Two Passports, Two Packs/ Poles and A Purpose: January 20, 2018: Calm in La Palma--And slighty balmy

"This is my tribe."
----Paul Parris, after learning the sun doesn't rise until 8 am, lunch starts at 2pm and you cannot reserve dinner before 9 pm

If you like anything at all about the picture posted above, book your ticket for the island of La Palma. They call it the green island (no surprise there) and La Isla Bonita (even before Madonna.)
Not only is the island beautiful, it's a pleasure to see it on the flight into Santa Cruz.

La Palma ranks fifth is size in the Canaries (only El Hierro, the smallest and La Gomera,site of last year's anniversary shenanigans, are smaller.) La Palma has a long history as a port. If you can imagine sailing to the New World ala 1500, the Canaries were a last stop for refueling of sorts and an important component of the sail westward. Columbus made them his last port on the way out as did many others.

Madrid at Sunrise 8am mid January

Paul woke up about 755am in search of Hilton breakfast and was somewhat freaked out by this site --- O dark 30 at almost 8 am in Madrid near the airport. Much darker than home at the same hour. We literally thought we didn't set our clocks correctly, but it ends up, there's no daylight here until 9am. We made our way to Madrid Barajas airport and onto our flight to La Palma which was crowded but thanks to our exit row seats, very pleasurable and only 2 hours to LaPalma. I particularly enjoyed the views of most of the Canaries while we descended to land, and saw Mt Teide on Tenerife peering up above the clouds.

We were in Santa Cruz de la Palma by 2pm and off to our hotel, El Galeon, a very nice apartment style hotel on the hill above the port city.

We are staying in this apartment hotel on the hill overlooking the port. It's set up for living here.. and I might take them up on it!

After quite a bit of time sitting on airplanes and in airports, we thought a brief toodle around town was in order.

A view of the harbor of Santa Cruz de La Palma from our balcony.

La Palma was once also valued for its shipbuilding of local termite free wood and built some of the longest lasting ships in the world. Today it is still an active port for transfer of goods and even for cruises ships in the modern era.

Black sand beach in front of Santa Cruz Maritime Avenue. Too cold for most swimmers.

Maritime Avenue. Note the balconies which are everywhere and reminiscent of Spanish colonial and even to some extent New Orleans style. Many of these buldings were built in the 1600s

The maritime museum was built in the shape of a boat.

This Napoleanic statue is of no known significance but seems to be a symbol of the town

Narrow pedestrian cobblestone streets are filled with shops, government buildings and restaurants in 1600s vintage Spanish architecture.

Inside of the cathedral of Plaza de Espana

Corpus Christi and the three Marys

The light shines on the virgin while all else is in shadow

Jesus, random follower (my guess is Apostle Peter) and a chicken. Paul speculated as to why the chicken was in a cathedral and it' s completely miraculous that we weren't struck dead by lightening.

There are so many stunning 16th century intact buildings on a walk from Maritime Avenue and back along Calle O'Daly named for an Irish banana plantation manager of the late 1800s.

The main street, Calle O'Daly is named for an Irish banana plantation owner. Brian and Lisa Daley...any relation?

We enjoyed a lovely little pizza and salad on the waterfront at Pizza Piccolo.

Fresh veggie pizza in a 16th century Spanish colonial building with balconies!

From here, we wandered up our hill to the Tamaduste neighborhood for a jet lag prevention nap. The city is sufficiently small to cover most of it in an afternoon. When we return next week after hiking, we will hit the few museums here.

Then it was off to dinner at the lovely little restaurant, La Lonja. So tiny, but so good, I will save the food porn until the end of the blog for interested parties, after Paul's ponderings. It was affordable and muy deliciosa!

A satisfied customer. Yes, Chad Helms, it is day #3 and counting on the green shirt!

Our walk back along the Maritime Avenue in the dark accompanied by overhanging balconies.

On the way up the hill to El Galeon, we passed a restaurant with couples dancing. Paul said, "Let's do this!" So we were off serendipitously dancing amongst the locals. At the end, Paul said, "Let 's come back next week."

"Fortunately, you don’t have to live in a cave to get the best out of La Palma. This European Hawaii may be far from the most famous of the Canaries, but it has higher mountains than Lanzarote, deeper ravines than Gran Canaria, a more traditional Canario way of life than Tenerife, and only a genteel sufficiency of tourism. It is an island in balance, as indicated by its water supply; unlike the aforementioned three, La Palma doesn’t have to desalinate the sea to sustain life.Shaped like a 270 sq mile tooth, complete with roots, the island has a huge cavity at the top in the Caldera de Taburiente, a crater whose rim is at 2,426 metres above sea level. Its flanks drop abruptly away to the sea clad in a mix of Canarian pine and laurel." Andrew Eames, Financial Times

Paul's Ponderings: An easy flight from Madrid to La Palma on Iberia, thanks to an exit row seat! The island is very green from what we've seen so far and we had a lovely view of Tenerife and Gran Canaria above the clouds on the way in. Knoxville has been FREEZING these past couple of weeks (as in 10 degrees) and it's 65 degrees here and sunny, so that's a welcome change. We had a nice walk around the main city, Santa Cruz de la Palma, time to rest, then back for a great dinner. The paella was top notch with some lovely rustic wine from the island to go with it. I could write a book about Canarian wines, but safe to say the La Palma wines are rustic in the best sense of the word and meant to be enjoyed in the spirit in which they were produced. The wait staff was very friendly and complemented my spouse on her "beautiful Spanish".

Tomorrow we meet up with the hiking group, but on the way in we had the pleasure of seeing a long time coworker of mine from Oak Ridge who is doing the hike and a friend of his as well. Tennessee is going to dominate this trip from the US view....usually Lou and I are the only US citizens! It's a great beginning to a stay in one of our favorite parts of the world....much more to come. Happy to be back again in this incredible remote part of the world.