Santa Cruz, La Palma

This morning, Dario and I flew to La Palma (another of the Canary Islands) to meet up with Rui and go observing for the night. As we got in at about noon (and had conveniently forgotten to book the taxi from the airport), we grabbed the bus and went into Santa Cruz for a look around and lunch. There are a lot of places called Santa Cruz and the one on La Palma is much pretty than on Tenerife.

Heading up hill

Half way up (we didn't get any further)

Church spire.

headed back down.

We had a quick look around the church but the outside was so cool. Every building should have gargoyles.

Massive church doors

Happy Gargoyles!

The whole town was really pretty with lots of colors. (And a lot of poodle statues for some reason.) 

Poodles!

We had a great lunch at a Cuban place with a fountain/tree for a view. (Why choose when you can have both?)

Fountain or a tree or both?

There were lots of flowers around. I don't know if this is normal or not as there was a large holiday on Saturday for the Patron saint of the islands. So they may have been extra dressed up for that. But still works for me.

Hanging basket.

More flowers.

Cacti (I will leave to your imagination)

Window view.

Lots of overhanging balconies. 

And more.

Officially the largest cactus I have ever seen.

We walked most of the town front, along little streets. Unfortunately our timing was off and most things like the castle were shut. 

Castle.

I love all the colors of the houses. 

Cheerful.

Even brighter.

Even the German consulate was dressed up.

And there is a (slightly) random ship. It is a replica of one of Christopher Columbus' ships which stopped here (I forget which). I am not sure why it is on land but it was interesting. They have turned it into a naval museum which was of course shut. And there was no information as to when it opened. So we just wandered around the outside.

Ship in the road.

Anchors.

Shiny.

Captains quarters.

Everywhere there are pictures and statues of this little guy with his hat. I have absolutely no idea who he (or in some cases she) is but he/she is a "typical La Palma thing" I am told. I just think it is cute! So I got a magnet with him on.

Cute.

Even cuter.

In front of the ship

We intended to get a taxi at the far end. But the map lied and there were no taxis. So we had to walk all the way back along the sea front. It was very warm! But we got a taxi (with air con) that would take us up to the observatory.

I'll post those soon. Possibly tonight as thanks to the weather, it looks like we might not be doing much in the way of observing! The clouds have started to arrive and it is extremely windy!