The sardine’s funeral in Los Sauces had a Roman theme this year. As always, the bier was carried by lots of humans (rather than a lorry) and they danced it through the streets and around the square. Los Sauces has the reputation of putting on a much better sardine’s funeral than Santa Cruz, and I think it’s true. Of course it’s self-perpetuating. People make more effort to get to the…
On Friday 2nd March, Los Cancajos will hold its carnival parade, with about 400 participantes (children in fancy dress, serious percussion and other carnival bands). The parade starts at about 5:30 at the south end of the village (near Las Olas hotel)and will go along the main street to the Centro Cancajos, where there will be a performance by clowns. On Saturday, Los Cancajos will hold their 1960s party,starting at…
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…
Wednesday 9th March The Sardine’s funeral This is probably the second biggest event in Carnival. As the name suggests, it’s a funeral for a gigantic sardine, and downright Pythonesque too. Wear black and/or drag, and be prepared to wail with fake grief. Wednesday in Santa Cruz, Friday in Los Llanos, Saturday 19th in Los Sauces (a particularly good one) Santa Cruz de la Palma 18:00h. Reception and Wake for the…
Tourists sometimes go nuts trying to find the village of Breña Baja, or Fuencaliente. There’s a really simple reason why they can’t find them. They don’t exist. Breña Baja and Fuencaliente are municipalities, and their town halls are in the villages of San Jose and Los Canarios, respectively. It like driving all over the south east of England, looking for the town of Sussex. The map shows the 14 municipalities…