If a beach is all you want for your holiday, then frankly you’re better off in Tenerife. But if a beach is part of the mix, then we have two main beach resorts, Los Cancajos and Puerto Naos.

Our sand is like the Model T Ford – “Any colour you like, as long as it’s black”. When the sea mashes up black, volcanic rock, that’s what you get. However, black sand warms up in the sun faster than yellow sand, which is decidedly nice for winter holidays.

Cancajos is on the east of the island, which is comparatively cool, cloudy and wet. (But I do mean “comparatively”. It’s still a much nicer climate than, say, Manchester.) That also makes the surrounding countryside much greener.

The beach

If you like to swim a long way off shore, the east side of the island is safer, because the ocean currents push you back towards the shore, rather than out to sea. If you’re a less confident swimmer and like to stay closer in, the two artificial islands break up the Atlantic rollers. This makes it a great beach for kids.

And for small children, there’s a large natural rock pool, perhaps fifteen feet across, with almost no waves at all. The depth depends on the tides, but the bottom is sand and slopes gently.

Amenities
Lots of shops, cafés, and restaurants, some of them very close to the beach. Tourist Information office. A climbing frame shaped like a ship on the beach. A few free fresh-water showers, plus changing rooms available for a small fee.

Local Colour
There’s a very pleasant walk along the top of small cliffs, to the south of the main beach, smooth and flat enough for a push-chair.

Transfer to and from the airport is only about ten minutes. You will hear the planes. They’re not very loud, but it could bother light sleepers.

Transport
Buses to the airport and Santa Cruz every half hour. Several hire car firms have offices in the shopping centre. 4 km walk to Santa Cruz (the island’s capital).

Where to stay:

Hotel Taburiente Playa (4 star)
Hotel Hacienda San Jorge (3 keys)
Aparthotel Las Olas (3 star)
Aparthotel Costa Salinas (3 keys)
La Caleta Apartments (3 keys)
Centro Cancajos Apartments (3 keys)
EL CERRITO Apartments (3 keys)
Largo Azul Apartments (2 keys)
La Cascada Apartments (2 keys)
Oasis San Antonio Apartments (2 keys)
Los Cancajos Apartments (2 keys)
Los Rosales Apartments (1 key)

The full Transvulcania route in all its horror.

On Saturday, crazy people will be running an ultramarathon around La Palma. It’s the famous Transvulcania.

The main race starts at 6 am down at the lighthouse at the southern tip of the island. The runners will race up the central spine of the island to the picnic site at El Pilar, then Punta de Los Roques. The race continues anticlockwise around the Caldera rim, climbing up to the observatory at 2,426 m (7,900 ft) which the leaders should pass at about 11 am, down to El Time, then steeply down to Puerto Tazacorte at 12:30 and finally reaching the finishing line in Los Llanos at about 1 pm. That’s 83.3 km (51.8 miles) – nearly twice a normal marathon – with steep climbs, only 75% the normal oxygen at the highest point, and probably baking hot sun for the second half.

See what I mean about mad?

Less crazy people will be doing a half-marathon, starting in the same place at 6:30 am and finishing at El Pilar. The winners should arrive there at about 8:30. I doubt that I could walk this.

There will be races for kids and teenagers at El Pilar at 11 am.

It’s too late to sign up for the race, but there’ll be another next year. The website is http://www.transvulcania.com/.

After all, I’m not really in any position to comment on other people’s sanity. But I’m planning to spend the day reading in bed.

The cross in the village of San Jose is a working clock. The cross rotates and several of the gear wheels move, too.

The clockwork cross in San Jose

Botazo infant school have the Smurfs.

Botazo school cross, decorated with a Smurf theme.

And The Laja del Barranco have a classical theme.

La Laja del Barranco cross, Breña Alta

Detail of a cross decorated with jewellry for Fiesta de La Cruz, Breña Baja

On Sunday, Alan Gandy successfully completed his Seven-Islands Walk. (If you’re impressed, you can donate here.)

Tuesday May 1st is a public holiday. Most shops will be closed. If you’re self catering, it might be an idea to stock up a bit today.

Thursday May 3rd is a local holiday in Santa Cruz de La Palma, Breña Alta, Breña Baja and Mazo. It’s Fiesta de la Cruz, and the roadside crosses will beautifully decorated on Wednesday evening. People have been making preparations for months. The locals will visit the crosses late on Wednesday night, although the crosses will stay up until Thursday evening. Again, most shops will be closed on Thursday, although only in the east of the island. (A few of the crosses in other parts of the island get decorated too.)

Finally, the road from Santa Cruz de La Palma to the Roque de los Muchachos is intermittantly closed for roadworks. They’re cleaning the cutting walls and the gutters around Los Andennes, where you get a wonderful view of the Caldera de Taburiente. The road is closed from Monday – Friday (but probably not public holidays) from 9 am to 2:30 pm. The road from the observatory to Garafía is not affected. If you’re going from Santa Cruz or Los Cancajos to the observatory via Los Llanos, Tijarafe and Garafía, allow at least two hours and half a tank of petrol.

Alan Gandy leaving Barlovento for Santa Cruz de La Palma

Alan Gandy is walking the length of all seven Canary Islands for charity, and he’s currently on La Palma. Yesterday he walked from Santa Cruz to Fuencaliente, and today he’s walking from Barlovento to Santa Cruz. That’s about 39 km altogether.

All procedes to two charities, Niños del Tercer Mundo – a charity based on the island which funds projects in the third world, and the Rose Road Association – based in the UK, who provide services to severely disabled children and their families. You can read more on Alan’s blog  and Facebook page. If you’re impressed, you can donate here.

The Dodo Dragon and Other Stories

Nine quirky SF stories by Sheila Crosby (the author of this blog) to entertain you. Two of the stories are set on La Palma.
On sale April 23rd 2012, and available for Kindle, iPad, Mac and PCs.

Cover painting by Merche Martin Morillo
Layout by Eco-geek

This book currently has 4.5 stars on Amazon.com, but it’s slightly cheaper from our own products page, which also offers other electronic formats.

If you have any problems with this book, please click on “Leave a reply”.

If you like it, please tell as many people as possible!

The Roque de Los Muchachos at night by Manel Soria

Manel Soria, who gave a talk on night photography at FotoNature 2012 now has amazing photos of La Palma on his website at www.frikosal.net
The photo above was taken in the observatory, looking north. From left to right you can see the empty dome of the Swedish 60 cm telescope, MAGIC II (on the horizon, some distance below), the Superwasp Follow-up Telescope (closer), the Liverpool telescope (peeking from behind the ridge), the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope (at the back) and SuperWASP below the JKT.

The photo below looks south over the Caldera to the southern sky. Because La Palma is closer to the equator, we get to see some stars in the southern hemisphere, which you never see from Britain. This photo includes Alpha Centauri which is the next nearest star after our own sun. You can also see two stars of the southern cross, just peeking over the ridge: Mimosa and Gamma Crucis.

Both these photos are reproduced with written permission from the photographer. For any other use, please contact him at frikosal [AT] gmail[DOT]com.

Stars over Los Llanos from the Roque by Manel Soria

Star Quality Malvasia wine - heaven in a glass

Malvasia is a white dessert wine from the south of La Palma. It’s too sweet to drink with fish (or to drink like a fish). In fact it’s similar to Maderia or a sweet sherry – more something you’d have at the very end of a meal with the local sweet almond biscuits.

In Shakespear’s day Malvasia wine was known as Malmsey, and it was very popular indeed. In the play Richard III, the Duke of Clarence is drowned in a butt of Malmsey, which seems like a dreadful waste of good wine to me.

Malvasia comes from Fuencaliente in the south of the island, and most of the vines are trained very low to the ground to prevent the grapes from dying out, which must make for back-breaking work. I love the stuff.

Bodegas Teneguia have a new, extra-special Malvasia on sale, which is aged for 16 years. It’s called “Calidad Estelar” – Star Quality, in honour of La Palma’s amazing dark skies.   It seems to be winning prizes all over the place. Most recently, it won “Best Canarian Wine” at Agrocanarias2012, and a gold medal at the international Wine Festival Vinalies Internationales 2012 in Paris.

Obviously I’m not the only one who thinks it’s heaven in a glass.

Fish for lunch, Puerto Tazacorte

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.

There are lots of good places to eat fish, but I particularly recommend Casa Goya just south of the airport runway (in Mazo), the shack on the pebble beach at El Remo and the row of restaurants at the north end of Puerto Tazacorte

Holy Week Procession leaving the church of San Francisco

It’s Holy Week, and in this Catholic country, a lot of people take it very seriously. The bigger churches hold processions, which look very exotic to my English eyes. Do try to see at least one.

It’s not so much that they take the obviously-heavy statues along the street – most churches do that on the respective saint’s days. It’s the costumes. They remind me of the Klu Klux Klan. This is unfair, because the costumes concerned are far older than the KKK. They ensure anonymity, but in this case it’s not to avoid prosecution; apparently it’s to stop onlookers admiring your piety.

Traditional costumes copied by the KKK

The Tourist Office produce a leaflet which lists the processions and their routes. These photos are of the Good Friday Calgary procession from the church of San Francisco. The men in red and white are from the Brotherhood of the Crucified and the True Cross (Cofradia del Crucificado y la Vera Cruz).

Procession with the statue of Our Lady of Loneliness

These statures are The Crucified (1968, Ezequiel de Leon Dominguez), The Holy Mary Magdelene (XIX century, Fernando Estevez del Sacramento) and St John the Evangelist (1863 Aureilo Carmona Lopez).

Procession with statues of Jesus, Mary Magdelene and St John, Santa Cruz de la Palma

Each cofradia is devoted to a particular statue, and they’re expensive to join – some cofradias in Serville cost over 1,000€, mostly for the costume. To the best of my knowledge, the cofradia exists solely for these processions, and do nothing else. They don’t, for example, feed the hungry, buy medicines for the sick, or save whales.

I can easily understand suffering yourself in order to reduce someone else’s suffering. Personally I don’t see the point of this.