Bus stops, in my humbling opinion, are the most weak part of this local system.
For a foreign person used to European standards are out of the ordinary.
There are two main type of bus stop
- Terminal
- Bus stops
Terminal
There are two main terminals in San Miguel de la Palma: one in Santa cruz de la Palma city close to the harbour and the other in Los Llanos de Aridane city close to the covered market.
They are called es:“estación de guagua” (bus station) or just es:“guagua”.
Both have no sign saying it’s a bus station and and can be recognized because there’s a bunch of bus stationing.
Santa Cruz de la Palma’s bus terminal
It’s locate here and has a half dozen bus stops. In the early of 2019 TILP has put bus stop signs at every stop and put an electronic Time table with next leaving bus.
Apparently from distance it look like a bar/restaurant because it is. But there’s a large patio with chairs and table and a Spanish TV set.
You can freely use it to wait for you bus and no waiter will come to serve you. Toilets are inside nd are free as most of the toilets bar in the island. They are often quite dirty in my opinion.
Warning: please use paper bin to throw used toilet paper! Do not clog the toilet! It’s required in all public and private (houses and hotel’s room) toilets of the island otherwise is indicated.
Bus stops
Bus stops can be of 4 different type:
- little orange house
- a bench with a bus stop sign
- just a sign
- “just there!” (es:”pa’ lla”, “pa’ ‘ca”)
All bus stops are on the right side of the road regarding of the direction. The there’s just an exception, with the 300 Santa cruz de la Palma – Los Llanos route in El Paso village.
Most of the bus stops have a “Bus” writing on the pavement.
That’s the most certain way to recognize a bus stop in the middle of nowhere. And precisely where the bus should stop. I found that bus stop sign are before the stop and at the head of it.
Little orange bus are little house mainly made of local lavic stone and painted with orange. There are immediately recognized as a bus stop, no doubt about it! They have bench to have a sit and a bus stop sign. There are the most advanced type of bus stop. They have shelter to repair from the strong sun or the rare rain days.
Tip: always get hydrated and protect your eyes and head with sunglasses and hat. Use sun cream to avoid get burst, if you feel dizzy or with headache please consider putting after sun cream and drink water.
The other type is more simple, it’s basically a bench on the side of the road with a bus stop sign. Some of them have some shelter as a couple in Santa cruz de la Palma and Los Llanos.
Sometimes the way to recognize a bus stop is just a bus stop sign. Just on the side of the road.
“Just there!” is an expresion of mine to say that apparently there is not a sign of bus stopping by. But there is! If you see some people waiting on a side of the road, expecially in the north of the Island (close Puntagorda’s and Garafia’s) it’s probably waiting for the bus. The only way to be sure is to speak with them and ask.
Most of the people in this island likes to chat, so no worrier about it. Please also note that local people speak mainly Spanish (local canarias variant). Some people speak German and English language. Key words is of course guagua and the final destination: ie sp:“la guagua pa’ (en:toward) Santa Cruz”.
Also please note that “para” (often used “pa’) means towards but “por” means “through”.
Local people also do NOT refer bus lines for its number but to his final destination (es:”pa’ Los Llanos”, “pa’ Fuencaliente”, “pa’ Puntagorda”).
The bad side of bus stops are:
- no bus route number (expect a few ie: Santa cruz de la Palma bus station, the hospital and Los Llanos bus stop.
- no bus stop name or number
That basically mean that you are fu**ed up if you don’t know where to hop-in or hop-off.
That’s the main reason to write the guide you are reading (the other is time tables).
Network news
TILP has changed on january 2019 routes numbers, has made a change in the main 300 route (not passing through La breña village), split northern (100) and sourthen routes (200) and has changed some.
So please be sure to user official TILP bus timetable as the Google Maps or Moovit integration as not been update so far.
