La Palma

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Day 9 - La Palma

After two tours in a row we decide to take it easy and just do our own walking tour around La Palma. The town was very close to the port and we were able to walk in within a few minutes. We seemed to be lucky to arrive on a market day, we were able stroll the cobbled streets, which were closed to traffic and full of interesting stalls.

We enjoyed walking past all the old buildings on the way to view a replica of Christopher Columbus's ship, he apparently used La Palma as a port of call, here we are 400 years later doing the same.

Ron spotted a lookout on top of a fort, it was of course up a steep hill and quite a climb in the heat. The view from the lookout made the climb worthwhile, we found out the fort was b uilt in the 17th century, Castillo de Santa Catalina, the only fortress still in surviving of a group of three that once existed in the island's capital town.

We returned to the ship for lunch before walking back to the town in the afternoon with our laptop to update our blog. We eventually found a cafe with internet and spent an hour uploading photos until we realised we were running late for boarding time. We jogged along the esplanade to make sure we arrived with 5 minutes to spare only to find the ships tours were running half an hour late and we could have taken our time.

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