La Palma has over 1,000 km of footpaths – everything from challenges for fit people to gentle strolls. One of my favourites is the walk along the coast from Charco-Azul to Puerto Espindola, in the municipality of San Andres and Sauces. Charco Azul has salt-water swimming pools, rather like Piscinas la Fajana. At one time, Puerto Espindola was a working port, mostly exporting the agricultural produce of the borough. Now…
When I first came to La Palma in 1990, around 40% of the population depended on the banana trade: growing bananas, packing them, or driving them. But even with the EU subsidy, it’s hard to make a living from bananas. If you’re unlucky with the weather, you can work hard all year and still make a loss. So the economy is diversifying, and a good thing too. But bananas are…
Malvasia is a white dessert wine from the south of La Palma. It’s too sweet to drink with fish (or to drink like a fish). In fact it’s similar to Maderia or a sweet sherry – more something you’d have at the very end of a meal with the local sweet almond biscuits. In Shakespear’s day Malvasia wine was known as Malmsey, and it was very popular indeed. In the…
Fish on La Palma is usually delicious because its very fresh. Well it should be, given the amount of ocean surrounding the island. I once went with friends to a shack on the beach at Punta Larga (since closed) where we had to wait, because the cook was having her own lunch. As we sipped our beer, a man came up out of the sea with two fish on a…
La Palma has a small rum factory (the Aldea distillery), at Puerto Espíndola, in the borough of San Andres y Sauces. Unlike most rum factories, they start with sugar cane rather than molasses. After all, La Palma had commercial sugar cane plantations in the 15th century, before the West Indies had them. At harvesting season, the factory’s south building smells of sugar cane being crushed and fermented. Distillation happens in…
The Square, San Andres, La Palma San Andres is a very pretty little village in the northeast of La Palma. From Santa Cruz, you take the main road north until you’re almost at Los Sauces, and then take the little road down towards the coast (yes, it’s signposted). The church was built in the early 17th century, when La Palma was rich from transatlantic trade. It’s supposed to be beautiful…