La Palma Island, La Bonita of the Canaries and the Most Beautiful Place on Earth.

We got lucky and caught a rainbow in the 'Cascade' of clouds.

This is a Poinsettia Tree which grow on La Palma up to 10 feet tall.  They are all over the island.  We buy them in little pots at Christmas time.

La Palma Island of the Canary Island chain belonging to Spain off the west coast of Africa is clearly a beauty.  Not too many people have ever heard of La Palma Island before and most do not know where it is.  I didn't until I began researching the Canary Islands.  It is surprising because it is hands down the most beautiful place that I have ever been.The scenery is intensely beautiful and it just doesn't quit. Only 85,000 Spaniards live here.  I could join them but these steep cliff roads provide breathtaking beauty but they scare the hell out of me.

When the plane was coming in for a landing, I could see the green volcanic slopes covered in agricultural terraces, undoubtedly the fertile ground abounds here. 

Leaving the airport in our rental car, my mouth was hanging open as the clouds were coming over the top of the mountains and creating a surreal picture for us. These waves of clouds are called the Cascades and this is a daily occurrence every afternoon in La Palma.

The clouds look like a wave as they cascade over the mountains, it is a glorious phenomenon to watch.  I snapped a rainbow on this shot.  Rainbows are very frequent here.

We drove across the island to El Paso and I made Darren stop quite a few times for picture taking moments because it is truly beautiful here. A little bit reminiscent of driving through Banff, but a more tamed beauty with an abundance of green or verde in Spanish.  This is volcano country and there are numerous volcanoes on the island which we would later explore.  The mountains that are ever-present on La Palma are extinct volcano crater rims now covered in Canary Pines.

Jagged peaks are everywhere.

We flew into La Palma Island with a direct flight from Tenerife, a sister Island. Air Europa had canceled our later flight, which was when I had arranged the rental car for and they put us on an early flight.  That was a total WestJet move. We arrived at 10:30 am and she said 'sorry', your car will not be ready until 5:30 pm. I explained the situation to her and she said she'd do her utmost to help us out and she did. We only had to wait 3 hours in the La Palma airport but I found a plug-in and a table and chairs and I made the most of it and did some work and some blogging. 

We drove across the island to our Booking.com rental called La Datchura Bungalow, it was in the El Paso area. It turned out to be a great rental. It had beautiful ocean views, a lovely terrace, an extra large kitchen and ample space with two bedrooms. Darren likes to spread out his suitcase on the extra bed and not really ever unpack. It was a really nice rental property with good parking.  

Our view of the ocean from our terrace.

The ever-present Banana crops.

A Hibiscus variety that I have never seen.  The flower was huge.

Our rental was high up on a hill, so it afforded us great views of the ocean, mountains and surrounding towns of Los Llanos and El Paso.

The wispy clouds are always hanging quite low in this volcanic valley.

Night views of the sunset, ocean and netted banana crops were pretty each night.

We were provided with quite spectacular sunsets each evening from our terrace.

We decided to explore a bit and drive around this beautiful little city of Los Llanos which had about 20,000 people living in it and El Paso another town which was evacuated with the last eruption of Cumbre Vieja, which erupted only 4 years ago in 2021 and affected 10 percent of the island.  We drove to a viewpoint to get above the lava flow that created new land by flowing all the way to the ocean.  Surprisingly La Palma is already building on the new flow and has rebuilt a road through the now volcanic rock.  We drove through it, it is disconcerting to say the least.  This volcano continued its violent eruption for 85 days.

Cumbre Vieja Volcano is quite ominous looking.

Cumbre Vieja is in the background.

The 2021 lava flow shows up in the black streak half way through the photo.

Lava flows destroy everything in its wake but eventually new soil is created and in this case new land was created to the coastline.

The many different layers of lava flows show up as different colors and textures.

The new road through the lava flow.

This road created a crucial link through all of this lava flow devastation.

We found a grocery store close by and bought our groceries for the week and headed back and relaxed. We were tired. We were up at 4:00 a.m that morning, so we went to bed early.

Darren needed to catch up on some work so we stuck close to home and had a very laid back day.  We went to the Interpretive center for the Caldera Taburiente Volcano and it was free.  There was a video and very interesting information on volcanoes.  I read everything that there was to read.

Scaled topography of La Palma and the main ancient caldera of Taburiente.

A poster of the the 'Sea of Clouds', a naturally occurring phenomenon in this caldera.

This is a to scale replica of La Palma Island.

La Palma is covered with Canary Pines.

You don't have to look far to find a black lava flow of hardened volcanic rock.

The landscape was stunning everywhere you looked.

This is a variety of a Strawberry Tree that I first discovered in Italy.

We had caught site of a very cheery downtown or old town area that was extremely lit up with Christmas decorations which is so good to see that this island was not afraid to display its religious roots and history.  We decided to drive and park and walk around and catch the sites.

In old town, there are some huge trees that create some great ambiance.

It was cold that night about 15 degrees.  Darren was still in shorts and stuck out like a foreigner.

There were countless lit up angels that were twice my size.

This was a pretty street with shooting stars.

Sunsets were glorious on La Palma.

 The next day was busy. We headed to the flea market Rastro de Argual in Los Llanos on Sunday mornings and checked out the local crafts. 

An old Casa Museum on the Flea Market grounds.

A pretty arched wall along the road.

Darren was looking for a leather bracelet for himself and I'm always looking for cool things; however, we didn't buy anything. We did get up close and personal with some banana crops and started to ask ourselves how they grow, etc. 

I did some research and the banana tree is not really a tree. It's a herb. It gets cut down every time the fruit is harvested and the tree portion gets chopped up and spread around to dry out and become fertilizer. Depending on your crop, there are two to three bunches of bananas every year on the same plant. Once the tree gets cut down then another baby shoots up and produces another tree. The banana's here are extra sweet and full of minerals, they are much healthier for you than other bananas that are not grown in this highly volcanic mineralized soil of La Palma. 

After the flea market we headed towards the very southern tip of the island which was a 35-minute drive to the town of Fuencaliente. We headed to the interpretive Center for the Teneguia Volcano and we visited and it cost us €8 to get in, we walked around and had about a 700 m walk out onto the rim of the volcano and this was an interesting walk.  It was very uncomfortable because it was a relatively narrow walkway on the rim of the volcano and both sides were precarious. It was an extremely steep slope down on the outside and if you did happen to trip and fall over the edge you were a goner. If you fell into the old Caldera there was at least pine trees growing in the Caldera now that would maybe save your life. There was sketchy looking volcanic ground and it didn't look settled, we stopped halfway around the rim because I just didn't feel safe. There are numerous landslides on this island and I did not want to be a part of it.  

Walk to the rim.

This is a Dandelion Tree.  It looks like a weed to me.  They are abundant on this volcano.

A photo inside the rim.

The far slopes are covered in grape vines and vineyards.  The wines have been very good here on La Palma.

You can sort of see the slope on the outside of this volcano that we walked on.  Below is the new land that it created for this coastline.

The views were very pretty, we were very high up in elevation.

We returned to the car and continued south down roads to the ocean that were horrifically narrow for somebody who's afraid of heights.  

Volcanic rock adds to the temperatures in these areas.

Wind Turbines are numerous on La Palma.

This is fairly new eruption area and its not pretty for hundreds of years.

It was the only way down to the Salinas de Fuencaliente salt flats, so I just had to breathe through it. You could see them a couple miles up where we started the descent down the volcano road.

Salt Flats appear like pinkish squares.

Closer to the salt flats, the water in the pools appears very pink.  They let the pools dry out and harvest after the summer. 1,200 lbs of salt annually are produced there.

There are two lighthouses there, the old one and the new one.

They are very unusual looking.

You can see the salt crusting and forming on the edges of the pools.

I did not need pants that day.

We stopped at the restaurant and had a glass of wine and a Coke and just relaxed.  We gazed at nice views of water with black volcanic rock everywhere. It was nice and warm. It was about 22 that day and the heat radiated off the black so it made it feel hotter than it actually was. The glass of wine made it a more tolerable drive up that horrific road, we headed down a different road to get home.

The Dragon Tree is native to the Canary Islands.  It is the most unusual tree.

On the way home we always passed by this ominous site of the last eruption 4 years ago.

The black lava flow rolled over everything in its path.

You can see the new land it created near the coast line.

Our goal the next day was to drive up to Caldera de Taburiente National Park and to see Roque de Muchachos. The Caldera is 8 kms across and 22 kms in circumference, one of the largest of it's kind.  This Caldera has 70+ natural water springs supplying water to the entire island.  There is a long history that comes with the water rights over the last 500 years.  The road was agonizingly terrifying on the way up and I had to take some breaks on the way up just to breathe. I've never been on such a scary road in my entire life. There were countless narrow, hairpin turns with steep drops, but that would be a understatement. These roads will kill you if you take too wide of a turn.  There are many tiny rock slides occurring on the island each day and there were rocks strewn on the road. 

While driving as a passenger I snapped a shot.  We curved through this and came up the left side and then to the top of the mountain where we eventually stopped for a mental break.

It was very pretty scenery, I almost forgot to be scared but then I would stupidly look down out the passenger window.

The road was an engineering marvel
and the Banana terraces surrounded us
on every spare bit of land.

The entrire valley is littered with Banana crops that supply mainland Spain with their sweet goodness.

Some of the Banana crops are covered in netting to create a greenhouse effect to hasten the crops along.  From far away they look like concrete bunkers and are not that appealing to look at.  Do you see them in this photo?

On the way up you can see the differing volcanic flows where the volcanic rock has been sliced away to provide a road for this island.

This curve ahead appears like a gradual slope, it was not.

 We both needed a break, Darren from listening to my phobia talking and I needed deep breaths.  There was a lookout restaurant and we sat down after taking copious photos due to the stunning scenery surrounding us and all the way down below us.  Even Darren took photos, he rarely feels inspired to take out his phone.  I had a glass of wine to make the phobia subside somewhat because there was more awful narrow steep roads to come.

We are incredibly high up on an overlook balcony.  These kind of heights don't really bother me too much, its the ones that are moving that do.

Pretty Pretty scenery surrounded us.  There was a mist coming in from the ocean as well.

We drove on all those roads that hairpin down and up through this stunning mountainous valley.

A Panorama photo.

There was a really cool store with lots of unique things.  I bought a cute little fridge magnet, it was the exact shape of La Palma Island and it had a volcano on it and it just screamed La Palma. Darren bought himself leather wrist jewelry that he had been looking for ever since we came to Europe. 

When taking this photo I was standing on a glass bottomed lookout which extended over the cliff into nothingness.

It is hard to describe how intensely beautiful the views were and it was very sunny and warm with no breeze up there even though we were on the top of this Caldera ridge. The blue of the ocean, the multitude of banana crops, the cinder cone of the last eruption and the hideous roads below were gorgeous views to share a glass of wine with.  I should of had two, it was cheap and the roads continued their silent nightmare for me.

We finally arrived at the Astrological Interpretive Center near the top of Caldera Taburiente.  It was a bit chillier up at that altitude. We walked in sat down and watched a little movie in this brand new theater and the movie was interesting. It was in Spanish with English subtitles. It was about 12 minutes and then we walked around the center. And if you're into astrology this would have been the cat's meow. I'm not really, so for me personally it was a waste of money that I didn't need to spend. But you win some and you lose some, this time we lost 30 Euros for the two of us and Darren agreed. The Observatory up there has one of the largest arrays of telescopes in the world.  Scientists from all over the planet come to stay and study there.

At the Astrological Center as we were walking around outside of it.

I find it so interesting seeing the different layers of volcanic rock indicating the different flows over the millennia.

The World renowned Observatory gigantic mirrors called MAGIC.  Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov telescopes.  GTC is the largest of its kind in the world.  This was cool to see this dude below.

These things were huge.

When you are up so high in elevation and it looks like blue ocean nothingness it does make you feel like you are on a Mars expedition.

All of the mirrored telescopes.

We continued the drive up to the top of the Caldera or the volcano rim that erupted in the 1600s.  We continued to the viewpoint of Roque de Muchachos which are a natural grouping of pillars formed from a previous lava flow.

These are the Roque de Muchachos and they stand about 20 feet tall, left over from some ancient volcanic flow.

There were two viewing points that you could walk uphill to and you are at about 9,000 ft and the air is very thin up there.  I've been at 11,000 ft and I found I had more air there than here. The views were absolutely stupendous.  There was a little bit of haze or mist that clouded the photos.  

You can see the far viewing point which not gonna lie it was a bit disconcerting walking to.  The path was wide enough but it was windy and if you slipped you were a goner.

The caldera outer wall ridge that is 22 kms around.

The vegetation is unique up this high.  The various ridges were so picturesque.

A very dramatic landscape gifted us at Taburiente.

Looking back at the first viewing point.

The different colors of different flows and compositions of the lava.

You can see a town below on the coastline.

The path.

Darren up on the top viewing area.  The ground was slanted at a steep slope at the top viewpoint, which was hard to steady yourself to take pics..

Little tree hugging the slope.

We were hoping to see the 'Sea of clouds' which forms naturally everyday and fills in the Caldera.  It gives the the feeling of floating. If the clouds were in then the views would have been absent, so it was a win-win situation either way. As we began our descent we did see the clouds start to roll in.  We could go another day and see the Sea of Clouds, but I'm never doing that road again. 

We decided to continue on the LP4 mountain road around the other side of the Caldera or outer rim of the volcano and this road was in rougher shape with lots of potential landslide signs and lots of little slides that were evident with little rocks all over the road.  This didn't give us a very comforting feeling. But the one good thing about the east side of the Caldera mountain road was it had less visible sheer drops, which was so much better for me.

La Palma is a volcanic island that rose from the bottom of the ocean and it has created a very unique topography. There are numerous deep gorges that descend into nothingness and you have to drive in and out of these gorges to make your way in and around the largest Caldera on the island which is Taburiente.  Thank God Darren doesn't mind driving on these God forsaken roads. The roads were very terrifying for me but it was coupled with intense beauty around every curve. It surely was one of the most dangerous roads we have ever traveled but also the most beautiful.

More pretty views of wispy clouds.

La Palma has many modern statues and modern steel art in their large traffic circles and around the different cities and towns.  This one I could take a photo of, unfortunately the more interesting ones I missed. 

The next day we ventured towards Canos de Fuego, which means tubes of fire. The whole experience was only 12 Euros and compared to yesterday which was 15 at the Astrological center, this was a steal. They told us that a tour was leaving in 10 minutes and to go down to the other building which was a 200 meter walk away and get fitted for our helmets.  I'm not sure what a helmet was going to do to save me in a lava tube, but hey, we looked cool! 

The lights on the helmets were quite powerful and illuminated the pitch black lava tube,

We were with a group of about 12 and we were the only two English speakers so the guide had to do two talks.  

This is the 2021 flow.

I tried to capture the shininess of the black lava dust but I was unsuccessful.

This particular type of lava that hardened into these shapes is called Pahoehoe Lava, which is taken from the Hawaiian Islands lava flows

The surrounding area had been devastated by the lava flow.

It was a bit disconcerting in the caves. I'm not claustrophobic but when I saw the huge cracks that went all the way around from wall to ceiling to wall, I had a second of silent panic.  

Going down into the lava tube which was about 3 stories down.

An old cinder cone that looks like it blew at some point.

Some more Pahoehoe lava on the bottom right corner of the photo.

All of the ramps that are raised above the volcanic dust and rocks which are hard to walk on.

It takes a very long time for anything to grow after a volcanic eruption.  It stays hot for years and it takes ages for the volcanic rock and dust to become viable soil.

The guide spoke to us before walking into the lava tube.

Inside the tube, you can see the shadow of my cell phone created by my helmet light.  I had to duck in many spots.

I did get a little apprehensive seeing all of the cracks in the ceiling and walls of the lava tube, but the guide explained that those are fractures that actually occurred when the tube was being formed and they do keep an eye on them and measure them, they do change periodically. 

Measuring device placed over the wider cracks.

We found out how lava tubes were created. The lava crust of the flow hardens on top with the air circulating on it and underneath the lava continues to flow downhill. It takes quite a few lava flows to form a roof over a lava tube and many times you will get an opening to the sky and that's actually how most of them are discovered in La Palma. There's so many ancient lava tubes all over the island that they're commonly used as wine cellars because they are a couple degrees colder, which is good for wine and unfortunately many ancient lava tubes are used for sewage and refuse. 

Stalactites created by the dripping of magma.

There were two different naturally occurring vents in the ceiling of the tube.

Darren exploring down the tube.  You can see how much light his helmet light gave off.

The guide said this was Nature's Art because the calcium deposits had created a dolphin. If you tilt your head to the left you can see it.

Above the ladies head was a failed attempt of the growing lava tube to create a ceiling.

Deep in the bowels of the new earth.

Leaving the lava tube.  We were in the tube for about 30 minutes.

We learned quite a bit about lava tubes and lava flow. I always wondered why volcanic ash was so shiny? Its actually volcanic glass.  That black shiny dirt is actually glass!  It is hard to see in the photos how shiny and black it is.

It was a very good tour and we made our way back to the visitor center and walked around and realized that the movie was starting and it was 6 minutes long.  A girl came in after and talked to us more about the different kinds of lava when it hardens and how it's formed and then took us into another lava tube from the 1949 eruption.  The first lava tube tour we did I assumed it was the 2021 eruption but she said that it was still way too hot under there at 50 to 60° Celsius. Both of the tours were in the 1949 lava tubes which made sense. 

The second tube that we explored had red LED lights to give the feeling of red hot molten lava.

When we went back to the center, I found this poster very interesting.

The description of how a lava tube is formed.

Interesting poster talking about the untold devastation for example 80 kms of roads were covered up by the lava.  Read on for more info.

We learned a lot that day and came back into the the center and then did the basement floor. There was quite a bit to see.  We were there for quite a few hours. and spent the whole afternoon there for 12 Euros each. Darren enjoyed it because it wasn't castles and medieval villages and I enjoyed it as well. 

We needed to try and find some chili powder to make some chili and apparently they don't have that in Spain.  They sell sweet chili powder though.  We did try a different grocery store chain called Hiperdino. Not sure what that means?

There is fabulous hiking on La Palma, the only problem is that you have to take the death roads to get to them. I would have hiked every day except I would of had to drug myself up and be unconscious to do those roads daily.

The next day we drove to Bosque de Los Tilos which is in the north west of the island and it took over an hour to get there but was only 44 kms away. 

Leaving the west of the island it looked bad with rain coming.

When we were through the tunnel to the east side of the island the clouds were hanging very low and it was beginning to spit.  To drive down to the west side of the island it is a one way tunnel road.  When you leave the west to go back to the east side of the island you take another route and another tunnel and these two roads are not even close to each other.  This never makes the roads boring that is for sure.

Clouds, Clouds everywhere.  The clouds were practically running down the mountains towards us.

No matter where you are in La Palma it is gorgeous.

 

The scenery was beginning to get very interesting and super pretty as we drove north up the coast.

We thought as we gained elevation we might get on top of the clouds which we had experienced a different day.

The stops along the way were very pretty.  This was a very steep cliff side with some unusual looking vegetation and some pretty more shallow waters.

It began to get extremely pretty, intense and dramatic looking scenery.

With more drama, unfortunately more scary roads.

It started to look Jurassic Park like.

Old caves most likely from old lava tubes which helped to create this entire island.  These are everywhere all over the island.

This was an unusual statue on a very dramatic cliff but I was in a cloud when I took the photo.

It was only 44 kms to Bosque de Los Tilos but the roads were so curvy, narrow and steep that you could not go a normal highway speed.  Plus it was raining and roads can be slippery.  When you could slip off into an abyss of a thousand feet, you drive slow here.  We were hopeful that it would quit raining and it did but not really, we were just driving in and out of the cloud.  It was just a misty type rain.  We stopped just outside of Santa Cruz de la Palma which is the capital to give me some liquid courage/glass of wine before we ventured onto the hideous roads.  Thank goodness that this road was a much wider road.  It was still windy as hell with  copious hairpins and steep drops though.  The scenery was unreal and we stopped numerous times to take photos.

The beauty that we were confronted with was astounding.  Banana crops were abundant.

The cloud helped to make it more mysterious looking.  We had to traverse this by driving into it.  You can see the road to the left hugging the cliff side.

Houses were perched up on top of the mountain to the right.

Red volcanic rock was so striking against the landscape of the green lushness of the rain forest.

Terraces that were made with back breaking labor were fruitful with crops of undistinguished nature but most were bananas.

This photo struck me with how beautiful this landscape was.  The bridge seemed toy like when gazing at it.  Little did I know that we had to drive down into that abyss and up on the other side of this valley and over that toy like bridge.

It was so beautiful that I did not want to get back into the car.

So many terraces.

Yah, like this wooden railing was
going to save us from hurtling
to our deaths.

The rain was starting to be more annoying and getting on my camera lens. Thank goodness the road down was a one way.

You can see how narrow the road was with the car's side mirror and the super unsupported wooden rail.

We turned off the road to drive up to the parking lot to begin our hiking trail.  It was still raining but warm.  We chose the 2 hour hike round-trip up to an area that was supposed to look like Jurassic Park.  The trail was up the whole entire way on an old mountain road.  It was a super pretty walk and you would not believe the steep drops, it was mind boggling why anyone would drive on this road even back in the day. 

The ferns were large and pretty.

Rock faces cut out of the cliff for the original mountain road.

The trail.

Lava rocks dropped off from some flow.

This tunnel was made just wide enough to get a vehicle through.

The old mountain road, now a hiking trail.

The tree canopy was fairly thick so it was a bit darker plus the cloud hanging over us did not help.

Darren walking and not loving
the rain.

 We reached the stone stairs and it was still raining.  I was hopeful that the cloud would move but when we got up to the top it was almost a total whiteout.  It was still cool and I loved the walk even in the rain.  I destroyed my runners but I knew that we could just throw them in the washing machine back in the rental.  It was totally worth it.  It was so green and lush and the rain made it even prettier. 

Up at the top of the lookout and it was quite a climb to get to this position.

Quite a few flights of stone stairs that looked precarious like this one.

Wedge yourself around a few precarious steep areas.  Don't forget that it is straight down a few hundred feet or so.

Unfortunately it was a total white out when we got to the lookout.

It was still pretty but we did not get the 'awe' moment due to the cloud whiteout.

 The drive back was pretty as well and we had to take a road on the other side of the gorge back and drive the bridge.

This valley was superb for scenic breathtaking moments.

You can see the car on the road and then look straight down into the valley to see the precariousness of the roads here.

Beautiful.

The one way road back up had a large concrete sidewalk which separated me from my fear and I was thankful for it.

Notice the sheer long drops off the road.  The cut out of the cliff to the right was very pretty.

When we crossed back and came through the tunnel to the other side of the mountain range we were greeted by the daily Cascades of clouds that flow over the mountains.  They are so unusual and stunning on their own and then we were blessed to catch a huge rainbow arched against the Cascade.  What a gift it was to see and experience!

Then we spotted the rainbow through the trees.

A glorious feast for the eyes with a rainbow attached to the Cascades.

The Cascades look completely fake.

We stopped the car and pulled over to continue to watch the rainbow and the Cascades flow over the mountains.

Upon entering into the El Paso area  where our rental was, we noticed there was some unstable air conditions and it was producing some extremely unusual clouds.  I wasn't sure whether to run and hide or take pictures?  I chose the latter.

This was a very spooky looking cloud that was so low you could practically touch it.

Back near our rental the clouds were very low and pretty.

The clouds were so extremely low in the valley and we had not seen this yet and it was our 5th night.  I had to get out of the car to take more photos of these cotton candy like clouds.  We arrived back to the rental and with unstable air you get clouds and clouds make for much better sunsets in my opinion.

The sunset was spectacular. 

The Agave Attenuata is quite an extrodinary plant and they grow all over the island of La Palma.

We stayed 8 glorious nights already and it was time to leave this beautiful lush green island that is interrupted by the odd black lava flow and cinder cones.  This is a place I could live.  I am sure I would eventually conquer my fear and get used to the death roads.  This is a Bucket List island, you would be remiss not to put it on your list.

At the airport, our flight was  continually delayed and then finally cancelled out of La Palma and Air Europa let us know how to collect our bags.  We were told to go to check in counter 5 to get re-booked for the next day.  We got that accomplished and then we were told to wait for the bus to take us to our hotel.  This took quite a while to find a hotel that could take all of us.  An agent told us to follow him so we did and we put our luggage underneath the bus and got on and had a nice ride down to the center of Santa Cruz de la Palma and then the Ferry Terminal area.

Darren before getting on our bus.

Lots of buses (foreshadowing).

  Everyone got off the bus and headed toward the ferry and we finally started asking questions.  Unfortunately we followed the wrong agent and got on the wrong bus which was for the cancelled flight which had been going to Tenerife.  Air Europa decided to ferry them instead.  We were supposed to be flying to Gran Canary.  We got our luggage and rolled out of the Ferry Terminal area to the center of town feeling like complete losers.  We found a Taxi stand and took it back to the airport which was 15 Euro.  We were hoping that we did not miss our correct bus to our complimentary hotel.  

Photo taken from the airport window of the surrounding area.  You can see all of the cinder cones formed from volcanic activity.

Photo taken on one of our bus rides.  This must be the rainbow capital of the World.

The airport is right on the water just like all of the Canary Island airports.

We arrived back at the airport for the second time that day and we were in luck and did not miss our correct bus and waited approximately 30 minutes and got on the bus and drove an hour to the other side of the island up and down some more scary roads to Melia La Palma Hotel which was a very nice hotel.  We were provided with buffet dinner meals and  I got up and walked around the hotel for some exercise the next morning.  We actually had an ocean front room and this was a really nice hotel that had just re-opened in June due to the road closure from the lava flow in 2021.  On any other occasion this would have been a wonderful place to stay in the town of Puerto Naos but we wanted to get to Gran Canary Island and check that out.  This was already our 9th night on La Palma.  

The black sand beach of the Melia La Palma Hotel where we were put up.

An unusual lava dumping of volcanic rock on the sea.

This photo taken from our balcony at the Melia.

Unfortunately Air Europa had different plans for us.  Our flight was again delayed and every time I looked at the screen they would add another 10 minutes onto the delayed time.  This was shaping up to a strong feeling of 'Groundhog Day'.  I decided to get up and walk around the airport again and again just for some exercise.  It is easy to get angry but it is out of your control.  You do have to learn just to roll with it and distract yourself.  At 1.5 hours of delay, over the intercom we were told to come and collect food vouchers  Who gets food vouchers after only a 90 minute delay?  Well, we did because they knew they would have a mutiny on their hands because there were many people on the flight that were very angry.  We were given 12 euro which as you know does not get you much in an airport.  We bought a ham and cheese sandwich each and I got a small bottle of white wine and Darren a coke and we had to pay out of pocket a few euros.

At 3 hours of delay, I was on another walk around the airport and laughed to myself that this is the one airport in the world that does not have a premium lounge to enter.  Even in Galapagos Island airport, we had a lounge to enter.  This defiantly makes airports more fun when you have complimentary booze and food and comfort and we had been stuck in La Palma going on for 27 hours and counting............

I decided to walk by our new gate change and noticed the same agent that had checked us in.  I approached him and started up a chat and I asked him how he was because angry people can be horrible to agents.  We had a few good laughs and then he had a smile on his face when he told me that our plane was landing in 8 minutes.  We kept talking and I wished him a Merry Christmas and we lined up for our flight to Gran Canary Island and most likely more 'First World Problems'.