The island · 28.7° N
Nine kilometres of it
One road, one restaurant, no street lighting and a mountain in the middle that is taller than anything within a hundred kilometres of it.
Terra Nera
Forty-two rooms strung along the sixty-metre contour, laid out so that no room looks into another. Reception, Ceniza and the bathhouse sit at the north end; the ash gardens at the south.
- Altitude
- 40–80 m
- From the landing
- 3.1 km · 9 min by car
- Built
- 2019–2021
Playa de Ceniza
Four hundred metres of coarse black sand between two arms of basalt. It shelves fast — six metres out you are over blue — and it is out of the north-easterly in all but the worst weather.
- From the hotel
- 1.2 km · 11 min on foot
- Descent
- 94 m, ninety-one steps
- Sea
- 19° in March, 24° in September
The vineyard
2.4 hectares at 210–260 m, every vine in its own half-moon of stacked basalt. Aitor Mendoza farms it with one man and a mule, because nothing with wheels can turn between the zocos.
- Planted
- 1974, replanted 2019
- Vines
- 1,180 malvasía, 340 listán negro
- Yield
- 3,900 bottles in a good year
The observatory
A 60 cm reflector under a 6 m dome at 1,180 m, above the inversion layer for about 260 nights a year. Rafael Quintero built it in 2018 and has not missed many of those nights since.
- Altitude
- 1,180 m
- From the hotel
- 9.4 km · 22 min by car
- Sky
- 21.8 mag/arcsec² at zenith
The caldera
A bowl 900 m across and 240 m deep, last active in 1793 by the accounts kept on La Palma. The rim path runs the whole way round in four hours and there is no water on it.
- Summit
- 1,412 m
- Rim circuit
- 11.6 km · 4 h
- Last eruption
- 1793
The landing stage
There is no airstrip and no harbour worth the name. The boat from Tazacorte on La Palma takes fifty-five minutes and runs twice a day, at 09:15 and 16:40, weather allowing.
- Crossing
- 55 min · €140 per person
- Sailings
- 09:15 and 16:40
- Cancelled
- About 14 days a year
Tap a marker to move the panel
On foot
Distances, and the honest times
Walking, not strolling
| Route | Distance | Climb | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The hotel to Playa de Ceniza | 1.2 km | −94 m | 11 min | Steps, then sand. Easy. |
| The hotel to the vineyard | 3.4 km | +180 m | 48 min | Track. Shadeless after ten. |
| The vineyard to the caldera rim | 6.1 km | +1,010 m | 2 h 40 | Steep. Start before seven. |
| The rim circuit | 11.6 km | ±340 m | 4 h | No water. Wind on the north side. |
| The hotel to the observatory | 9.4 km | +1,140 m | 3 h 20 | Most people take the car up and walk down. |
| The hotel to the landing stage | 3.1 km | −40 m | 35 min | The only tarmac on the island. |
Weather
A year, in four columns
1991–2020 normals
| Month | Day | Night | Sea | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 20° | 15° | 19° | 34 mm |
| February | 20° | 15° | 19° | 28 mm |
| March | 21° | 15° | 19° | 21 mm |
| April | 22° | 16° | 19° | 11 mm |
| May | 23° | 17° | 20° | 4 mm |
| June | 25° | 19° | 21° | 1 mm |
| July | 27° | 21° | 22° | 0 mm |
| August | 28° | 22° | 23° | 1 mm |
| September | 27° | 22° | 24° | 7 mm |
| October | 26° | 20° | 24° | 19 mm |
| November | 23° | 18° | 22° | 31 mm |
| December | 21° | 16° | 20° | 40 mm |
Four hundred and eighteen millimetres a year, almost all of it between November and March, and most of that in three or four days. What the island has instead of rain is the trade wind, which blows from the north-east for about two hundred and eighty days a year and is the reason every wall on the vineyard faces the same way.
Above nine hundred metres you are usually above the cloud. It is not unusual to leave the hotel in grey and reach the dome in sun, which is the whole argument for the observatory being where it is.