La Isla Bonita

18:30UTC 18/08/07 28'40.7N 17'46.0W

La Palma, the pretty island, and indeed it is. We arrived at 3am, inched our way into the harbour and, despite a substantial language barrier ("non comprende, Inglesa", "Espanol?", "non, Inglese", "eng..con..ish..random stream of spanish....") we moored succesfully at the Club Nautico de Santa Cruz de La Palma.

We rented a car and drove up into the mountains, along very scary twisty mountain roads (if you thought we were in danger at sea it's nothing to these roads) and ended up 2400m above the sea, above the clouds and looking into the largest volcanic crater on earth. A truly amazing landscape and worthy of the photos we'll post when we can. We wound our way back via a long coastal road and saw some of this gorgeous island, which would warrant a week or more of exploration - a shame that we can't give it that time.

But tomorrow, we'll explore the town, which is laden with history of Spanish conquest and exploration, and then we'll leave for an overnight to Tenerife and time for the crew to depart and my family to arrive. Looking forward to seeing them again, and changing the nature of the trip from passage-making to island exploring and beach time.

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