The trip started 2:11am to Gatwick from London with National Express. Slept barely 3 hours. Security check at Gatwick as always was thorough, had to take off my trainers to scan them and get scanned full body. Apart of that all went smooth.We had some drinks and breakfast in Weatherspoon, but I took just tea as I was supposed to bed driving in La palma.Boarded airplane. Tried to sleep, but almost impossible as whenever I felt asleep people were bumping into me or accidently touching my shoulder when passing, since I was sitting at the isle. When I arrived I was so tired! Also we Landed around 10:11am, but it took around half an hour to disembark, since the airplane was full of very slow elderly people. Passport control took another good 30-40min.
Then we were looking for Orlando car rental. It turned out just a desk in parking lot… Well we got a bigger car than I’ve paid for, so that was good. Also it has an AC!
So here it was – I had to drive… again… My hands were shaking a lot as I haven’t driven for 3 years. Also the guy who handed in tje keys said that we have 10min to leave the parking with the ticket he gave us. No pressure. I’ve managed to leave the parking. Refilled ‘gasolina’ 20l just a bit over 21€. Cheap!First stop was Los Cancajos as we were super hungry.
Memories filled my mind, since I lived here. So much nice days at the beach, eating nice food and etc.We went to a very small restaurant that was selling crepes and sandwiches. Ordered crepes with Salmon and also local well known coffee ‘Barraquito’. For me without liquor (‘Barraquito sun liquor por favour’) as I was driving. Tastes better with liquor though.
The crepes tasted delicious and the waitress was super friendly and with a good sense of humor. Got a chance to practice my Spanish.
After quick lunch we popped in to Tourist information center. The guy working there was very helpful and explained all the hiking routes we wanted to go to as well as parking rules in Los Cancajos and Santa Cruz. Apparently blue lines normally you need to pay in Los Cancajos, but machines not working so it is free. In Santa Cruz you don’t pay for first 1.5h for parking close by the town beach. Big thanks to him!
After that we went to the beach near by. Normally it ks very nice to snorkel when the waters are calm, but today it was too wavy and the bottom of the ocean was empty and muddy and full of plant parts.
We didn’t stay too long as the Sun was blazing as well as we were so tired and still and hour drive to the apartment.
It took a bit over one hour go go through weather tunnel (because clouds on one side, but sunny on the other).
I was very stressed initially as I didn’t know where to go and wasn’t sure about speed limits and etc. Very stressful.
Once we arrived to Appartamentos de Muralla I could relax. It was really beautiful and the lady at reception was very friendly. Once again knowing Spanish even a bit helped a lot.
After an hour nap we went shopping for food and wine. We bought a lot of frozen seafood: shrimps, octopus, mussels. Also some wine for the evening.
I cooked something resembling paella with saffron spices that we bought here.
It was delicious!
We also bought some food. I also remembered that pineapples taste here much betted than in UK so we’ve got one too as well some paraguayas – flat peaches. Delicous!
The evening we’ve spent watching sunset and zipping white wine. Chatting about life and stuff.
It was even more amazing when we could see Jupiter near horizon, later on Mars and Saturn.
Puerto Naos was down there polluting sky with the light.