4th Jan, 2007

About Canary Islands

This blog is thought to tell all the people who are interested in Canary Islands, how travelling and living is here.

I life here since almost 18 months: first it was Tenerife, now it is La Palma.

In this blog I’m going to tell why I left Switzerland, why I went to Tenerife and later to La Palma. I would like to tell you about living on the Canary Islands. About the beautiful landscape here…. and so much more. 

But first of all I have to tell you that I am from Switzerland, and english is not my mothertongue, so I hope you will be patient with me and with my english…..

 



4th Jan, 2007

La Palma a small island

First I would like to tell you a bit about La Palma the island where we life acutally.

La Palma is the third smallest of the Canary Islands. The landscape of this Island is very green, even if it is a vulcanic-island. The beaches are black ….

We life on the eastside of the Islands, near Santa Cruz which is the capital city. Santa Cruz is, even as it is the capital, not very busy. There are lots of small shops, lots of restaurants …. The only problem I always have there, it’s very hard to find a parking space.

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In the background you can see Santa Cruz, the capital of La Palma.



5th Jan, 2007

Black Beach on La Palma

Yesterday I told about the black beaches on La Palma.

It looks very nice, this black in front of the blue sea and the blue sky. Also with all the palm trees on the beaches.

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Doesn’t it look great? This pictures are taken in Puerto Naos.

La Palma has not very much beaches, and they are also not very long. But there are some small ones.

There are two popular beaches: One is in Puerto Naos at the westside of La Palma.

And the other one is in Los Cancajos at the eastside of La Palma.

My favorite beach is the one in Los Cancajos, perhaps because it’s very near to where I life… just 5 minutes drive :)

At the moment the weather is fine (better than it usually is in winter) and lots of people are at the beach and have a swim …..



6th Jan, 2007

Tenerife

Tenerife is the “big island” of the Canary Islands. There is also the highest point of Spain. El Teide, the vulcano is about 3718 m, and no other mountain in Spain is higher…

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Pictures from around the Teide……

About two years ago… or a bit longer, it was told that the Teide would propably erupt… but up to now, nothing has happen :)



6th Jan, 2007

Teide - View

The Teide is the highest mountain from Spain… and it is on Tenerife. As I already have mentioned.

When we lived on Tenerife we had a home with Teide-View …. that’s nothing special.

But also on La Palma we have a home with Teide-View (at least if the weather is fine). In the morning if we have our first coffee on the terrace … we can see the Teide like this

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Isn’t that an amazing view?

Of course Tenerife is just 83 kilometers away from La Palma … but I think it is amazing that it is to be seen.

If we would like to make a daytrip to Tenerife we can go by the ferry or by air.

The flight takes about 25 minutes one way.

The ferry takes about 2 hours, or a bit longer if it stopps in La Gomera (one way)



I’m not really sure, if in your country the 6. January also is holiday. But in Spain it is.

It is Los Reyes, the day of presents…. Because here Christmas-presents are not given on Christmas.. they are given on Los Reyes.

All the children get presents … and I guess that’s the reason why it was so busy in Santa Cruz, on the streets and of course in the shops last week :)

As everywhere there were lots of people buying “last minute” - presents.

On the 6. January no shop was open, luckily I had made my shoppings on Friday. I also have bought a Roscón de Reyes, a cake especially made for this day …

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Doesn’t it look fine? :)      …… and it is fine ;)

If you ever come to Canary Islands in this time of the year …. try it!



8th Jan, 2007

Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria is very touristic but also very nice, there are some really nice places to see. One of them is Puerto de Mogan, a small village in the southwest of Gran Canaria.

There is a harbour with lots of restaurants, where you can sit and watch on the sea with the different boats. The old town of Puerto de Mogan is decorated with lots of very nice flowers. A good place for walking around.

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If you ever visit Gran Canaria, you should also visit Puerto de Mogan. Go to the harbour and drink a coffee.

By the way, if you stay in a hotel in Playa del Ingles or in Maspalomas….. Puerto de Mogan is just around the corner :)



9th Jan, 2007

Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura is situated on the eastside of Canary Islands. It looks lide it is just desert…. but a nice desert of course.

Tourists love this island because of its beaches. It’s very popular for holidays with children, as many beaches are safe and Hotels offer “Kids-Clubs” and so on….

If you are looking for a good place for you and your children … Fuerteventura is it :)

But not just families are coming to Fuerteventura… it’s also famous for surfing and for diving.

Fuerteventuras Coast is about 326 km long, 55 km from it are beaches. For example Playa del Castillo (located in Caleta de Fustes) is about 800 m long …. and Caleta de Fustes is one of the most popular places for tourists on Fuerteventura

 

 



Did you know that you can find the famous poinsettias also on Canary Islands. And not just this small ones which you can buy and put in your livingroom… of course this ones too.

But there are also some in the backyard .. really big shrubs, they can grow up to 4 m.

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I love it so much, to see all this red-shrubs everywhere :)

Did you know that it was an American who brought this plant from Mexico to America in 1828? It was the first United States Ambassador in Mexico who found this shrub and brought it to Philadelphia, and his name: Joel Poinsettia.

The botanical name of this plant is: Euphorbia pulcherrima

The German name of this plant is: Weihnachtsstern



7th Jan, 2007

Cakes surprise

Okay in the meantime the cake is eaten … nothing left. And I can tell you, it was very delicious :)

Inside the cake there was a surprise

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this nice little pig ;)

 

 

And I guess, because in Switzerland it was so, the one who has this pig in his slice gets the crown …… and is the king …. for a day

By the way, yesterday the pig was in my slice. But of course, as we never can see enough, we have bought tow cakes … and today the pig was in Ruedis slice …. so today he is the king

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