Yesterday the Senorita bonita at Tourist Information (best information centre in the Canaries) told us of a festival that was on to be held in San Pedro this afternoon so we got up early, got ourselves organised to catch the bus to the festival at 11:15. That was all pretty easy with Euro0.85 each from our Euro 12 multi-trip ticket until we had to try and figure out where to get off. It did not help that nowhere along the bus route looked like it was having a festival except a few flags in one little town which we later figured out was San Pedro. We ended up in Los Llanos de Aridane – the second city on the island.

Feeling a bit sheepish that we had gone further on the bus than we had paid for (by about 200%) we slid down the back steps of the bus and decided to take advantage of this mistake and check out the town. Once we turned into the main pedestrian mall we were greeted by the sounds of an orchestra tuning up. We waited for a short while and were entertained by the La Palma school of music which was thoroughly enjoyable.


We then strolled the streets of the town looking for somewhere to lunch. Like Santa Cruz de La Palma, Los Llanos is a very pretty town with an old town feel.


We stumbled across a small restaurant called La Luna in Calle Fernandez Tan~o, 26 (LaLuna-LaPalma@gmx.net Tlf 922401913) and decided to stop for some tapas for lunch and uno cervesa y uno vino blanco. Karen ordered a tortilla with lentils and queso blanco (local goat cheese) and I ordered a pork dish with bread. Well I have to say that it was the best lentils that Karen has ever had – she wanted to order a second serve but I try to discourage that sort of vegetarian behaviour – she will only bring it into the home. (Unfortunately this did not stop her as she has emailed the chef for the recipe and received a detailed reply that tastes fantastic)


After lunch we enjoyed some more music from the school’s concert before grabbing a bus to Tarzacorte on the west of the island to fill in the time until the next bus. Tarzacorte again was picturesque and we will visit again with more time and check out the marina.

We then caught 2 buses back to San Pedro thinking that we had probably missed the festival, but when we arrived at 4:30 (although it looked dead) we were determined to get off where we had paid for. It was then we found out the festival started at 6:00 so we sat and had cervesa and waited. By 6:00pm we were getting a bit concerned, not by the fact that the town hadn’t started to liven up, but more the fact that all those people that had arrived in costume, proceeded to get on a bus and depart. After waiting a bit longer, we decided that we were indeed in the wrong place and should have got on one of the other buses and so caught another bus back home with no festivities.




Post script: These festivals / parties we have since found out involve walking, singing and drinking enroute into town and if we had been a bit more confident in our Espagnol we would have probably seen and been involved in a great party – next time!