Santa Cruz De La Palma

 

Last Port Before the Trans Atlantic:

Santa Cruz de la Palma is a port city located on the eastern coast of La Palma island . It is located on the east coast. Santa Cruz de la Palma is the 2nd largest city  and the capital of the island. It is situated along an old lava flow coming out from Caldereta (small caldera), a volcano just south of the city.

The population of Santa Cruz de la Palma municipality is 16,330 (2013), and its area is 43.38 km². About 13,000 people live within city limits, with the remaining inhabitants residing in other settlements. Santa Cruz de la Palma features the only major port in the isle, serving ferry routes to Cadiz in Spain, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Tenerife.  A large number of cruise line firms call at the port. 

This was our last port before we began 7 sea days to cross the Atlantic so we booked an early morning excursion with a free afternoon to explore the port. But like the best plans it got changed. Our early morning excursion turned into a noon excursion. Because of concerns about the port and the terminal we decided to stay on board in the morning, do our excursion and then explore the shops in the terminal to get our tree decoration at the end of the excursion.

This was our first glimpse of the island.

Our excursion was named  A Taste of La Palma: Vineyard and Volcano

Enjoy a panoramic drive to the south of the island. Along the way see vineyards, volcanic lava and pine groves. Our guide Rudy did an excellent job of describing what we were seeing and its history. The driver was much like a Nascar driver in that he took to these winding hilly roads like a professional. My stomach was not pleased.

We stopped for a photo stop at Las Salinas. This afforded an amazing view of the harbour and the surrounding country side.

Next we continued our 45 minute drive to the top and the island. Here we were told the story of how this area became one of the larger banana growing areas in the world. Business men in Argentina proposed a plan where people invested and the planners trucked in millions of loads of topsoil and placed it on top of the volcanic lava, and created wonderful gardens where the perfect climate was able to support a banana crop. We passed hundreds of green house-like structures that housed the banana plants plus hundreds of areas where the bananas grow outside. They grow organic bananas that are mainly destined for Spain .

An added surprise was a stop to take photos of the salt pans and 2 old lighthouses.

The Fuencaliente Lighthouse is an active lighthouse at the southern end of the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands. The original lighthouse was built in 1903 and while it still exists it was replaced by the current lighthouse in 1985.

Our destination was the San Antonio Volcano Visitors center for educational and engaging audiovisual presentations. That means we saw a short video of the eruption of 1951 and many pictorial displays. The views were amazing. One interesting thing that was there : an earthquake simulator.  You stood on this spot and it would begin to vibrate as if you were experiencing an earthquake. I heard one lady who had been in an earthquake say that it was correct, that an earthquake felt just like that. I tried it and was surprised by how strong it was. The display was not systemically rated .

It was said to have a souvenir shop but 4 hats and some tee shirts does not a souvenir shop make.:-(

Next we continued to a local wine cellar to sample some of its fine wines. We had 3 wines to sample, one red, one white and one desert wine. 

Not being a wine drinker I was not excited about this. They had wines for sale but no magnets. I did however find a figurine that will do for a decoration.

On the base of the figure were the words Rdo La Palma. When I researched I found that Rdo means airport. Since I acquired it in a winery and because it is a figure of what might represent an English military man from centuries ago I am completely mystified. But it will make a good curiosity topic for my tree.

We were chatting and wondering what had become of the light snack we were promised Rudy announced that he had just received a call from the ship wondering where we were since it was now past four and we were scheduled to be back at four o'clock. We quickly gathered our things and headed to the waiting bus.

The next 25 minutes of racing along these winding mountain roads almost did me in. I was withing minutes of needing a barf bag when we pulled in at the gangway.

We were back on board and in the elevator when the captain announced that we were about to be underway for our trip across the Atlantic. I gather from what the captain said that if we were much later we would have to wait until 2 ferries set sail before we would have clearance to leave.

During our travels Rudy, our guide told us a great deal about the Canary Islands, especially this one. They have an elected government which has been given a lot of power.

Because the island cannot be seen from Africa or Europe the environment is very specialized. They have learned from the mistakes of other places such as Australia to do all they can to keep it that way.

Their main sources of income are farming and tourism. They have scientific telescopes here and there was an agreement made that if the science is located here there would be no industry allowed. Astronomy requires absolutely clean air and La Palma has the cleanest air on the planet because of these regulations.

Because the ecosystem is so fragile no non native plants or animals are allowed to be introduced. They have no snakes, or dangerous wild animals.

For me there are other amazing government regulations:

First and most important to the teacher in me is the fact that ALL education is free to its citizens. That includes all school, all trade schools and all university education. The test is not financial it is based on intelligence. If a young person is accepted to any college anywhere in the world all fees are covered by the government and a living allowance is included.

Second and important to me as a mother, all health care is included. 

Imagine not having to worry that your child may become ill and you not be able to give them health care. We in Canada have that freedom but not everyone does.

Also knowing that an intelligent child will not be burdened by outrageous interest costs because they wanted to better themselves. 

They pay for these services by their tax system. Persons who earn 100,000 Euros or less pay a maximum of 10 % taxes and those earning over that amount pay 45% taxes.  Requiring that the rich pay for their services is a fair and just system. Poor people do not pay for the airports and cruise ports etc that they do not use and richer people pay for the education of their employees. 

All in all I really enjoyed the Canaries and I would love to return here. There is so much we did not see or experience on this trip.