The Second Trip (February 1998)
I arranged my second trip from a Finnish travel agency Hasse. After all
it would be much nicer to fly directly to La Palma from Finland (even though
from Helsinki) than to hop from one European air port to another. A lot of
time would be saved as well. Ha, here is a story of how much wrong a man can
be with his preconceptions. Partly I chose Hasse because of a cheaper price:
a regular flight and needed hotel charges would have cost over two thousand
FMK (about 370 USD) more than the "holiday trip" of Hasse. Of course I did not
have to pay the expences myself but I thought I might save the university's
and EU's money just as well.
On Thursday (26 FEB 1998) I left to the Turku bus station feeling a little
tired. Because of travel arrangements and other hurries during the previous
week I had underslept for several hours... a night. The chartered bus of Hasse
came from Pori at 2:20 am. During the trip to Helsinki air port I managed to
sleep only little and at the air port there was no chance for that. And for
some unintelligible rule we had to be at the air port 90 minutes before the
plane actually left.
The boarding went along the normal routines: First people with seats 26-35
were asked to board the plane, and then everybody had to be remainded at the
gate that only people with seats 26-35 are allowed to board at this time (as
most people obviously thought that after the first dozen or so people in the
plane the pilot would decide to leave all the others behind and close the
doors). The plane got quite full and was another example of the usual Finnair
flights. We arrived to La Palma fifteen minutes late, set down the landing
gear, approached the runway ... and rose up again as the pilot did not get a
permission to land due to heavy winds. Instead, we continued to the next
destination, the island of Fuerteventura, where we were ordered out of
the plane to wait for a flight to La Palma. In the transit/departure hall we
were told (through the speakers, in Finnish) that in an hour we would get into
a plane to La Palma. I had emailed Paco Armas to get me a rented car to my
hotel at 2:00 pm., so I had to call the NOT office from the air port and tell
them to postpone the car reservation until later. Fortunately I had some
Spanish coins left from January since the phone VISA system did not get
through to Finland. Two hours (!!!) after we arrived to Fuerteventura a clerk
came to the gate of the flight to Helsinki and a corresponding message
appeared on the only monitor of the hall. People started to flow through the
gate and I joined them. It was the only choice for the plane to take us to La
Palma as it should have taken the people from La Palma during that landing
that hadn't happened. This was confirmed by a stewardess at the plane. We
arrived to La Palma at 2:30 pm. (some 4 hours 15 minutes late).
I got to the hotel at 3:00 pm. and told the receptionist (with the aid of our
guide) that I was going to spend the next two nights at the observatory and
would be back to the hotel on Saturday. There was a message for me at the
Reception from the car rental agency telling that they were going to deliver
the car to me at 15:45. I just had time to unpack and repack the stuff to be
taken to the observatory, when I received a phone call from the Reception
telling that the car had arrived. The Scottish owner(?)/manager of the car
rental agency brought a newish Seat Malaga to me and told me that NOT office
had requested a better car for me. I was surprised but accepted the car for
three days (two days for the observation trip and an another one for touring
the island). The third day I had to pay for myself as it was not work related
use of the car. The amount to pay was a little higher than I had anticipated
because the car was better, but when I started to drive it I was not unhappy
at all about the cost. The car was so comfortable and powerful that it was a
pleasure to drive around the island in it.
I went to a closeby supermarket to buy some food and left to the observatory.
I arrived there in two hours (which would never have been possible with the
Seat Marbella I drove in January). A got my room in the Residencia, dined, and
met a colleague from Finland, Jari Kotilainen, with whom I
played some pool and then left to NOT. He was then a visiting researcher in an
Italian observatory and had come here to observe with NOT a few nights before
mine. I followed him to NOT to remind me of how the telescope was operated and
if there was anything new up there. Unfortunately Jari could not get any
observations done as the weather got too windy and dusty. I was too tired to
be around just for fun so I left to the Residencia to get some sleep.
The highest peak of La Palma is Roque de los Muchachos (2426 metres, or
7959 ft.). It is part of the mountain range encircling la Caldera de
Taburiente (see the next photo).
After the breakfast on Friday (27 FEB) I went to the Residencia reception to
buy some stamps and a map of La Palma. There was a young local man working
there and he got enthusiastic in telling me about the sights and car routes of
La Palma. While we were examining the map a German holiday apartments' owner
came there and tried to convince me in coming to the island again and renting
a holiday apartment from him. His apartments seemed to be very nice but I
doubt I'll return to La Palma for anything else than observations. I was only
pleased to notice he thought I was British.
After a brief attempt to sleep a little I went to have some dinner. While I
was there Ingvar and my new support astronomer, Hugo Schwartz,
came to my table. Hugo had some bad news - my most important instrument this
time, TurPol, did not work at all. After we finished the dinner, we
went up to NOT and Hugo was able to repair TurPol with the advice of the NOT
electronics technician Carlos Perez on the phone.
When I had driven to the NOT I had noticed a bunch of people on the slope of
Caldera de Taburiente and an ORM ambulance next to the road. A medic was
trying to revive someone who had obviously fallen from the cliff above. Seemed
futile. At NOT Hugo complained about all the tourists who come up there just
to drop off the mountain sides - there had been other incidents before.
One of the largest volcanic craters of the world is la Caldera de
Taburiente in the centre of La Palma. The diameter of the crater is about ten
kilometres (six miles) and it is almost two kilometres deep (6500 ft.).
We started with my observations and soon after getting all the instruments
going phoned Ingvar to come in to help us. He had been doing some alterations
and there were two incompatible commands left in the telescope operation
computer. He reprogrammed the commands and rebooted the system - a half an
hour was wasted. Later TurPol tilted again and had to be adjusted and
restarted. We had some problems with the weather as well. Although there were
no clouds on the sky, the air was very dusty and wind was blowing at high
speed. At NOT the dome must be closed if the wind blows too hard; when there
is dust in the air the maximum allowed wind speed is lower than normally and
this time the wind speed was exactly at that limit. Nevertheless, Hugo let me
make my observations and with time the wind calmed down a little bit. When I
was doing my observations routinely Hugo left me and went to sleep. I didn't
manage to break the telescope, worth millions of USD, so I just continued
until the Sun started to lighten the sky, and switched off the building after
I had finished.
On Saturday (28 FEB) I slept for about four hours until the noon. I ate some
lunch, got my observations on a CR-ROM from Ingvar, and drove down the
mountain. I chose a new route, north-west to the opposite direction of Santa
Cruz de la Palma and Los Cancajos where my hotel was. Los Cancajos is a
little tourist village half way between the air port and Santa Cruz. The
mountain and especially its slopes were covered with clouds, so I drove
through ghostly sceneries where menacing trees stretched their limbs toward
the unfortunate souls travelling on the road. Finally I passed the cloud layer
and reached a beautiful pine forest (see the photo). Although it was cloudy
the view was spectacular. Before too long I found the highway that goes around
the island and turned east. On the road between Garafia and
Barloviento there were two goat herds with their shepherds. The closer
to the beach I drove the more barren the landscape turned into - until large
areas were of bare volcanic rock. I stopped every now and then to view the
scenery and to take some photos until after Barloviento the road turned south
and it was getting rather late. I continued directly through Santa Cruz de la
Palma into Los Cancajos.
I rested a while at the hotel and returned to Santa Cruz to see the ongoing
carneval. I don't know the reason for that carneval but what it really was
about was a large stage on the promenade, a huge number of beer and spirit
selling stands all over, and an amusement park put up for the children on the
parking place on the beach. The music from the amusement park was so loud that
even at a distance of 200 metres (600 ft) I had to hold my ears to avoid
physical pain. Huge masses of locals and tourists inhabited the promenade
(Avenida Maritima) and large section of the Avenida was closed for
traffic. People, mostly children, were dressed in all kinds of fancy dresses,
some of which looked very fine and expensive.
There grows a dense pine forest in the northern part of La Palma. The
island is one of the most verdant of the Canary Islands which is easily
noticeable when traveling on La Palma. There are pines in the southern part of
the island as well but not is such forests as in north. The serpentine road up
the mountain side is also clearly visible in this photo.
On Sunday (01 MAR) I took the car and drove south right after my breakfast. I
drove by the air port to Fuencaliente stopping here and there to wonder the
scenery. An especial sight was the Montes de Luna, where streams of
lava had made their way toward the sea. It must have been a long time ago but
the tracks were still clearly visible. The area was large and full of black
volcanic rocks and lava formations. In the midst of all this there grew cacti
and colourful flowers. At the edges of the area there were great pine trees.
The southernmost town of the island is Fuencaliente, which I perhaps
prefer over all the other towns in La Palma. It was very tidy and on a perfect
location on the mountain side overlooking the southern tip of La Palma. The
view from some of the houses there must be spectacular. I also visited the
volcano of Volcan San Antonio below Fuencaliente. The volcano was not
too high, or too steep, or too deep in the middle, but having a mildish
acrophobia I wouldn't want to hike too much in there.
I continued my trip north on the western side of the island. The south-western
part of La Palma is the most barren I have found so far. I stopped at a
restaurant everybody had been recommending near the village of Jedey.
Unfortunately Bodegon Tamanca was closed for two weeks exactly when I
was visiting La Palma. Instead I drove across Los Llanes de Aridane,
the second largest city in La Palma, to the bar/restaurant Mirador de Time
on a cliff overlooking the planes of Aridane to the south. When I left
there I visited first the port city of west coast, El Puerto, and
continued to the Santa Cruz road that goes through a long tunnel under the
mountain range to the east coast.
I ate a dinner in Restaurant Canarias in Santa Cruz but the meal was not quite
as good as in January. In the evening I drove once again to Santa Cruz to see
the last day of the carneval. There was a little more program than on the
previous night and they had installed huge speakers to the stage - perhaps to
let the people on neighbouring islands to hear the program as well (people on
La Palma must be deaf to be able to listen such a loud noise). Returning to
the hotel I filled the tank with petrol which cost about 55 cents per litre
(2.10 USD per gallon; about half of what the cost is in Finland).
I rested on Monday (02 MAR). In the evening I ate dinner in restaurant El
Pulpo by the beach of Los Cancajos. The atmosphere was nice and food good
and cheap - a recommendable restaurant.
Santa Cruz de la Palma.
On Tuesday (03 MAR) I walked to Santa Cruz (I had returned my car by then).
Our guide had said the distance was about three kilometres (2 miles) but the
map showed almost five kilometres (3 miles) - that's how it felt, too. In
between Los Cancajos and Santa Cruz there is a military barracks: towers with
men with assault rifles, men marching in the central square, and shooting
range by the beach. There were a couple of sailing-ships in the harbour which
delighted me much as I am very interested in the era of the sail. When I got
to the city centre I tried to get into the NOT offices but there was nobody
there. I checked the sights of the city and returned to Los Cancajos. Later on
in the afternoon I walked back to Santa Cruz and this time got into the NOT
offices. I met my support astronomer from January, Colin Aspin, who let me use
one of the computers. I didn't have any email but the weather in Finland was
awful: raining sleet with temperature at zero (32 F). I pondered on staying in
La Palma for another four weeks but decided to return after all.
On Wednesday (04 MAR) I bought some souvenirs and packed everything ready for
the return flight. I also read some of the astronomical articles I had taken
with me. The military had practice shooting at their shooting range lasting
almost the whole day. I also visited the office of Hasse and talked a while
with resort manager Sanna Norokorpi who told me that the dust
bothering the people on Canary Islands originated from the Sahara, had lasted
for three weeks, and was already making not only tourists but also locals
sick (with respiratory and digestive problems). I ate the dinner in restaurant
La Fontana which was somewhat expensive (compared with other
restaurants in La Palma, but cheap compared with restaurants in Finland). The
food there was good and they served excellent bienmesabe (a local dessert).
A part of the harbour of Santa Cruz de la Palma. I was delighted to see a
couple of sailing-ships at the harbour. There is regular passenger and cargo
traffic between La Palma and the other Canary Islands and most of the cargo
from elsewhere as well is shipped to the island.
Early on Thursday morning (05 MAR) I woke up to thunder. There were lots of
lightnings flashing accompanied with a distant thunder. I love thunderstorms
so I enjoyed this one for some time - counting 22 lightnings in ten minutes.
Then I went out to the balcony and saw that the real audiovisual show was
going on in front of Santa Cruz on the sea. In one (!) minute I counted more
than twenty lightnings. Unfortunately this was the best moment of the day. We
left the hotel early at 9:00 am. - just to wait for the plane that was thirty
minutes late. Finally at 11:40 am. we left toward Fuerteventura to load in
more passengers. There we stayed in the plane, which was quite abnormal, while
it was refueled and cleaned in a hurry. All this because the pilot had gotten
an early flight path clearance through Europe from Brussels central air
control. We were going to be able to catch in the time we were late and even
arrive to Finland ahead of schedule. We waited... and waited... and then our
pilot told us that there were six passengers missing and we would have to wait
for them. At last the missing six were found from the air port and rushed in.
But, naturally, it was too late for us to catch the early flight path and we
would have to wait for another two hours. The missing passengers complained
that they had not heard any announcements about our flight - well, I believe
that, but why on Earth were they not at the gate at the time of boarding???
Anyway, we were able to leave at 2:00 pm. - two and half hours late from
schedule (the two hours from here and the old half an hour from La Palma).
While waiting I talked with the air hostesses who told me that something like
this happens every now and then - even in Finland - because the European sky
is too full of air traffic. The flight itself was uneventful and finally we
arrived to Helsinki. When all the passengers with reservations to Hasse's
chartered bus were collected to the bus and we were ready to leave towards
Turku we were three hours late. I was quite happy to have this trip behind me
when I was at home again.
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