The Island

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....

   

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