Tourists sometimes go nuts trying to find the village of Breña Baja, or Fuencaliente. There’s a really simple reason why they can’t find them. They don’t exist. Breña Baja and Fuencaliente are municipalities, and their town halls are in the villages of San Jose and Los Canarios, respectively. It like driving all over the south east of England, looking for the town of Sussex. The map shows the 14 municipalities…
The patron saint of Barlovento is Our Lady of the Rosary (la Virgen del Rosario). The Christian victory at the battle of Lepanto in 1571 is attributed to her, soevery two years, Barlovento stages a re-enactment of the battle as part of the annual fiesta. This year, it happens on Sunday 11th at 6 pm. Here’s the fun part: the original sea-battle involved 80,000 men, and the re-enactment consists of…
Carnival traditionally ends with a funeral for a sardine. Lots of places hold sardine’s funerals and they’re all deliciously silly. Even better, many of them are held well after carnival, on a vatriety of dates, so you can go to several of them without collapsing from exhaustion. The most famous one on the island is at Los Sauces tonight, starting at 9pm. Tazacorte’s sardine is also tonight, starting at (I…
The north of La Palma is one of the best places to see dragon trees. These exotic-looking plants grow throughout the Canary Islands, and also in Cape Verde, the Azores, Maderia, and western Morocco, but on La Palma, they’re still reproducing naturally. The Canary Islands used to have a large, flightless bird, something like a Dodo. This bird ate dragon tree fruits, so the seeds evolved to have a hard protective…
Here’s a short video of Los Sauces Sardine’s funeral, 2012 It’s not a properly edited video, but if I wait until I’ve had chance to do that, I might be waiting forever. Enjoy! On Friday night, El Llanito in Breña Alta (between San Pedtro and Las Ledas) will be holding their sardine’s funeral at 9 pm. And on Saturday at 9:30 pm, Los Sauces will be holding their sardine’s funeral, with a…
Most places in Spain end Carnival with a funeral for a sardine. It’s like being inside a Monty Python sketch, with the crowd dressed in black (some tarty, some elegant) and screeching with fake grief. “WAUUUGH! She’s dead!” The whole thing’s deliciously bonkers. This bizarre finale to Carnival was traditionally held on Ash Wednesday, but most places on La Palma hold it at the weekend, so people don’t have to…