Dan Will Travel
I'm Dan and I WILL Travel
On the previous post, I left us all at the crater rim looking down into it. Now we will work our way back into town for the end of a great day.
The road starts working it’s way down.
A pull out at Los Franceses for one last view down into the caldera.
After the stop I came back to this greeting. I do not know if it is smell or eye sight but he sure was concentrating on the potato chip bag on the front seat. I banged on the roof, and quickly got in. He did NOT move.
Makes one think of the classic movie “The Birds.”
Some final amazing color before leaving the exposed lava fields.
Clouds working their way up through the pine forests maybe a thousand feet below here.
Why this shot? Well, I had never seen an official para-gliding launching point before. All of the instructions and particulars are noted on the sign. I would guess the elevation here to be around 5,000′ so they would have a nice long glide down.
I saw this rounding a curve, and quickly stopped to watch the scene unfold. It is about 4:30PM, and we are in a forest of canary island pines.
Looks Japanese in a way. Surreal.
I loved the separate cloud just over the ridge line.
And, in maybe 15 minutes time, it is fully engulfed. Really a wonderful experience to watch this unfold to end my first day of La Palma touring.
Yes, you can see all of this in one easy day on La Palma. Actually a half day. Too much to put into this one blog. We are going to visit a pristine village, see bananas up close, the rain forest of Los Tilos, dragon trees and the summit of Roque de los Muchachos. (8,000′)
Town square of the village of San Andreas
San Andreas
A common theme for round-abouts in small villages on La Palma. Saw quite a few versions but never did see an actual cow. Maybe they are on holiday on one of the other islands for December?
La Palma coast line with banana groves right up to the edge pretty much.
Bananas bagged for shipment? I really do not know but the fields were full of them all bagged up. Anyone else know if there is a reason for this other than preparing for shipping? I frankly had no idea how many bananas are on one tree, one bloom.
Starting up the path to the viewpoint in Los Tilos rain forest. Only about a mile each way but a 1,000′ elevation gain which is about my limit these days.
But the reward is almost always worth it when you get to the top. These are chiefly Laurel trees but the look reminded me of the areas around Machu Pichu in Peru.
A dragon tree, native to the Canaries, and sort of their “symbol.” A version of dracaena, with red sap hence the “dragon blood” aspect of the name. Not even really a tree but they are as large as a tree. Beautiful coastline in the background.
A close up of the top of one of these weird Dragon trees.
After a long twisting drive up the side of the mountain, you arrive at the summit area, considered to be the best solar viewing location in the northern hemisphere. There must have been at least 12 installations here manned by many different countries. We are well above tree line at 8,000 feet looking out to the ocean side, and then you walk a short distance and have one of those wow moments when you look over the side and into the caldera de Taburiente.
My first view into the caldera from the rim. Amazingly rugged.
Looking into the gaping hole of the former giant volcano thousands of feet below.
And with slight magnification you can see Tiede, the 12,400′ major peak on Tenerife, some 80+ miles away.
The rim trail that I actually did, with great views of the famous clouds coming into the caldera
Clearly a mixture of things in this rock.
This is a pink Tiede Blugoss. It reminded me of that plant that only grows on Halelakala on Maui. I have no idea if they are related, though.
Next blog is the second half of this one day. I think you will like it.
La Palma, the beautiful Island, truly is just that. It measures only about 16 miles by 35 miles, yet reaches 8,000′ in elevation with many other peaks nearly a mile high. By some official mathematical computation (L x W x H) it is considered the most mountainous island in the world. (Hey, I am just the messenger here.) It is the most westerly of the archipelago, pretty much out by itself in the North Atlantic. This allows it to get far more precipitation than the other islands giving it greenery and even valid rain forests. And amazing cloud movements every day from the eastern coast up the mountainsides into the giant caldera in the center and the dissipating to the west. It is sparsely populated and the chief driver of the economy is not tourism but bananas!
Santa Cruz de La Palma is the main town and easy to use as a base for the entire island due to its small size.
Approaching Santa Cruz from the north
Santa Cruz waterfront
Nice Canarian historic architecture.
The view from my balcony.
What a wonderful balcony! Natural but with some holiday thrown in.
The main square. the building we are looking at is from the early 1700’s. Christmas is a big deal here!
Loved this display. the female mannequins have poinsettia heads.
Yes, this large tree is decorated. Those are balls about 5″ in decameter all over the tree. Not lit, so only good in the day time.