We find parking right downtown for once and immediately exit into the historic area. Close by is the major church in the city, the Church of Our Lady of Conception, built in the 18th century. It cannot be visited, at least not now, but at least we see it from all sides as we move on towards the more touristy area of the downtown.
And then it is up and up, we didn’t expect such a workout really. We are surprised that the cars can climb and even park on this incline it really doesn’t look safe.
And on we climb towards the major attraction in the city the Casa de Los Balcones passing other interesting mansions along the way. This was actually the ritzy area while Puerto de la Cruz was the poor town but now the tables have turned with La Orotava being a sleepy town and Puerto de la Cruz being the major town. And then we arrive at Casa Lercaro the first major mansion here and in we go.
What we find out is that it is open because it is a restaurant and we decide to keep it in mind as we are hungry but first we want to explore more, maybe we can find a different and better restaurant.
Next we arrive at Casa de Los Balcones which we want to visit but first we enter the souvenir shop across the street. There are a couple shops here actually, one with paintings and one with other souvenirs and we buy something from both of them as they are quite good versus what we have seen previously.
There is also a nice balcony with some great views which we use to take lots of pictures before entering Casa de Los Balcones proper for a nice visit.
After the visit it is time to go eat and because we haven’t found anything better down we go to Casa Lercaro, hopefully they have a table open for us.
There is a table open, quite a few actually and it is actually a beautiful open-air restaurant. We sit down relax order food and drinks and recuperate after the many climbs.
And the food when it arrives is good, really good we really enjoy everything we order. This is one of those restaurants we really would like to revisit if again in the area.
Now full we go up a bit more to Plaza de San Francisco, a small beautiful park which even has an interesting bird, a Grey Wagtail, walking around.
Next we decide on a walk to a couple more gardens passing some beautiful mansions and steep roads along the way.
The next garden is the small Botanical Garden which however has quite a few interesting birds including a beautiful endemic local subspecies of European Robin.
It is a nice, and cool, walk through the trees enjoying the many birds and flowers before moving on to the next park which is right across the street from the Botanical Garden.
The last major garden we are visiting are the Jardínes del Marquesado de la Quinta Roja a more formal garden built around a small marble mausoleum, built as a tomb for the Marqués de la Quinta Roja.
We now continue on the way towards our parking garage passing through the central square, Constitution Plaza. It is anchored as expected by a large church, Iglesia de San Agustin that cannot be visited either.
There are some nice views from just below the Plaza as we make our way to the parking garage and with some luck even are able to pay for the parking and leave without being stuck inside. And we still have one more stop planned today, we are going to the beach!
