Packing up all the additional stuff we bought, was Nadines task and she mastered it. After checking out, we had a selfprepared small breakfast at the pier where Atlantic was throwing big breakers against the kaiwall, catapulting its spray five to six meter into the air and way above the wall. The sun was there and the whole scenery looked conciliable and friendly. A beer and an ice later, we went slowly back to our hotel, where we left our luggage. The nice lady at the reception called us a taxi to the airport and off we where. Good bye La Palma and let me say it with Arnies words: We’ll be back. Hasta la vista, baby!.

We climbed aboard our plane at dawn and we had plain view. During the flight we flew over several big cities, including Paris. I had a hard time using my pullover to keep the cabin light away from my lens but the plastic double glassed windows made a good shot impossible.

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Almost our last day. We took the whole day and lingered through Santa Cruz. Basically we checked the supermercados for souvenirs. Later that day we went to a local tappas bar and had the best mojo of the whole holiday. Great, although it took some time to find it and realize, that it had places left in the back room.

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Hiking boots on - chcek! Map - check! Target locked: Virgen de las Nieves. The ancient church outside, above Santa Cruz is the place to not go on Sundays. Sundays, the palmeros visit their patron, the holy Maria that saved the city during a volcano eruption in an effort of letting it snow. Every five years the Bajada de la Virgen de las Nieves is held, where the statue weighting 2 tons is carried to the city center.

Climbing out the baranco, Santa Cruz is located it, we passed the houses on top and climbed down on the other side again. The whole way there I had the smell of a big steak in my nose. Right beside the curch is one of the better parillas (grill restaurant) known for their good meat.

We had no luck. It looked like the whole city had come up here and was waiting in order to get table inside. As it was a scene from a movie, rain set in. We had no chance but climb down to Santa Cruz again and to be honest: steep cobble stone pavement in rain is not better to walk on than on loose chippings, hence, it took some time. Back in town siesta was in full swing and I was so hungry.

We had some noodles in the hotel… not quite the meal I had on my mind, but hey, you can’t always get what you want, right?

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The first half of the day we wandered the streets of Santa Cruze. That afternoon the art and food market in Maso stood on our schedule. Maso was two towns away and we made first contact what it means to have no car on the island. No plan in sight and even the few shreds with information we found all said “about” and it was the first time that we really had to take a look at our watches - Las Tricias is timeless.

Finally we got on the bus and the next problem was when to get off again. No plan, no schedule, no signs at the station, nothing. Finally we found a young palmera that spoke english, but she wasn’t sure about our destination as well. Anyway, we got out the right place and found the market. A little smaller than the market in Puntagorda but again with great mojito. The local winegrower was giving away wine and roasted chestnuts - traditional for St. Martin on the Canaries. A little drunk, we climbed up that cliffy road to the bus stop. After an hour, we checked the schedule again just to find out that we had forgotten about the time shift. Canary Islands are 1 hour behind… so after a waiting for one and half hours in the cold and slight rain the bus arrived and we got home safely.

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Karin started out to clean up our mess (we payed for it right when we booked) and we went down to Frohmuths Aloe Vera Cafe, had some fresh juice, said good bye to Ricardo and Amelie who where both working there. Than came the big goodbye. Luna was trailing along wherever we went. She seemed to know what was going on. For Nadine and me it was clear by now that this wasn’t the last trip to Karins little garden eden, but the next visitors were about to arrive and we had to return the rented car. In Santa Cruz we would have a room in a little hotel…. that was the deal.

After a small stop in Los Lanos - the secret capital of La Palma - we had to pass the three tunnels to get to the eastern side again. There dark clouds dropped from the mountaintops and we got another full rainbow, as if nature wanted to tell us that we are leaving the nice part of the island….. We arrived at dawn and parked the car. We considered Santa Cruz as a good bridge back to normal life, a quasi exit from the holiday to get accustomed to the city life again and it worked in every aspect.

Our room was smelling after mildew, a problem that all the other inhabitants seem to share. In effect everyone opened their windows, leading all to the same small backyard. In the morning, when the first alarm clock went off, everyone was awake. Welcome back to reality.

That evening we went to the nearby supermacdo and bought something to eat, went back to our fusty room and did not much exploring.

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