Christmas in the Canaries

Around the world, everybody's Christmas is different whether it be traditional, religious, just like every other day or even a working day. And this is something people often ask us - what is Christmas like on La Palma?
Our day was something of a mix starting with a Christmas breakfast for our guests. Followed by just the two of us opening a few present along with the Christmas cards we had been saving up for the big day. And of course ringing the family to wish everybody a happy Christmas.
Normally on Christmas Day, we would go down to the sea at La Fajana below us. But as David had something of a leg injury we decided to let the Land Rover take the strain and do some lovely touristy things - here are a few of our photos!

On La Palma, they love Nativity scenes. 
Ours is rather incongruous :)

Christmas lunch at La Fajana de Barlovento

Driving through one of the hand-dug tunnels on the Mimbreras road, Barlovento

Some interesting facts on the mirador information board

The Landy gets to join in with the Christmas spirit

Still in awe of the scenery

Christmas mascot

And still in the festive spirit on 5 January, a trip to the beach

However, it is perhaps the evening of the 5th January that is the star of the show. This is when the Three Wise Men arrive on La Palma (three for each major town/city) and bring gifts for the children. In some places, they arrive on real camels - it's quite a sight!
The next day, 6th January, is Epiphany and a religious holiday. So if you are on holiday on La Palma over the 5th/6th January, do try and catch a glimpse of the Kings (Los Reyes) and remember that on the 6th January, shops and banks will all be closed. 

San Andrés, a little village in the north east of La Palma

The little village of San Andrés is the sort of place that makes you think, 'Ah, now this is a proper Spanish village.' Well at least that's what we thought when we were exploring La Palma for a place to unpack our bags for a few years at least. So when we happened to encounter San Andrés which is the equal and opposite of an archetypal British village, it seemed a fair swap.

From falling in love with San Andrés as a place to live and falling out of love with it unfortunately took less than 30 minutes which coincided with a coach full of tourists arriving. Yes, apparently we were not the only people to have noticed the immense charm of this little place. And off we trotted to go and live one-fifth of the way up a mountain in what friends call our splendid isolation (with views). But of course this doesn't stop us visiting San Andrés to do our own little bit of tourism.

So what is it about San Andrés that makes it probably the most beautiful village on La Palma? Doubtless, the little cobbled streets flanked by a selection of curious old houses helps. Along with the whitewashed 15th century church, the Iglesia de San Andrés. Plazas with restaurants and the odd cheeky bar always help of course. Admittedly, there is no village pond but it does have the Atlantic Ocean at its feet which somehow offsets any feeling of being short-changed.

But what I think probably makes it stand out is the lushness of the place. If you take a look from afar, such as from Los Sauces the town above it, you'll notice a green oasis - this is San Andrés.

So what else is there to do in San Andrés apart from walk along the cobbled streets taking photos of curious old houses, visit the church, eat, drink and enjoy the views? Setting off over the highly pleasing and photogenic bridge  ...

... takes us to the sea pools of Charco Azul and then the beach of Puerto Espindola plus a few other delights along the way. And that's probably a good place to leave it until the next blog post.
Meanwhile, want to find out what we do when not playing hookey? Check us out at our day job - www.holiday-lapalma.com

Walking the Cubo de la Galga

Last week we walked the Cubo de la Galga, a high-sided gorge in the east of La Palma and the most prolific laurel forest in the Canaries.  A beautiful walk and now part of our La Palma Highlights Tour!
You can read our blog post about it along with photos at our other blog site which is dedicated to walking on La Palma :
http://gr130-lapalma.blogspot.com.es/2015/08/walking-cuba-de-la-galga-puntallana-la.html

Feria de Artesania San Antonio del Monte

  Yesterday was the big day for the Feria de Artesania San Antonio del Monte in Garafia, La Palma - a feria being a country fair and artesania meaning handicrafts.

Whilst there are a few ferias around the island such as at San Isidro, San Antonio is by far the largest feria as they make use of a sizable piece of land with a church plonked in the middle.  When I say 'the largest' I mean that over 2,000 people turn up to join in with the fun - coaches, buses, cars, motorbikes, caravans, walkers and lots and lots of people with tents! In fact, one year when it was a four-day event (normally it's spread out over three days), we made camp in our Land Rover for two nights. At the time we loved it ... but that was ten years ago :)

However, the main thing about both the feria at San Antonio and San Isidro is the cattle and other farm animals, namely goats and sheep. Plus horses, mules and those oh-so-sweet donkeys!