A small rock in the Atlantic: Artesanía Christina

I love Christina's shop. She started off in the local flea market, selling fancy knitting yarn in the most wonderful colours. I always wanted to buy the lot and spend the next year knitting. Now she has a shop on the Calle Real, still selling the yarn, but also finished knitware and costume jewelry which she makes herself out of local lava and coral, with silver or gold-plated silver mountings.

Knitters: the yarn is best knitted on 10 mm needles (also on sale) so you finish quickly. And she has free pattern booklets.

She opens mornings from Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm, and Monday to Friday afternoons from 5pm to 8 pm. She speaks good English.

Everybody calls the main street in Santa Cruz de la Palma, "the Calle Real", but nowhere along it's length is there a street sign with that name! I used to suspect that the whole thing was invented to confuse visitors, but now I know better. It's called the Calle Real (Royal Road) because it's the one the Kings come along to visit baby Jesus each January 5th.

The southern end of the Calle Real (from the post office to Avenida El Puente) is called Calle O'Daly, and the northern end (Avenida El Puente to Plaza Alemeda) is Perez de Brito. Christina's shop is at Perez de Brito, 28, just south of the Placeta.