We caught the 7:00 a.m. ferry from La Gomera to La Palma. We arrived at our hotel shortly before noon. We were happy to see that the hotel – H10 Taburiente Playa – was a lovely resort with several swimming pools, pool tables, and air hockey. We paid for half board, so breakfast and dinner were included with the price. The variety of food was quite good; we didn’t go hungry.

Here are some pictures of the resort:

At night:

November 10:

We started the day off on the wrong foot. Rather, Michael did. We were on our way to breakfast and he tripped on a raised tile (that should have either been marked or the huge plant next to it should have been placed closer to it so one couldn’t trip) and fell hard on his left wrist and knee. Both were causing him quite a lot of pain.

We’d planned a bus tour of the island that day and were trying to decide whether he should skip it. He decided to go since he wouldn’t have to walk any more than he wanted to.

Let’s cut to the tour now. It was a good tour and the guide and driver were friendly. We drove to the Mirador del Time viewpoint, at 594 meters. The mountain you see below on the right-hand side is Pico Bejenado. It is 1844 meters tall. Below that is a picture of the valley we saw below us.

Our next stop was Puntagorda. This included a stop at a market (primarily artists, but also food vendors). Michael and I each tried a beverage made with sugar cane and other things. They extracted the sugar from the cane right on the spot by passing it through a pressing machine several times and catching the sugary juice.

The next stop was the one I was the most eager to see: the observatory.

Roque de los Muchachos (English: “Rock of the Boys“) is a rocky mound at the highest point on the island of La Palma. The rocks are found at an elevation of 2,426 meters (7,959 ft) above sea level, not far from the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, where some of the world’s largest telescopes are situated; the altitude and the dryness of the climate here give rise to excellent observing conditions. The rocks are contained with the Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente.

The Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) belongs to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Spain) and combines world-class facilities for night and solar time studies. Together with the Observatorio del Teide, it forms the European Northern Observatory (ENO), an excellent place to observe the Universe. 

It stands on the rim of the Caldera de Taburiente National Park (Canary Islands, Spain). The observations carried out at ORM for decades have confirmed this site as one of the best locations in the world for solar observations.

The ORM hosts two solar telescopes, the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST) and the Dutch Open Telescope (DOT). For its outstanding characteristics, ORM has been designed as the final location to build the European Solar Telescope.

The observatory also hosts the Gran Telescopio Canarias, the largest optical-infrared telescope in the world with a 10.4m primary mirror, along with twenty other telescopes and instruments for various kinds of studies, including night-time observations, robotic observations, and high energy astrophysics. Important advances in the study of the Universe have been made with these telescopes, ranging from the detection of the most distant galaxy to confirmation of the existence of black holes and the accelerated expansion of the Universe.

The perspective that we had from the top of the island was uber impressive: at our feet, the Caldera de Taburiente, one of the largest erosion craters and a geological jewel in the world, and, around us, different viewpoints that extend over the ridges.

These telescopes are very big! Keep in mind that we were not close by when I took these photos.

And now the fantastic views! You could keep walking along various paths as long as they presented themselves to you. I went as far as I could. The depression is the Caldera de Taburiente.

I took a few more pictures from the bus’s window on the way down.

We drove back down, ending the tour with a bird’s eye view of Santa Cruz de la Palma.

November 11 and 12:

Michael’s knee was really swollen by the next day. We got a bucket of ice from the pool bar to try to bring the swelling down, but it didn’t work. Since both his knee and wrist were causing a great deal of discomfort, we decided he should see a doctor.

The only rental car to be found was at the airport. I missed the first bus, so waited 30-45 minutes for the next one. Then I picked up Michael at the hotel and drove to the hospital.

I waited about three hours for Michael to finish. I wish I had known it would take that long because I would have gone on the hike I’d intended to do today. But I didn’t. That turned out to be a very bad choice.

Michael came out of the hospital with a cast on his arm. I was very surprised, as neither of us thought he’d broken anything based on the mobility of his wrist and hand.

Well, it wasn’t broken. The doc put the cast on to immobilize his wrist, as he said it would heal faster that day.

I woke up the next morning with the intention of hiking the trail I’d missed the day before. I was really looking forward to it, especially since the previous day was a bust.

A few miles out, I saw smoke rising from the trees. Huh, I thought. I wonder what that is. Then I saw a helicopter dropping stuff and knew there was a fire.

Not more than six minutes away from the trailhead, there were police cars and officers blocking the road. There was a fire and the road to the trail was closed. So much for the hike.

I decided to try another hike, but the road was so bad there was no way I was going to take a two-wheel-drive rental on it.

So I took the car back to the airport. I decided to walk back to the hotel rather than take a bus. At least I’d see a bit more of the island that way. What I mostly saw were bananas. 🙂 This led me to read a bit, at which time I learned that bananas are one of the top five exports of the Canary Islands.

We stayed an extra day at the resort to give Michael’s injuries an extra day to heal. Walking was quite painful for him and we knew he would have to walk a bit – at least from the bus stop to the marina in Tenerife.

So, we didn’t do anything else in La Palma except sit by the pool and read. Not exactly the trip we’d planned, but it was the trip we took!

We were back on Seahike by nighttime on the 13th.