Canary Islands/Spain (updated)


The Canary Islands archipelago is an autonomous community of Spain which includes a number of interesting and diverse islands. La Palma was the most interesting from the ones I've visited, due to its importance for astronomy. Owing to its position, climate and light pollution laws, the island is one of the best spots in the world for astronomical observations and hosts a number of important observatories on its highest peak, Roque de los Muchachos.

Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), located at about 2,400 metres on the peak, is currently the world's largest optical telescope with a 10.4-diameter mirror. The telescope can be toured - I used tickets provided by Ad Astra La Palma. GTC studies galaxy formation, supernovae, black holes, exoplanet detection and other important projects for astronomy. Touring the telescope and learning about its achievements and engineering accomplishments was very interesting.

Roque de los Muchachos also hosts other important installations, such as the scifi-looking MAGIC and CTAO gamma ray observtories, and the Galilei Telescope specialized in measuring masses, densities and atmospheres of exoplanets. The peak has a very nice visitor centre with an interactive display describing telescopes at the site, among others.

La Palma is a great spot for astrophotography due to the same conditions mentioned above. I spent two nights in an isolated cottage house located at 1,100 metres altitude, with no articificial light source in sight. The Milky Way seen from here was spectacular even to the unaided eye, and looked more vivid and detailed than anywhere else I've seen it before. I got excellent pictures of the Milky Way from this location.

Besides its significance for astronomy, La Palma is a very scenic island which was filled with flowers in May when I visited. I particularly enjoyed the spectacular Tajinaste flower which blooms in mid-May and reaches more than 2 metres in height.

The island has active volcanic activity. Effects of this can be seen at the interesting Centro Canos de Fuego; the aftermath of a recent eruption from 2021 are visibile from Mirador de Tajuya.

The island's main town of Santa Cruz de La Palma is nice and relaxed. Other nice towns were Puerto de Tazacorte and Puerto Naos where I had some delicious grilled alfonsino fish.

The island of Tenerife is well-known as a beach destination. I visited Playa del Duque, Playa de los Cristianos and Playa de las Vistas (the latter was my favorite out of these three). We saw a lot of cute pilot whales and a few dolphins on a very nice boat trip from Los Cristianos. Siam Park, located on the island, is one of the largest water parks in the world.

An absolutely must-have on Tenerife is barraquito, a delicious layered coffee drink which includes condensed milk, Licor 43 herb liquor, espresso, milk, cinnamon and lemon peel.

The island of Gran Canaria has scenic nature, spectacular mountains and valleys, narrow winding roads, red volcanic landscapes and interesting desert vegetation. While driving around the interior you can stop in various scenic small towns and villages for photos, coffee and good food. I enjoyed San Bartolomeo de Tirajana and the interestingly-named Teror. The old city part of the island's capital of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, called Vegueta, is also nice, while the sand dunes in Maspalomas are another cool sight.

Additional info:
- Canary islands page on Wikipedia
- Canary islands profile on Wikivoyage

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