LA PALMA (E)    DIARY  4

22. Day 8. After last nights birthday - and especially the layer cake, I figure I better do some serious hiking. And then I'm offered layer cake for breakfast, and figure it will be root to reject. Considering I go home to Christmas, then head for South Africa, I better get my diet straighten out now.

I start the exploring in Parque National de la Caldera de Taburiente. Well, after a pit-stop at the Hyperdino to stock a bit of food. It is yet another great drive, this time on LP302. Then I get bounced at the gate: It take a parking reservation to get in. Back at the visitor centre, I get one negotiated one for Saturday, then I see the tiny museum and small botanical garden.

My next planned site is actually quite some distance away - by road, and well over an hour's drive. Most is within the mountains, but I just nick the outskirts of Santa Cruz as well. I just lean back, and enjoy the ride.

I find an old trail, sealed with the lava rocks, winning its way deep into the chestnut trees on a rather steep mountain side. It is like walking a Hobbit-trail; a tunnel aliened with dense vegetation and covered in mosses.

Back at the car, the sunny spot calls for dinner, which I share with a lizard, while the chestnuts drops around us. I gather a bagful, for an experimental cooking in the evening. That way, they should remain more succulent - I hope.

Further down LP3, then up LP4 after Santa Cruz. At first, it is a bit dry but slightly farmed hillside. Then the road enters the dense chestnut, then pine forest. What look like a monastery sits on the edge of a gorge, and way down, I get glimpses the harbour with a cruise ship, way down.

Despite it is mainly pines I see, it is a great drive. At 1800 meters, the forest floor is covered in tall ferns. At 2000 meters, the pines give in, and the vegetation changes. What look like small pyuas, are actually Echium wilpretii ssp. triehosiphon and they have flowered, while some Asteraceae is covered in yellow flowers. I stop time and time again, to enjoy the views, op and down the mountain side.

I do the hike to Pico de la Cruz, and are rewarded with an astonishing view down a valley. It just can’t be more beautiful. Newer the less, I head further up, at 2426 meters high Roque de Los Muchachos. Near the top, many different observatories are found, scattered around the mountainside. Here, the generally avoid clouds and lights from cities.

The top offers yet another set of astonishing view. I do the path to several peaks, and the gorges, colourful lava, interesting vegetation and clouds, way down create some great scenery.

I can’t hold more for one day, and head homewards. It is still by LP4, now the western slope, but it soon meets the dense pine forest. This side does not have that many chestnuts, but here are vine fields. Where the road connect with LP1, there are a lot. At the same time, I dive into the clouds, but only for a little while.

Then the road is closed due to some roadwork, and as there is no alternative, we spend quite some time, waiting and looking at the other line, on the other side of the gorge. When we finally get to drive, my car claims it have a flat tire. Well, they all have the same pressure, and despite I add 10%, it complains.

It is almost six, before I get home, with way too many photos and videos. I cook the chestnuts for half an hour, and that surely improves the nuts.
Day's highlights. The lot from the day. 

23. Day 9. I sat an alarm till four, and are rewarded with the most fantastic night-sky. Endless bright stars, and in-between them; less bright, and in-between them more and more. But then I can't fall asleep again. Well, an early and then a late start on the day.

It is a bit later than usual, and now, there is sun on the first part for once. I fill the car and myself in the larger La Paso, overlooking the green mountains.
Then the familiar road towards Santa Cruz. I stop at the usual place to gather a bag of chestnuts, for my host. Then I bypass Santa Cruz, mainly in tunnels.

The landscape turns rather dry here along LP1, on the northeast coast.
I turn down to Mirador Playa Nogales and the beach, to get a feeling of this coastal stretch. It is a dry area with a few new plants - and a lot of invasive Opuntias.

I do the long path down to the beach, passing Cueva del Infierno. It is a giant cave with a tunnel in, on an impressive rock wall. The huge black beach have a few visitors, but not me.

Then I head a bit south, by the minor coastal road, but nothing changes. Back on LP1 and track, pass some huge villas and even two horses. The road turns in and up, and it soon turns real fertile.

Then I reach Parque Nacional de Las Nieves, and do the Cubo de La Galga hike. It is three kilometres through dense and lush forest, and I get to see a few new plants. The first part is wide and sealed, the last bit narrow, rough and steep.
I do a bad turn, and additional two kilometres. I figure it out, when I reach a familiar parking lot. Well, it is a nice hike too.

Finding the waterfall is a bit tricky, as it is in a marrow gorge, and unmarked. Well, it kind of lacks water anyway, but the black rocks and ferns make some great motifs.
It is getting suspicious dark, and I’m hit by a few wind tears, on the parking lot, after three hours of fast hiking.

A bit further up the road , I stop an enjoy the view at Mirador Jardín de Las Hespérides. The giant blue lizards are munching on bananas at the foot of a goat and a pregnant woman, and I get a few photos.

Then down to San Andre once more. No wedding today, and the number of cars are limited, but still spoil it a bit. Well, the sun is absent too, and is just not the same, a second time and without sun.

I do a breath stop and walk in Los Sauces. It in not that interesting, nor sunny, but I get calories for the 90 minute drive home. I follow the coast, as the mountains look dark - or gone. The coast get its share of rain too. Home at six with loads of photos.

Then my files are gone, and it appears to be an old Windows clone. Some hectic hours, and I finally realises: It is the Mac Document folder, I see in Windows. The new Windows folder with all my La Palma work is still present, although hidden.
Just another thrill, supplied by Parallels Desktop, allowing me to run Windows on a Mac.
Day's highlights. The lot from the day. 

It  is time to open Diary 5.