Caldera, here we come. This time we woke up the cocks, as we set our alarm clock really early. Small breakfast, check of equipment and off we drove. When we reached Barranco de las Angustias, where a shuttle taxi was waiting for us. We shared the costs with three other visitors and where off with 10 Euro. One hour later, we reached Mirador de los Brecitos where our journey started. From there on, the way was a constant descend with small upwards passages – take a look.

It is hard to pack all the details into text as there is so much to see. Every turn of the way you see different trees, rocks and formations. It is an absolute must for every visitor of the island and hikers alike. A really spectacular national park, with an constantly changing fauna and flora. Just take a look a the pictures.

The last half of the track we reached the riverbed and followed it with a short detour to the Colores, a colorful waterfall. We made it in 5 and a half hours and we took it slow, made lots of stops, took pictures or ate our boccadillos. It was by far the easiest trip of the holiday – long but really easy to walk and it was absolutely one, if not the most stunning part of the island. I have to say that those few hours where far too less time – we only got a slight impression of the great views and nature around.

That night Karin and Luca came over and we hat a nice dinner together – our goodbye dinner, so to say as the next visitors where about to come next day. We thought it would be a good idea to spend the last 4 days in Santa Cruze to get used to the life back home. Sad…. we would rather have stayed longer.

Ok. Waking up because of the stupid alarm-roosters is not the worst and the sore muscles are normal now. Our confidence went back and so we decided to drive down south to explore the Teneguia and the San Antonio. Teneguia errupted back in 1971 and added some new beaches to the southern shore. Besides that, the whole pines around where burned. This summer big parts of the south stood aflame, but the vegetation is coming back. The canary pine is fireproof. It burns on the outside, and looses all its fir needles, but grows again.

This time we had our hiking boots and went on to explore the San Antonio and what should I say… we had about 1km to walk. Whatever we did in terms of gear and equipment, it seemed always wrong. Not quite, as the Tenequia was a little more challenging. You have a great view from atop the crater and stormy winds that try to blow you away. I really would like to witness an eruption. Back in 1971 Teneguia spit fire and melted rocks for a couple of weeks. After a funny oldschool movie about the volcanos and the island in general, in the nearby tourist center, we drove to Puerto Naos (new beach), the spot with the most beautiful beach on the island. Sure enough, the tourism is big there. Baywatch guys, towels and deck chairs all over the place. We enjoyed it anyway. Thanks to the Gulf stream, the atlantic is even warmer than Karins pool. Great.

Ohhh sore muscles how did we miss you. Awaking with aching legs from the day before we flipped through a wandering guide that we found here. Well, the “nearby” beach was declared to be 5 hour march. Not to play the role of the stupid tourist again, we settled on a “small” three hour trip to a pirate bay, in Tijarafe. Again with flops on an swimming cloth in the backpack, we parked the car in Tijarafe and walked down a steep, winding road. When half way down, we thought about fetching the car and drive down all the way …. but the guide said, it is about one hour down. Ok, we have time, we can walk. In the end we made it down and to be honest. I still can puke when thinking about that way. The bay itself was great. Small flats, build directly into the caves and all that in one big cave. I shot tons of photos, trying to capture that great feeling and that giant cave that reaches up like a cathedral.
Ok, no swim, as the sea was too rough again. Reading in our guide we found out about a faster and “more interesting” way back to Tijarafe. We followed that path and boy, that was one hell trip. Partly climbing up steep path, partly searching the path inside a rock field and all that with the sun shining down on us, nothing eaten but the breakfast yoghurt and our drinking water almost gone after the way down. Nadine almost collapsed and we had to make big stops every couple of meters.

Actually we where about to make the big round through the Cladera Tiburiente that would take a whole day to finish. Our confidence went up into sweat and how can we do the big trip when already the samll trips in our guide seem to almost kill us. How should we complete the a seven hour round?
We stumbled into the next supermercado and I wish I could have captured the expressions on the Palmeros faces, when we entered. Two stupid tourists, cloth soak wet from all the sweat, stinking and almost parched. At least the women at the cash register seem to feel pity for us.

To reward ourself we went to a Bodega on main street and had some really tasty tappas. Buenavista never looked so good as that evening. Took a shower and dropped into bed…. dead once more.
 

We got up late again, with having not much sleep and decided to start the day slowly. After the daily healthy breakfast we set about to find the “nearby” beach Lomada Grande that we missed out earlier. Packed with flops, towels and bathing cloth on we started our hike. As Ricardo, who we met at the goa party again told us, it was about 45 minutes from the position we met him last time. With nothing else on our schedule we thought it would be a nice, relaxing trip. At last, after about two hours  of struggling with our flops on loose chipping, we found it. The bad side: We went all the way down and had to scramble it all up again.

The place was great, although the Atlantic swell was too heavy for a direct swim on the rocky coast. One false move and you would have been crushed against the lava cliff. We settled to use the little natural pool that was formed by the mighty volcano forces. Ok, you couldn’t call it swimming, but it was great anyway. Forgetting to check the time we started a little late and had to find out that climbing up a steep hill, passing five Barancos (valleys) only with flip-flops and sandals on our feet is not as easy as it was all the way down. We returned far after dawn and we where damn lucky that Nadine hat brought a flashlight along. We would have never found the way back. Back home we dropped dead into our bed.
   

We got up really late (must have been around 11 or so), had a fabulous breakfast with the typical fruits from the garden, packed our things and drove to Rastro market in El Argual. A lot of leather, attire made of lava stone and hotchpotch. The nearby glassblowing had some nice things in the show and was off course run by Germans… who else?
Than we proceeded and headed down to Tazacorte, where the Spanish conquestador Alonso Fernández de Lugo took over the island and Tanausu was defeated, after he was ambushed. The beach, right beside the new-old open seawater pool that should have been finished a couple of years ago, was great. Black sand, the skyline of that unfinished swimming pool on the other side and small but powerful waves. In the nearby Kioscos we ate fish and drove back home.

That night Karin and her son Luca joined us for dinner. We ate and drank and talked the night away. We went to bed really late and the whole night a storm was blustered around the garden. Isn’t it strange that mother nature can steal your sleeping well in the same manner the aircrafts at home do?

Liming… that’s what is going on. The weekly market in Puntagorda starts at 3 pm, so we took the first half of the day “free”. I went around the house and took pictures of alle the animals and plants I could find in the garden, while Nadine made a cake for tonights Goa party that we were invited to. Goa… well… let’s see.
Now it is about time for the market.

The market is great. A small little market, with lots of things to discover. Besides the lava adornment, photography and the usual vegetables we knew from home, we found that sugarcane juice and rum makes a good mojito. It didn’t take too long till we bumped into Karin who was also there. Packed with bags for next weeks meals, we went back home.

Goa is definitively  not our music, that’s what we found out that night. But we found also is  that all Germans living in the surrounding of Las Tricias are great people. Such a friendly welcome you seldom get anywhere else. Matthias who organized the party, along with Klaus, at whos house it all took place where both great hosts. Beside those two we met a lot of people we spotted at the weekly market in Puntagroda. The strange thing about living near the equator is that you tend to adopt the sun cycle. In Germany I tend to go rather late to bed, whereas here you are really tired at dawn. So the following day was declared to be chilling day!

I must revise my saying about cocks starting to cark at dusk. Those animals don’t know nothing about time at all… really not the slightest sense for an apropriate wakeup-call: 4 a clock in the morning and those rotten roosters won’t stop crowing. I crawled out of bed and, did some Gi Gong, as my camera was capturing the vast major nightly sky. In the end, I must thank that wrong programmed alarm chicks for waking me up.

At arond 11 am we finally woke up and after a great yoghurt with pomegranade and  almonds we headed north again, to Sarzar, where we took a 4 hour walk through the ancient laurel forest, along caves of the original inhabitants, the guances. Beatifull old trees, hanging out of the steep walls, along the dried out river we followed. Old giant trees wrapped up in ivy and moss all over the place. Just Tarzan wasn’t there although at some point we thought someone is throwing rocks at us from atop. Closer investigations revealed that the big sycamore tree was loosing his fruits, dropping from about 30 meters down at us. Tasty, but quite dangerous.

Further along the LP-109, the old part of the LP-1 (the main route around the island) the road became so narrow that we had to often stop and give way to the oncoming traffic. Non the less the road is worth a visit. Winding up the steep northern regions, with great view, ancient  trees and a few photospots, where you even can park a car without causing a traffic jam.

Next up was Barlovento or better La Fajana, an aray of pools build right into the wild crashing sufr of the Atlantic Ocean. You basically swim into the Atlantic water that is distributed over five pools, separated by partly naturla lava stone and concrete. Swiming along with all kinds of fishes (yes! they are into the pools, rather into the big waves outside) and witnessing the heavy tide crashing against the pool walls from the outside is an unbelievable experience.

We came in a little late and the sun was vanishing behind the cliffy high mountains and so we carried on and headed for San Andrés, which is the old part of Los Sauces. Karin told us that it is heavily influenced by Cuba and the flair is great. To be honest: We didn’t find it too great, but maybe we passed it or overlooked it inside all those banana plantation. On the way back, we missed the LP-1 route and so I had to drive all the way back taking the LP-109, with all its narrow windings and steep serpentines. Actually it is easier to drive when it is drak, as you can make out the opposting traffic by its lights. At home we had a little dinner made of rice, almonds, pomegranate,  yoghurt and went to bed.

Thanks to our friend the cocks we where up pretty early and without loosing much time with showering, we set about the “Roque de los Muchachos” – the top of the island, reaching a whopping 2426m above the sea into the sky and therefore is the highest point of the island.
It took us quite some time to drive up that narrow, winding road and the word serpentine definitely becomes a new meaning, along that road.

The higher we got the less we could see, riding directly into the clouds. Right below the official parking side we got out of the car and walked the rest up. At first the fog/clouds where so dense and humidity was so high that we got wet right away. When we reached the Roque we hardly could see it. Dense clouds where pushed up the hills and sometimes it looked like the Cumbre Vieja is still active and left us with a scenery right from Tolkiens fantasy. The air is filled with odor of the heather-clad vulcano soil. Right a the bottom and around the Roque de los Muchachos are several observatories located. The nightly sky must be one of the most spectacular views, as no unnatural lightsource disturbs it and 2400m above sea is another good reason.

As we squandered along to a platform that is located a few hundred meters behind the Roque, suddenly the clouds opened up and gave view to the west side. Spectacular view. Suddenly you feel like Reinhold Messner on top of the world.
On our way back we stopped for some chestnuts, that where literally laying on the street – a good addition to our bill of fare. Back at Buenavista siesta was the magic word and that’s where we are right now, typing these lines. Maybe we will try to get to a nearby beach… I ll keep you posted.

No water, no beach. Luna joined us on our mission seeking the nearest beach to take a round of refreshing swimming in the Atlantic. Nadine slid on the gravel ground and bailed on her knee, Luna ran after some sheep…. but the view was great. Sweaty and finished from walking all day we prepared dinner, ate some olives, drank some wine and sliped in bed.

It is always the same when you get close to the equator: Birds that start to make noise at the first ray of light and that is about 6 am. In our case it was the cocks from the neighbor that acted as our natural alarm clock.
The day began with fresh avocados and kakis and almonds, right from Karins garden – mixed into one big yoghurt – fresh, sweet… absolute delicious! For the first day, we thought about a little exploartion around our appartement.  Karin gave us a little route that would take us about three hours, down the little canyon (barranco, as they are called in Spain) right behind the house and back up on the other side.
The path lead us through fields of prickly pears, past gardens full of the most delicious fruits, down to Finka “Aloe Vera”, a tiny cafe, build right on the way. It wasn’t opened yet and so we went on to the caves – Barranco de Buracas – the remains of the original inhabitants of La Palma. Old symbols encarved into the stones and a rotten cat that came our way meowing at us made shivers ran down our spines. This place definitely has its moments.
Back up to Aloe Vera and its owner Frohmuth, we had a big salad made from fruits of her garden. Tasty, refreshing and great. After our short break we went back down past the caves where the cat was already waiting for us again, right at the same spot as before. Spooky. Maybe it’s the guarding of this ancient spot? On the other side up, passing the buracas, we went home and had a little siesta, at the pool. Later we went to Puntagorda for some food in the local supermarket. The evening ended with olives, oil, saussage, goat cheese, a bottle of wine and bread from Frohmuth.

Four hours fligh and we ditched down on Santa Cruz de La Palma . The sun just vanished and the mountain peaks where hidden bdehind dense clouds – a usual sight, as we should find out druing the next two weeks. After recieving our car we made first contact with the serprentines and the native driving habits of going throught the serpentines at almost impossible speed (ridiculous speed). Luckily we where not alone leaving the airport by car and so we could not be held responsible for that little traffic jam that occurred. About two ours later we arrived at Las Tricias, our neat little hometown for the forthcomming ten days.
Finally arriving at “Buena Vista” we recieved a warm welcome from Luna, the house dog, that was playing around with the Hilda the cat. Karin arrived and gave us an even more warm welcome. Showing us around our appartement and the yard although it was pitch black by now.