This week’s photo excursion was to the salt works at the southern tip of the island, Las Salinas de Fuencliente. I had it all planned out: I’d photograph the piles of salt in the rosy light just before sunset, photograph the sunset itself, eat in the cafeteria and then I’d photograph the stars. That’s not what happened. Most of the Salinas had been taken over by a wedding party so…
I spent much of the week helping out with a peer review of La Palma’s dark skies and astrotourism, run by Interreg Europe. A group of two people from each place visits each place in turn to look at what local people are doing and to suggest improvements. My role was translating and tour guiding. It was fun, but tiring. On Tuesday the group finished up at El jardin de…
The most recent eruption in the Canary Islands was Teneguía, in 1971 (see Thursday, 21 February 2008 Which Planet Are You On?). It’s a nice place to visit, but you have to be fairly fit. St. Antony’s Volcano (Volcan San Antonio) is nice in a completely different way. For one thing, it looks like a volcano should look, and you can walk halfway around the spectacular circular crater. You…
Today is the perfect day to go and find the larvae of Lepidoptera humunguous feeding beside the roadworks in Fuencaliente. Lepidoptra is the order of insects which includes moths and butterflies. I’ve never seen the cocoons, but I believe the adult form can sometimes be seen at the airport.
..after you made other plans. Here’s what was supposed to happen today: I had a group of students to show around two telescopes. Since they were going up in a bus from Los Cancajos and the weather forecast was poor, I arranged to drive to Los Cancajos, leave my car there, and go up with them in the bus. This would avoid the usual confusion created by bad weather…
Fuencaliente town hall has decided to have a craft stall in the visitor centre at San Antonio volcano, just for those days when there’s a cruise ship in port. As you can see, there’s plenty of embroideries on sale, but they also have lovely soaps, hand made with olive oil and natural fragrances.