Tuesday was great too. I took the journalist, Tim Johnson, into Santa Cruz, where he bought a T shirt. Then we went to Las Nieves and thence to San Andres (via the usual viewpoints) to stuff ourselves at Restaurante San Andres. I love their fishballs! After that we did a short hike in Los Tilos, and went round the north along the Mimbres road to Hoya Grande, and up…
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,…
It must be summer. The plain swifts (Apus unicolor) are back at the Roque de Los Muchachos. These birds are native to the Canary Islands and Madiera, but some overwinter in North Africa. I don’t know where these ones disappear to in winter, but it’s always nice to see them back, zipping acrobatically around the telescopes.
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…
I’ve been showing an international group of journalists around La Palma for the tourist board. So I took them to all the most beautiful parts of the beautiful island, and we ate in the best restaurants, and we had good conversations and I got paid for it. But then I suppose that somebody has to do it. On Saturday we watched the sunset from the dome of the enormous…
..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…