La Palma report
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Sun 19 Nov 2006 18:38
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Hello
Friends
"28:40.706N 17:46.039W"
'La Isla Bonita' really is very beautiful
and spectacular - about 275 square miles in area but nearly 8,000 feet
high. This is the highest altitude to area proportion of any island
and a great deal of it is therefore seriously steep.
As soon as we got the car, we headed
straight for the highest point - Roque de los Muchachos, where the telescopes of
the Astrophysics Observatory are sited. The road from Santa Cruz says it's about
15 miles but the sign doesn't mention that it's also one and a half miles up.
Fortunately this rental car had a bit more power than the last ones, but we were
all dizzy with the scenery whizzing past one way then the other with countless
hairpin bends. As we gained height we rose through lush pine forest into the
cloud layer, which was worrying as we feared we'd be wandering around in mist.
But, as we climbed higher the sky became brighter and we drove above the tree
line and cloud into sunshine.
Photos cannot really do justice to the view
into the crater from the top, despite it largely being filled with cloud, but
here goes anyway with a composite 15-shot pic showing a 180 degree
sweep.
 The air up there was cool and dry and the
sun felt strong. There was true mountain top silence, intense so that you could
hear the blood pumping through your veins; broken only by the thin mewing of a
distant bird of prey on the hunt. The peak of el Tiede on Tenerife (even higher)
was clearly visible about 70 miles away.
The theory is that the western side of the
caldera (right of photo) is unstable and likely to slip into the ocean at some
point in the next few centuries. If and when that happens there will be a tidal
wave of fairly epic proportions, but probably one of the safest places to be
will be at sea.
This is the view from the other side, taken
the following day.
 The descent was followed by an excellent
lunch of rabbit and young goat - local cuisine at its best we think and quite
delicious.
We also visited the newer volcanoes on the
southern tip of La Palma - most recent eruption 1971 and apparently still some
warm bits, though we didn't notice. They were not particularly photogenic -
think conical slagheap - but the twisted shapes of rock, ash and lava suggested
that you wouldn't want to be too close when there was activity. Anyway,
certainly not as photogenic as our lunch stop, which had a local name but should
clearly have been called 'Bedrock'.....
 We'll shortly be off to Tenerife, but a
final note on La Palma for other sailors - beware the RCN pontoon at Santa Cruz:
the lazylines are polypropylene and float nicely in the way of your propellor.
They provided a first test for our improvised diving gear - 2 snorkel valves in
series with a length of plastic hose - which actually worked quite
well.
Best Wishes
George and Michael
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