A small rock in the Atlantic: 06/04/08

Live Music

Last night the Chamber Orchestra of Breña Baja gave a concert in Cancajos. It was rather windy, so they moved it to just outside the tourist office. I didn't hear all of it, but they seemed pretty good to me.

Labels: Canaries, Canary islands, culture, La Palma, Music

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Live Music Tonight (Friday 11th)

At 18:30 in Cancajos, there will be a concert by the Chamber orchestra of Breña Baja at the ampitheatre on the promenade. (Start at the main beach and head a few hundred yards south towards the old salt works and the airport. It's small, but you'll know it when you see it.) This is in the open air, so it may be canceled if the weather's bad.

At 20:00 in the theatre classroom (aula municipal de teatro) in Tijarafe, a musical theatre production (in Spanish) of "El cabaret del Capitán Varela".

At 21:00 at Rocke's bar in Anselmo Perez Brito street, Santa Cruz de la Palma there's the launch party for issue five of Ruido, the local fanzine. Two local groups will perform live: "Suzy Rodríguez y Pedro León" and "No Rula".

Labels: Canaries, Canary islands, culture, La Palma, Music

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Fish on La Palma is usually delicious because its very fresh. Well it should be, given the amount of ocean surrounding the island.

I once went with friends to a shack on the beach at Punta Larga (since closed) where we had to wait, because the cook was having her own lunch. As we sipped our beer, a man came up out of the sea with two fish on a hook and disappeared into the kitchen. We had the same fish for lunch.

The Canaries are well off the continental shelf, so most of the fish you get here are from deep water. You can get cod (bacalao), hake (merluza) and sometimes salmon (salmon, but pronounce the "l"), but they've come a long way. If there's no translation for the varieties of fish on the menu, they're probably local, not available in England, and fresh.

The catch is that they gut the fish, but they don't cut the heads off, and the eyes do rather stare at you accusingly. If you don't want an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with lunch, it's best to order a slice of a large fish. Medregal is a white fish. Rabil and bonito are oily fish. In fact bonito is a close relative of tuna.

If you've never had a tuna steak before, the taste is pretty much what you'd expect, but the texture and appearance is very much like a pork chop. In fact the first time I had one, I wanted to tell the waiter that he'd made a mistake. I'm glad my friend stopped me before I caught the waiter's eye.

Labels: Canaries, Canary islands, food, La Palma

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A Blustery Day

Some people reckon that the Canaries have the best climate in the world, but right now, it's blowing a gale out there. Yesterday was bad, and today is worse - we've had gusts up to force ten. The schools in Mazo, the Breñas and Santa Cruz were all shut this morning (my son was delighted, of course). The dentist didn't open either. Since the gale is from the west, the airport is shut.

It wouldn't seem nearly so odd in the UK. But the island normally sits in the trade winds, which means that we have steady winds from the north-east. It also tends to create a cloud that steadily builds up on the east side of the island. Today, with the wind coming the other side, the cloud was on the west and the east was mostly sunny - with occasional pouring rain.

Of course that means that we also got rainbows.

Labels: Canaries, Canary islands, La Palma, Weather

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Argual Flea Market

The flea market in Argual, just outside Los Llanos, takes place every Sunday from about 10 am to about 2 pm. It's smaller than the monthly market in Santa Cruz, but it's a much nicer situation. I think it's been a market square for a very long time. At any rate, it's surrounded by beautiful old buildings and has trees growing in the middle (which must be really nice on the hottest days).

Yesterday it was rather a small affair. This was partly because it clashed with the market in Santa Cruz, but mostly because the forecast was rain.

Even so, it was enough to see that this market has a slightly different flavour to Santa Cruz. It has a much higher percentage of German Hippies selling New Age things like Tibetan singing bowls.

I only saw two stalls setting plants. One also sold vegetables, and I bought some really good broccoli, plus sage and dill for the garden.

And one man was selling Palmeran cigars. Now I don't smoke, but I believe Palmeran tobacco has a very good reputation.

But perhaps my favourite bit was the dreamy live music. I haven't seen these two before. The instrument onthe left is a digeridoo. If anyone knows the name of the instrument on the right, please let me know, because I haven't seen one before.