I finally got to see the comet! The plan was to go to El Llano del Jable, but I found cars parked solidly along the roadside for a kilometre or more before the viewpoint itself, so I settled for what I could get. Unfotunately I’d had to leave in a hurry and I found that I’d brought the wrong tripod. This one wouldn’t connect with the camera, so I wedged…
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 almond trees have blossomed early this year. I had an excursion from a cruise ship on Thursday and saw that the almond trees are already blossoming in Garafía and Puntagorda after our exceptionally warm winter. As usual, it’s gorgeous, but I couldn’t get any photos while working on a moving bus. So after working at the observatory on Sunday morning I drove down the Garafía side with my DSLR….
..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…
Although La Palma has more water than the other Canary Islands, many farmers used to be desperately poor and frequently hungry. The only water for irrigation was rainwater, and obviously they had no control over how much they got. Then somebody suggested digging into the hillside to find water. (If anybody knows who, please tell me.) The idea is that much of the rainwater seeps into the ground, and runs…
Cruise ships regularly call into Santa Cruz de La Palma, and I thought people might like suggestions on what to see while they’re here. Of course it might be useful to people staying elsewhere on the island, too. The Tourist Information Office is a distinctive glass building, right outside the entrance to the port, and the staff are very good. But it does tend to attract longish queues when…