A small rock in the Atlantic: 03/02/2008

Snow

So here we are in this lovely sub-tropical island, land of eternal spring. And the top of the mountain is covered with snow.

Last night's rain turned into a storm, with far too much thunder and lightning to sleep through. It went on for hours.

And this morning, I could see snow on the mountain. Not just the peak (the Roque de los Muchachos at 2426 m or 7,959 ft), which was covered in cloud, but much lower down, too.

Of course, we only ever get snow at high altitude, and these days, we don't get snow every winter. But when it snows, it can dump several feet in one night.

The Roque is one of the three best sites in the world for astronomy, so there's a major international observatory up there. Of course, they expect occasional snow, so they're geared up for it. They have 4x4 vehicles, and in winter they carry snow chains and shovels, just in case. Unless it's cloudy, they carry right on observing.

This is the Isaac Newton Telescope, looking Christmassy.

Labels: astronomy, Canaries, Canary islands, La Palma, telescopes

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The Sardine's Funeral

Tonight was supposed to be the sardine's funeral in Santa Cruz de la Palma.

This is actually a bizarre finale to Carnival, and as such was traditionally held on Ash Wednesday. (They still do so in Tenerife. See http://www.secret-tenerife.com/2008/02/ash-wednesday-burial-of-sardine.html
But some years ago, Santa Cruz de La Palma started to hold their Sardine's Funeral on
the Friday of Carnival week. Presumably they felt it would be more popular if most people didn't have to work in the morning.

But it's been raining most of the day, so it was postponed. Even if they cancel it, the villageof Los Sauces hold their Sardine's funeral next week. Watch this space.

And in the meantime, you can see pictures of a previous funeral here.

Labels: Canaries, Canary islands, Carnival, La Palma, Sardine's Funeral

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Mojitos

Mojitos are a popular drink during Carnival: sugar, lemon juice, rum and mint. This bar is famous for them all year round, so during Carnival they prepare them in batches. This was one of the smaller batches!

One of the things I like about La Palma, is that people often have a few drinks, but it's rare to see anyone downright drunk. There's an article about this at http://sheilacrosby.com/articles/drunks.php

Labels: Canaries, Canary islands, Carnival, La Palma

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Los Indianos

The biggest night of Carnival on the island is Los Indianos parade.

In the 19th century the island was very poor, and many people emigrated to Cuba - the Indies. Some of them came back rich, so that the arrival of a boat from Cuba was quite an event, even though there were more boats to Latin America than to mainland Spain.

So we have a pretend boatload of nouveau-riche arrivals, parading along the main street. The women all dressed in beautiful white plantation dressed and the men in white linen slacks, frilly white shirts, and panama hats. Many carry suitcases with monoploy money poking out.

Los Indianos Parade 2007

And people throw vast quantities of talc at each other. By vast, I mean tons. Literally tons. The town hall gave away something like five tons of the stuff to people in the parade, and everyone else brings at least half a kilo of their own. The population of Santa Cruz is about fifteen thousand, and most of them are on the streets. And people come from all over the rest of the island too. In fact, people come from the other Canary Islands, and a few come all the way from South America. Every parking space in town is full, and parked cars line the main road to the airport for at least three kilometers. There are extra buses.

So the streets are heaving with people dressed in white, covered in white powder, blowing whistles and shaking maracas. (The top photo is from before things really got cracking.) All this starts at about five o'clock in the afternoon, and goes on until well after midnight. The morning after is a local holday, but the few times I've had to work, I've seen a few people still celebrating at eight o'clock next morning. Palmerans don't overdo things by halves.

And this year I missed it, due to a heavy cold. But you can see photos from last year at my main website.

Labels: Canaries, Canary islands, Carnival, La Palma, Los Indianos

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Sopas de miel

This is a traditional recipe for Carnival. A literal translation would be "honey soup" but as you can see, this isn't soup. It can be rather soggy, though.

I believe in some places they use honey, but on La Palma, it's always "miel de cana", which is like molasses, but a little runnier.

Ingredients
Molasses (one small jar)
1 tsp cinnamon
anis 1 desertspoon
peel of one lemon
300g of toasted almonds (chopped)
Stale bread roll (standard Canarian size) cut into slices.

Some people like to use day-old bread, for soft "sopas" Others use week-old bread, so that it's crunchier.

Put the molasses, lemon peel, anis and cinnamon in a pan and simmer. When the flavours have had chance to mix, add about half the almonds. Keep the mixture simmering, while you add the bread slices, one at a time. Make sure they're well soaked with the mixture, and then fish them out onto a serving dish. When you've done all the bread (or run out of molasses mixture) sprinkle the rest of the almonds over, to decorate.

Personally I find them far too sweet, but there you go.

Labels: Canaries, Canary islands, Carnival, La Palma, Recipies

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The Ambassador's Parade

Last night we had a diplomatic procession through Santa Cruz, where the representatives of any nation you care to mention graced us with their presence. And I missed it. (We had a family birthday party at midday, and I still couldn't drive that evening.) So here are some photos from 2006.

Ambassador's Parade 2006