The Tazacote martytrs have an unusual memorial – 18m underwater at Malpique, the site where they drowned. There are 40 crosses, one for each of the victims. The memorial was created in 2000, and I’m told that it’s easy to visit even for novice divers. The photo was taken by Christian Carlos Tdo. Rguez who is a local diving instructor and ecologist. He has a blog in Spanish (with excellent photos)…
Looking east towards Tenerife. The highest point of the island is the Roque de Los Muchachos, at 2,426m (8,000 ft) above sea level. Most days of the year, the view is spectacular. Even when it’s raining at sea-level, the summit is nearly always above the clouds. In fact, you can often look down on a sea of clouds surrounding the island. Of course that’s one reason why the observatory…
The Starlight Initiative has officially recognised La Palma as a “Starlight destination“, meaning that the island has really starry skies and really good activities for tourists to enjoy those skies. Among other things, the auditors were impressed by La Palma’s growing number of hiking trails and viewpoints used for astrotourism, its archaeological sites connected with astronomy, the progress towards a visitor centre at the Roque de Los Muchachos, and the country cottages…
This evening will be the solstice, when the sun appears at its farthest north in the sky. For the northern hemisphere, it’s the longest day of the year. (And for the southern hemisphere, it’s the longest night of the year.) Cielos La Palma will be holding an activity on Wednesday 20th in El Paso, at the archeological site “El Verde”, which many believe was created to enable Awara observers to…
Wednesday is Canary Day. It’s a big thing here. On Tuesday, most schools will have a party for the second half of the morning. They’ll serve traditional food (probably lots of gofio) and play traditional folk music. Some will have Canarian sports, like the Shepherd’s Leap. Schools and most shops will be shut on Wednesday. There’s a good chance that you’ll be able to catch a folk group performing somewhere.
The Cistercian convent of the Holy Trinity at Buenavista in Breña Alta is surprisingly new. It was founded in 1946, and it’s the only closed order on the island. I was surprised to find out that there are only ten nuns who live there. The convent has a small shop. I first went there about ten years ago, in search of a rosary made of dragon-tree seeds, for a Catholic…