Customer at Barlovento petrol station. Photo: Theresa My friends from Franceses stopped off at Barlovento petrol station, and saw this man chatting to another customer. Yes, that’s a live parrot on his shoulder. Mind you, there used to be quite a lot of pirates around La Palma.
Sunday was busy. I left home with my son at 10 am to go to Puntagorda, so he could have a go on the Karts. Sadly, it turned out to be a demonstration of Karts, and he couldn’t have a go himself. So I took one very disappointed kid off to lunch at my friend’s house on the edge of the village. It was a nice lunch, with better company….
Yup, it’s silly. The original battle involved something like 80,000 men, which is almost the population of the whole island. So I was expecting a cut-down version. Heck, Shakespeare did battles by having one man come on stage and say, “Imagine the battle…” So Barlovento had a rather good toy castle with about 12 visible defenders, and the sultan gave a speech about the original battle. Then a ship came…
Lepanto is the Italian name for the Greek port of Naupaktos, where a famous naval battle took place in 1571 in which a coalition of Christians trounced the Ottoman Empire. (Actually, there were also battles in 1499 and 1500, but since the Europeans lost to the Turks, we tend to quietly forget them.) And for some reason they stage a re-enactment in Barlovento, every two years, as part of the…
I went with my friend last week to photograph a leaning dragon tree in Puntagorda, and we found a tame chough there. I think it makes a good living from tourists. And then we went to have a look at the ravine, and I brushed gently against a prickly pear. Of course I got hundreds of spines on the shoulder my T shirt, and I couldn’t think of driving back…
A pre-alert means don’t panic yet, but check before you go out. High winds are expected tomorrow (Thursday) in the eastern Canaries: Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, and Fuertaventura, and the day after (Friday) in all the islands. They expect gusts up to 75 km/h / 46 mph. That’s Force 8 on the Beaufort Scale: “Twigs broken from trees. Cars veer on road.” So Friday might not be the best day for…