Tijarafe Museum

Posted on January 27, 2012 by sheila

The devil's costume

La Casa Del Maestro means “The Teacher’s House” and that’s exactly what this museum is – it used to be the village teacher’s house, with the classroom just inside the front door: one end is now display cases with things like old school books, and the other displays the devil costume, used for the village’s main fiesta. The house is built around central courtyard, with a tank for storing rainwater, called an aljibe.

The courtyard, Casa del Maestro, Tijarafe, La Palma

The central courtyard

The kitchen is very old-fashioned. It even has an old handmill, presumably for grinding roasted grains into gofio for breakfast.

The handmill in the kitchen at the Casa del Maestro museum, Tijarafe

The hand-operated grinding wheel in the kitchen

The other rooms hold other displays. One is replicas of pre-Hispanic ceramics found on the island, made in the workshop in Mazo, and others are full of old photographs documents, bric-a-brac and craft work.

Old Spansih school books, from about 1950. Casa del Maestro, Tijarafe, La Palma

Old school books

Sadly the museum no longer has regular opening hours, due to the cutbacks, but if you go to the Town Hall and ask nicely, they’ll open it for you if someone’s available to go with you, and it’s free.

I'd love to know who she was.

“Goodbye Street”, Tijarafe

Posted on January 19, 2012 by sheila

Goodbye Street, Tijarafe,

This is the street in Tijarafe which leads from the church to the Town Hall, where the cemetery used to be. Consequently it has the eloquent and poignant name, “Goodbye Street” (Calle Adios)

This stuck in the mind of a local girl who emigrated to Cuba and became a poet:

“If you come to visit my island, La Palma, do not forget Tijarafe where there is a street called Adios… (…) What kind of secret did it cherish that its memory has endured across a distance, measured by waves, from almost a lifetime ago? We knew it later on. It was neither a shadow of love nor of mystery, it was not an aroma of legend (…) “Adiós” (Goodbye) simply, was the street which led to the cemetery. But I am going to say that it was in an exquisite manner: it was with poetry, something which scarcely exists in municipalities, or rather in any subject matter.
I do not think that it was named by councillors: it was the village, a tiny village, which got used to calling it that, or it was born with its name, which was private, innate, exact. Hence the grace, the delicacy which could not be forgotten by those who looked at it when they were children.
The street goes down a slope, cut on a rock; the village is located above it, with a handful of houses on the verge of the ravine. But going down, and on the slope which descends vertically, on a fold of the rock, the cemetery, put there as if it were a bunch of lemon blossoms on the mountain’s chest.
It is well understood that it is difficult to reach that place, even for the children of this rugged countryside, experienced in crossing over ravines. This was the origin of the custom of stopping at the opening where the street was broken up by a series of gullies running downhill.
This used to be the threshold of the farewells: companions would remain there for a while, watching a small group of people go down. There, in a touched silence, the friend gave the leaving friend the last greeting, brothers to brothers…Afterwards they went up the street in silence and the street, impregnated with sighs, rich in goodbyes without exit, could have just one name: and it was called Adios (Goodbye)”.
Extract from the book of Dulce María Loynaz, “Un verano en Tenerife”, Aguilar, Madrid, 1958

Blessing animals in Fuencaliente

Posted on January 13, 2012 by sheila

Fiesta of St Anthony the Abbot, Fuencaliente, La Palma, Canary Islands
Tuesday 17th is the fiesta of San Antonio Abad (St. Anthony the Abbot) in Fuencaliente, and at midday the priest holds a special, traditional service to bless the animals in the church square. I went a couple of years ago, out of curiosity.

I didn’t know whether to expect pets or farm animals, but there was a charnming selection of both. At twelve promptly, the priest came out, gave a short sermon on looking after your animals, said a prayer, and then sprinkled the animals with holy water.

When the cat got wet, he said something you don’t expect to hear in church, but everyone else seemed happy.

Members of the congregation

Water Mines on La Palma

Posted on January 8, 2012 by sheila

Water bottles being filled at the water mine on the road to the observatory, La Palma island

The tap from the water mine on the road to the observatory

Although La Palma has more water than the other Canary Islands, many farmers used to be desperately poor and frequently hungry. The only water for irrigation was rainwater, and obviously they had no control over how much they got.

Then somebody suggested digging into the hillside to find water. (If anybody knows who, please tell me.) The idea is that much of the rainwater seeps into the ground, and runs through tiny cracks in the volcanic rocks for miles and miles before it comes out as a spring. (There are lots of springs where you can refill your water bottle on a hike, especially in the Caldera, which saves carrying so much water with you.) Much of it reaches sea-level underground, and is wasted. If you dig a tunnel horizontally into the hillside, you might well find an aquifer. Crucially, since the water takes anything up to fifty years to work its way through the ground, these galerías still run in a dry year.

It worked. In some places, this meant three harvest per a year instead of one, and the children weren’t hungry any more.

It was a tremendous amount of work, hacking away at the rock with only hand tools and no idea of when, or even whether, you’d find water. But the prospect of a better life was enough to make people start, and keep going. The Pajarito galería is over 5 km long. I wonder how long that took?

These days, over half of La Palma’s water comes from the 170 galerías on the island. And very good water it is too.

Even better, you can help yourself. The local bottled water is so cheap that it’s not worth making a special trip, but my usual route to the Roque goes right past one of them. The water is channelled into a tank, and I refill old water bottles from the tap.

The Three Kings on La Palma

Posted on January 5, 2012 by sheila

Gaspar visiting Santa Cruz de la Palma

Although Father Christmas does visit Spanish children, he’s a new arrival. Traditionally the presents arrive on the morning of January 6th, when the three kings visit baby Jesus. This is why the sales haven’t really started yet – Christmas isn’t over here. And on the evening of the 5th, they ride in procession through most of the major towns and villages in Spain. In previous years we’ve usually gone to see the procession in Santa Cruz. They start at the south end of town and meet up at the Plaza España, where they find they’re all following the same star and agree to travel together. When they get to the Alemeda, they find King Herod’s court. Of course, he wants to know what they’re doing in his country, and then makes them promise to tell him where the child is. They travel up the baranco from the concrete ship, and find Mary, Joseph and Jesus in a cave, and leave their presents. Then finally, an angel tells them not to even think about telling Herod where to find Jesus.

At that point they light the bonfires in the (hopefully dry) river bed and set off the fireworks.

The procession in Santo Domingo de Garafía is supposed to be particularly good. Traditionally it starts at 10pm, and there’s a long drive back for me, which is why I’ve never seen it.

The shops will stay open at least until midnight for people who’ve left buying presents until the last minute. Tuesday is a public holiday, and the sales start on Wednesday – if you’ve got any money left by then.

I justhope their majesties know that I’ve been a good girl, because I want a Kindle and bad children traditionally get coal.

Baltazar visiting Santa Cruz de la Palma

Happy New Year from La Palma

Posted on December 31, 2011 by sheila

Fireworks in Santa Cruz de la Palma

Santa Cruz de la Palma, Los Llanos, and most big villages will have a public dance to celebrate new year. In some cases, that blocks the traffic. For example, Santa Cruz’s main road along the sea front will be shutting. (If you need to get through, use the bypass inland.) Many people dress up – I mean really dress up, as though they were going to the opera at Covent Garden. At midnight, people traditionally eat one grape for each “boing” of the clock. If you manage all twelve on schedule, it’s supposed to bring good luck, or prosperity, or something. (It usually gives me indigestion.) People drink champagne, and every town hall on the island lets off fireworks.

We’ll be partying at home, and enjoying the fireworks from the balcony.

I hope 2012 brings all my readers whatever they most wish for. It should finally bring my first e-book to market – “The Dodo Dragons and Other Stories” followed by “A breathtaking Window on the Universe: a guide to the Roque de Los Muchachos observatory”

Happy New Year!

Holy Innocents’ Day

Posted on December 28, 2011 by sheila

Today is Holy Innocents’ Day, which commemorates the massacre of the innocents by Herod in Matthew’s gospel (although according to Wikipedia, it’s probably not a historical event). In Spain and Spanish-speaking countries, it’s the Spanish equivalent of April Fool’s Day.

Here’s an example.

Merry Christmas from La Palma

Posted on December 24, 2011 by sheila

The poster for the Tall Ships Meeting

A very merry Christmas from La Palma to all my readers.

On Christmas Day there’ll be the usual Tall Ships Meeting in Santa Cruz harbour, with a market from 9:30 am to 6 pm, live music, and the chance to visit ships from 10:30 am to 1 pm and again from 4:30 -6pm.

I plan to get the turkey in the oven and then visit the market before going home and doing the veg.

However you celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful day.

The Spanish National Lottery

Posted on December 22, 2011 by sheila

Spain has a national lottery every Thursday, but they also have two special ones for Christmas. Today was “the fat one”, with a top prize of 400.000,00 € per decimo, meaning a tenth of a ticket which costs 20 €. I presume the 10th of a ticket goes back to the days when most people couldn’t afford a whole ticket.

As usual I won nothing. I knew I wouldn’t, because I didn’t buy a ticket. I’m one of those irritating people who go around saying that lotteries are a tax on people who don’t understand the laws of probability.

Mind you, I do buy raffle tickets, especially for good causes. Although the prizes are smaller, the chances of winning are much, much higher. A few years ago, I spent 20€ on raffle tickets, and found I’d won a decimo. Oh well, I thought, at least I can spend a week dreaming about how I could spend the money I’m not going to win.

But I was wrong. I did win. All of 20 €.

Christmas Carols on La Palma

Posted on December 19, 2011 by sheila

In the Canary Islands, Los Divinos are groups of amateur musicians who sing Christmas carols. The tradition is to go around the town or village carolling for nine days before Christmas – 1 night for each month of Mary’s pregnancy. The groups are usually fairly large and very, very good.

La Palma Island

Everything to help you enjoy the island of La Palma, in the Canaries