Geographic data La Palma is the northwesternmost island in the Canary archipelago. It is roughly triangle-shaped, measuring 27 kilometres along the northern coast and then tapering off towards the south and ending in a point, with an overall lenght of 47 kilometres. The surface is 407 square kilometres.
La Palma is one of the youngest island in the archipelago. The north formed 2-3 million years ago, which we can compare with the two oldest islands Lanzarote and Fuerteventura which are about 15 million years each. The north of La Palma is characterized by the Caldera de Taburiente, an enormous depression which is often erroneusly known as a volcanic crater but which is, in fact, the result of the interaction of the opposite forces of vulcanism and erosion. It measures 28 kilometres in circumference, 9 kilometres in diameter and 2000 metres in depth. Filled with pine forest and a little stream (the only permanent water course in the Canaries), it was declared National Park in 1956. On its edge we find the highest point of the island at 2423 metres. The ultra-clean and very stable air are just two of many reasons that makes the site ideal for astronomy, thus we find the international Obersvatory of the Roque de Los Muchachos here, which has both the worldīs most important solar telescope (Dutch Open Telescope / Swedish Solar Tower collaboration) and the worldīs biggest stellar telescope, the 10.4 metres GRANTECAN (Gran Telescopio Canario).
From the Caldera extends dozens of gorges carved out by erosion. Just small undulations in the terrain at first, they get deeper and wider the more you approach the coast and can have depths of several hundred metres at their end. These gorges made the construction of a network of road extremely difficult. Before the modernization of the island, which started in the 1950s, the only way to get around was by foot. These ancient trails have been recovered and restored and are now one of the major attractions of the island.
The south, on the other hand, is of much more recent origin, with 7 eruptions in the last 500 years and with the youngest land in the country of Spain, gained off the sea with the Tenegúía eruption the year 1971. The whole south is famous for its range of volcanoes and the Volcanic Route trail is one of the most popular ones.
The coastline mainly consists of vey tall cliffs. There are only a handful of tiny beaches, formed by black lava sand or pebbles. |
Economy La Palma is the quintessential rural island. A former producer of luxury items such as sugar, wine, tobacco or silk, it now lives off the export of the dwarf bananas that made their way to the island in the early 1960s. A big wine production industry for local consumption is important for the domestic market, as is the production of all sorts of fruit and vegetables; with the benign climate it is possibly to grow virtually anything under the sun. Adding to the rural character of the island are the tens of thousands of little subsistence farming plots were the islanders grow the most essential foodstuffs for themselves and their familes, both out of tradition and as a means to reduce living expenses.
The lack of beaches has saved the island from the uncontrolled mass tourism industry that has made the Canaries a household name in Northern Europe. The industry did not start until the late 1980īs and the people who come do not search the beaches and the wild nightlife but the silence, the landscape and the trails. Some 12000 beds exist for tourists, between 6 hotels, some apartments and a thousand or so traditional cottages. |
Population La Palma has around 85000 inhabitants and two main to towns: the capital Santa Cruz de La Palma on the eastern coast, and Los Llanos de Aridane close to the western coast. The port of Santa Cruz is the westernmost port in Europe and therefore a most important link between Spain and America during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The town grew up under this era and has today a distinctive colonial-town character to it, with beautiful buildings and narrow, cobbled streets that has seen many battles between attacking pirates and defending locals. Los Llanos, on the other hand, used to be a little country village until the banana industry started in earnest. Being the economic centre of the island, Los Llanos has grown very quickly ever since and is today a very modern town that bustles with activity; as the economical centre the town has a remarkable number of banks, fashion boutiques, jewellery shops, and the like.
Half of the population lives in these two towns. The other half lives in or around small rural villages which have from a few thousand down to a few hundred inhabitants each. These are located in a belt arounnd the island roughly between 200 and 1000 metres of altitude. Almost the whole island is protected above or below that; the total amount of protected territory is around 40% (the highest rate in the Canaries) and building regulations are extremely severe. The whole northwest is largely devoid of people, with just a few hamlets and isolated farmsteads.
Quite a few foreigners live on La Palma, but they live here permanently. We do not find the phenomenon of North European pensioneers buying properties where to spend just a few winter months, and there are no Time-Share apartments at all. The biggest percentage of foreigners is actually made up by Cubans and Venezuelans, descendants of the many emigrants who escaped the misery and poverty in the past and who are returning to their roots now that the situation over there is getting increasingly worse.
La Palma lies just too far westwards to have any problem with the massive, illegal immigration from Sub-Sahara Africa which is such a huge and tragic humanitarian problem on the central islands.
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Social issues La Palma has a very long history of poverty, hardship and misery. The arrival of the bananas would be a major revolution for the islanders and would propel the island out of this state. The whole population would benefit from the export of bananas and thus there is no true poverty at all on the island today. This is not to say that many people wonīt have a real hard time to make ends meet, but you wonīt see any beggars, there are no homeless people, everyone dresses properly and has food for the day, no children gets excluded from schooling, and no islander gets excluded from medical service.
The difference between those who have most and those who have least is not so astronomical wide as in many other locations; hence, the social tensions are quite low and consequentely, the social problems are minimal. Drug abuse and prostitution is limited and crime virtually non-existent. You never fear getting mugged on the streets and, provided you donīt live in the very town centres, it is common that you donīt bother with locking the car at night - or even taking in the keys, for that matter.
As in the rest of Spain, people tend to marry later and to have fewer children than what used to be the case. The island is very well equipped in terms of schools and nowadays you never have to travel far to get to your study centre. But there is no university on the island, so those who decide to continue with higher studies are forced to travel at least to Tenerife or Gran Canaria. |
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