Tower of Flowers

Blue tower of jewels (Echium webbi) Breña Baja, La Palma, Canary Islands
May 20, 2015

  Because La Palma is an island, the plants here evolved in isolation, and many of them are unique to the island, or to the Canaries. One of my favourites is the Tower of Jewels — Tajinaste in Spanish and in Latin, the Echium genus. It’s related to borage, and most species have a big spike with hundreds of tiny flowers. The most spectacular is Echium wildpretii, which really is…

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Los Cancajos

The beach at Los Cancajos, breña Baja
May 16, 2015

  If a beach is all you want for your holiday, then frankly you’re better off in Tenerife. But if a beach is part of the mix, then we have two main beach resorts, Los Cancajos and Puerto Naos. Our sand is like the Model T Ford – “Any colour you like, as long as it’s black”. When the sea mashes up black, volcanic rock, that’s what you get. However,…

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Shooting stars on Tuesday night

La Polvacera basketball court, full of telescopes. Breña Baja
August 11, 2014

  Tuesday night is the best meteor shower of the year, the Perseids. Of course it should be visible all over the planet, but La Palma’s astronomical viewpoints will probably be a particularly good place to see shooting stars. Unfortunately the full moon will spoil the show quite a bit. Cielos La Palma will be in La Polvacera basketball court from 9 pm – midnight with telescopes. Toño will also…

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Flags Galore

Garafía's flag
June 11, 2014

  You see a lot of flags on La Palma. Most English visitors will recognise the flags of Spain and the European Union. But the Canary Islands are an autonomous region within Spain, and they have their own flag too. You see it a lot, especially around May 30th, which is Canary Day. And then each island has its own flag. Here’s the flag of La Palma: And as if…

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Star Party in Brena Baja on Friday

Full moon. Photo by Luc Viatour / www.Lucnix.be
August 29, 2012

Friday 31st is a full moon.  It’s also the second full moon in August, which makes it a blue moon. There will be a Star Party on Friday 31st in La Polvacera, Breña Baja. It starts with a talk (in Spanish) from 6-7 pm The astronomical observation runs from 7-11:30 pm in the basketball court.  If you’ve got a telescope, please bring it along.  If not, come and look through someone…

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A Romeria for St Anthony

A romería is a cross between a religious procession and a party. Typically, they hold a special mass and then take the statue out for several kilometres along a traditional route, followed by floats which hand out free food and wine, and lots of people, some in traditional dress, many of them singing and / or dancing. Since it’s a big event, most of them don’t happen every year. Tonight…

July 21, 2012
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