El Faro del Punta Cumplida, Barlovento

If you are a subscriber to our newsletters, you may have read that we recently visited the Faro (lighthouse) of the Punta Cumplida near Barlovento.

To be honest, it was just a little excursion while on the way to the sea pools of La Fajana which are nearby and in the hope that somehow, something might have changed. The thing is that whilst this is a potentially interesting place - after all, it's one of only two lighthouses on the whole island of La Palma - there is absolutely no chance of being allowed inside - still. In fact, you're not even allowed in the grounds. None the less, it is still worth the small detour and at least there is an information board which does give you a flavour of what it's all about.

  The lighthouse is historically important and dates back to before 1867. The base was built from local stone whilst the stone for the tower was brought by ship from Gran Canaria. Don't ask me how they did it! Unsurprisingly it cost a lot of money - 758€ which must have been a complete fortune in those days. 

One of the features of the tower is the number of windows, 12 in all, with 6 facing toward the sea and 6 facing inland. If you like facts and figures, you may be interested to know that there are 175 steps and that the tower measures 6.8m in width and 33.16m in height. 

During the 130 years of service, records were meticulously taken and many of these survive today including minutes of meetings, the maintenance diary, information on operational staff, the amount of oil and electricity consumed, communications and movements in and out of the storeroom. Unfortunately of course, there was no chance to see any of those however, it was still very interesting to spend time exploring the near vicinity and we discovered a new picnic area/lookout point that we hadn't seen before.

Imagine my surprise then when I found out that we were to be able to have a very good look at the most important part of the lighthouse - the light itself and from a place rather more accessible.
We had noticed that in Barlovento opposite the little tourist office that there was a metal frame being constructed but had no idea what it was about. The following week I discovered with amazement that the frame was to house the light from the lighthouse! This was definitely worth stopping off to see.
So anytime you are driving through Barlovento, I suggest you stop and have a look. It's a fabulous piece of equipment and a real treasure for us all to admire.

Of course you are probably wondering if there is any form of light in the lighthouse at all. I now read on Wikipedia that in August 2011, El Faro del Punta Cumplida became the first lighthouse in Europe to have a high power LED light and that the new system consists of a hexagonal matrix of six panels with four LED lamps in each giving a light intensity of 505,000 candles. Thank you Wiki. 

So there you have the story of El Faro del Punta Cumplida! 

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