Liming… that’s what is going on. The weekly market in Puntagorda starts at 3 pm, so we took the first half of the day “free”. I went around the house and took pictures of alle the animals and plants I could find in the garden, while Nadine made a cake for tonights Goa party that we were invited to. Goa… well… let’s see.
Now it is about time for the market.

The market is great. A small little market, with lots of things to discover. Besides the lava adornment, photography and the usual vegetables we knew from home, we found that sugarcane juice and rum makes a good mojito. It didn’t take too long till we bumped into Karin who was also there. Packed with bags for next weeks meals, we went back home.

Goa is definitively  not our music, that’s what we found out that night. But we found also is  that all Germans living in the surrounding of Las Tricias are great people. Such a friendly welcome you seldom get anywhere else. Matthias who organized the party, along with Klaus, at whos house it all took place where both great hosts. Beside those two we met a lot of people we spotted at the weekly market in Puntagroda. The strange thing about living near the equator is that you tend to adopt the sun cycle. In Germany I tend to go rather late to bed, whereas here you are really tired at dawn. So the following day was declared to be chilling day!

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I must revise my saying about cocks starting to cark at dusk. Those animals don’t know nothing about time at all… really not the slightest sense for an apropriate wakeup-call: 4 a clock in the morning and those rotten roosters won’t stop crowing. I crawled out of bed and, did some Gi Gong, as my camera was capturing the vast major nightly sky. In the end, I must thank that wrong programmed alarm chicks for waking me up.

At arond 11 am we finally woke up and after a great yoghurt with pomegranade and  almonds we headed north again, to Sarzar, where we took a 4 hour walk through the ancient laurel forest, along caves of the original inhabitants, the guances. Beatifull old trees, hanging out of the steep walls, along the dried out river we followed. Old giant trees wrapped up in ivy and moss all over the place. Just Tarzan wasn’t there although at some point we thought someone is throwing rocks at us from atop. Closer investigations revealed that the big sycamore tree was loosing his fruits, dropping from about 30 meters down at us. Tasty, but quite dangerous.

Further along the LP-109, the old part of the LP-1 (the main route around the island) the road became so narrow that we had to often stop and give way to the oncoming traffic. Non the less the road is worth a visit. Winding up the steep northern regions, with great view, ancient  trees and a few photospots, where you even can park a car without causing a traffic jam.

Next up was Barlovento or better La Fajana, an aray of pools build right into the wild crashing sufr of the Atlantic Ocean. You basically swim into the Atlantic water that is distributed over five pools, separated by partly naturla lava stone and concrete. Swiming along with all kinds of fishes (yes! they are into the pools, rather into the big waves outside) and witnessing the heavy tide crashing against the pool walls from the outside is an unbelievable experience.

We came in a little late and the sun was vanishing behind the cliffy high mountains and so we carried on and headed for San Andrés, which is the old part of Los Sauces. Karin told us that it is heavily influenced by Cuba and the flair is great. To be honest: We didn’t find it too great, but maybe we passed it or overlooked it inside all those banana plantation. On the way back, we missed the LP-1 route and so I had to drive all the way back taking the LP-109, with all its narrow windings and steep serpentines. Actually it is easier to drive when it is drak, as you can make out the opposting traffic by its lights. At home we had a little dinner made of rice, almonds, pomegranate,  yoghurt and went to bed.

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Thanks to our friend the cocks we where up pretty early and without loosing much time with showering, we set about the “Roque de los Muchachos” - the top of the island, reaching a whopping 2426m above the sea into the sky and therefore is the highest point of the island.
It took us quite some time to drive up that narrow, winding road and the word serpentine definitely becomes a new meaning, along that road.

The higher we got the less we could see, riding directly into the clouds. Right below the official parking side we got out of the car and walked the rest up. At first the fog/clouds where so dense and humidity was so high that we got wet right away. When we reached the Roque we hardly could see it. Dense clouds where pushed up the hills and sometimes it looked like the Cumbre Vieja is still active and left us with a scenery right from Tolkiens fantasy. The air is filled with odor of the heather-clad vulcano soil. Right a the bottom and around the Roque de los Muchachos are several observatories located. The nightly sky must be one of the most spectacular views, as no unnatural lightsource disturbs it and 2400m above sea is another good reason.

As we squandered along to a platform that is located a few hundred meters behind the Roque, suddenly the clouds opened up and gave view to the west side. Spectacular view. Suddenly you feel like Reinhold Messner on top of the world.
On our way back we stopped for some chestnuts, that where literally laying on the street - a good addition to our bill of fare. Back at Buenavista siesta was the magic word and that’s where we are right now, typing these lines. Maybe we will try to get to a nearby beach… I ll keep you posted.

No water, no beach. Luna joined us on our mission seeking the nearest beach to take a round of refreshing swimming in the Atlantic. Nadine slid on the gravel ground and bailed on her knee, Luna ran after some sheep…. but the view was great. Sweaty and finished from walking all day we prepared dinner, ate some olives, drank some wine and sliped in bed.

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It is always the same when you get close to the equator: Birds that start to make noise at the first ray of light and that is about 6 am. In our case it was the cocks from the neighbor that acted as our natural alarm clock.
The day began with fresh avocados and kakis and almonds, right from Karins garden - mixed into one big yoghurt - fresh, sweet… absolute delicious! For the first day, we thought about a little exploartion around our appartement.  Karin gave us a little route that would take us about three hours, down the little canyon (barranco, as they are called in Spain) right behind the house and back up on the other side.
The path lead us through fields of prickly pears, past gardens full of the most delicious fruits, down to Finka “Aloe Vera”, a tiny cafe, build right on the way. It wasn’t opened yet and so we went on to the caves - Barranco de Buracas - the remains of the original inhabitants of La Palma. Old symbols encarved into the stones and a rotten cat that came our way meowing at us made shivers ran down our spines. This place definitely has its moments.
Back up to Aloe Vera and its owner Frohmuth, we had a big salad made from fruits of her garden. Tasty, refreshing and great. After our short break we went back down past the caves where the cat was already waiting for us again, right at the same spot as before. Spooky. Maybe it’s the guarding of this ancient spot? On the other side up, passing the buracas, we went home and had a little siesta, at the pool. Later we went to Puntagorda for some food in the local supermarket. The evening ended with olives, oil, saussage, goat cheese, a bottle of wine and bread from Frohmuth.

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Four hours fligh and we ditched down on Santa Cruz de La Palma . The sun just vanished and the mountain peaks where hidden bdehind dense clouds - a usual sight, as we should find out druing the next two weeks. After recieving our car we made first contact with the serprentines and the native driving habits of going throught the serpentines at almost impossible speed (ridiculous speed). Luckily we where not alone leaving the airport by car and so we could not be held responsible for that little traffic jam that occurred. About two ours later we arrived at Las Tricias, our neat little hometown for the forthcomming ten days.
Finally arriving at “Buena Vista” we recieved a warm welcome from Luna, the house dog, that was playing around with the Hilda the cat. Karin arrived and gave us an even more warm welcome. Showing us around our appartement and the yard although it was pitch black by now.

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