I’ve managed to miss this fiesta every year for 21 years, but I’m told it’s rather good. It’s one of those fiestas where the devil appears and joins in. Since the “devil” has a costume involving lit fireworks, it’s not advisable to wear your best clothes as they might get pinhole burns. It all happens at Lodero on the night of August 26th.
One of my favourite bits of tourist feedback about La Palma island was the disgruntled Brit who described Los Tilos as: “Just a load of trees.” Well yes. And Beethoven’s Ninth is just a load of notes, and the Mona Lisa is just a load of paint. Los Tilos, in San Andres and Los Sauces, is home to one of the best surviving laurel forests in the world. The other…
I left it all ridiculously late, but we have the flights and hotel sorted out for a week in The Netherlands, starting Monday evening. Now I just have to finish as much of the observatory guide book as possible, so the layout genius, Helen Bennett, can get started while I’m away.
The residencia has a new coffee machine, which makes rather nice coffee. You buy a token from reception, put it in and press the button for your choice of coffee. Then you see the coffee pouring down the drain, swear, and grab a cup fast enough to catch the second half of the coffee. That’s right – no plastic cups. It’s better for the planet, and anyway I prefer drinking…
The Perseids are usually the best meteor shower of the year. The peak will be on Sunday, with perhaps as many as 100 shooting stars per hour (although any meteor shower is best after midnight). In Spain, this shower is known as las lagrimas de San Lorenzo (the tears of St Lawrence) because it happens near the feast day of St. Lawrence the martyr. Fuencaliente town hall and island’s government…