La Palma 2.0
The previous evening Mark and I briefly wandered into the town Santa Cruz and found some nice old streets that the guidebook referred to with cobbled streets and old 16 century houses with balconies. It gave us a taste of the place and one we would explore further whilst here.
In the night it rained and I was in a dream and I felt my face was being sprayed by water. I obviously woke and realised that it was rain coming in the hatch above my head and I had to close a number of hatches. Clearly confirmation that this was the wettest Island of the Canaries.
When I woke, however, it was a pleasant warm morning and after breakfast we went in search of a car to hire and hoped as it was a Sunday that this was possible. It was and before long we had the keys to a tiny Citroen and started our journey out of Santa Cruz. As we passed along the waterfront there was a long black beach and many old wooden 16c houses with balconies, many of whom had flowers in wooden boxes on the front. We headed along the east coast going north and it was very clear why this is called the green Island as it is very lush.
The main road sits about 450m up from the coast and all around you can see verdant terraces growing bananas mainly but there are lots of palm trees, bushes and shrubs and flowers everywhere. Bougainvillea, Oleander, hydrangeas etc. The road passes through little villages and all the houses are painted pastel colours of blues, whites and browns and it reminded me of parts of Italy. The hills went up steeply and above you could see trees and clouds all against the background of the deep blue sea below with its white horses to give contrast to its colour.
We peeled off the main road to go to Los Tiles which is a 140 sq. km of biosphere forest – a sort of its own ecosystem. It is a beautiful, lush forest that dates back to the tertiary period when the laurel forest covered a large part of the Mediterranean basin. It is a very damp place where you walk/hike beneath centenary lime trees with the constant sound of water. Everything is dripping and there is lots of bird life. We went along a walk along a gorge where our path was on the edge and from time to time, we had to go through tunnels with the water funnelling past us in channels and it was going at some speed. Before too long we came across a large waterfall cascading down on to the rocks and the gorge. The trees were huge and there were large ferns and creepers and lichens etc growing over the trees. It was a magical place and we moved on and out of the forest, but it has its own special enclave.
We stopped in the odd town to look around and then went to the Northeast of the Island where rock pools had been created -Piscina de Fejana where they were literally built on the rocks creating saltwater pools and the wave would crash over the walls into the pools. The scenes of the waves on the rocks and craggy coast were amazing as there is nothing west until I think the US. It was quite a wild place and not one to be in a storm.
As written yesterday the highest peak of the Roque de las Muchachos at 2,426m and there is a large crater called Caldera de Taburiente and both are in the National Park. We started to climb and came across a restaurant where we stopped. We had a local dish called Golfi which we think was a mixture of different vegetables and we also had a mixture of local sausage both of which were delicious and in particular they had bulls’ blood but had mixed cinnamon and nuts with it, so it had a sweetish but cinnamon taste.
We continued to climb on very windy roads which carved their way up the rocks and the valley was full of large pine trees with their needles providing a brown, purple type bored and the temperature stared to drop. These pine trees often had lichens/ferns growing on them which looked like the straggly beards that ZZ top used to have!!
It was a beautiful drive with sheer drops down the valley on both sides and with the windy roads, so it took some time. At one point we went through clouds and it rained rain but not for long. It seemed almost like we were in mountain meadows. As we got to the top, we could see many observatories across the mountain and we stopped at a visitor centre. The top of the Roque was not too far and we drove on to the top and parked the car just below the peak. We walked the last bit and could now see the big crater which was filled with cloud in its lower section. The view all around were magnificent and it was as if you were on top of the world. When you looked down toward the sea all you could see was a layer of clouds a bit like when you are in an aeroplane and flying above them. We had therefore gone from the bottom by the rock pools to the top.
The drive down took time meandering through windy turns and fir trees and through lush vegetation. It was very scenic and a bit like being in the Alps but in warm weather. We returned to Santa Cruz having got a good feel to the Island, but it then started to rain. I think it does quite a bit here.
We had had a very interesting day and now have a good feel for the Island. We plan to spend the day in Santa Cruz as there is so much to see there and we had only briefly walked in.
We had a light supper in the cockpit listening to the rain pitter patter on the coach roof- quiet comforting when we were in the dry. I think this is definately wetter than the other Islands.
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions – do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com