On Tuesday I hiked from the gofio museum at Las Trcias down to Burracas cave. I’ve done the start of the walk before, but this is the first time I’ve actually got down to the cave at the bottom, because it’s not far, but it is very steep. I think I’m getting a little fitter at last. I’m glad I did get down there: I knew about the cave (which…
I’ve just spent a lovely week in Garafía with my friend Petra. The plan was for her to walk a lot and for me to walk a bit and write a lot, and that’s pretty much what we did. After 30 years on La Palma, I still occasionally discover new places, and this holiday was no exception. The photo above is the Fagundo ravine, from the viewpoint at Las Calzadas….
The digger’s started wotk on the foundations for the Large Size Telescope I gather the plan is to dig down 3 m, which is less than I’d thought for such a big structure. But the the MAGIC telescope is very light for its size, so perhaps the LST will be too. Cross posted to http://lapalma-island.com
I’ve been having fun hunting up the local rock art with an archeologist from Northumbria. There’s lots of it, but while the rock art from the North Pennines is about 5,000 – 3,000 years old, the Palmeran art is much newer at 1,200 – 500 years old. We went to El Verde near El Paso cemetery, where most of the carvings line up with midsummer sunset or midwinter sunset (well,…
For centuries, goatherds have brought their flocks to the Roque de los Muchachos, the highest point on the island of La Palma. As the lower pastures dried out in summer, they moved to fresh pastures on higher ground. These days, farmers can drive home for the night, but of course that wasn’t the case 50 years ago, much less 500 years ago. They came up some time in June,…
Spring is obviously here. Some people look for the swifts returning or flowers blooming, but I know it’s spring when the solar telescopes start work after their summer break. It’s not very easy to see whether the Swedish Solar Telescope is working unless you’re close, but yesterday, the Dutch Open Telescope had the clamshell dome down and they were clearly open for science. It must be time to buy…