What is there to do on La Palma?

I remember one evening twelve years ago when I was at a friends house in Tenerife. I had found myself in conversation with another English lady about the neighbouring island of La Palma and the fact that it is often to referred to as La Isla Bonita. We agreed that it is indeed a beautiful island.

Santa Cruz de La Palma

‘Yes,’ she continued with perhaps more enthusiasm than was strictly necessary, ‘but you can’t live there!’

Most of my answer was apparently drowned out by the rising background noise but anyway, why couldn’t you live there I insisted on knowing.

‘There’s no hospital for a start!’ she replied in a shocked voice, although conceding that an airport was a possibility for the future.

Eventually, I managed to get her to understand that there is indeed a hospital and in fact there is an International airport already in existence and has been for many years. But I had a harder time convincing her that La Palma, yes sleepy La Palma, is my home.

So what else is there to know about La Palma?

How to get there

The first airport on La Palma opened in 1955 and in 1970 it moved to its current location in Mazo, by the east coast. In 2011 a new and larger airport was built and in that year it handled over 1 million passengers. From the UK there are direct flights from both Manchester and Gatwick with Thomsons. The airport code is SPC. There are also direct flights from Germany, Spain and the Netherlands plus inter-islands flights from Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

For ferries, the port of Santa Cruz de La Palma serves Fred Olsen, Acciona Trasmediterranea and Naviera Armas. There is a new marina at Santa Cruz and a second port/marina at Tazacorte in the west of La Palma.

Flight from Tenerife to La Palma

Accommodation

There are many casas rurales (the traditional Canarian cottages) dotted about the landscape which are available for rent along with apartments, hotels, pensions (room only) and even a few bed and breakfasts.

Shops

La Palma has many large supermarkets (Hiper Dino, San Martin, Trebol) and smaller Spar supermarkets all of which are open all day. There is also a covered fruit and vegetable market in both Santa Cruz and Los Llanos and weekend markets in Puntagorda, Mazo, Puntallana and Barlovento.

Puntagorda Market with Artesenia products

Beaches

Whilst La Palma does not have a great abundance of broad swathes of golden sands, it

does however have a good number of black sand beaches, hidden coves and sea water pools.

The main beaches are at the resorts of  Los Cancajos in the east and Puerto Naos and Tazacorte in the west although there are other sandy beaches dotted around the island. There is also a new beach under construction on the waterfront of the capital of Santa Cruz in addition to excellent beach at Bajamar, just off the road out of the capital to the south.

Beach at Tazacorte, La Palma

Transport

Cars can be hired either on-line in advance or whilst on the island at the airport or in the towns.  There is also an excellent bus service (even in the rural north of the island) and no single bus journey costs more than 2€.

Walking routes

La Palma has over 1000km of marked trails through ever-changing and spectacular scenery. The main long distance trails are the GR130 Camino Real (8 days) which goes around the perimeter of the island linking hidden hamlets, gorges, towns and beaches and the GR131 El Bastón (3/4 days) which includes the Volcano Route and the Roque de Muchachos at 2426m. Other walks pass through the Laurisilva forest of Los Tilos, pine forests, lava fields and country meadows.

What is there to do?

The fun on La Palma is generally provided by the beauty and nature of the island as there are no theme parks, bowling alleys, skating rinks or disco-pubs pock-marking the boulevards.  In no particular order, these are some of the great things to do and see:

Roque de Muchachos - the highest point of the island at 2426m

La Caldera - a near complete circular mountain ridge measuring 10km in diameter and 2000m deep

La Cumbrecita - a stunning viewpoint and walk along the ridge of the Caldera

Volcanoes – the last eruption was Teneguia in 1971

Los Tilos – ancient forest of Laurisilva, a species from the age of Dinosaurs

La Zarza forest and archaeological park with pre-Hispanic rock engravings

Salt Pans of Fuencaliente (area of Scientific Interest and whose waters attract migratory birds)

The rural north with its hidden hamlets, caves, fresh water springs and ancient dwellings with wooden roofs

Weekend markets with fresh organic produce and local handicrafts

Historic capital of Santa Cruz with its flower-festooned balconies, cobbled streets and splendid mansions.

Guided tour of the observatory at Roque de Muchachos to see how the stars are observed on La Palma

Various museums including the Naval museum, Silk museum, Banana museum and Archaeological museum

Dolphin and whale watching from the boats out of Tazacorte harbour

SCUBA diving, snorkelling, swimming and sunbathing

Paragliding - La Palma is often cited as the best place in Spain for Paragliding

In short, if you are bored while on holiday in La Palma, you are probably on the wrong Canarian Island!

We hope you enjoy La Palma too!  For any other information, you are welcome to look at our website www.holiday-lapalma.comhttp://www.holiday-lapalma.com/aboutlapalma.html

Reaching for the Stars

If there is one thing about living in the rural north of La Palma that's for certain, when we do visit the capital of Santa Cruz or go to Tazacorte, more often than not we are in a rush! What with shops that close for three of four hours during the afternoon and a long list of accumulated jobs to do and people to see, it's probably no great surprise.
But when we do have extra time available (or make a concerted effort) it makes it all the more special to go somewhere we haven't been to before - or not for a long time at least. And one such place a couple of weeks ago was the Mirador de San Bartolome.

 Now I know that we have been there before so I know that it's a great look out point (Mirador) and being just north of Puntallana at the 15km turn off for La Galga, we've passed close by a zillion times. But it must have been quite a few years ago since we went to the actual mirador and I can't say that I remember anything particularly remarkable about it, except for the great view of course and a statue to do with the legend of Lover's Leap.
Ah yes, I remember now - it was when we were investigating access points for the GR130 Camino Real and the logistics of accommodation along the route. But that aside, I had heard from the owner of a house in La Galga that it was a great place for observing the stars.  This we had to check out!

 As it turns out, we were in for more of a surprise than we had expected - not only is the Mirador way better than I was expecting (or remembered) but we were thrilled to see that even in the daytime there was lots of astronomy going on! First of all though, a little about Lover's Leap.
As the legend has it, a young farming boy was in love with a fair maiden but sadly, she didn't love him back. It can happen.
So, all being fair in love and war, she decided to set him an almost impossible task - that he should leap over the gorge three times. As he was so totally in love, he readily agreed to the challenge and with the aid of his lanza, the long pole used to leap down the steep barrancos, he completed the jump three times.
'There,' he cried, 'you are mine!' And with that he stepped back and fell to his death.

It's a bitter sweet story and very fitting that there should be a statue in its memory. However, if you are not into legends or great views, the mirador is well worth a visit for the astronomy aspect alone.
For example, do you know how many kilometres it is to Polaris? You can find out at the Mirador - and the direction too - but even when you know what direction it's in, the distance is just impossible to even begin to get your head around.

Or perhaps something that you might find immediately useful is the 'dial the stars' - a really great idea where you can set the disk to the month you are in and find out the relative position of the stars.

And with several information boards too, you may well find out something about astronomy that you didn't know before. But talking of which, I am thrilled that there is now a book available on the Observatories at Roque de Muchachos, A Breathtaking Window on the Universe, and in fact I have just received my copy.
It is written by Sheila Crosby who not only is a funny and inventive author with a decidedly different take on writing but when it comes to astronomy and the observatory on La Palma, she knows what she's talking about - after all she worked there as an engineer for 12 years and for the past three works as a specialist 'Star Guide.'
If like me you are not a great whizz at astronomy or even if you are - you'll find it incredibly informative but still a fun read - and that's not an easy act!!
You can order it here and quite frankly, you'd be crazy not to get a copy.