La Palma
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Sun 17 Oct 2010 14:34
Los Llanos de Ariadne is the second city of La Palma, and now almost as important as Santa Cruz. It is an inland town which is very pretty and based around the usual Plaza Espana and the church which was richly decorated with a stunning gilt altar and lots of wood carvings. The town centre was tree-lined and very clean, something which is noticeable on the whole island.
The shops were mostly small boutiques with elegant clothing and some of the most beautiful shoes!! The worst thing about sailing is that I have to wear fairly sensible shoes, which are boat and jetty proof, but by far the nicest thing about the marina we are in is that while you can't buy a pair of deck shoes you can buy Vivienne Westwood shoes - a girl can dream!
Anyway, enough on shoes - after the most expensive coffee in ages, €3 for 2, we left the allure of the shops and headed out to the west coast and the other marina on the island. In our guide book this is described as a small fishing harbour, which may or may not be under development. As with all our books, this one is again a little out of date, and it is hard to know whether planned marina developments have actually taken place due to the intervening recession, so it is always good to check the facilities before arriving. We had seen what we thought was the marina from one of the viewpoints the day before and it looked at though there were simply two finger pontoons, but with no boats on at all. When we arrived Tazacorte, the town near the marina was a bustling town, and very traditional. The houses were all painted different colours and whilst some were very pretty and quaint looking, some areas looked as though they had been painted by the local playgroup as the colour combinations were garish to say the least!
The town boasted many restaurants and coffee bars but not much else and after a quick walk and a coffee stop to people watch in the square we headed down the hill to the port. The marina turned out to be large with a fair number of pontoons and easily enough room for a boat the size of ours. However, the facilities where we are are much better as we are closer to the town, as from here it would be about 2 miles up a steep hill for dinner!
Although there was a large fishing fleet here, and there are various fish farm around the island there seems to be very little fish eaten, most restaurant menus are heavily meat based, although again this must be imported as we have seen no evidence of animals at all. The tourist information centre had told us that we would get a nice fish meal in Puerto Noas, so we had put on our Sunday best - well, just not our scruffy shorts actually, in the hope of a nice restaurant with a view over the atlantic ocean - some hope!! We ended up with a plastic cheese and ham toastie, and I am sure the ham had never even been near a pig, and a beer on the promenade - that we teach us to have fancy ideas!!
Our last day was spent lazing around on the beach. Originally, we had planned to spend the day touting the northern part of the island but it was such a fabulous sunny day that we decided to have a day off and just chill out on the beach. Tomorrow we will set off for La Gomera, another of the smaller islands in the Canaries where we will spend a couple of nights before heading to Tenerife.