La Palma in the Canaries is known as Isla Bonita – the Beautiful Island – and as soon as we stepped off the ferry from La Gomera into Santa Cruz de la Palma, the capital and principal town, we were inclined to agree. There was a pleasant breeze carrying the smell of orange blossom and fried fish, flowers cascaded over the wooden balconies of the seafront houses, the palm trees swayed and the guy in the Tourist Information kiosk at the port was really helpful. We were clattering our suitcases (10kg pull-along) through the cobbled streets of the old town towards our apartment when we saw a street sign – Calle O’Daly (O’Daly Street)

I’m sure that we are not the only Irish people who had never heard of Dennis O’Daly. He was a poor boy from West Cork who became so revered in La Palma that they named a street after him in their capital city, thousands of miles from Ireland. In 1755, he settled in Santa Cruz which was then one of the largest ports in the Spanish Empire, trading in wine, sugar and bananas. He got involved with growing and exporting bananas… and became wealthy. He was appalled that the power on the island was in the hands of a few corrupt rich families and he was determined to empower ordinary people to govern themselves. It was largely due to his efforts that La Palma became the first area in the vast Spanish Empire to enfranchise ordinary men – a whole century before working class men were given the vote in Ireland. A fascinating character and virtually unknown in Ireland (or at least to us)

La Palma has another claim to fame – it was the scene of a recent volcanic eruption in Sept 2021 that lasted until December 2021. The Cumbre Vieje volcano unleashed fury on the western part of the island for three months, ash rained from the sky and rivers of lava consumed at least three thousands buildings. Banana and avocado plantations were razed and the earth tremored with minor earthquakes every day. But almost three months later, on the 50 minute bus journey across the island from Santa Cruz in the east to Los Llanes in the west, the predominant colour was green, green from the pines trees scaling the rugged heavily forested mountain slopes.

But as we walked to our casa rural (again dragging the suitcases for about 1.5 kms 😁uphill) , we noticed a fine coating of black dust everywhere – on the roadside verges, footpaths, stone walls and on garden furniture. Our landlady told us that no matter how much they sweep, the lava dust still comes, The wind blows it into every crevice and then tosses it out again. Looking to the mountains, there were long black streaks which looked at first like cloud shadows but were the recent lava flows. There was wisps of smoke on the mountain tops from still-smouldering lava. But when we got closer to the solidified lava flows, we were sobered by the sheer volume of volcanic material and the scale of the destruction. The relentless flow left some properties intact and neighbouring ones buried under a mountain of rock. It was disturbing and eerie looking at the aftermath of such recent devastation.

Although volcanoes destruct, they also simultaneously construct. The recent volcano has increased the size of the island creating two new peninsulas – the lava flows down and solidifies in the sea. There is also the problem of what to do with the vast quantities of lava and ash that has been ejected from the centre of the earth – some can be used for building and for fertiliser but there is an awful lot of it as you can see from photos.

Volcanoes are nothing new in this part of the world – all the Canary Islands have been made and built up by a series of volcanic eruptions over millions of years, layer upon layer, from the depths of the ocean. La Palma has a line of volcanoes, running down the central spine to the southern tip at Fuencaliente. A hiking trail called Ruta de la Volcanes (the Volcano Trail) winds along this central spine but a large part of the trail was closed for obvious reasons. But we trekked the southern part to the sea over the lava flows of two previous eruptions – Teneguia eruption (1971) and the San Antonia eruption(1669). The black volcanic ash is perfect for growing malvasia grapes – these grow on creeper vines very low to the ground. There’s a saying on some of the tourist promotion boards ‘He who comes to Fuencaliente and doesn’t taste the wine, comes for nothing.’ We didn’t need much persuasion but even if you don’t drink wine, there’s a fantastic visitors centre with good information on geology and particularly on the volcanic eruptions in the area. At the very tip of the island are the salt plains of Fuencaliente – producing high quality Atlantic salt – which remained intact during the 1971 eruption although lava flowed down on both sides of the plain. The soil is fertile and most people cultivate small gardens in the villages- potatoes are very popular.

All the Canary Islands that we have visited have boasted of clear skies but La Palma has been designated a Starlight Zone and has a plethora of observatories on the high slopes of Roque de la Muchachos (2426m), a starkly beautiful area, high above the clouds. If you go to La Palma, make sure you visit this amazing area where science, physics, natural beauty and the quest for knowledge all work together to give a totally mind-blowing combination. The observatories are in the National Park (Parque Nacional de la Caldara de Taburiente) called after a massive crater that was formed by several powerful volcanic eruptions and glacial erosion and has lots of hiking trails. La Palma also has about 15 astronomical viewpoints dotted around the island which are designated as good spots for star gazing and have big noticeboards explaining the night sky. So if you want your head above the clouds and stars in your eyes, La Palma is the place for you🤣

The bus service in La Palma is fantastic. The buses are called guaguas (pronounced wagwah) and travel all around the island. There’s even an app and website(www.tilp.es) but they don’t go into the National Park or to the Observatory so we decided to hire a car which proved easier said than done. The car rental companies laughed at us for expecting to hire a car without a reservation. We persisted and eventually found a great bargain, so good that we decided to hire it for a week at €85 for 7 days. We were on the way to get a bus to take us to the airport to pick it up when we double-checked the details. The car that we had booked online was in Palma Airport (in Mallorca!!!!!!) and we were on the island of La Palma. Names can be confusing in the Canaries – there’s also Las Palmas which is the capital of Gran Canaria. Sometimes, a bargain is just too good to be true ……but there’s cheap car-hire in Mallorca if anyone is going in that direction.

We spent our last night in Parador de La Palma in more luxury than we are accustomed to, thanks to a win in the monthly draw in our local GAA club, Passage East. The parador sits on the hills outside Santa Crux with sea-views and an amazing sloped garden, planted with native plants. The wind blew a gale, courtesy of Storm Celia – and the temperatures dropped – so it was good to be inside. Our waiter who was in his twenties with good English (English is not generally widely spoken) told us that the recent eruption was his first, his father has witnessed two and his grandfather had seen three eruptions in his lifetime.

Our next island hop is to Gran Canaria so in the meantime……Happy St Patricks Day☘☘☘☘