Come to San Antonio volcano visitor centre and see La Palma’s “Stonehenge” mark the autumn equinox on Sunday night at 7:30 pm. Stonehenge is a bit of an overstatement, of course, but the modern astronomical marker at the visitor centre works the same way as Stonehenge. As the sun sets at the equinox, the shadow of one stone reaches another. (Different stones make shadows which reach the marker stone at…
White sands beach, Salemera, Mazo
La Palma has lots of little beaches tucked away here and there, like Salemera. You take the main road from the airport to Fuencaliente, and just south of Mazo, follow the marked turning off. After four twisty kilometres, you wind up at the little village. It’s easy to park. The beach itself is tiny, but very sheltered. You don’t have to worry that a big wave will come along and…
Gofio
Gofio is sort-of cooked flour (you toast the grains before you grind them) and it’s been a staple of the Canarian diet since pre-hispanic times. In principle, you can use just about any grain, although the commonest ones are wheat and maize. In times of famine, there’s even a fern root you can use, although I believe it’s very bitter, and not something you would chose to eat if there…
I hope that wasn’t my prince
Wow! Yes, that’s a real frog, and a real NASA launch, and no, the photo wasn’t retouched. This is NASA’s LADEE heading to the moon “to gather detailed information about the lunar atmosphere, conditions near the surface and environmental influences on lunar dust.” The automatic cameras caught this image at the launch Pad 0B at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.” For real. So what’s with the frog? Well, the…
Art Exhibition in Los Sauces: Update
The Awwa art and design collective, temporarily opened an art gallery and creative studio in San Andrés y Sauces, where it organized the first inaugural group exhibition titled ISLAND 2.0 which brings together outstanding artists of the islands of La Palma and Tenerife. The exhibition will run from September 13 until October 15 and unites several emerging and established artists working around modern art in Palma, such as Peter Faust,…
An accident in Tijarafe fiesta: UPDATED
There was an accident in Tijarafe during the devil’s dance on Saturday night. There was a bigger crowd than usual, since it was a weekend. The devil tripped and fell over. That meant that the fireworks would be squirting horizontally instead of straight up. The emergency services managed to get the helmet-with-fireworks off the devil which sounds very brave. Indeed, the head of the unit had to go to hospital…