La Palma 2023

We landed at the Santa Cruz airport  just after 11:00 am. We skipped the car rental agencies and barely missed a  Bus 500 into town. We think it was the only bus that was on time during our stay. No drama, the 500 runs every half hour. Santa Cruz de la Palma was a positive surprise. It has a cobblestone pedestrian road that runs right through the old town and it was humming on our arrival. A cruise ship was likely in port. We ate lunch at La Placeta and then headed back to the main bus stop area and took a Bus 100 out to the end of the line in Barlovento at the north end of the island.

 I called our host and I understood most of the conversation but as always, the Spanish talk fast. We  stopped in at the Barolvento SPAR grocery store before walking the uphill 1 km to our rental cottage. As soon as we saw the cottage and the garden, we loved it. Ana greeted us, on behalf of Monica the owner.  Ana owns the Ana Delia shop in Barolovento and she probably shut the shop to organize us. The owner had also left us with wine, coffee and baked goods.

We were out the door around 8:00am, heading past the Barlovento reservoir, through agricultural fields and then into laurel forest along  a combination of old disused roads and trails through cloud forest (PR LP 07.1 trail) . We were quite taken by the vegetation, that contrasted with the drier ecosystems of Lanzarote and Gran Canaria. We  reached Mirador de las Barandas before 11:00 am for a view of the Barranco del Agua . The other tourists at the viewpoint had hiked up from the Los Tilos road; and they  turned out to be from Victoria, Vancouver Island. We carried on the PR LP 07, descending to Los Sauces on old roads and finally into the town. When we reached the main road at 12:30, Bus 100 had just pulled in and we hopped on, back to Barlovento, the SPAR and our cottage (Casa Rural Fucundo). The walk was 13 km, 350m ascent and 700m of descent.

We were walking before 8:00 am, heading north. We picked up a trail and then a mix of rural roads and trails, largely on the GR 130 in a westerly direction, parallel to the north shore.  We crossed a few barrancos (ravines) that involved a total descent of 700m and ascents  of 500m over 11 km. We walked through the hamlet of Gallegos and the sea views improved. The last and deepest barranco was a beautiful section. We met a couple of other walkers in that section, but all in all, it was quiet on the trail. It was a warm day (25C) and the last ascent (350m) to Franceses was sweaty as  we had picked up the pace, knowing that a bus was expected soon. We had about 15  minutes to spare to catch the infrequent bus 120 that returned us to Barlovento.  We dropped in at the SPAR (it offered fresh bread, produce and a butcher counter)  and then headed for the cottage. It was an excellent walk.

The original plan was for another north shore hike from Franceses to Roque del Faro via El Tablado, but it involved a 1,000m ascent and the forecast was for warm, sunny weather so we opted for a Plan B. Now, if I were to turn the clock back, we could have taken the bus to Roque del Faro and walked the route in reverse, or possibly taken the once a day bus down to El Tablado and explored the coastal area and walked up to Franceses before the sun was too high in the sky.

 However, we opted for a shadier alternative, the Cubo de la Galga hike, which is probably the most popular walk on La Palma. We took Bus 100 to the parking lot that was empty when we started the walk before 8:00am. It was a lovely green hike up a trickle of a creek that rose up to a viewpoint of the east side and coast of La Palma. Most creeks are carefully managed to collect the water in reservoirs for the all-important banana farms.  It was a nice enough walk of 11km with 550m of ascent, in laurel forest but it didn't quite measure up to the high quality of other La Palma hikes. We caught a northbound 100 bus to Barlovento and we were home for lunch.

Our four nights at the cottage came to an end. We left the house around 7:00am and caught the Bus 100 south to disembark at Los Galguitos. The aim was to walk through a section of the east coast banana farms., which we did. La Palma banana plants are pampered to produce a fine, tasty product. We were carrying full packs. We made a few barranco crossings on the short 5km walk, including the Barranco de San Juan. We walked through charming San Andrés to the Charco Azul pools for a dip in the sea water. We didn't fancy the steep, warm hike up to Los Sauces, so were thankful for Bus #4 that arrived late and brought us up to Los Sauces and a transfer to Bus 100 to Santa Cruz de La Palma. 

We got off the 100 bus at the north end of the city and walked to our rented apartment that was smack right in the middle of the old town. We had a sliver view of the ocean, but more importantly, it was less than 5 minute walk to the beach and the water was holding steady above 23C.  We found SC de la Palma to be quite attractive and enjoyable. The nearby SPAR grocery store was well stocked.

We were wandering the streets of La Palma  just after 7:00am and we caught a taxi up to over 2,300m to the Pico de Cruz trail head.  The driver spoke an easier to understand Spanish and he turned out to be from Cuba. We had a good chat. The ride took 45-50 minutes and cost 50 Euros.   We might have started earlier to get the sunrise from up top. It was only about 50m of elevation gain to Pico de la Cruz from the taxi drop-off. We headed south on the PRLP3 trail along the eastern side of the horseshoe shaped caldera (La Caldera de Taburiente). It is a fantastic walk along the caldera rim with views across the ocean, to Tenerife, La Gomera and even El Hierro. It wasn't all down. there was 320m of ascent  on the 20km hike, but it was mostly down (1770m of descent). We found the top and middle sections the most interesting, including around the Punta de los Roques refuge. 

We hardly saw anyone except at both ends of the hike. The last 1,000m descent towards the south end of the walk was, at times, tedious and we were happy to reach the chapel of Virgen del Pino. That signalled the last 2 km of the walk on paved roads out to the Taburente Caldera visitors' centre. It was a Saturday, but we didn't have to wait too long for the hourly Bus 300 to  SC de La Palma. It was a terrific hike.

Our two days at SC de la Palma were over, so after our beach walk, we transfered by Bus 300 to Los Llanos.  Our 3 bedroom apartment was ready for us by 1:30pm. Our hosts had stocked it with beer and various items for breadkfasts. We took the Bus 110 to Tazacorte Beach that had  a fair amount going on. The waves were wicked but the corner of the beach had some respite from the incoming surf.  We caught Bus 27 back to Los Lllanos, stopped in at the SPAR (open on Sundays) to top up our kitchen ingredients.

We had two more linear hikes in the southern end  of La Palma planned and we opted for the easier of the two to start. We took Bus 210 from Los Llanos to Los Canarios and drove through recent lava flows of 2019.  We headed south and paid the admission to walk out on the rim of the San Antonio volcano. We could have skipped that and walked below it. We carried on south through a moonscape. The Teneguia volcano trails were  clearly  closed to visitors, so we skirted it and continued down to the Lighthouse for a total of 9 km with 700m of descent. It was an easy, stark hike.

There was no sign of Bus 23 (we later discovered that it was not running due to some road construction). We hitched a ride with another hiker to "the hotel" that turned out to be "La Palma Princess" (a good looking, but very affordable resort). There was no sign of Bus 23 there either, so we took a cab and we opted to carry on right through to Los Llanos, so it cost us 50 Euros in the end. Back in town, we stopped at a Hiper Dino before returning to our apartment.

We had to wait a bit in central Los Llanos for a cab at 6:30am, but we found one and we took a 35 Euro ride up to El Pilar (1500m). It was dim on arrival, but before long we were walking up about 400m ascent in 5km through pine forest to the Black Hole Crater above the trees.  There was a fierce SE wind  that limited our options so we kept on the slightly sheltered traditional route (GR131). There are informal trails over some of the volcano summits but they were not feasible in those winds. It was one of our favourite hikes and it rolled through a variety of landscapes as we headed south.  After 11km, we had a 900m descent, through pine forests to reach Los Canarios and the terminus for Bus 210 back to Los Llanos. In total the Ruta de los volcanes  was 19km with 600m ascent and 1300m descent. It was an excellent hike and we encountered few other walkers.

It was a somewhat anti-climatic departure. We took the Bus 300 to SC de la Palma, followed by Bus 500 to the airport. There were a couple of flights departing to Germany, but we flew to Madrid.