On the way to the airport we stop in Candelaria as our relative wants to see the famous basilica in town. Parking is a bit farther away but we think we have enough time, and we do, to walk to the basilica, visit it and return back to the car and then reach the airport.
The Basilica is a pilgrimage place and as such it has a large plaza in front of it but it is not in use today even though it seems to be prepared for some future festivities. The seashore itself is lined with statues of Guanche kings, we plan to take a closer look at them later.
At least the Basilica is open and the centerpiece is the Virgin of Candelaria, the patron of the Canary Islands. It is quite high above the altar and we wonder how the procession get to the icon, is it taken down and moved around or is there some other way?
We find out at least one way that the icon is accesible, there are actually stairs that go right next to it, you could even touch it if you really wanted to do that. What is interesting is that we are almost the only people that noticed this, even our relative missed that we climbed and we have to show her how to access the icon.
Next we explore a bit the area and the statues while we make our way to Ermita de San Blas. The Hermitage was in its day the holding place of the first venerated image of the Virgin of Candelaria, which disappeared from here after a strong storm. It is not open so we can see it only from outside which is unfortunate as we wanted to see how it is built inside the stone wall incorporating a real cave into the church.
At the end of the path is another natural cave but it is inaccesible and it is time to return to the car so that is what we do before driving to the airport to bid our relative good bye, or so we think.
