Travel: Looking back on New Years Day on La Palma

It is still a winter wonderland in Munich this February week. A wicked wind storm started things off and for the last few days it’s been non-stop periods of snow flurries and warm sun making things very white and slushy.

It’s still studying for me and recovering from wicked stomach bug that still has me curbing fatty foods and beer. Not fun. So I won’t dwell.

Instead, I’ll share some photos and a story of our first day of 2009, spent exploring the volcanic island, La Palma.

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We arrived in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve and lucky for us it was warm and not too windy. The pilot said that all flights were canceled the day before due to a terrible wind storm.

When we picked up our rental car at the airport, we found out that el cheapo not only meant tiny car but included bad breaks and a rusty transmission. Yikes!

In El Paso, we were overjoyed to find a ‘Super Marcado’ open late and on Sundays, well, sometimes, but not in the week on mysterious island holidays unknown to us. We were aware that a New Year’s Eve party would be happening at the square that evening. But it was an adventure finding our vacation house.

After we met the owner of Casa Casilda, a grey haired, small mama-type at the beginning of retirement, who spoke no German or English, she took us through cow fields and a goat herd to get us to our rental. Once we convinced Mrs. Mama that she could in trust her huge house to us young-ins, it was pitch black in the boonies and so we thought better to stay in and ring in the New Year en la cama.

When we woke up, we didn’t realize that the clouds that blanket the Cumbre Nueva in the evenings hide such a beautiful landscape.

We took the second driving tour that was suggest by the Baedeker travel guide. (thanks Tina and Roland, Can’t believe we hadn’t bought a travel guide!)

We stopped to discover the Ruta de los Volcanes, a hiking trail from Refugio de El Pilar to Punta de Fuencaliente. We would hike part of it the next day.

We drove on to Villa de Mazo and happened upon the Bar Restaurante San Blas. They have the best green mojo I had on the island, like a very garlicky cilantro salsa. I couldn’t find any store bought stuff that came close, every thing was too similar to a mayonnaise consistency.

When we got to Los Canarios, which is on the southern end of the island (La Palma looks like a sharks tooth, tip pointing down), it started to get foggy and Alex wasn’t feeling too good from the combination of the medication the doctors prescribed for his eye and the winding roads. It wasn’t long until we saw calamari again. ew.

(The captions on the pictures can tell you more about the day.)

Some links:

• Rent a vacation house on La Palma (German): Turismo Rural
• Definitely recommend the hiking on La Palma: Footpathes on La Palma