Lava, Lava Everywhere!

On March 13th, we docked in La Palma in Santa Cruz de la Palma (not to be confused with the town with the same name in Tenerife).  Our shore excursion there was called Panoramic Island Drive and, from the title, we certainly expected to be driven around.  However, I don’t think we were quite prepared to spend 2+ hours in a bus with one hour to wander around a non-descript place called El Paso.  I think the only claim to fame there is a silk museum that I didn't want to visit.  Instead, another gal and I went to a small café for a beverage, visited the Tourist Info Office which was about the size of my dining room, and went to a supermarket.  I was in the hunt for some caramel vodka which I found.  Astoundingly, it was only €6 and I know for sure at home it is $50!  So, I guess I am hauling a bottle of that back with me.  I took a few photos and then we got back on the bus. 
 


The next stop was slightly more interesting – not a stretch – but, again, we had one hour there when probably ½ hour would have done nicely.  We were dropped on the beachfront of Tazacorte.  While the black sand beach, big waves and colourful buildings were impressive, that was all there was to see.  We walked around and I took lots of photos and bought a fridge magnet.  That all took about ½ hour.  As we left the beachfront and were driven up the hill, we found out there was quite a nice town there that would have been a much better place to spend time in than El Paso. 













The most impressive scenery, however, was seeing where the countryside was covered by a giant lava flow.  An eruption at the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge, comprising the southern half of the island took place between 19 September and 13 December, 2021. It was the first volcanic eruption on the island since the eruption of Teneguía in 1971.  Over 1000 houses were lost and, amazingly, there was only 1 death.  The damage was estimated to be 843 million euros.  Unfortunately, while we drove on a highway through the lava field, we didn’t stop to take pictures until we were on the other side of it and stopped at a plaza in front of a church where we could see across the landscape.  It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as being closer up where, in some places we could actually see the roofs of some of the buildings under the lava bed.  Also, we passed a number of houses where the lava had flowed in one door, through the house and out another door.  Surreal!  






I'm quite sure that was the only time I would visit this island!


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