Puntagorda's Almond Blossom Fiesta

Puntagorda fiesta: almond blossom

La Palma isn't a big island, but it still takes almost 2 hours to drive from Breña Baja to Puntagorda. I found most of the blossom had been spoiled by the bad weather last week, but it was still pretty. (In a good year, the whole hillside turns pink.) Then I got sidetracked into visiting a friend's barbecue, and very nice, too. I finally got to the main fiesta just as they were packing up, at 10 pm. This is amazingly early for a Canarian fiesta, but they danced half the night on Saturday, and they all had to get up on Monday morning.

Puntagorda fiesta: Hippy playing a didgeridoo

A lot of German hippies live in and around Puntagorda, and they seem to get on very well with the locals. Here's one playing the didgeridoo at the end of the fiesta.

Puntagorda fiesta: the debris

You can see that people had a good time! One of the locals was embarrassed to see my photographing this, but I don't like rooms that are so tidy you're scared to sit down, and I think villages are supposed to get messy when they've had a good party. Besides, the street cleaners were already hard at work, and I expect it'll all be clean and tidy by the time I post this.

Puntagorda fiesta: The last bar open

Even though the band had left, and most of the stalls were packing up, a few people still gathered round the last open bar. As usual, people were merry, but nobody was outright drunk, and nobody was annoying. In fact I got two offers of bed and breakfast, but neither gentleman took offence when I said that, sorry, I was going home to my husband.

Puntagorda fiesta: the last few revelers

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Almond Blosson on La Palma

Almond blossom in Garafia

The north-west of the island is home to great many almond trees, and at this time of the year, they're all blossoming.

The trees in El Paso and Garafía are beautiful, but the best display of all is at Puntagorda. In fact Puntagorda hosts an annual almond blossom fiesta. The date varies -- the Town Hall sets it a couple of weeks in advance, to (hopefully) coincide with the best blossom.

At noon on Sunday, February 1st, there's the traditional pensioners' almond cracking contest. The winner will be the person who produces the most shelled and unbroken almonds.

On Friday 5th there will be football competitions (for men and women)at 4pm, plus a disco in the community hall at 10 pm followed by and music in the street.

On Saturday 6th at 10 pm there will be a concert and dance in the Community Centre, followed by music and dancing in the street.

The main day is Sunday 7th.

Starting at noon, they'll have bouncy castles in the school playground, and a photo exhibition in the cultural centre (about the delightfully silly Battle of Lepanto fiesta in Barlovento), and dances in the cultural centre, the sports centre, and the street,

I expect they'll have the usual street market, and they'll be giving out free wine and almonds. Be warned that the wine may well have been stored in barrels made of tea (pronounced tay-ah) which gives it a resiny taste. Some people love it. I don't.

The programme is up on the web at http://almendros.puntagorda.es/.

Almond blossom from the Mirador (viewpoint) de Millflores in Puntagorda

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Peter Hermans

Abstract garden sculpture, by Peter Hermans

Peter Hermans is a Dutch artist and sculptor currently living in Puntagorda. After studying at the Stads Academie Maastricht, in the Netherlands, and then at the Toronto College of Art, in Canada, he sold several of his sculptures to the governments of Holland, Canada, and the USA.


Wall plaque, by Peter Hermans

Then in 2006, while he was in Italy, disaster struck. Peter had a stroke which left him completely paralysed. The doctors fully expected it to be permanent.

But Peter had a lot of support from his wife and friends, and above all, enormous determination. Amazingly, just two years later, he's working again. Only in short sessions, but working.


Peter and his wife Ita in the studio

His house is full of art: sculptures in bronze, wax, plaster and clay, and brightly-coloured paintings in oils and watercolour. Some of his work is abstract, but most of it celebrates physical love between a man and woman. I love it, but I want you to be able to show this blog to your granny.

You can contact Peter by phone at: 
922-493131

Bronze sculpture, by Peter Hermans

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More Almond Blossom

This year the almond blossom isn't quite as good as previous years, probably because we've had more wind and rain than usual. All the same, I think this hillside above St Maurus's Church is lovely. The photo at the bottom is from the Mirador (viewpoint) de Millflores.

You can see close-ups of blossom at my blog entry for Jan 24th

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Almond Blossom

The north-west of the island is home to great many almond trees, and at this time of the year, they're all blossoming.

The trees in El Paso and Garafía are beautiful, but the best display of all is at Puntagorda. In fact Puntagorda hosts an annual almond blossom fiesta. The date varies -- the Town Hall sets it a couple of weeks in advance, to (hopefully) coincide with the best blossom. This year we've had a rather cold winter, so it's a little later than usual, on February 8th.

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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.

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The Dragon Tree Viewpoint

The leaning dragon tree (Dracaena draco).

There's a rather nice viewpoint in Puntagorda, on the main road at km 78. Its most obvious attraction is the dragon tree, leaning much further over than the tower at Pisa.


Red-billed chough, Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax barbarus.

But when I was last there, I was charmed by a tame red-billed chough, Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax barbarus. They're relatives of rooks and crows, but this particular sub-species only lives on La Palma where they're called grajas. They're something of an icon here, because they're so distinctive. They're also pretty intelligent for birds, and rather curious. My husband once had one pecking away at the windscreen wipers of his car.

The graja at the viewpoint came right up to me and begged for food. He even lay down and pretended to be injured, until he realised that the other family there had food, and I didn't.


Red-billed chough, Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax barbarus, pretending to be injured.

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St Maurus's Church, Puntagorda

The first church on this site was built in the 16th century, when this was the centre of the village. Since then, the population moved uphill, leaving the church rather isolated, and the church has been rebuilt twice (the current building dates from the 19th century), and finally fell into disuse and ruin. It was replaced with a newer one, in the new centre of the village, in 1951, but many footpaths still run past the building. Perhaps more importantly, this is where Puntagorda holds it's annual religious fiesta, from the 14th of August to the 22nd. (The other fiesta celebrates the almond blossom, at the end of January or the beginning of February.) They'll be lots and lots of special masses, and a procession with the statue of the saint in Sunday 17th.

I'd never heard of St. Maurus (San Amaro in Spanish). He was an abbot and theologian in 8th century Germany, and apparently he was popular with the Portuguese settlers who founded the village.

The associated sports contests all happen before the religious ones, from August 4th to 14th. They hold tournaments of football, tennis and chess, athletics and an exhibition of Go-Karts.

The old parish hall stands in front of the church. It's a beautiful ruin, (OK, so I'm weird. I think ruins can be beautiful) but there are plans to restore it.

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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.



And then each island has its own flag. Here's the flag of La Palma:



And as if that weren't enough, La Palma has 14 municipalities, of which twelve have their own flag.

Santa Cruz	Breña Baja	Los Llanos
El Paso	Barlovento	Breña Alta
Garafía	Mazo	Tijarafe
Puntagorda	Puntallana	Tazacorte

(The other two municipalities are San Andres y Sauces and Fuencaliente)

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Puntagorda Market

Puntagorda is a village and municipality in the north west of the island. Every Saturday and Sunday, they have a farmers' market and craft fair in the Mercadillo, which is at the north of the village, near the Fayal picnic area.



Like most farmers' markets, the vegetables are fresher and cheaper than most supermarkets. There are also stalls selling organic wholemeal bread, sugar cane juice (with or without rum) cakes and meat. One stall just sold papayas.



The craft section had silver jewelry, hand-made furniture, leatherwork, and artwork prints.



Opening hours are Saturdays, 3 pm to 7 pm and 11 am to 3 pm.
The English version of the website is at http://mercadillo.puntagorda-lapalma.com/en.html?p=&lang=EN

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