As anybody who had ever traveled around Scotland or Ireland will tell you, castles make up a good proportion of the 'things to see.' And I love a good castle as much as the next person!
But what of La Palma? Where are our castles? Surely there must have been battles fought and wars waged? Well there were, such as when the Spanish Conquistadors finally took La Palma in 1493. But do you know, you can't beat a good natter when it comes to getting a problem solved.
What better then than a visit to see the old fuentes (springs) with their adjacent stone washing basins where the women would gather to wash the laundry.
You'll find them all around La Palma - Puntallana has a good example, Santo Domingo has two washing points, one at each end of the village and in the north east at Barlovento, there are a good sprinkling of them.
Just go to the Tourist Office in Barlovento and look out for the wooden pointing finger. Yup, hard to miss!
In less than 3 minutes you will find yourself at the springs.
And then, if you are walking the GR130 Camino Real from Barlovento past La Tosca, you'll see them there too. OK, the water is just a teeny bit green these days!
Perhaps part of the magic and mystery is the fact that these little bits of history don't have jazzy plaques with rhyme and verse telling you about them. After all, the talking has been done and as the saying goes, a problem shared is a problem halved.
But what of La Palma? Where are our castles? Surely there must have been battles fought and wars waged? Well there were, such as when the Spanish Conquistadors finally took La Palma in 1493. But do you know, you can't beat a good natter when it comes to getting a problem solved.
What better then than a visit to see the old fuentes (springs) with their adjacent stone washing basins where the women would gather to wash the laundry.
You'll find them all around La Palma - Puntallana has a good example, Santo Domingo has two washing points, one at each end of the village and in the north east at Barlovento, there are a good sprinkling of them.
Just go to the Tourist Office in Barlovento and look out for the wooden pointing finger. Yup, hard to miss!
Perhaps part of the magic and mystery is the fact that these little bits of history don't have jazzy plaques with rhyme and verse telling you about them. After all, the talking has been done and as the saying goes, a problem shared is a problem halved.
