Most of the telescopes at the observatory here look spectacular even from the outside. SuperWASP looks like a big garden shed. It’s the white thing at bottom left. Even when it opens up, it still doesn’t look like a professional telescope. To me, it looks more like a small missile launcher. The equipment isn’t that spectacular either. As modern telescopes go, it was built for peanuts. It has eight cameras,…
The cloud waterfall.
cloud waterfall400 Jigsaw Puzzle Because the island sits in the trade winds, damp air hits the northeast of the island and has to rise, where it turns into clouds. Because La Palma has a north-south spine called the Cumbre Nueva, the cloud quite often reaches up to the ridge and then tumbles over as the cloud waterfall. This is extremely pretty, and best viewed from around the western side of…
Twin Dragon Trees in Breña Alta
Twin dragon trees (Dracaena draco), Breña Alta These trees stand in Breña Alta, just off the minor road which winds over the central ridge to El Paso. They grow so close together that it’s hard to tell where on trunk ends and the other begins. Of course there’s a legend associated with the trees. Two brothers lived nearby, and were very close, but they fell in love with the same…
Chilean nitrate advertising sign
This famous Art Deco advert for Chilean nitrate has been standing at the beginning of the Calle Real since 1929. It was designed by López-Durán Lozano, who was a student of architecture at the time, although he went on to become a professor at the School of Architecture of Madrid. The tiles were made by the Valencian firm Ramon Castello. Chilean nitrate was a fertilizer made of sodium nitrate (NaNO3),…
Napeloen Bonepart in the Caldera de Taburiente
A couple of weeks ago, I promised more photos of the Caldera de Taburiente. At the top of the Caldera there’s a rock formation that from one angle looks distinctly like Napoleon Bonepart, or an indian. So it’s called Boniface or El Indio. This photo is taken from below the Roque de las Viñas, beside the vineyard. The best viewpoint has a lethal drop and no guard rail. It’s totally…
Video of the Sardin’e Funeral in Los Sauces
There’s an excellent report of the Los Sauces sardine at http://www.dragoazul.tv/video/146 although it’s only in Spanish.