On the huge crater: La Palma island is Magnific

On the huge crater: La Palma island is Magnific

Dawn. The sky is burning. A hellish red hue on the island with volcanoes. As if lava was reflected in the sky.

You can see this fantastic picture on the island of La Palma – if you wake up early in the morning, climb up the mountains, and contemplate the magic of nature and physics. The ocean of clouds. The ocean of colors. Expressive outlines, like a lace. Airness and mystery.
Hypnotic reality.
That morning we went up the steep serpentines to get above the clouds. And the clouds were tailor-made – fantastic! And the sky was aglow with vermilion light.

This is, indeed, a rare view for us, which is why unusual. You want more and more. Moreover, this whole magic continues some 20-30 minutes. So crimson, with a thick, such a soft layer of curly clouds. At a height of 2000 m.

We drove a long way, along the twisted serpentines uphill. The road runs through the forests. All living things end closer to the top, so we were hurried to get there, but were not very successful, so we stopped and had a shoot with black silhouettes of trees. Our way led to the Roque de los Muchachos – the highest point of the island of La Palma – 2423 m.

That day we were lucky with the weather and the clouds, as the next days the sky was overcast with very high clouds, even higher than Teide!

You can enjoy such magnificent and curly clouds only on the two Canary Islands – Tenerife (3718 m) and La Palma (2423m). All other islands are too low.

The sun was just rising behind the Teide volcano and threw some light on us little by little on La Palma. What’s more, the Teide’s shadow falls on this side, which we photographed when climbed up the Teide crater (La Gomera is leftwards in the bottom, and La Palma is hiding in the shadows rightwards).

An unusual ocean, where clouds are floating instead of the water.

The sight is impressive and exciting. Took some photos – and a lunch time. Fish and rice, as usual)

Behind the screen: in fact, it was cold because of the height, the early hours and the wind. But it’s not a reason for us, the main thing is the presence of the sun 🙂

We met giant crows or ravens in La Palma. These birds like flying up close to people, allow looking at them asking for a treat this way.

One posed to us elegantly, we had such a close look at that bird for the first time, then photographed it as close as possible, and he was sitting politely. Only later we guessed that he hinted about having something to eat. It was even embarrassing when we went and did not give anything)) However, we, very impolite, fed well several on Fuerteventura.

In fact, it’s forbidden to feed animals in the Canary Islands, and even to touch the plants. There special plates with illustrations and inscriptions are everywhere. No feed, no touch.

We arrived at the Los Muchachos Observatory (Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos). We would not manage to enter the territory at sunrise, because the barrier is open from 9:00 AM. This is a fairly spacious area, which comprises the telescopes, administrative buildings and copter pads. There’s a pathway for tourists in between that leads to the observation deck – Roque de los Muchachos, the highest point of the island.

About the observatory. One of the largest telescopes in the world is located here. This is the main observatory on the study of the entire northern hemisphere! It’s so serious that the streetlights with yellow gas are installed throughout the island so that light did not hinder watching the night sky. There’s also the cleanest air and there are no industrial air pollutants on the island. All this makes La Palma an environmentally friendly island. What’s more, there are special astronomical tours, when a group of people can watch the stars with special telescopes on the corresponding observation decks. We even agreed for such a tour, and bought tickets: it was very curious what it was like. But no, the clouds were so high during all the following days of our stay that nothing was visible even from Teide (( Too bad, but it’s probably “must do” on La Palma. The price is 40-50 euros for two, but we think it’s worth it.

The Caldera de Taburiente National Park. There’s a viewing platform at the highest point of 2423 meters of the giant volcano crater. Millions of years ago, there was a super eruption from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean (from 4000 m rose to 6423 m). The crater has a diameter of about 9 km. Teide has a mere 30 meters in diameter! So, 9 km – is a spectacular size. But due to time and erosion, the bottom of the crater sank by 2 km. Thus, when you stand on the highest point of Los Muchachos, a view at a great space and a precipice opens.

What attracts the eye even more – vertical walls of the crater, as sharp as a gigantic blade and as hard as ice.

The scale is impressive. The depth and acuity.

You can see the entire southern part of the island of La Palma from here and also the 24 km long road of volcanoes Ruta de los volcanos.

You can sign up for a tour at the Observatory, but we thought it was not interesting – stories about the structure of telescope, walking in the offices of employees, moreover, it all takes place during the day and nobody would show you the stars, only the equipment and principles of its operation. But it may come in handy for some)

So, there are two the most popular parks on the island of La Palma – La Caldera de Taburiente National Park with the highest point of the island – Los Muchachos. And another one – El Parque Natural de Cumbre Vieja, located in the south of the island. There is the famous road of volcanoes (Ruta de los volcanos) 24 km in length – from the center of the island to the very edge of the south, and up to another impressive location -the Fuencaliente salt works. The most recent volcano of the island, Teneguía, is located in the park. It erupted not so long ago, in 1971. Now the area around it is carefully protected, the same way as the whole island in general, be sure – all the Canary Islands are declared UNESCO Biosphere Reserves.

To get to the beginning of the Volcanoes Road, you need to go up the serpentines through a pine forest, which is in the reserve  Refugio El Pilar to a mountain base Refugio El Pilar. But the main thing for us is photo shoots, so we photographed first.

Then we drove to the  Refugio El Pilar – this is a great area for recreation, where the locals come for barbecue at the weekends, which you can cook yourself in one of the many neat garden houses. There are toilets with shower. There’s no restaurant, only if the locals would come with van-kiosks and sell something for a snack.

So the Ruta de los volcanos – this is what others come to this island for. It’s exclusively a pedestrian route lasting 6-8 hours. Elevation changes range from 600 m to 1350 m. Not all will have enough strength to surmount this route, but the brave will get unreal scenery and adventure, since the path will lead along the volcanic cones and lava flows. But – for us it was a great BUT that the whole park, all the cones of volcanoes are covered with pine forest, i.e. landscapes with pine trees on the background of the ocean did not inspire us to follow the road of volcanoes – we walked just a little and returned, for it looks cool only with a bird’s eye view, and one needs a helicopter for that) You can find the photos in the net from a height of Ruta de los volcanos, we don’t have such, unfortunately(

So we parked the car and walked along the path, through the forest first and then went to the foot of the first volcano.

Here are some views. There are others for sure, with craters. But we didn’t go further. Although we encourage others, who will be on the island, to do that)

La Palma is lucky that pine trees managed to grow on the lava flows. It’s really very green here. That’s why the island has a different name Isla Verde, which means “Green Island”. Among all the inhabitants of the island – our little friends – we can emphasize the crows.

Here, at the height they will watch you and fly up closer to ask a lunch. But remember that you are not allowed to feed anyone) You can’t take stones or plants as a keepsake either!

Also take a look at these articles about La Palma island “The Magic salt pools” and “Santa Cruz – the old city and the capital of La Palma“

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