Fiesta de la Cruz tonight

Cross decorated for Fiesta de la Cruz, in Breña Alta, 2009

In the east of La Palma, Holy Cross Day (fiesta de la Cruz) is the biggest festival in spring. They only celebrate it in Santa Cruz, Breña Alta and Breña Baja, and as the name suggests, they decorate the roadside crosses – beautifully. As often happens, the main party is the night before the public holiday. Since most crosses are hung with gold jewelry (among other things) people stay beside them in shifts all night, and all the next day. Most holidaymakers go and admire the crosses on the morning of the 3rd (Monday), but the locals go see the crosses starting at about 11 pm the night before, when it’s cooler and more atmospheric.

Detail of a cross, showing the jewelry.

For the last few years, it’s been fairly common to have a few mayos or machangos beside the cross. These are giant rag dolls, almost life sized,something like scarecrows or the guys I used to make for bonfire night. In 2008, Last year, Santa Cruz had a whole street full of them.

Spiderman, protecting the Cruz del Rosal, Breña Alta, 2010

If you’ve got a hire car, the best plan is to go up to San Isidro and follow the crowd down the hill. There are crosses all the way along a very steep lane, which used to be a donkey track. Tonight it’ll be one-way — downhill. (You go up the much newer, asphalted road.) As you approach each cross, you’ll find a small traffic jam. You go past the cross slowly (usually saying, “Oh wow!”) and drive on to the next.

If you haven’t got a car, I recommend a stroll around Santa Cruz, particularly up the older bits. From 10 pm Sunday night until 2 am Monday morning, there will be a public dance (verbena) in the Plaza España at the north end of Santa Cruz, near the concrete ship. And there will be fireworks at midnight at the Castillo de la Virgen in Santa Cruz.

San José cross, Breña Baja, 2010

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G Astronomy in La Palma

Dishes inspired by Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

The Parador on La Palma is just outside the village of San Jose, in Breña Baja. (Paradors are a national chain of posh hotels, and very nice they are too.) Tonight (April 22nd ) at 8 pm they'll be hosting the first public dinner with a new menu, inspired by astronomical bodies. A professional Starlight guide will be there to talk about the planets, and afterwards, there will be stargazing.

I haven't tried these dishes myself, but people who have tell me they taste heavenly.

Cost: 40€ per person. Reservations are essential, since numbers will be limited. For more information and bookings, phone 922 43 58 28 or email lapalma@parador.es

Dishes inspired by Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, comets and the Grantecan telescope.

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Photos of the carnival parade in Los Cancajos

Here are some photos of tonight's carnival parade in Los Cancajos.

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Where's the Village Gone?

Tourists sometimes go nuts trying to find the village of Breña Baja, or Fuencaliente.

There's a really simple reason why they can't find them. They don't exist. Breña Baja and Fuencaliente are municipalities, and their town halls are in the villages of San Jose and Los Canarios, respectively. It like driving all over the south east of England, looking for the town of Sussex.

The map shows the 14 municipalities (in blue) , with their administrative seats (in pink). Where
there's no name in pink, the municipalities are named after their chief villages, which makes things simpler. Just to keep things interesting, one, San Andrés y Sauces, is named after the two biggest villages. The town hall is in Los Sauces, which is much bigger and on the main road.

That's easy to find.

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Los Cancajos market

Local market at Los Cancajos, Breña Baja, La Palma


La Palma has a new weekly market, this time at the popular tourist resort of Los Cancajos. It's open on Saturdays from 9 am to 2 pm, at the south end of the sea front, near the Las Olas hotel.


Local market at Los Cancajos, Breña Baja, La Palma

There's another fairly new market that takes place on Fridays from 4-9 pm at Finca La Principal, just off the old airport in Breña Alta. And of course, Santa Cruz de la Palma holds a big market on the first Sunday of every month. They're all good places to pick up local crafts.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Flea Market, Santa Cruz de la Palma"][/caption]
Flea Market, Santa Cruz de la Palma

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Tobacco in La Palma

Tobacco growing in Breña Alta, La Palma

I don't smoke, so everything I know about Palmeran cigars is from hearsay. But they seem to have a very good reputation. Certainly Winston Churchill was known to be a fan, and certainly they get shipped off to the Spanish royal family.

Most of the tobacco farms on the island are in Santa Cruz, Breña Baja, and especially Breña Alta. Typically, the crop is grown in tiny fields and given tender, loving care. For example, you have to prevent the plant from flowering in order to produce big leaves. Large-scale farms usually do this with chemicals, but Palmeran growers nip the buds out by hand. The leaves are harvested and dried by hand, too.

And then the leaves go off to be rolled into cigars. This is mostly done in tiny little workshops, scattered around the island. The finished cigars are much cheaper than Cuban ones, and I'm told some people think they're better.

Don't ask me. I don't smoke.

Cigars from the island of La Palma

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Fiesta in Breña Baja

The Paean to St Anne, San José town hall, Breña Baja

Rather confusingly, the main fiesta in San José (the capital of Breña Baja) isn't St Joseph's Day, it's the feast of Santiago and Santana (St James and St Anne) on the 25th and 26th of July, respectively. Since we've just had the bajada, the fiesta is a much quieter affair than usual. They just did the religious part: a special mass, a procession, and a loa.

So what's a loa, when it's at home?

It's a hymn of praise, usually to a saint. The one in San José is quite short, but beautiful. They built a special stage outside the town hall and hired a professional team for lighting and sound.

I was told that the loa would take place at about 9:45 pm, but the procession was delayed.

And at 10 pm the sprinklers in front of the town hall came on, irrigating the power supply for the sound and light, which started to smoke. Of course the sound-and-lighting guys dashed over and dragged their equipment clear (making a few not-terribly-religious comments under their breath as they did so.) For a while, they were very busy with towels and hair-dryers, and amazingly, they had it all working again five minutes before the procession arrived.

And the concert was lovely.

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The Octopus's Funeral, Los Cancajos

The octopus's funeral procession

Most places in Spain end Carnival with a mock funeral for a sardine. Los Cancajos decided to have a few carnival events this year, ending in an Octopus's funeral (just for a change).

Close up of the octopus

But the weather was terrible, and they postponed it for two weeks. And when the new date came around, there weather was terrible again, and they had to postpone it again!

The percussion band

Third time lucky - the funeral went ahead last night. A percussion band (a batucada) provided the music.

The Master of Ceremonies

The master of ceremonies, looked rather fine as he led the way, keeping the octopus and band together.
The octopus's cremation, Los Cancajos, Breña Baja, La Palma

The procession went through the village and down to the beach, where they cremated it and let off the fireworks.


Fireworks at the octopus's funeral, Los Cancajos, Breña Baja, La Palma


We left, just as the band was starting up for the public dance. It was great fun, and I'm sure they'll do it again next year.

The band

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Fiestas in Breña Baja

Los Cancajos
They'll be having yet another attempt to cremate the octopus in Los Cancajos on Friday 12th, starting at 8pm. This was supposed to happen during Carnival, but it's been postponed twice due to bad weather. The town hall assures everyone that the octopus won't have gone smelly, because it's been frozen during the wait.
[This is a joke. I'm sure it isn't a real octopus.]
Anyway, the procession will leave at 8 pm from the chemist's near the south end of the village.

San José
Spain celebrates Father's Day on March 19th, because that's St Joseph's day. Since the Spanish for St Joseph is San José, the village of San José will hold fiestas, starting on Friday 12th at 5 pm. There will be various sporting events and talks, an exhibition of oil paintings which opens on Monday evening, and films (in Spanish) . There'll be a special mass on Friday evening (the 19th) and on Saturday there's a hike, bouncy castles and a horse race. In the evening, there's batucada (serious percussion) a stage performance by the kids, and a disco.

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An Octupus and a Sardine

The Octopus's funeral has been rescheduled for Friday 26th.

The procession will leave the pharmacy at 8 pm and make its way to the beach, where the octopus will be cremated. There will be fireworks and dancing. Everybody welcome.
This is a new fiesta, so it'll be interesting to see

Meanwhile the sardine's funeral at Los Sauces will take place on Saturday 27th. The percussion music starts at 8 pm and the funeral procession starts at 9:30 pm in the main square by the church. Last time I saw it, it was wonderful.

And I believe that Barlovento will hold their sardine's funeral the weekend after, on March 5th or 6th. Watch this space.

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Weather Forecast

Well the storm's gone, thank goodness, but there's more rain due on Saturday and Sunday. Enjoy Friday, quick!

We've had a lot more bad weather than usual this winter.

On a happier note, there's a children's carnival party at La Polvacera Sports Ground, with dancing, games, art workshops and murgas. Come in fancy dress if you can, at 5 pm.

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The Octopus's Funeral has been postponed

It's raining cats and dogs in Breña Baja, and the Octopus's Funeral in Cancajos has been postponed. The new date hasn't been fixed yet.

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Breña Baja: The Old Butcher's Shop

The 19th century butcher's shop, Breña Baja, La Palma

The old butcher's shop stands on the outskirts of the village of San Jose, in Breña Baja, near the Paradorof La Palma. The building dates from the late 19th century, and it was a butcher's shop until the 1960s. But now it's been renovated as a craft exhibition and shop.

The famous cigars of The Breñas

Although the place is small, they've packed a lot in. They've got lots of traditional embroidery and basketwork. They've also got the local cigars, which Winston Churchill enjoyed when he visited in 1959, and ceramics from a local artist.

Some of the fine embroidery and drawn-thread work

And my personal favourite is the Canarian style rag rugs. Like most places, poorer people needed to make use of everything, and so they made rugs out of old clothes. Here, the cloth to be recycled was torn into narrow strips, which were then sewn together to make longer ones, and finally used as the weft thread on a loom (usually with a linen warp thread).

The shop opens on Tuesday -- Saturday, 4pm -- 8pm

A Canarian-style rag rug

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Cancajos Salt Pans

The wind pumps that lifted seawater into the salt pans

You can visit a working salt factory on the southern tip of La Palma, but if you're staying in Cancajos, in Breña Baja, it's worth taking a peak at the ruined salt factory.

The sea front promenade runs south from the main beach along the top of a low cliff, and it's a very pleasant walk. It's smooth and flat enough for push chairs.

A couple of stone towers stand towards the southern end of the promenade. The one nearer the path looks as though it might have been a castle, or a watch-tower for whatever was behind the long stone wall on the landward side.

Actually, it's a salt factory.


The tower nearest the sea used to have a windmill on top. This lifted the water up into the channel so that it ran to the tank in the second tower, and a second wind pump sent it further inland to the building on the other side of the modern path. There, it was poured
into shallow pools, where the sun evaporated the water, leaving salt.

The factory was built in the early 19th century, but I haven't been able to find out when it stopped working. If anybody finds out, please let me know.

The shallow pans for drying out the sea water

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Where to find the Star Parties

Here's a Google map with the locations of the two star parties, at the top and bottom.

View La Palma Island in a larger map
Click on one of the blue map pins for details.

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Stargazing in aid of Fire Victims

Wednesday night (August 12th) should be the best night of the year to see shooting stars. Shooting stars happen when the Earth passes through a cloud of dust left behind by a comet's tail. To celebrate, the amateur astronomers on La Palma and Astrotour are holding two star parties.

You'll be able to observe the sun through a telescope (safely!) in Santa Cruz de la Palma in the Plaza España from 11 am to 1 pm.

And from 8 pm - 11pm there'll be nocturnal telescopes in the basketball court at La Polvacera in Breña Baja. And the residents' association will provide drinks.

In both cases, the Red Cross will be collecting for the people who lost their homes in the forest fire.

So you get astronomy and warm fuzzy feelings in one go.

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Corpus Christi in San Jose

San Jose main street at Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi in San Jose isn't nearly as spectacular as it is in Mazo, but it's still very nice. Since the whole thing takes out on a flat, tarmaced street, the tradition is to make carpets of coloured salt, with the altars being much more modest. This year, many of the carpets are made from seeds and petals, like in Mazo.

This carpet is by the Residents' Association from El Socorro.

Much as I love the petals, I think it's a mistake for San Jose to become a second-rate Mazo. I prefer salt (which I suspect wouldn't work on Mazo's steep cobbles, anyway). You can have brighter colours and finer detail.

And this one is by the village children

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Mother's Day Again

Mother's Day in most of Spain was last week, the first Sunday in May. But Breña Bajae celebrates it on the third Sunday in May - today. A local poet called Felix Duarte (1895-1990) emigrated to Venezuela, alone, at some horrendously young age (15, I think) and boy did he miss his mum. He became a published poet, and moved to Cuba and later, the United States. He finally came home in 1930, and by 1936 he'd persuaded the town hall to start mother's day here, the first village in Spain to eclebrate mothers.

They usually have a concert or two, with music and maybe poems in praise of mothers. This year that was Friday and Saturday. Today they have a special sung mass, and they give out flowers. You get a red rose if your mother is still alive, and a white one if she's passed on.

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Photos of Fiesta de la Cruz

My favourite! Of course this is the international year of astronomy.


The kids' cross beside the one above. This is GranTeCan, the (Big Canarian Telescope) which will open this year.


The Centro de Niña Jaubert (a home for mentally handicapped adults) produced this old fashioned cheese factory.


And the cross the handicapped people did by themselves. The decoration is pasta, sprayed gold.





Cruz de la Pasión. At fist I thought the background was needlepoint done in very thick wool. It's actually tiny screws of paper.



And in Santa Cruz, there's a street full of mayos again. We counted 332 of them. This time, the top end is full of Carnival mayos . This is the sardine's funeral. at the real event, some men dress as women. This guy obviously couldn't cope with alcohol and high-heeled shoes together.


Farther down, there's a protest. These are the top politicians on the island, cutting up a cake of La Palma, and the sign reads "And in LA Palma there's 9,000 unemployed."



And a nearby school had mayos too. I wonder if this represents a real person?

And in the afternoon there was a religious procession.


Some of the people following the cross were in clothes that must have been traditional centuries ago.

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