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| Roque De Los Muchachos Observatory |
La Palma Island is situated
in the North West of the Canarian Archipelago.
La Palma and its neighbours, La Gomera and El Hierro, are referred to
as the lesser known canaries due to the fact that they have managed to avoid
the excesses of mass tourism that affected Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.
One reason for this is that all three of these islands lack the fine glistening
beaches of the more popular islands and the small number of actual tourists
that visit each year, along with most of the locals, live in hope that such
mainstream tourism never does reach the island’s volcanic shores.
Lacking mass tourist
infrastructure, La Palma tends to attract the more adventurous visitor. In the
summer months the island teems with walkers, hikers, snorkellers, freedivers
and those of the scuba diving fraternity. During the off-season the island
still attracts hikers and nature lovers but also large numbers of the more
mature tourist head here looking for a little peace and quiet away from the
noisy nightclubs, bar crawlers and the teenage sex and drugs crowd that plague
the islands to the East. There are several tourist areas on the island but the
main ones are around the area of Los Cancajos and the Capital, Santa Cruz Del
La Palma. In all the main areas you’ll find a spattering of bars and
restaurants and low-rise hotels. There are also two diving centres in Los
Cancajos from where you can rent equipment and arrange boat trips to the major
offshore diving areas.
In natural beauty terms, La
Palma puts all the other islands of the Archipelago to shame. Rugged coastal
regions with crashing waves, beaches of fine black volcanic sand, verdant
forests, gushing waterfalls, mountain ranges and a lush subtropical climate, La
Palma offers something for anyone with a little adventure in their spirit.
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| Los Cancajos beach |
La Palma is also famous for
two rather differing controversies. The first is all down to a certain raunchy
pop singer, whilst the second concerns an all too familiar scientific warning
of impending global disaster. Back in the 1980’s Madonna released her True Blue
album, the sixth song of which was called La Isla Bonita. According to some,
many of who seem to work at the La Palma tourist board, the song La Isla Bonita
(the beautiful island in Spanish) refers to La Palma. Madonna is supposed to
have stayed on the island at some time in the past – though this has never been
confirmed. Others however are adamant that the song refers to the Island of San Pedro in Belize. Madonna is supposed to have dedicated the song to San Pedro
for some reason that is never really explained. Interestingly Madonna has
stated in Rolling Stone Magazine, that the San Pedro mentioned in the song is a
fictional island and does not refer to either island and may in fact be a sign for the off ramp. This admission doesn’t
seem to have had much effect though as both the locals of La Palma and the
denizens of San Pedro still claim that the song refers to their respective
island homes. The second controversy has all the makings of an episode of The
Big Bang Theory where academic egos engage in a battle of hypotheses. The story
goes that back in the 1990’s one group of scientific egos claimed that at some
point in the future a large chunk of La Palma would collapse into the ocean
creating a mega tsunami. A wall of water hundreds of metres tall would then
spread out from the island, wreaking havoc on the African coast, devastating
the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and washing all the dog crap off the streets
of Paris. Yes, yes, we know. Nothing can be that strong that it can rid the
streets of the French capital of all the accumulated dog mess, the aroma of
which mixes with the stench of the River Seine to create that oh so romantic
French atmosphere, and it wasn’t long before another bunch of scientific egos
proved it as well. The second bunch of egos pointing out that the first bunch
of egos were being egotistical and unscientific unlike them who were being
humble and scientific – Leonard and Sheldon, eat your heart out.
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| Watching me watching you |
The island is littered with
little coves and beaches; some very difficult to get to, where the more
adventurous snorkellers among you can sate your appetite for the underwater
world. However the four best areas, in our opinion, are in Los Cancajos, Charco
Verde and the beaches of Playa Del Hoyo and Playa La Martina. Given that La
Palma is situated in the Atlantic all of the beaches are at times subject to
strong waves, winds and currents that make conditions unsuitable for even the
most experienced snorkeller. That said, of all the four sites we recommend, Los
Cancajos is by far the safest.
Sandwiched between the
airport and the capital, Santa Cruz Del La Palma, the beach of Los Cancajos is
in fact a series of little interconnected beaches and coves rather than a
single beach. Protected by an artificial breakwater, Los Cancajos boasts an
array of underwater tunnels, reefs and rock walls that will delight freedivers
as well as shallow pools and rock formations closer to the beach that attract
enough marine life to interest the less experienced snorkellers. The more
daring among you might prefer to try out the delights of Charco Verde. Located
a short drive from Puerto Naos on the western side of the island, Charco Verde
is a wide cove of fine volcanic sand with rocky headlands on either side. The
water can be considerably rougher than at Los Cancajos and visibility is often
compromised at the best of times. The beach is also subject to rip currents
that make entering and exiting the water here particularly problematic. That
said, Charco Verde has a great deal to offer including canyons, strange
volcanic formations and large shoals of fish loitering beneath overhangs and in
between the volcanic fissures. If you like your water even rougher and the feel
of pebble rather than sand beneath your feet, then the beaches of Playa Del Hoyo
and Playa La Martina might be for you. Both sites are located on the eastern
side of the island and are a short drive south of the airport. The beaches are
reached by a narrow dirt track that can play havoc with the underside of your
rental car and it might be worth parking up on the main road and taking a
stroll down to the beach. A word of warning here too, both of these beaches
offer rough water snorkelling at its very best and are not for the feint-hearted, if you are inexperienced or unfit you will undoubtedly get into
difficulty here and should stick to less demanding sites such as Los Cancajos
or the man made (though rather boring) rock pools at Los Sauces in the north.
For those of you who have the experience and physical fitness however, Playa
Del Hoyo and Playa La Martina with their tunnels, caves, gulleys and rocky fissures
will not disappoint. All four sites teem with fish. Charco Verde and Los
Cancajos in particular are home to shoals of sardines, bream, trumpet fish,
damselfish, parrotfish and a good many more. One final note; the water
temperature in La Palma never gets above around 24 degrees even at the height
of summer and can fall below 15 degrees in the winter months so a wetsuit is
highly recommended.
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| One of the breakwaters at Los Cancajos |
When not snorkelling, La
Palma still has a lot to offer. A visit to the astrophysics observatory at
Roque De Los Muchachos is not to be missed. The phenomenal clarity of the air
in La Palma means that astronomers, physicists and other scientific folk flock
to La Palma to make use of the plethora of telescopes that dot the mountain
ridges. At certain times you can even take a guided tour of the installations.
Once you’ve finished peering into the sky you can take a lung-challenging hike
around the caldera of Taburiente or get lost in the national park with its
waterfalls, forests and winding tracks. If you’re not exhausted by all that, you
can take a trip to the volcano centre at San Antonio, learn about all things
grapey at the Las Manchos wine museum or visit the salt flats at Fuencaliente and
then there are lighthouses to see, shops to peruse in Santa Cruz, or you could
book a day trip to one of the other islands in the Archipelago.
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| Observatory above the clouds |
Once you have had your fill
of sea, nature and culture it’s time to get your fill of food and beer. Here
though things get a bit tricky. Although there are a great many restaurants and
cafes to choose from, the majority are not exactly culinary Meccas. The best
two restaurants we found were El Lagar and Thai Las Olas, both in the Los
Cancajos area. El Lagar is located in a shopping arcade but don’t let that put
you off. El Lagar is typically Canarian in décor and ambience, the service is
attentive but discreet and although the menu is small this should be seen as a
good thing. Restaurants that try to be all things to all men with menus the
size of encyclopaedias tend to be jack-of-all-trades and masters of none which
means your dinner is probably going to be rubbish. El Lagar keeps things simple
but that simplicity is very well done indeed. Try the tapas plate for a varied
taste of the islands culinary offerings, after that we recommend the pork
tenderloin or one of the fresh fish dishes that are on offer.
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| Err,, That'll be cactus then! |
For a change to the Spanish
offerings head off to the Hotel Las Olas and its Thai restaurant. Having a
Japanese member in the club and living in London (the capital city of the world
with every national cuisine you can think of readily available) we consider
ourselves to be experts in Asian cooking and normally the thought of visiting a
Thai, Indian or Chinese restaurant in a tourist area of a small island would
fill us with dread. Thai Las Olas however, was a pleasant surprise. There were
exceptions though, the Chicken Pad Thai has tomato ketchup as sauce and the
Thai curry was nowhere near spicy enough for our tastes. The beef salad though
was as good as any we have tasted and the weeping tiger steak was spicy enough
to do as its name suggests and bring a tear to the eye. The noodle dishes are
particularly good and the spring rolls (something most Thai restaurants fall
down on) were second to none. Once stuffed to bursting we went to look for a
bar and here, like most Greek and Spanish islands, we were left very
disappointed. There are places to sate the thirst but most are attached to
restaurants and all seem to have no idea how to store, pour or serve beer.
Still the beer was cold if not much else and we can handle this small
disappointment as La Palma hits the mark on so many other things.
You
can fly direct to La Palma all year round from Madrid and in the summer season
flights are available from London, Berlin and other European cities. In the
winter months there are flight connections via Tenerife. There are also ferry
connections from Tenerife and Gran Canaria. A word of warning though, if you
are flying British Airways or Iberia Express or combinations of the two, take
note that both airlines are notorious for being late and for mislaying your
luggage on route. Read about our own experience here.
