La Palma

Canary Islands

 

...the adventures begins

 We love discovering new places, but hey...what an unexpected wonderful surprise was La Palma!

          We almost went there accidentally, after a last moment decision. Best thing ever!
On our entire stay of almost ten days, we never had a moment of dullness. To be honest it's very easy to be excited here! 
I will tell you about our adventures on Santa Cruz de la Palma, about Los Cancajos, laurel forest of Los Tilos, natural pool of Charco Azul, the remote magical beach of El Rio,  Puerto Naos and about reaching the peak of Los Muchachos! 
Absolutely paradise if you are looking for a safe place with good weather all year round, smiling people and blue sky!
Also the wild beauty of the most isolated black sand beaches it's almost unreal. Simply, you're most likely to love this little island on the Atlantic soon as you see it!
We flyed on La Palma at the end of the year, we left a cold rainy day behind in England and we arrived to a cyan sky, a blend of blue and green hard to describe.
We jumped on our rented car and start a magical journey...
          First stop - Los Cancajos.
We booked our accommodation to a beautiful complex called Apartamentos La Caleta. Nothing too posh or out of range, but truly authentic canarian, quite and abundant on gorgeous flowers that will spread jasmine like perfume in the evenings. 

The restaurant had a good selection of food and an excellent choice of bakery products, all fresh, all delicious.
Here, nothing is as good as breakfast on the outside terrace. A strong coffee aroma, a croissant or a chocolate pancake on the early sunlight. All with a view to the ocean. The birds were singing too.
Most of the hotels are offering similar conditions, if you want to see more of La Caleta, you can watch this video.

La Caleta - La Palma/Canary Islands 

Los Cancajos is the largest tourist resort on La Palma and offers a good selection of shops, restaurants, car rental and tourist offices.
There is a lovely promenade along the coast, spectacular views over the ocean and a very relaxing atmosphere.
Los Cancajos beach is also beautiful, with soft black sand and clear calm waters that makes it an excellent place for snorkeling. Also this is the right place to try some local fresh fish dishes while enjoying the view.

          Santa Cruz De la Palma it's the capital of the island and one of the most charming cities I've ever seen. Clean narrowly streets, flowers everywhere, beautiful buildings and of course the famous traditional balconies of La Palma!
Standing out by the extraordinary carved wood and overlooking to the sea, those balconies are a trademark here.
Excellent combination of art galleries, museums, restaurants and local shops with souvenirs and canarian products.
Wonderful to visit is the square of clock towers or Plaza de España, the main meeting point for local celebrations and festivals.
Here, the 16th century church of El Salvador it's a beautiful example of durable local architecture, as the towers are built with volcanic stone blocks.
         We spent the early Christmas evening around the square and church and I can honestly tell that there was a very special and sincere welcoming feeling in the community. Everything was beautifully decorated with kings and shepherds, with baby Jesus and Maria...there was also a concert with divine religious music that could be heard.
All beautiful, but Santa Cruz de La  Palma it's so much more...the long promenade with white and pink flowers, the green hills and the palms, the magic of the port where I've seen almost every day a different cruise ship. Fantastic.
          There are also few other wonderful  places that I encourage you to see, like Chico and Circo de Marte theatres, La Palma Naval Museum, La Palma Insular Museum or Santa Catalina Royal Castle.
Now, Santa Cruz de la Palma wouldn't be complete without a beautiful beach isn't it? Quite right, this is where playa Bajamar comes on. Very easy to access from the promenade and located between Risco de la Concepción Natural Monument and the marina, this is a very popular, well maintained beach. There are lots of facilities, parking, coffee shops and restaurants.
We've been lucky enough to go to this lovely beach on the day when the local drums band was exercising before  the New Year representation.
Imagine about 25-30 drums vibrating on rhythms that would make the stones move! Absolutely wonderful!
The roads in La Palma are a challenge even if you are passionate about F1 championship. Very twisty, following the shape of the island, this roads can take you thru spectacular views that I couldn't even imagine...after every turn is something else that takes your breath and so on. Be careful on the signs about falling rocks and animals (usually rabbits), but don't leave this stop you exploring.
It's well worth it.

Follow the road - La Palma

          The green of La Palma it's so profound that we had to stop on countless occasion just to stare like the kids would stare in the front of a toy store. There are also so many caves, deep forests, tunnels, endless banana plantations, stunning flowers in colours that we forgot they are real.
We've seen so many deep valleys, so deep that we couldn't see the end of them. It's a good remainder of how small we are.
That's the miracle of La Palma, it's just you and the nature, in the most pure shapes and forms. Yes, you may be out on the road, but if you look around you can still see the ocean or the mountains.
As we thought that it's an absolutely blessing to be able to play with snow and swim in the ocean on same day, we made our plan for reaching the highest peak on the island - Roque de los Muchachos at 2426 m altitude.
On the way to the point where you are above the clouds, I recommend you to try and visit a unique set of telescopes, including the largest and one of the most advanced telescope in the world - The Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (also known as GTC).
La Palma has one of the best night star view and is also an excellent spot for any astronomic observations.
You may be able to organise a night out to enjoy the stars as you never seen them before. I guarantee that will brighten up your life and will make you realise how wonderful this World it's. Try contacting Observatory of El Roque  de los Muchachos for information.
We were amazed all the way to the peak, passing green hills, barren rocks, pine forests and some other scenery that looked like a science fiction movie.
The bright of the snow is glazing everywhere and you can look at the clouds down, under you. If this doesn't change the way you see the world, I don't know what else will.
There are footpaths towards different viewpoints. You are so close to abyss and it's nothing or very little between you and the greatness of this heights. From time to time, impressive black birds fly over you on the blue sky.
This part of La Palma needs more time to discover and the magnitude of what's around you can leave you many times without a reaction, other than starring in a attempt to cover and understand what's in front of you.
You can call this place magical without a doubt. I just know one day I have to come back here and spend more time looking at the stars, at the clouds...
          Another nice surprise on La Palma it's Los Tilos laurel forest.
A strong smell of vegetation and earth, lots of lianas hanging everywhere and again a view to die for. Deep into the forest, after walk passing tunnels and long hiking trails you can enjoy a beautiful waterfall.
Quite amazing how in the density of the forest you can hear the water murmuring like a call. Again, it's worth all the effort even for just few moments.
          I'm normally an enthusiastic type of traveller, happy and grateful for every new part of the World that I've seen, so you'll understand my exuberance when I tell you about another very special place of La Palma - Charco Azul.
After a brief stop in San Andes, a charming city on the north-east of the island, we finally get close to one of the "must see" attraction on our list. From the high coast we can see glimpse of emerald water and hear the ocean waves as well.
Passing fast between bright coloured flowers, I can't get enough of what's in front of me. Normally I will stop and gasp with excitement at every papaya plant, mango or even at butterflies, but not now...this Charco Azul miracle it's like a magnet.
The sun is up and strong enough even if it's the end of December and I'm right here, by the side of one of the most beautiful natural pools! My eyes are trying once again to memorise all the details and without a second to spare I dip into turquoise water. At the sides of the pool I can see many large red spotted crabs lying on the sun.




From time to time, big waves from the ocean are troubling their  peace. Once again, I was embracing the view around me, feeling grateful that I was able to see all this.
          I absolutely loved La Palma and what I've seen by now, but nothing has prepared me for the next adventure, where in the middle of nowhere we got the GPS signal lost.
As we like checking the map and look for unspoiled places, me and my husband nodded happily when we discover Playa El Rio (El Rio Muerte). The map shows a local road that could get us very near this mysterious beach.
So we drive and we drive, main streets become small, we pass green valleys and we keep descending the coast according to our map. We stopped from time to time, we get out of the car and careful look around. Green grass, yellow wild flowers and lots of cute little lizards. By one side we have the blue ocean, on the other side we have a sea of green.
By our amazement, it's doesn't take long for scenery to change. In only short time, when we really started to doubt that the car can manage the road any longer, we reach a black rock desert. We have in front a small, or to be more accurate, a very small road, no tarmac, without any sort of pavement, just a sort of path near a coast where I closed my eyes while my husband joked that "we may make it to see the beach" or not! There was no other way, you could no possible revers on such a multitude of winding pathways. The GPS was long lost now.
After few minutes when I could hear my own pulse, we finally got to see a sort of parking and a handful of very basic wood type houses.
All in colourful shades of pink, green, yellow and white. There was nobody there, nothing to suggest that someone was living in them.
Anyway, I was fascinated by the black hard rock desert around us. We are familiar enough with volcanic surroundings, but here was somehow different. This was deep black solid lava...and in front of us deep blue waves.
Beautiful sea shells on the nearest rocks and little tiny creatures running around them.
Only the ocean was sending loud waves to us, everything else was so unbelievable still.
Delighted that we accomplished our journey plan, we are looking up searching for a easier way of return  to the main roads. I must say the whole coast descending with the car took just a bit over an hour and a half. We knew there is no space for turns or overtakings and the margins between car and the coastal line edge was as little as my hand.
We had to try something else, so we drive the car back till we saw another local path going in the opposite direction. The relief that the road was a bit more accessible had raised our optimism.
We start crossing a banana plantation. It's beautiful and abundant, there are heavy green bunches everywhere I look. We are keep driving and the plantation doesn't seems to end. It's like a different world.
We stopped to the first road junction wondering what way to choose. The GPS was still not working, we didn't meet any other cars, but this day was so amazing that we weren't to be on the rush. We get off to feel the nature, to enjoy the sun and to look more at the scenery. In the peaceful setting, I've seen a big orange rolling towards us. Then another one, then I've seen so many more just few yards away from us, on the path we were contemplating to take.
If I was thinking my day was special by now, just imagine my expression looking up to huge orange trees, avocado trees, lemon trees and clementine trees. This is for real? I am dreaming or what?!
I feel like Alice in Wonderland. First I run to get some of fruits, to touch them, to make sure they are real.
Just to an arm away, a beautiful mango tree is sending me definitely nuts! Mango as well?! I take lots of pictures and genuinely feel this must be like in paradise. Then I laid on my back under the orange trees wishing I could stay like that forever, searching every shape of those perfect fruits. The deep orange colour and the multitude of fruits are keeping me unable to react. I want to jump around, to cuddle all those trees, to shout that I'm the most lucky person to be there...but I still didn't have enough of watching all the lights coming through the leaves. The sun rays are putting in more magic, the quietness too. I am so happy, so lucky, it's something that I will always remember and treasure. Thank you La Palma.

It didn't matter anymore the road, the car, how will get back...we had sweet soft oranges with us, a couple of the most scented lemons I've ever seen and a handful of healthy avocado. The mango was too beautiful to take, I just loved looking at.
          There are more memorable days and places that I could tell you about...Puerto Naos is one of them. There is an excellent beach here, the sand is beautifully black and the sun makes it shiny as the warm rays are reflecting on it. The ocean is calm today and the water is warm. A small breeze is swinging the palms long leaves and the sky is azure without any clouds!
The sand is so soft that we can see deep footprints everywhere. Very near to the beach, there is a shack selling smoothies and cold drinks.
Kids are running happily with ice cream, others are building up sand castles.. I can hear Latino music in the background, but the best music is the laugh of the kids.
La Palma it's alive, it's beautiful, La Palma has stole my heart.
          This special little island in the Atlantic have the sky lighten by millions of stars in the night and it's blessed with a gorgeous blue sky in the day. The green hills, the pine and laurel forests are keeping the balance over the infinite blue ocean.
For all this reasons and more, I strongly recommend you to visit La Palma. I know it's going to leave a print on your heart.

La Palma - for visitors