A small rock in the Atlantic

An Octupus and a Sardine

Poster for the Octopus's Funeral, Los Cancajos, La Palma Island

The Octopus's funeral has been rescheduled for Friday 26th.

The procession will leave the pharmacy at 8 pm and make its way to the beach, where the octopus will be cremated. There will be fireworks and dancing. Everybody welcome.
This is a new fiesta, so it'll be interesting to see

Meanwhile the sardine's funeral at Los Sauces will take place on Saturday 27th. The percussion music starts at 8 pm and the funeral procession starts at 9:30 pm in the main square by the church. Last time I saw it, it was wonderful.

And I believe that Barlovento will hold their sardine's funeral the weekend after, on March 5th or 6th. Watch this space.

Poster for the Sardine's Funeral, Los Sauces, La PAlma island

Labels: Breña Baja, Cancajos, carnival programme, fiesta, La Palma, Los Sauces, San Andres y Sauces, Sardine's Funeral

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North Road Closing

We've had major roadworks in the north of the island for some time, with some places reduced to one lane, so that you have to wait for traffic lights. Now they'll be closing the road completely at km 24, just north of Los Sauces, twice a day.

The road will be closed Monday - Friday 9:30 am - 12:30 am and 4 pm - 7 pm.

Labels: La Palma, La Plama, Los Sauces, road

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The Rum Factory

Rum Distilling Equipment, Puerto Espindola, La Palma

Rum Distilling Equipment

La Palma has a small rum factory, at Puerto Espí,ndola, in the borough of San Andres y Sauces. Unlike most rum factories, they start with sugar cane rather than molasses. After all, La Palma had commercial sugar cane plantations in the 15th century, before the West Indies had them. At harvesting season, the factory's south building smells of sugar cane being crushed and fermented.

Distillation happens in the north building, which is the one you can visit. The still is wood-fired, and surprisingly small. Then the rum goes into oak barrels, to mature.

Rum Barrels, Puerto Espindola, La Palma

Once the busy season is over, there's just a couple of people in there, folding boxes, filling them with bottles, and keeping an eye on the place.

You can visit without an appointment. In fact it's wonderfully informal - just stick your head around the door and say, "Hola." The downside of the informality is that they don't do guided tours (well, maybe for a coach party by appointment). I went with a friend and we were waved towards a board showing the stages of rum-making. and then we were given samples in the shop. Such a shame I was driving! If you like sweet drinks, I recommend the "ron miel" which is rum and honey (very comforting if you've got a stinking cold, but you don't need to wait until then).

Me, I'm trying to work out how to wangle an invitaton to their Christmas party. Cheers!

The shop, Puerto Espindola, La Palma

Labels: Los Sauces, Puerto Espindola, rum

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Los Sauces Bridge

The big bridge at Los Sauces

The new bridge over the barranco at Los Sauces is huge. It's 319 metres long and towers 150 metres above the valley floor. It opened in December 2004. To begin with, it was rather controversial because it crosses the same valley as the Los Tilos National Park. But you can't see the bridge from the park, and it's really rather elegant for something so big. It also knocks a full five minutes off the journey to Santa Cruz, which is important if you're in a hurry to get to the hospital.

If you're visiting the island, I recommend walking across it -- you get a much better view. Unless you suffer from vertigo!

Labels: Canaries, Canary islands, La Palma, Los Sauces

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Los Tilos: Ancient Forest

Laurel forest at Los Tilos

One of my favourite bits of tourist feedback about La Palma island was the disgruntled Brit who described Los Tilos as: "Just a load of trees."

Well yes. And Beethoven's Ninth is just a load of notes, and the Mona Lisa is just a load of paint.

Los Tilos, in San Andres and Los Sauces, is home to one of the best surviving laurel forests in the world. (The other one is Garajonay, in La Gomera).

The river bed at Los Tilos

What's so great about a laurel forest?

It's what the dinosaurs walked through. To be fair, if you can't tell an oak from a birch, then it's just a pretty, shady walk.

Stag's head lichen

On the other hand, if you're a professional plant scientist, like my father, you feel like a small kid in a sweet shop, because the place is full of plants that grow nowhere else. My father got too excited to finish his sentences, and it took him twenty minutes to walk a hundred yards.

An aeonium

The plants are rare enough that whole place is a World Biosphere Reserve. The original 511 hectares were declared a reserve in 1983, but this wasn't big enough to do the job properly, so in 1998 it was extended. They didn't muck about. The new reserve is 13,240 hectares. That's 5% of the island!

The restaurant at Los Tilos

There's also a friendly bar, which is great if you work up a thirst. There are very tame little birds, which I believe are Canary Chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs tintillon). If you know better, please let me know!

Labels: Canary Island flora, La Palma, laurel forest, Los Sauces, Los Tilos, nature reserve

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Our Lady of Monserrat

Yesterday was the fiesta of Our Lady of Monserrat in Los Sauces. They held a special mass, followed by a procession with the statue. Religious art isn't really my thing, but it's a beautiful statue.

The procession follows a fairly long route: the building in the background is the church, and they're just beginning. I had to miss the rest of the procession and the loa (see yesterday) due to a previous commitment.

Procession for Our Lady of Monserrat, Los Sauces, La Palma

Procession for Our Lady of Monserrat, Los Sauces, La Palma

Labels: fiestas, La Palma, loa, Los Sauces, Our Lady of Monserrat, procession

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Fiesta in Los Sauces tonight

Today is a local holiday in Los Sauces, for the fiesta or Our Lady of Monserrat. Other than the day off work, it's a purely religious festival. Tonight at 6:30 pm they'll be a special mass in the church (the big church on the main square on the main street - very easy to find.) This will be followed by a procession with the statue of Our Lady, and then a loa.

A loa is absolutely nothing to do with the voodoo loas. In Spain, it's a musical dialogue between two singers, usually dressed in costume. I believe at Los Sauces, they're traditionally dressed as angels, and it's very pretty.

Labels: fiestas, La Palma, loa, Los Sauces, Our Lady of Monserrat

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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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The Funeral at Last!

Last night I went to the delayed Sardine's Funeral in Los Sauces. I finally discovered why people say it's better than the sardine's funeral in Santa Cruz.

They say it because it's true.

The crowd was far bigger than in Santa Cruz, and over half of them wore fancy dress - mostly Halloween theme costumes. This is my hairdresser. I didn't recognise him until he spoke.

First they had a butaca - serious percussion. I took a lot of video, but there wasn't much light and most people were wearing black, so it's not brilliant. I need to learn to edit video.

At the end of the butaca it poured with rain for about ten minutes. Imagine a couple of thousand people all looking for shelter and saying, "Oh no!" all at once. Thankfully it stopped pretty quickly.

Then I wondered about for a bit and had a beer (alcohol free - I was driving).

Then the sardine appeared.

Now in Santa Cruz its a funeral procession, and the mourners are wailing with fake grief, but they're walking in a dignified way.

In Los Sauces, the sardine is being tossed around as though it's on a rough sea. The pall bearers really work up a sweat. I found out the hard way that it gets a fair bit of momentum - the guys at one side can't necesarily stop just because they're going to crash into a photographer. I was glad I only took the compact camera. And the mourners jog and pogo and screech like banshees. It's like Santa Cruz used to be, only better. Monty Python eat your heart out. What's more, there were a couple of smaller sardines brought by groups of kids. The sardine goes around the square twice, and then through the back streets towards the huge new bridge, back along the main street, round the square twice again, and finally onto the bier in the square. The kids' sardines went under the bier.

Of course it ends with the sardine being cremated. And in Los Sauces, the crowd doesn't just watch and cheer. They pogo and boogie and scream again. And there are lots more fireworks.

By then it was one in the morning, so I didn't stop for the public dance. I just ate a sandwich and went home.

Next year I'm going back, and I'm definitely dressing up.

I'll post some video when I've editied it.