Looking good

I am in awe of people who can take a 'proper' photograph. And La Palma is certainly chocablock full of opportunities for the keen photographer.
But since I am firmly encamped in the 'point, shoot and hope for the best' brigade, I can hardly complain if the results are not quite as awesome as this photo.


You are looking here at one of the seating areas on the finca - and the view of course. We call it the mirador, meaning lookout point, since it was called this by a walking guide who stayed here. The mirador itself faces due west but the whole of the north coast can be seen from the finca, right from Juan Adalid in the north west and the Mirador de Molino of Barlovento in the north east. Apart from overlooking the sea, it also overlooks the next village of El Tablado and, if the conditions are right, you can even hear people talking in the village despite the fact that it is around 1.4 km away as the crow flies. And of course you can see the goats and hear the tinkling of their bells as they gamble down the sig-zag path from El Tablado, part of the GR130, to the caves where they live in the barranco.
To the south, the ridge of the Caldera can also be seen high above us. It looks like a rather understated onlooker, peering over the shoulders of the green-covered ridges in front of it. On clear days it is backed by an intense blue sky and in winter has the occasional covering of snow.

It's probably a good thing that I'm not SLR competent otherwise the camera would hardly ever be out of my hand.

Fresh and delicious

Luckily, we seem to be doing rather well with the vegetables at the moment. Maybe it is the law of averages - I mean, if you keep trying, plant a lot, weed a bit, water furiously and then not at all, you are bound to have some vegetables appear despite the sketchy care.
But right at the moment we have got a good steady supply of carrots, plenty of potatoes, an embarrasing amount of onions (well, I did rather go crazy by planting around 100), a few tomatoes (but plenty more on the way), quite a few bright yellow pumpkins fattening up nicely, lots of leeks busy going to seed, corn on the cob which should be ready in the next few weeks and are delicious on the bbq, some quite large sweet potato (destined for our neighbour who loves them even more than me), oh and an unseemly amount of beetroot. Plus one cabbage which I am guarding closely.
Yes, I think I can declare moderate success - hence it being blog-worthy.

A shanty village

This is my (other) dream house, the little wooden shack above the sea. Can you imagine it - getting up in the morning, stretch your arms up to the sun, swimming costume on and jump into the water! Wow, I'd love it!
Well ... whilst we won't be living there anytime soon, we can still visit and swim in the bay and open sea. Even if you don't swim, it's still an interesting place to visit as it is part of a small shanty-type village. It's called La Bajita and is located just slightly south of the airport.
It's also a good place for SCUBA diving. Nanneke and Joost of www.casadebuceo.nl are good friends of ours and have a dive school here on La Palma so you can contact them anytime you fancy seeing the underwater world of La Palma. We really enjoyed our dive when we last went there, but it's also a great place for snorkelling or just swimming.
Mm ... perhaps I would miss the view of my lovely green mountains and growing vegetables in the garden ... I won't pack just yet.

We were asked the other day if we had started to take the beauty of the island for granted. Luckily, I cannot imagine this ever happening particularly with sights like this just a 50 minute drive from home.
It's a pretty impressive drive too, rising up from 500 metres above sea level where we live to 2426 metres, the top of the island, driving through sun-dappled pine forests to burst through into a moon-like landscape dotted with state of the art observatories. The contrast is nothing short of crazy.



The photo here shows the Caldera, the largest erosion crater in the world. It measures a fairly unmissable 10km in diameter and is 2000 metres deep.

In the far distance, you can see the southern spine of the island which forms the famous volcano route, the last section of the GR 131. We walked this route in February last year having camped overnight at El Pilar, the start of the final part of the walk. It's pretty amazing looking at it from an entirely different perspective and thinking, 'We were there!'

Those bodega nights

Here we are, all ready for a candlelit dinner in our own bodega. How lucky we are to have this little 'extra' place.
The bodega was originally built as a kitchen, though certainly not with a microwave in sight. No, around the year of 1870 when this little stone construction was painstakingly built, it was the hub of the house where meals were cooked over a log fire, the floor was of hard-packed soil and the doors blackened with smoke. In those days, they relied on natural and nearby resources - and whilst the houses were super-simple consisting of just a family bedroom above the potato store, an open smokey flame was hardly desirable or safe.
In fact, this was not just where they cooked the food on inclement days and dark nights, but it also served as a dining room and lounge. All the more incredible to think that this served for the two houses here on the finca with their large families.
We feel very privileged therefore to bring back life to the once abandoned room with its still blackened doors, to sit around the table with family and enjoy a meal together. And candlelight still makes the perfect ambiance.