I have an article up at Hello Canary Islands

Gran Telescopio Canarias in the snow
The observatory in winter




La Palma is a small island, just 17 miles by 28 (27 x 45 km). You can easily experience a different landscape every day for a week.

“The Dead Sea”
I’m standing beside a grid of square, shallow ponds, each one maybe a metre across edged with stone. The water in each pond is a pale coral pink, with a lacy white edging. Some have white mounds in the centre. This is the Fuencaliente salt works. From May to October or November, the ponds are full of sea water, getting ever saltier as the sun sucks away the moisture. It’s a great place to see migrating birds (plovers, dunlins, sandpipers, turnovers and occasionally even flamencos and shelducks) but the only things that can live in this water are a tiny crustacean, Artemia salina, which is pink like the first stirrings of dawn. This is only two and a half miles (4 km) from…

Read more at http://www.hellocanaryislands.com/blog/lugares/la-palma-treasure-trove-landscapes-one-island/

There’s another article about La Palma up at the Financial Times which I rather like, although I’d point out that 40% or the forest burned, not 40% of the island, and it’s recovering already.

Teneguía volcano, which looks almost like Mars,  Fuencaliente, La Palma
Teneguía volcano, Fuencaliente

Posted by sheila

Sheila came to La Palma with a six month contract and has stayed 24 years so far. She used to work as a software engineer at the observatory, but now she's a writer and Starlight guide.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.