Today we did the classic La Palma car journey, the route of the Machachos, a 25km pass over the mountains which starts and ends at sea level but climbs to 2,400m (7,800ft). The banner picture shows the winding road up, going down is not much better but the reason for the road is the long line of telescopes along the top of the ridge. The views from the top are outstanding, in the picture the view south shows the smoke still rising from the Cumbre Vieja volcano which erupted just over a year ago covering several villages in larva. The area below the volcano is closed off but we will see if we can get on an organised tour to pay a visit. On our 2020 visit we hired electric bikes from a garage which is now buried under the larva flow.
On our previous two visits to La Palma we have tried in vain to visit a telescope or the visitor centre. Today we at last found the visitor centre open but it was a bit of a struggle for our little brains to cope with. It is right at the top of the mountain, must have cost millions to build and has all sorts of fancy displays. For example you pick up an iPad, point it at a model of the solar system and it tells you about the planet you have picked, it was a very flash way to tell you about each object but did not impart any more information than a colour diagram. Most of the text seemed to describe simple concepts in the most complicated way possible, I guess it was designed by astronomers for other astronomers, not for old people who actually remember the moon landings and were educated by Patrick Moore. The picture shows Gill being enlightened about solar flares. All the information was either in Spanish or English, probably half the visitors are German so they must have been even more confused than us.
Why so many telescopes (there are over 20 run by many different countries)? Each telescope specialises in different electromagnetic frequencies and is investigating different phenomena. The sky in mid Atlantic is not polluted and the atmospheric conditions are very stable (the sea temperature is stable and the top of the mountain is 7,000 feet away from any interference from towns). The island is designated as a Sky Park, rather like a national park, and planes are not allowed to fly overhead so as not to spoil the view.
In the picture I am wearing a jumper, it was 28c at sea level when we started off but at 2,400m it was only 13c but nice and sunny. We then dropped down to the other side of the island to a town we stayed in on our last visit for a nice lunch on the sea front, as you see below it is a little different from two years ago.
It rarely rains in La Palma so on our last visit we experienced an unusual event, hence all the locals looking over the bridge.
Today it was 26c, no rain for a week and none forecast until a bit of drizzle on Sunday. The sand is volcanic hence the black colour, it is a bit coarser than yellow soft sand but OK.
Created with
Website Design Program