Yesterday was a great day. In the morning I did my usual guiding job around Grantecan. It’s particularly nice to show people around at the weekend. Since there’s no engineering work going on, the duty engineer has time to do things like move the telescope. Yesterday, he took the brakes off in azimuth (the bit that goes round like a merry-go-round) and asked who wanted to move over 400 tonnes…
The patron saint of Barlovento is Our Lady of the Rosary (la Virgen del Rosario). The Christian victory at the battle of Lepanto in 1571 is attributed to her, soevery two years, Barlovento stages a re-enactment of the battle as part of the annual fiesta. This year, it happens on Sunday 15th at 6:15 pm. Here’s the fun part: the original sea-battle involved 80,000 men, and the re-enactment consists of…
La Palma now has its own brewery, in Los Llanos, brewing Garimba beer. Garimba is Palmeran slang for a beer. It’s a very mild tasting beer, flavoured with lupins rather than hops, and I really liked it.
First it was a tum lurgy, and then I worked three days up the mountain instead of the usual two, and then it was a cough and sore throat. One way and another, I’ve hardly done any writing and the house is grubby. And now I’ve got a friend staying, so I’m far too busy having fun to do any housework.
Los Cancajos beach has passed the Blue Flag standard for the tenth year running. I checked with Wikipedia. “Compliance with Blue Flag criteria requires adherence to strict water quality standards, safety standards, environmental education and information, the provision of services and general environmental management criteria, set by the Foundation for Environmental Education.” I’ve got used to having a lovely, clean beach on the doorstep. This is a reminder that I…