Next stop was the volcanic ocean island of La Palma, the most north-westerly island of the Canaries. Braemar docked at the main port Santa Cruz de La Palma, the island's main port...
..near the beaches with black volcanic sand.
Today's tour on this stunning and beautiful island began with a visit to the Sanctuary of Nuestra Senora de Las Nieves, The Church of Our Lady of the Snow, the patron saint of the island. It is the spiritual centre for all the people of La Palma and is located in the midst of an area of outstanding natural beauty.
The existence of this church is proved as far back as November, 20th, 1423 so it is one of the oldest places of worship in all the Canary Islands.....it is beautiful inside.
A great view by church
us
But the highlight of the tour was the visit to
Caldera de Taburiente National Park
created in 1954, which is one of the biggest volcanic craters in the world. The visitors centre had loads of information for us.
If you click on this photo to enlarge it you can see where the ship was docked on the cloudy cloudy cloudy east side of the island, and the road we took through the tunnel to the west side of the island ...THE SUNNY SIDE!!!! We came out of the tunnel on the other side of the island into glorious sun, what a bonus!
If you book a holiday here go on the west .... the sunny side.
We had a short hike over the crater border path... what fantastic scenery. The crater has a circumference of 28,000 metres, diameter of 9,000 metres and depth of 1,500 metres, lined with pine trees and bossed lava, the photos could never do it justice.
Wonderful stuff! Click for more info!
Great tree roots.
map of where we walked
me and some SKY BLUE (PUSB PUSB)
me
husb
Then back through another tunnel,the longest tunnel of all the Canaries with the longest stretch of straight road... 2km....
Apparently many locals used this stretch to see how fast their cars could go, only to get a speeding fine, the total amount probably repaid the cost of building it...
into cloud
crater
crater
This long building is one of the 2 hospitals on La Palma, all single rooms, free (NHS) and every room has a sea view! You would't mind being here for a while.
OMG OMG DID YOU SPOT THE IKEA???????!!!!!!
Back for a walk through the town...they like their flowery balconies, very pretty.
We didn't have to leave till evening so we had a beer and a bearhug.
And because we'd missed our tea we ordered room service..... the tray is getting bigger and better!
Has anyone spotted the picture on our cabin wall??!!!! What are the chances eh? =)
It was a brilliant day. La Palma is the home of the 14 international telescopes (Isaac Newton telescope, Liverpool telescope)
the Observatory
situated right at the top of the island and because of this there can be no industry, no pollution, no gases. Just good pure clean air.
There are no forest fires, no dangerous animals, no poisonous animals, no snakes, no foxes, no rats, no vermin....
just lizards, a frog and 80 varieties of bird.
No crime, no looting, no murders.
No rain.
(Well, maybe 25 days a year) (in Winter)
We loved it. (Black sand isn't very inviting though, but you can't have everything!!)
A GREAT DAY!!
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