After all that (link: La Palma PANPAN), let’s get to the more enjoyable part of our fortnight on the beautiful Island of La Palma! She is one of our favourite.
More repairs (…uhm, enjoyable?)
Santa Cruz’ only ship chandler El Chopo turned out to be a good place to get last necessary technical items before a long time. And we were extremely lucky to find a replacement gear command that Jean-Luc fitted within one day! We also replaced a lost fender, bought an extra spear for the harpoon and other fishing accessories, ropes, fuses, very strong springs for the mooring lines and other bits and pieces for … probably about 800 Francs! Ouch!
Enjoying the island La Palma
After a few days of serious work and school, we hired a car for 4 days. Our days were full, always on the move. The south spoilt us with copies of Guanche pottery made traditionally by an elderly craftsman in his old windmill, it’s picturesque salt pans and the idyllic lighthouse at the south tip. Furthermore, once past the most southern point separating the wild south eastern coast sea from the calm waters on the west coast, we drove through endless banana plantations.
Marina Santa Cruz de la Palma, Illika in the middle of the picture 
Beautiful black beach of Santa Cruz, hardly used as the wind is nearly always too strong 
Marina of Santa Cruz, the restaurants aren’t very active as the centre of town is so close 
El Chopo, where we found the necessary spare gear commandm and other things 
our problem part! Gear changer 
Always appreciated, big salad plate. 
Craftsman in his windmill, producing copies of guanche pots. 
Technique to make the patterns 
and a small museum with tools 
most southern point of the island Fuencaliente, with it’s lighthouse 
The salt pans and the lighthouse 
The salt pans in all stages of “maturation” 
The red colour comes from some kind of (good) bacteria 
Endless banana plantations all over the island 
A bunch of banans 
The Canarian Banana, very delicious 
Some road between the plantations are extremely steep! 
Where you can see South-East VS South-West coast
The youngest volcano of the Canaries
Then, on the west coast, we were fascinated but also moved by the most recent volcanic eruptions on the Canary Islands, at the Cumbra Vieja, which took place between September and December 2021 and left 10% of the island covered with lava and volcanic ash and destroyed a lot of housing and banana plantations. On top of that, it turned a whole tourist area (with one of the very few sandy beaches) into a ghost town. The reason for this being that there are still toxic gas emissions.
It was also intimidating to drive over a newly built road, where you’re not allowed to get out of the car, because the lava is still hot! Above the volcano, we walked on a path over lava ashes, where burnt trunks of pine trees are standing in the black ash, new branches sprouting in all directions. From far we could still see the volcano peak smoking away…
Cumbre Vieja with its lava flow, the road newly built.. 
You can’t get out of the car and no place to stop. 
That day there was a lot of wind, so the lava ash blasted you if you got out of the car 
Some houses were just lucky 
… and others not! 
The tourist area of Puerto Naos is not accessible because of the toxic gases 
The clouds come over the mountains from east to west, very fascinating to watch 
The pine forest standing in the “fresh” lava ashes 
View from the north looking to the south end of the island 
One of the few beaches on La Palma, at Puerto Tazacorte
Montains and laurel forest
Like Teneriffe and La Gomera, the north coast, exposed to the trade winds, is covered with the thick semi-tropical forest called Laurisylve, endemic to Macaronesia which invites you to hike. Which we did, as well as driving up turning roads till the top of Los Muchachos, the highest mountain and volcano ridge. Up here stands one of the most important observatories in the northern hemisphere, where scientists from the whole world come to study and watch the stars and planets in the clear and pure sky every night.
Beautiful laurel forest with lots of hiking trails 
Quite a few waterfalls on the Island of La Palma 
Trails through tunnels, some hikes you can only do with helmets and torches 
Play for the boys 
Both of them equally of course… 
Another wonderful hike: first through the pine forest, then up to the crater edge 
Arriving at the crater edge of the Taburiente Volcano 
Not so far off from walking in the alps 
View from the crater edge over to Los Muchachos, the highest point 
Arrived at Pico de la Nieve, oposite the highest point 
We had company during our picknick 
These stunning flowers, reduced to about 50 individuals in the 70’s-80’s, are now flowering all over again! (after having been protected) 
The observation centre spreads over the mountain top of Los Muchachos 
Impressive constructions! 
View down from Las Muchachas 
… and a hightec museum abouth astrophysics (a little complicated but interesting) 
We saw quite a lot of wall art on La Palma and El Hierro 
The strong winds and rough seas kept us on La Palma longer than expected.
Santa Cruz de la Palma
What we did as well, especially during the last few days, is to get the boat ready and, more appreciated, to enjoy the capital of the island, Santa Cruz, only 3 minutes’ walk from the marina (which is a luxury!). By coincidence we fell on a tiny, really interesting museum about the history of education/school, that showed old schoolbooks, diaries, agendas, desks, pens and “torturing tools” (for physically punishing the children!… ).
Santa Cruz is a lively town with a long pedestrian zone that leads all the way through the beautiful historical centre. Lots of restaurants, snack places, cafés and bars are inviting to stop. We couldn’t resist to have a last evening in a lovely restaurant, with an inside plant-covered patio, in company of our friends from Koutoubia, Nath and Teva. Looking forward to seeing them again on the Cape Verde islands 😉 Até já, se Deus quiser! (my first try at Portuguese… 😊)
Until then, another two stops are planned for us though! Let’s see…
Pretty town centre of Santa Cruz de La Palma 
One of the churches in La Palma 
The famous balconies of Santa Cruz, facing the sea 
A lot of historical buildings, this one is now a school 
A small maritime museum established in the replique of La Pinta in Santa Cruz 
Cleaning the boat thoroughly 
Very happy indeed… 
Great evening with Nath and Teva, thank you!
Yes it does take hours. To choose the photos from 3 different phones is quite a task for one. Not talking about getting them into an acceptable size for the web… which is VERY long. Then the text, first in english, is normally not too long (it seems to get longer though the more posts we have made… ). But then I go through it with the boys and Jean-Luc, who add their ideas. Fine. After that I translate it into french (anyway with help from Deeple) and then Jean-Luc reads the french version and corrects, obviously. But what happens next is that Jean-Luc starts adding and changing the sequence of the paragraphs… AAAAAHAHAH So then it gets long 😉 But I like it!
Again such a good post. Love reading them. Must take hours to get them ready for the blog …