La Palma

The north-westernmost of the Canary Islands rises out of the Atlantic as a single steep volcanic mass. From the shore the land climbs to 2,426 metres at the Roque de los Muchachos, and the whole volcanic edifice stands almost seven kilometres above the ocean floor. Islanders call it La Isla Bonita, the beautiful island, and the name fits: within a few kilometres the landscape shifts from black lava beaches and banana terraces to laurel cloud forest, pine woods and bare volcanic cinder.

At the heart of the north lies the Caldera de Taburiente, a vast amphitheatre some nine kilometres across and up to 1,500 metres deep, ringed by cliffs and drained by a single gorge, the Barranco de las Angustias. Protected as a national park since 1954, it is where the German geologist Leopold von Buch, visiting in 1815, helped bring the Spanish word caldera into the language of science. South of it runs the Cumbre Vieja, a young ridge of cones and lava fields that is among the most active volcanic zones of the archipelago. Eruptions have been recorded here since the fifteenth century, including Teneguía in 1971 and the eruption of 2021, which lasted 85 days and buried more than 2,600 buildings under lava, the most destructive in the island's recorded history.

On the crest above the clouds, the clear, stable Atlantic air made the summit one of the finest places in the northern hemisphere to study the sky. The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory gathers telescopes from many countries, including the Gran Telescopio Canarias, and a law protecting the island's night sky from light pollution led to its recognition as a Starlight Reserve. The whole island has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2002. Before Castile completed its conquest of the island in 1493, it was home to an indigenous people who called it Benahoare and left petroglyphs carved into the rocks. In the centuries that followed, the island prospered as a stopping point for ships sailing to the Americas, and Santa Cruz de La Palma became its capital and port.

Getting there

Los Llanos de Aridane, the largest town on La Palma, lies about 6 km away, and La Palma Airport (SPC) is about 11 km away on the east coast, with flights to the other Canary Islands and mainland Spain. Ferries link the port of Santa Cruz de La Palma with Tenerife and Gran Canaria.