We had already booked the ferry back to Tenerife, but there were some places we still had to explore at La Palma. The first was the silk production in El Paso. As a knitter, Cordy is especially interested in the production of yarn, and the silk manufacturing in El Paso is an exceptional place.
The Moors brought the silk production to Spain, and from there it reached the Canary Islands. El Paso is the last remaining village, where silk is still produced in the traditional way, from feeding the silkworms with mulberry leaves until the weaving of the delicate fabric. Of course the production is of no economical profit but to keep the tradition and the knowledge alive.
The museum on the first floor had a very interesting video, which showed us all the steps of the silk production. We could touch row silk and the much softer washed and treated silk. They use only natural dyes for colouring the silk, and the results are fascinating. At the ground floor, women were spinning the yarn and weaving the fabric on the old looms.
The dyes are natural and traditionally come from fungi, animals or plants: walnut shells, woad (yellows), eucalyptus (greys), walnuts (browns) and the well-known cochineal, which generations once worked to collect for successful export (reds, maroons and pinks).
We also wanted to go on a last hike, before we left La Palma. Somewhere more green again, so we decided on the Cumbrecita lookout. We parked our car at the visitor centre for the Taburiente caldera and took a taxi up to the Mirador de La Cumbrecita. (If you want to drive up, you will need to reserve a time slot for the little parking up there.)
From the lookout, you get a good view into the caldera of the oldest volcano of La Palma. On the other side is Roque de los Muchachos, the highest point of the island, and we could even spot some of the telescopes up there. We first walked to the two lookouts, which were a little down into the caldera.
Back up at the pass, we started our descent into the valley back to our car. The route led us along the rock wall up and down, through the pine forest.
It took us about 3 hours for our walk into the caldera and back down. The weather was cooperating, and we enjoyed hiking in a forest again. The next day we were back to Santa Cruz, where we walked again through the lovely town, doing some last shopping interrupted by a lovely lunch in the sun and coffee and cake later on. The next morning we took the ferry to Tenerife, from where another one will take us to El Hierro the same day.
We are curious if El Hierro will be different to the islands we had already visited – more soon.