-aged couple in the other car were looking to act in some way rather than pass by on the other side as we ended up doing.

The crest of La Gomera with the tiniest bit (El) Hierro visible beyond and to the left. For many years Hierro was regarded as the last place on the (then) flat earth and longitudes were measured as being east from that point.