I’m back in the course, which is demanding but fun. Yesterday was meteorology, accident prevention and first aid, and today was astronomical distances and the sun. A lot of the others are finding the astronomy bit hard going, while I know most of the content, but I still have to learn all the vocabulary in Spanish. Mind you, taking notes in Spanish is getting easier, thank goodness. I’m also trying…
La Palma has lots of rare plants which grow nowhere else, and many of them are threatened by grazing or habitat loss. This is one of two species called Parrot’s Beak or Fire Beak (Lotus pyranthus), both of them very rare in the wild and officially classified as “in danger of extinction”. But here it is growing beside the road to the Roque. Mind you, it’s not exactly wild –…
Puntallana originally grew around the spring of St John the Baptist (San Juan). Today,the spring is still there, but it’s nobody’s drinking water (which is a good thing, seeing as the water’s green.) Still, it’s a peaceful spot to visit, and they still hold a yearly procession where they take the statue of the village’s patron saint, St John the Baptist, to the spring to give thanks for the water….
The Parador on La Palma is just outside the village of San Jose, in Breña Baja. (Paradors are a national chain of posh hotels, and very nice they are too.) Tonight (April 22nd ) at 8 pm they’ll be hosting the first public dinner with a new menu, inspired by astronomical bodies. A professional Starlight guide will be there to talk about the planets, and afterwards, there will be stargazing….
That last post turned out to be tempting fate. I had a short course on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, about how to start a tourism business. I was sniffling on Tuesday evening and worse on Wednesday. I scaled back my planned walk on Thursday, but by Friday afternoon I was downright ill. I spent pretty much the whole weekend in bed, and still felt wobbly on Monday. I cancelled Tuesday’s…
The castle on the hill above Santa Cruz (to the north) gets its name from the five-yearly festival where they bring the statue of the Virgin Mary down from Las Nieves into Santa Cruz. It’s not much used in between fiestas, but Wednesday 20th April is The World Night in Defence of Starlight, and Astrotour will be holding a Star Party there from 9 pm to 1 am. You’ll be…