Tower of Jewels is one of the common names for Echium wildpretii. Some of the other are red bugloss, Tenerife bugloss or Mount Teide bugloss. The Spanish name is tajinaste grande or tajinaste rojo, although the ones on La Palma can be blue or mauve. The individual flowers are tiny, but the spikes can be anything up to 3 m high. And they’re in flower on the peaks of La…
I got a couple of day’s work looking after some Canadian visitors to the island. (Actually they’re Americans who’ve lived in Canada for a long time.) Nice people. They run a hotel called Trout Point Lodge in Nova Scotia, and they’re hoping to start astrotourism over there. They were staying in a hotel I wasn’t previously aware of, the Hacienda de Abajo in Tazacorte. It’s gorgeous – it’s a converted…
The astronomical viewpoint at Fuencaliente has three (modern) standing stones, where the shadow of the setting sun points to another stone at (respectively) the summer solstice, both equinoxes, and the winter solstice. Tomorrow night (Wednesday) there will be a free activity run by Cielos La Palma at the viewpoint, starting at 6:30 pm to watch the sunset, followed by astronomical observations including another chance to see comet PanSTARRS through…
La Palma’s tourist board have started a newsletter about the island. You can read the first issue here. And you can sign up for future issues a: http://www.visitlapalma.es/contenido/newsletter
Gaspar visiting Santa Cruz de la Palma Although Father Christmas does visit Spanish children, he’s a new arrival. Traditionally the presents arrive on the morning of January 6th, when the three kings visit baby Jesus. (The sales don’t normally start this early, because Christmas isn’t over here.) And on the evening of the 5th, their majesties ride in procession through most of the major towns and villages in Spain. In…
A Very Merry Christmas to all my readers. And if you celebrate something other than Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful time celebrating that.