Huge amounts of alcohol were drunk, the band took only a short, sporadic break, barely once every two hours, and the boiling crowd in the square was enthralling. Even if once in a while a weaker specimen, overcome by wine and non-stop dance, wearied and fell away, with the coming of the morning the crowd was surprisingly no thinner. The band played until six a.m., and the whole crowd sang along with the Spanish texts. In fact, no language, other than Spanish, was heard from the podium all night. Surprisingly enough, the few who fell away were all men and the Canary girls looked beautiful 'til morning.



    Even after the end of the Bengal night groups of cheerful people continued drinking in the streets, and after daylight, here and there were discarded pieces of clothing and there was vomit on the corners of houses. The similarity of nations makes one wonder how racism could have come about.




Salema, Boniato and Mojo Verde Silantro
    As an appetizer, the delicious fried goat cheese, "Queso de Cabra", a legume soup, "Potaje" with huge peas and goat meat, "Carne de Cabra" with typical potatoes, "Papas Arrugada" , unpeeled, boiled in seawater, we tasted right off on our second day on the island of La Palma. This happened on Tuesday though we went to the pub,"Parrilla Grill" in our village of Fuencaliente (Los Canarios), for lunch with the intention of tasting local fish. We chose two kinds right off, "Sama" and "Salema". Both were excellent and complemented by sweet potatoes, "Boniato", a spicy green sauce, "Mojo Verde Silantro", from garlic, peppers, oil, vinegar, salt and spices, dripped with fresh lemon and washed down with a delicious local white wine, they tasted remarkably. And the dessert which was in the form of a bowl filled with a mixture of honey, eggs and almonds, just carried us away. Across the street then in a bar, "Parada" we had coffee, a sweet, "Bollos de Centeno" from rye flour, eggs and honey, topped off by a shot of illegally distilled rum of a translucent white color, and that was then end of flying for the day.

    A curiosity for Czechs visiting will be the lack of indicator lines on wine or other alcohol glasses that indicate the amount in the glass. The bartender pours with bravado by eye, leisurely and with an overview, a little here or there doesn't make a difference. Overall, a leisurely and above the issue attitude of the local residents in regards to things and to life itself is a typical attribute. A sense of peace and balance automatically comes from this. Something must be done at 16:00? Why not at 16:37? Or 17:23? And after all, tomorrow is a day too ...!

    I read somewhere, (this isn't my own thought) that a wise person is able to be happy with what he has each day while others pine away for what they don't have yet. In this respect the residents of the island of La Palma are certainly very wise people.

Like a Featherbed ...
    Upon completing a very mild rise above the southern edge of the city of Santa Cruz I embarked on an course and head for the shore. Above the big sandy beach, which serves as a landing strip, I still have a decent 660 meters and so head out over the ocean.



    On the left I rapidly leave behind me hundreds of white walls of houses of the city of Santa Cruz, while on my right side on the flat jutting off the island the long landing strip of the local aiport becomes visible. A huge passenger plane is just taking off and at a steep angle begins ascending rapidly to my level. After a moment it takes a right turn and finally disappears somewhere in the distance in the East. Sharp rays of the low afternoon sun create a blinding glare off the ocean in the distance. I've left the shore behind long ago and all around me the blue ocean is spread out, spotted with white wave crests. A fast motorboat runs by beneath me, heading for port. It bumps comically along the waves, leaving a white trail foaming behind it. My climb indicator shows a very slight falling off, smaller than 1m/s, the wind from the north is very weak and the temperature at this height at the begining of January reaches a pleasant 19 degrees Celcius. The feeling of sailing through space above an endless ocean is enthralling and surprisingly calming. The instruments show a distance of two kilometers from shore and from their other indications, I can continue in this open course above the ocean for another undisturbed kilometer.

    After a while however, a feeling of slight unease comes over me. I turn around and begin to slowly return to shore. I'm not hurrying anywhere, I'm flying slowly. In the distance high above the shore the dark green band of thick pine forest and primeval, impenetrable forest is visible along the crest of the top part of the cliffs. Somewhere there above it lie another two runways which we unfortunately couldn't find. But not only because of ourselves will it be necessary to come back soon to this island. The already 7 year old ban on billboards, the beautiful and untouched nature, small number of tourists and above all the beautiful flying terrains make the island of La Palma without doubt one of the most beautiful places on which I've had the opportunity to fly. And as the proud residents themselves say, "La Palma la isla bonita".




    I'm back here above the shore and the landing beach appears slowly beneath me. It is almost devoid of people. On its northern edge three tourists lazily lie around and several strangely costumed musicians sit around by the sidewalk railing. They're taking large black sombreros off their heads and waving a greeting to me. Judging by the roadside flags a weak wind is blowing from the ideal northern direction along the sandy beach. A flat left turn over the ocean, a sharp right turn above the leeward edge of the long beach and I go in for a landing. It's going to be another featherbed ...