La Palma to La Laguna, Tenerife

We were up earlier than usual to have breakfast before our 11am flight to Tenerife.

The airport was quiet when we got there just after 10 and we had soon checked the car, our luggage and ourselves in with time for a quick cup,of tea before boarding and an on time departure. As with Barcelona, there was entertainment for children. The plane could take between 70 and 80 people, but it was not full.

We were quickly away in Tenerife and soon parked and walking around the town of La Laguna which was full of people. The town is UNESCO listed. The bell tower, bottom left is all that remains of the original 16th century parish church. The house and court yard, middle and bottom right belonged to Casa Salazar, a 17th century nobleman. The house later became the bishop's palace and was destroyed by fire, 10 years ago and has been rebuilt.

The cathedral of St Cristobel de la Laguna from 1511

 

In the mid afternoon, we found our accommodation a short walk away, then after a rest, collected our cases from the car, before setting off to find some food. By 5pm, the shops had closed and the streets were empty..

Later, we went out to find something to eat. John had found what we thought was a tapas bar. There were three tables, each for four people and another four places at the bar. Along with another couple, we had to queue for a short time before we took a place at the bar.

We ordered a drink and the opened the menu; it wasn't a tapas bar, but a burger bar! What to do? No one was eating at this time, so we couldn't see what it would be like, but the menu provided clues - what sort of bun would we like, what sauces, beef, pork, Indian spices, etc, etc. We decided to give it a go.

All the cooking was done in a small deep fryer and a hot plate. There were four people serving 16 customers and it was very good. The chips were sweet potato. Pat had ordered pork loin with a cheese topping. We watched the cheese being scooped out of the inside of the truckle, moulded and thrown onto the hot plate and flamed to make it liquid. This was the result.

We had fallen on our feet.

 

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Santa Cruz de La Palma

Our last day on La Palma was spent in Santa Cruz, the capital. It was a rainy day and so we spent some time hiding in cafes while sorting out photos, but the sun showed itself from time to time.

There are many colourful and interesting buildings. Along the sea front, one can see a line of houses with balconies (and many people taking photos)

A little further along is the remains of St Catherine's castle, part of an old defensive structure.

These are the buildings around and including the cathedral of Santa Domingo de La Palmal. We managed to visit it just as it was closing..

but John managed to take a couple of photos before we had to leave, including the ceiling on the left.

 

 

In the evening we tried several places to eat and ended up in a small bar where we had a tapas like meal. Fortunately, we had decided to stay inside and had settled at on of the few tables, because it wasn't long before the rain started again and those outside were moving in.

We have now arrived on Tenerife where we will stay for 7 days.

 

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To the volcanos

We left Los Llandos in the morning, taking the scenic route to Santa Cruz, the capital of La Palma and close to the airport for our next flight on Saturday. We had decided to take the LP2 to the far south, Los Canarios de Fuencalienre where one can see many volcanos (roads are all LP on La Palma, we are expecting the roads on Tenerife to be Ts).

We had driven up and down the road to the bungalow a few times, with the stone walls and banana trees, hoping not to meet anything coming the other way.

The 'swan' cactus grows in a garden by the side of the road and is a parlicularly good specimen.

Rather than drive directly to SantanCruz, we took the LP2 to the far south, Los Canarios de Fuencalienre where one can see many volcanos (roads are all LP on La Palma, we are expecting the roads on Tenerife to be Ts).

On the side of the road, there was a small chapel, perched on a hill; there was no sign of it being in use. Below us, there was little or no indication that there were beaches, but there were some resorts and a lighthouse, the Faro Punta de la Lava.

Our first stop was the visitor centre at the Volcán de San Antonio. This small volcano erupted in 1677 and continued for a year. There is the usual film to watch, but we were really there for breakfast! It is possible to walk around the rim of the volcano on a good day, but this was not a good day! The wind was howling around us and the were steep drops from the path. We walked a short way and then turned back to safety and the shelter of the car.

This is the volcano as it is today

 

We continued on to see the volcano Teneguia which erupted in 1971. Naturally, this involved a walk. We parked the car and headed off, meeting this raven almost immediately. He was dining on orange skins and bread.

Scenes from our walk: Roc de Teneguia and the volcano itself, Teneguia

We walked up to the volcano and Pat rested there for a while, while John clambered to the top. The wind was blowing strongly, so we a sheltered spot was needed. A French group were already in the best spot, eating their lunch.

At the top of Tenegua, Mount Anton from Tenegua and view from at the top.

We retraced our steps back to the car and then set off for the coast and lunch. It was a long and windy drive to get to the bottom, passing through many fields of bananas - this is banana production on a big scale. Nearby, we found a shanty town with 'boxed in' caravans - just a tiny part of the caravan could be seen outside a large garage like structure. It wasn't a place that felt comfortable taking photos of the dwellings.

The bananas and the view from the shanty town.

 

Nearby, a small cafe open and making paella on demand.

Later, we continued on our way, passing another lighthouse, the Fuencaliente lighthouse with the salt pools, Salinas Marinas, close by

From here, we were heading to our next stop in Santa Cruz de La Palma, but first, we would drive over land that didn't exist before the volcano erupted in 1971, the size of the island grew at that time. The landscape is, of course black, vey different and beautiful in its own way.

Some of the flowers around the volcanos

 

Then we drove along the eastern side of the island, past the airport where we flew in and on a short distance to Santa Cruz and our hotel in the town. On the way, we passed the docks, where a cruse liner was docked for the day.

There would be a different ship there the next day.

 

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Tazacorte and the Caldera de Taburiente again

We left our bungalow and drove to the coast at Tazacorte for breakfast and a look around. There were plenty of people sitting in the sun enjoying a coffee. I ordered a croissant. The menu had a photo of a normal sort of croissant, but what arrived looked somewhat different.

The first thing that one notices here is that the sand here is not the usual colour, it's black. People were swimming but it was a little too cold for us. We did paddle on the edge of the sea until we reached a point where the 'sand' was a little courser than sand.

When we reached the port, we found two vast areas where cruise ships might dock and many bays for buses which would collect the passengers and take them off for a trip. It looked as though the area had never been used for anything other than bike riding.

After lunch at the port, we set off for another trip into the Caldera de Taburiente, this time from near our bungalow at Los Llanos. Rather than climbing up to the top and then dropping down into the cauldron, we went at a higher level and drove down to river level where we could walk along the dry river bed, until, that is, we found water flowing. We walked along for about an hour, slowly climbing higher until we reached a waterfall that was too high for us to climb.

In the evening, we walked again into the town looking for restaurants, many of those recommended to us were closed in January. We did, however, find a pizza restaurant where one of the customers was determined to watch the Barcelona v Bilbao football match. He spent about 20 minutes trying to tune the TV into the right chanel and eventually succeeded, so we watched the match as well (Barcelona won!).

 

 

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Los Llanos and the Caldera de Taburiente

Our aim of Tuesday was to see the highest point and centre of the island, the Caldera de Taburiente. On La Palma, the volcano has collapsed into a cauldron, so from below, one sees only the rim.

However, first stop was breakfast, so we went into Los Llanos and found cake, coffee and tea, plus some photo opportunities.

Then we set out for the mountain. We drove to the visitor centre, picked up a map and continues up the mountain, as far as we could drive. There are three wars of getting to the rim: book in for one of 16 parking places, take a taxi or walk. We walked! It took about an hour to reach the rim (around 3.5 km uphill) and where the car park is and the taxis stop(1340 metres above sea level. Views on the way up:

The walk to the miradore (viewing point) was 530m descending into the crater over rough ground, but not as bad a Los Tiles. As we walked, we didn't know what to expect, there were trees everywhere. Eventually we turned a corner and reached the view point - we knew then why we were there.

Here we are at the miradore

 

So then all we had to do was retrace our steps and find some lunch. Here is John taking a photo and the resulting photo

 

Sunset from our bungalow

 

In the evening, we again walked down to the town to eat.

 

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From Barlovento to Los Llanos

We set out to visit La Fajana, some natural seawater pools recommended by Lonely Planet, but not very natural looking on the maps. We were in for a treat! In fact the pools once were natural, but have been 'enhanced' for convenience. The are in the north east corner of the island with lots of waves.

On the way

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At La Fanaja, we spent a considerable time watching and photographing the waves breaking on the pools and rocks

After a stop for elevensies, we carried on round the top of the island and down the west coast to our next inland stop, Los Llanos, driving along some interesting and windy roads. John had chosen the scenic route! This is a two way road, but with one way tunnels, lots of them.

Other views from our scenic route. We went through many hairpins and were above the cloud for some of the way.

Suddenly, we came across a large obstruction blocking the road. They were being herded along, but had ideas of their own.

As we travelled to Los Llanos, we moved more inland and were seeing terraced vineyards.

Along the road, the hairpins down to Los Llanos, bananas and the largest poinsettia Inhave seen.

After checking in to our smal bungalow, we walked down to the town to find some food. The night view from our terrace

 

 

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First day on La Palma

Barlovento is close to Los Tiles, a conservation area with a laurel forest and various rare or unique flora. We set out for a walk in the forest, but first we stopped at La Laguna. On the map, La Laguna looks like a large round hole in the ground, full of water, maybe a deep hole in the earth or rock. The giveaway, when we saw it in reality, is that it is a man made hole lined with concrete and not at ll full. We lost interest! We have since heard that an error was made in its construction and it is impossible to fill!

We the moved on a short distance to the nature reserve, Los Tilos which is classified as a biosphere and a UNESCO site.

At first the paths were easy, but later they became more difficult as we climbed up and then down again (several times). After an hour, we decided to turn round at the next difficult bit which didn't take long to present itself. All in all, we walked for two hours, but it was tough at times.

Some of the flowers we saw on our walk

We went to find some lunch in the village close to our hotel. We enjoyed a huge tortilla for Pat and a goat stew for John. We were joined by a very beautiful cat

Flowers from a later walk in the garden of the hotel

We wandered down to the older part of the town as night was falling

As we were about to leave to go back to the hotel to eat, we chanced upon a bar, Los Vinios. The lady behind the counter spoke only Spanish, but, yes, she had food and we could have a bottle of wine (which was rather good). A number of people were lined up along the bar, all drinking red wine. The reason soon became clear: football with Real Madrid.

Then it was time to get ready to move on the next day.

 

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