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Aislig Bheag - 26th July – 4th August: La Palma



At 8am on Saturday the 26th we headed into the port of Santa Cruz in the Canary island of La Palma.  The marina seemed to be well organizes and fairly quiet. We tied up at the pontoon and after completing the formalities, headed off in search of a cooked breakfast.  We arranged a hired car for the following day to allow Tony time to explore the island with us before he had to head home on the Monday.  After a refreshing beer at the marina, we enjoyed a welcome shower and headed into town for dinner in a lovely wee restaurant.  The following morning after a great night’s sleep we headed out to explore in the hired car with John driving and acting as tour guide as he had previously visited the island.  It offers a very diverse landscape with rich, green vegetation to barren volcanic gray and black rock.  Not many people here speak English with most of the tourists appearing to be Dutch. The coast line is rugged and steep with few beaches.  We took a walk on a steep path leading down to what was once a port, now with the remains of some very precariously positioned ‘houses’ nestled in the cliff face, backed by caves.  One appeared to be operating as a bar with a couple of tables and the smell of food floating out.    It was hard to imagine how people survived in such a setting and also hard to see how boats could have safely docked in the exposed and rock strewn ‘port’, all that survived was the remnants of a pier and part of a hoist which must have been used for lifting goods from boats.  There was also a natural rock swimming pool, only safe to use at low tide when the waves would no longer reach the mouth of the pool and sweep you away!

Monday was mostly spent helping Tony sort out his travel arrangements.  The tour company had booked his flight from Las Palmas (Gran Canaria), instead of La Palma so he had to do some quick arrangements for connecting flights.  We got some shopping in and at night John and I joined an astronomy evening in the hills where we learned about the constellations, looked at various planets and stars through the telescopes and even got to view a different galaxy.  Amazing, got back to the boat after 1am.  On Tuesday John and I headed south to explore the site of the most recent volcanic activity, from mid 70’s and walked round the top of a crater.  I had a bad headache and was feeling below par so we decided to cut it short and return to the boat, not before being amazed at the lizards in the picnic spot which were ridiculously tame and virtually begged at your feet for tit-bits!  John and I enjoyed the following few days relaxing in Santa Cruz and doing a few jobs around the boat.  With use of the adjoining Nautical Club swimming pool it isn’t hard to while away our time.  As a special treat on Saturday night, we visited a local restaurant, highly rated on trip advisor.  It was great.  It had only 4 tables and the owner, a very friendly woman, sat with us at the table and explained what was available to eat that evening.  We made our choice and weren’t disappointed by the standard of the food. She went to great lengths to make us a wee memento with the lovely wine label and rounded of the evening by giving us both a hearty hug!

Our next commitment in not until 9th August so we plan to leave Santa Cruz on Monday 4th August and spend a few days in La Gomera before heading to Tenerife to pick up David and Rachel.

I’ll write again from La Gomera.

Alison

 



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