Homage to the Bajada

The "Homage to the Bajada" statue.

I love this statue.

It stands about a kilometre outside Valverde, on the road down to the port and airport, which means most people are going to see it fairly soon after they arrive on the island. As the name suggests, it celebrates the Bajada, the big once-every-five-years fiesta where they take the statue of the island's patron saint to the capital for a month.

The back of the statue

I wrote a post about this while it was being built, and I was fascinated to see the finished statue. It meant so much more, now that I've seen the bajada dancers.

The biggest archway in the Canaries.

The artist, Rubén Armiche, clearly has a good idea of what appeals to kids aged from 4 to 94. This archway is only one of the ways into the statue. He calls it the biggest archway in the Canary Islands, because on a clear day it frames Mt. Teide. (Shame about the haze when I took the photo.)

Holes for peeking through.

There are actually two archways, side by side; one is adult size and the other kid-sized. Better yet, there are peek-holes between the two.

The scaffolding for the huge statue is made from things like old washing machines, which saves them going into landfill. And as you can see, some of the details on the outside are recycled too.

Detail of the statue. Yes, they're bottle tops!