At a comfortable hour around 3pm we were scheduled to leave Schiphol Airport on Friday the 29. of September. As always we took the train and with plenty of time left we passed security checks and drunk a cup of coffee at the gate. The gate was changed three! times. Eventually when the Airport decided which gate we should use we had seen terminal C, E and F. To make it worse it took almost an hour to help a disabled guy in a wheelchair to board so with one hour delay we set off into direction south.
At the airport of La Palma which looks more like a parking garage we picked up our rental Opel Corsa and drove to El Paso on the other side of the island where we booked finca El Rincon. On the way we got a phonecall from the owners if we would arrive today or not…in perfect Spanish I told them ‘cinco minutos’! The accommodation was perfectly equipped with everything you need for a comfortable stay, but just when the owners left it seemed that the cockroaches came by…Next morning we checked the building and brought 5 of them back to the outside world…After a breakfast out on the sunny terrace we started the car.
The first day we were heading for ‘capital’ Santa Cruz and strolled along the main shopping street ending up at Castillo de Santa Catalina. With temperatures rising to 27 degrees just perfect. From here the plan was to hike the backhills of Santa Cruz but as Romy did not feel 100% it was better to use this time to cruise around the island by car.
From Santa Cruz we were heading north passing by nice coastal scenery towards little village San Andres where we stopped and walked along the steep cobbled streets. It became clear that La Palma is the banana island with just banana plantations everywhere.
When circling the island we made a brief stop at Puerto Naos to find out the paragliding opportunities. A dream of both of us had to come true…We gave our mobile number to German pilot Gabi who would give us a ring when conditions where good this week…
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