A small rock in the Atlantic

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

Piscinas La Fajana

Salt water swimming pools at La Fajana, Barlovento, La Palma.

Fancy swimming in sea-water without the waves?

These are some rather nice salt-water swimming pools at Fajana, five km outside the village of Barlovento, on the main road to Santa Cruz. At one time they were only the natural pools, but they've been improved rather nicely. There's a pool near the top for senior citizens and the disabled, but the best places are reached down two flights of steps. They come in different depths, so that some are ideal for nervous beginners and some have more space. There's lots of flat space for sunbathing, and some caves beside the pools provide space for those who want to read a book without getting burned.

Salt water swimming pools at La Fajana, Barlovento, La Palma.

There's a cafe/bar/restaurant. It costs a bit more than similar places on the islands, but then they've obviously made a considerable investment by providing the pools. You aren't allowed to take your own food down to the pools.

You can stay in the self-catering apartments (visible at the top of the first picture) Tel 922 186162.

There are also fresh water showers (50 cents) and toilets.

And would you believe it, the toilets/changing rooms have a lovely mural on the ceiling and the tops of the walls. ! It's signed by the local artist, Luis Morera.

The toilets at the salt water swimming pools at La Fajana, Barlovento, La Palma.

The toilets at the salt water swimming pools at La Fajana, Barlovento, La Palma.

Labels: Barlovento, Beaches, Canaries, Canary Isands, fajana, La Palma, La Plama

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Thursday, 13 August 2009

La Palma's Annual Craft Fair

Traditional embroidery at the craft fair, Barlovento, La Palma

Traditional embroidery

Every year on La Palma they hold a craft fair. This year it's in Barlovento, in the large building on the main street with all the flags outside.

Jewellery made from dragon tree seeds at the craft fair, Barlovento, La Palma

Jewellery made from dragon tree seeds

There are over 80 stands, displaying a huge variety of products. Lots of traditional embroidery and baskets, of course, but also things I'd never seen before, like tied-dyed baby-clothes and ceramic-and-feather dragons.

Handmade glass beads at the craft fair, Barlovento, La Palma

Handmade glass beads at the craft fair, Barlovento, La Palma

Handmade glass beads

Several stalls have people working on their crafts, so you can see glass beads being made, or rye straw twisted into baskets.

Woven palm leaves at the craft fair, Barlovento, La Palma

Woven palm leaves at the craft fair, Barlovento, La Palma

Woven palm leaves

In some cases, it's fun to try to work out what traditional tools are for. The giant tongs are for picking prickly pears (they don't call them "prickly" for nothing). The wooden or metal tubes with air -holes at the end are for carrying a ferret so that you're both comfortable.

Handmade paper at the craft fair, Barlovento, La Palma

Handmade paper at the craft fair, Barlovento, La Palma

Handmade paper

At the entrance level, there are lots of stalls selling food and drink: biscuits, doughnuts, cheese, jam, wine and rum. Several offer free samples - decide who's driving before you sample the rum!

Sheet metalwork at the craft fair, Barlovento, La Palma

Sheet metalwork at the craft fair, Barlovento, La Palma

Sheet metalwork

The fair is open from 5 pm to 8 pm, Monday - Friday, and 11 am - 9pm Saturday and Sunday. Entrance is free.

Handmade tiles at the craft fair, Barlovento, La Palma

Handmade tiles

Labels: Barlovento, crafts, La Palma, souvenirs

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Wednesday, 11 March 2009

Rescheduled Sardine's Funerals

It poured with rain last Friday, so Los Sauces have rescheduled their sardine's funeral to Saturday 14th at 9:30 pm. This is a pity, because now it clashes with Barlovento's sardine's funeral, at 10:30 pm the same night.

Labels: Barlovento, entierro de la sardina, Los Sauces, Sardine's Funeral

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Friday, 14 November 2008

Where's the village gone?

Tourists sometimes go nuts trying to find the village of Breña Baja, or Fuencaliente.

There's a really simple reason why they can't find them. They don't exist. Breña Baja and Fuencaliente are municipalities, and their town halls are in the villages of San Jose and Los Canarios, respectively. It like driving all over the south east of England, looking for the town of Sussex.

The map shows the 14 municipalities (in blue) , with their administrative seats (in pink). Where
there's no name in pink, the municipalities are named after their chief villages, which makes things simpler. Just to keep things interesting, one, San Andrés y Sauces, is named after the two biggest villages. The town hall is in Los Sauces, which is much bigger and on the main road.

That's easy to find.

Labels: Barlovento, Breña Alta, Breña Baja, Canaries, Canary, El Paso, fuencaliente, Garafía, La Palma, municipalities, Puntagorda, puntallana, San Andres y Sauces, Santa Cruz de la Palma, tijarafe

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Friday, 15 August 2008

More surrealism in Barlovento

Man with a live parrot at the petrol station

Customer at Barlovento petrol station. Photo: Theresa

My friends from Franceses stopped off at Barlovento petrol station, and saw this man chatting to another customer. Yes, that's a live parrot on his shoulder.

Mind you, there used to be quite a lot of pirates around La Palma.

Labels: Barlovento, La Palma, La Plama, parrot, pirates

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Monday, 11 August 2008

Photos of the Battle of Lepanto

Recreation of the Battle of Lepanto in Barlovento, La Palma.

Yup, it's silly.

The original battle involved something like 80,000 men, which is almost the population of the whole island. So I was expecting a cut-down version. Heck, Shakespeare did battles by having one man come on stage and say, "Imagine the battle..."

So Barlovento had a rather good toy castle with about 12 visible defenders, and the sultan gave a speech about the original battle. Then a ship came up behind the castle. At this point I realised that I was in the wrong position to see the naval battle, but I got to see the sails of the two ships waving over the tree tops.

Recreation of the Battle of Lepanto in Barlovento, La Palma.

They had lots of dramatic bangs which threw dust up into the air - I think they must have buried explosives in advance.

Eventually, of course, they Christians won, and took all the Muslims prisoner.
Recreation of the Battle of Lepanto in Barlovento, La Palma.

They had a brief pause to wash the dirt out of their mouths, so I went around the back.
Recreation of the Battle of Lepanto in Barlovento, La Palma.

At that point, I finally got a good look at the Christian ship.
Recreation of the Battle of Lepanto in Barlovento, La Palma.

Then the victors marched their prisoners into the village.

Recreation of the Battle of Lepanto in Barlovento, La Palma.

(I'm sure it's against the Geneva Convention to force a prisoner along with a pike when he's already got a sword stuck through him.)
Recreation of the Battle of Lepanto in Barlovento, La Palma.

They took the prisoners to the church, where, surprise, surprise, they all converted to Christianity - politically correct NOT! But then I'm sure that somewhere there's an equivalent Muslim fiesta which ends with all the Christians converting to Islam.

Altogether, a rather good laugh.

Of course the fiesta carried on with music in the plaza and dancing long into the night, but I went home.

Labels: Barlovento, Battle of Lepanto, fiestas, La Palma, La Plama, popular culture

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Saturday, 9 August 2008

The Battle of Lepanto

Lepanto is the Italian name for the Greek port of Naupaktos, where a famous naval battle took place in 1571 in which a coalition of Christians trounced the Ottoman Empire. (Actually, there were also battles in 1499 and 1500, but since the Europeans lost to the Turks, we tend to quietly forget them.)

And for some reason they stage a re-enactment in Barlovento, every two years, as part of the fiesta.

Even better - they do it on dry land.

This sounds delightfully silly. So I've always been disappointed when I found out that I missed it yet again. Yup, in seventeen years, I've never seen it.

So I'm happy to say that it takes place tomorrow at 5pm, at the lower end of the village centre.

Labels: Barlovento, Battle of Lepanto, fiesta del Carmen, La Palma, La Plama, popular culture

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Monday, 16 June 2008

Flags Galore

You see a lot of flags on La Palma. Most English visitors will recognise the flags of Spain and the European Union.

But the Canary Islands are an autonomous region within Spain, and they have their own flag too. You see it a lot, especially around May 30th, which is Canary Day.