A week just flew by and today was 8th day in La Palma and today we had much in our agenda: Charco Azul, Nogales beach (Playa de Nogales) and Las Nieves. Despite our 2 day hike yesterday and a day before yesterday, we were planning visit it all.
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My friends were complaining that we spend all day in the car. To be honest we spend in a car around 3-4 hours a day, which is not all day, but normally we get out on the road quite late and sunset is around 7-8pm.
Today we decided to go to the other side of the island – Charco Azul. Natural pools. Again 1.5 hours one way on the road. I actually almost didn’t take any photos as it was full of people and I forgot to do it.
The drive wasn’t too long. We had to drive through the “weather tunnel” again. It was so cloudy on the East side! Sometimes before entering the “weather tunnel” you can see the view like below – clouds climbing over the mountain to the sunny side. Well not this time. This one is from my photo archive, when I lived in La Palma.
Instead of that magnificent view this time we saw this:
We passed Santa Cruz de La palma and other towns, including La Galga, where we have hiked on the second day in La palma, and we were heading down the road full of banana trees to Charco Azul.
Charco Azul – natural pools
Once we parked the car, we could see many bananas growing all around the coast. Charco Azul in Spanish means “the blue puddle”.
Instead of steps we took a road down to the natural pools – Charco Azul. It is very pretty as you can see a nice fence with plants in the big pots.
While we were tanning next to the rocks, we saw many of those lizard friends. Heating up in the sun. Charming!
If you look closely next to the sea, you will see a lot of crabs as well.
It is very nice place to relax, though the tanning process happens on the hard stones. So soft towel is recommended. Also, I totally recommend to swim next to the fence facing the ocean. Normally it is teeming with crabs in a low tide. In high tide the waves often splashes the fence. Locals sit on the gaps there to be splashed by the waves to cool them down in a hot weather.
Everyone was kind of hungry and there was a La Cantina, El Charco Azul restaurant just upstairs, facing the ocean. We’ve ordered some beers and tiny shrimps to share. It was quite busy at that time!
We also took a plate of papas arugas – local potatoes boiled in the ocean salty water. Traditional Canarian way of cooking them.
In addition we also got a plate of clams. They were delicious with mojo verde – local Canarian green sauce with green peppers and garlic.
The total bill for all of that and potato chips was only 38.60 Eur. After that we were heading to Nogales beach.
La Virgen de Las Nieves
We stopped to see the altar of La Virgen de Las Nieves, famous portrait of Mary, at Real Santuario de Nuestra Señora de las Nieves church. The church is very exceptional canarian architecture and definitely worth seeing it.
After the church, we decided to get an early dinner at my favourite place – “Bar Parrilla” at Las Nieves.
There was some wedding happening next to the church as we have exited it.
Lunch in Restaurant Bar Parrilla, Las Nieves
The menu in Bar Parrilla is very reasonable prices, though the last time I’ve visited in 2025, the prices are much higher (Solomillo is 24 per kg), but the food is still same good quality.
The liter of house wine was only 10Eur. Beer very cheap too (around 2.5Eur).
My favourite dish still stands – queso asado de cabra con mojo verde. It is a grilled goat cheese with green mojo sauce. So delicious! Could only that!
Totally recommend to order grilled half chicken and grilled chorizo sausages and pork solomillo de cerdo (pork). We’ve got all of that and croquet’s and tortilla. Total only 73.30 Eur. Everyone fully stuffed and we didn’t manage to finish it all, but we had some space for local dessert quesadilla, similar to flan. Delicious!
I have brought binoculars to La Palma with me, so that I could observe the stars at night. I’ve tried to take some pictures of Puerto Naos from our apartment. It turned out very interesting pictures.
