The
Island of La Palma, also called Isla Bonita (The Beautiful Island)
is the
5th largest of the 7 Canary Islands, situated up in the north-western
corner of the map.
Only El Hierro and La Gomera
are smaller.
The
island is no more than 47 km from north to south, and 29 km
from east to west. But that is on the map.... La Palma is a 'high'
island,
with 'Roque de Los Mauchachos' as the highest point at 2.426m asl.
Most coastlines runs below 200 m high cliffs.
La
Palma has a very mild climate all year long. Over the fertile soil
of the northeast,
it is a bit more clouded, with sudden rainshowers, while south and
not at least
the western part always is mostly dry and calm with almost no wind
at all.
Nature
is the most interesting about this island. It is difficult to describe,
and all those pictures on these pages will only give you a weak
idea
of its versatile nature. Also, if you take time to look at all those
links
we're going to submit, you still have to go there to see for yourself.
Wisely the government of La Palma
has decided not to have more than 20.000 beds
available for tourists. Thus they hope to avoid the same kind of
problems
they have had, and are having, on Tenerife and Gran Canary.
Luckily they have placed the few big hotels in only two places,
near the airport and in the small town Puerto Naos on the west-coast,
which of course has to do with the beaches there.
Puerto
Naos with hotels on both sides of the beach.
But, of course, if you rent a car
you will have no problem getting around
all of the island - that is if you have brought enough tablets for
car- and seasickness, and are used to drive curved roads
like those in Norway or in the Alpes.
A bit
of the road up from Los Llanos to Puntagorda near Torre del Time
And don't you forget to have your
foot on the break when entering
one of those sharp curves going up or down the mountainsides -
and you suddenly meet a bus or a truck! You see, they need ALL space
available
to come around and up or down again - while keeping themselves ON
the road.....
Oh yes, here the merry goes round
and round. We gave up counting
curves when we came up from Tazacorte to Tirajafe, or down from
Cumbre Nueva to Santa Cruz. Even if the 'short' route from Los Llanos
to Pungagorda was only 37 km, the bus spent 1 hour and 15 minutes,
and myself I have absolutely no wish to take over his job.
So don't you say I have not warned
you.....!
Speleology is not unknown to the
people here. But what is it?
It literally means 'the science of caves', or potholing, and it
has a variety
of aspects, which develop and grow in the unknown and fascinating
world beneath
the surface of the earth.
And so what? How do you practice
this on La Palma? As the island of
La Palma has expericenced the majority of all volcanic eruptions
which have occured in historical times (the last 500 years), it
should not
surprise us that there are a great many caverns, which in turn are
connected
with volcanic tunnels.
The decision to choose a cave and
to adapt it for tourist purposes
can sometimes be complicated, with conflicting interests in the
economics
of it and in the interests of conservation. In Lanzarote, however,
we have an
excellent example of adaptation and administration in La Cueva de
los Verdes.
But the very fact of transporting
a large number of people through the interior
of a tunnel considerable alters its climatology, resulting in a
castrophe if there is
any fauna of interest in the interior. However, to prepare one such
tunnel for the tourist,
will in time offer the great adventage of avoiding visits damaging
the other caves.
To day there are more than 80 caves
catalogues on La Palma. Some of these
are more than one kilometer in length. By contacting members of
Benisahare-La Palma, the local association of cave-explorers *),
you can get
access to a whole series of caves, already explored, without any
environmental risk
to endemic species. These range in leves of difficulty, from easy
for the general tourist,
to complex for trained potholers.
*) Grupo de Espeleologia de Canarias
Benisahare
Delegaciòn de La Palma
Apartado de correos N° 591,
38 700, S/C de la Palma,
La Palma
But if you don't wish to go underground,
what else is there to see?
Well, as we have pointed out before, we are not able to describe
all of it here.
Join us in our short exploration of some of the beauties of the
island on
those web-pages, and then follow other links later to explore more.
But sooner or later - you ought to take a closer look for yourself
-
that is if you can live without beach-life for a week or two....