Black Sand and Bananas

By Elizabeth Johnstone

In January 2017, we spent a week in La Palma on a Thomson package holiday. La Palma is one of the lesser known Canary Islands. It has chosen to remain low-key, restricting the construction of high-rise holiday developments.  We found it to be charming and full of interest.  We travelled by train to Gatwick airport from our home in Hertfordshire, spending the night in the clean and cosy Premier Inn before our punctual morning flight.  Returning was less straightforward.  A forecast of snow in the London area held flights on runways all over Europe. Our plane stood on the tarmac for nearly two hours, so we were too late for our scheduled train journey home.  There was no room at the Premier Inn so we ended up using a different train company and an expensive taxi for the last leg.

But let us gloss over such unpleasantness.  We stayed at the Hacienda San Jorge in the village of Los Cancajos, a short drive from the airport and only a couple of miles from the island’s capital, Santa Cruz.  Our “room” was effectively a two-room apartment with double aspect over pool and ocean.  The accommodation blocks are set in beautiful gardens of which the hotel is so proud that guided tours are arranged.  We arrived in the evening of 5 January, as did the Three Kings en route to Bethlehem.  To clarify: Spanish Christmas is traditionally on 6 January, when Spanish children receive presents brought by the Magi.  These days, they are quite happy to receive presents on 25 December as well, but it meant for us that 6 January was a public holiday.

Los Cancajos has several attractive coves with full beach facilities, although you have to accept that they have black, volcanic sand. As I had booked bed and breakfast, we worked our way through the local restaurants.  I adore fish restaurants – my favourite source of protein, and someone else deals with the fins and scales – and they did not disappoint.  A local speciality is papas arrugadas, or “wrinkly potatoes”, cooked in their jackets in heavily salted water and extremely tasty as a result. And the native dwarf banana was well in evidence.
We took a local bus into Santa Cruz, packed like sardines after pickups outside the principal hotels.  The island’s capital has considerable charm, a fact not lost on the cruise companies who dock their leviathans several times a week.  The islanders shrug, take the money and are grateful that the visitors return to their cruise ships at the end of the day.  The city’s flower-bedecked balconies are a great photo opportunity, as is the replica of Columbus’ Santa Maria, paid for by returning emigrés.

Our first excursion was a day trip around the eastern side of the island.  We visited a splendid village house and a spectacular viewpoint dominated by a statue of a shepherd “vaulting”.  After minuscule samples at a rum distillery, we enjoyed lunch in a picturesque village where I was amazed to see flowerbeds planted up with poinsettias.  Like so many of us, I have never nurtured poinsettias more than a couple of weeks after Christmas.  They are everywhere in municipal planting in La Palma and can even be seen as tall, spindly bushes out in the wild.  Banana plantations cover much of the island and there are 7,000 banana farmers.  We were bombarded with facts about their life cycle and economic importance.  Our final stop was the cool, dank rain forest of Los Tilos, kept moist not by rain but by condensation from the mountain tops.

Our second excursion headed to the 2,400m high Roque de los Muchachos and its observatories.  La Palma is the site of several world-class telescopes, including our own Isaac Newton Group.  The site is very highly situated and enjoys low atmospheric and light pollution. It is second only to Hawaii as a pre-eminent astronomical observation site in the northern hemisphere.  The restrictions on tourist development are to protect the observatories and the revenue stream they generate.  After other scenic stops, the trip concluded with a view into the caldera, or extinct volcanic centre, of the island’s mountains. 

La Palma is the most westerly of the Canary Islands and so most exposed to the Atlantic and its changeable weather.  We wore shorts most days, but it was chilly by the evening.  At times, it was warm and sunny enough for the beach but it drizzled on occasion.  As you might expect, in January it was a destination for the more mature travellers, most of whom were Germans. Unlike its larger neighbours, La Palma does not depend on tourism.  Agriculture is more important. 

La Palma is a delightful destination. If you are a banana enthusiast, it is a must!  Although a steep volcanic island, La Palma’s extensive terraced cultivation means that a huge area is given over to banana plantations.  There are some 7,000 banana farmers on the island.  Apparently, it is a relatively easy fruit to manage. It only requires simple tools although there is the laborious process of trimming the blossoming ends off each individual banana as well as managing pests.  But several crops can be grown in a year and clever crop rotation ensures that the farmer is not overwhelmed during one intensive harvest season.

As the banana plant has no woody tissue, it is technically a herb.  It is also a feminist fruit! Only female plants are involved.  There is no male input.  If you look at a typical banana plant, there is usually an ancient stump, a vigorous main shoot and a new side shoot i.e. a decayed “grandmother”, an active “mother” and an up-and-coming “daughter”.  It is almost impossible to acquire banana plantations other than by inheritance or marriage.  A banana heiress is the most desirable girl on the island!•

 First published in VISA 132 (April 2017)