We had arranged our first dive for Sunday morning and we met about ten o'clock at the diving base. From here we wanted to Divemaster Steffi with our together at the house reef “To the claw” dive, a particularly striking rock formation, the (amazingly) what looks like a giant claw.

After we had prepared our equipment and assembled, We marched down to the beach. After the long break of the diving, the unusually high weight of equipment pushed hard on our shoulders. It comes up quick with bottle and weights 30 Kilogram. But when they finally made it into the water, the weight is easily vergessen...bis it then after the dive back uphill to the dive goes :-).

The island of La Palma offers really beautiful and interesting dive sites with lots of different fish and other living things. Unfortunately, the water temperature is still quite sporty in the moment with 17-18 ° for my circumstances. The first steps in the water are the worst, wenn sich das kalte Nass den Weg in den Neoprenanzug sucht und findet 🙁

But the underwater world compensated us rich: A somewhat shy Burrfish (Emil), We have seen two beautiful moray eels and many other animals. Back on the beach, we found another one “Physalia”. Good, that we had not taken under water, This type of jellyfish caused the unpleasant and very painful nettle foundations.

It declined after the dive and the cleaning of the equipment for the first time on our SUMMER, denn Tauchen macht hungrig 🙂 Obwohl es sicher eine der wenigen Sportarten ist, When it freezes rather than sweating.

In the afternoon I was again alone in the city, We don't so much had considered by. On this gloomy afternoon, the shopping streets and squares were extinct as.

Everywhere in the streets, the posters already hung, them to the “Bajada de la Virgen de las Nieves” (the descent of the Virgin of the snow) pointed. This Festival is celebrated every five years on La Palma. 2015 was it again.

To the history:

1676 the island was ravaged by a drought. In that year the wore Palm Eros the portrait of Marie of Las Nieves in the city down, to implore the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. The religious zeal of the population saw the Bishop Bartolomé García Ximenéz, He ordered, that the procession off 1680 to repeat every five years.

On the last Sunday in June pilgrims in traditional costume wearing down the parts of the two-ton Silberthrones of the statue in the Church El Salvador, where the Virgin resides during their stay in the city. It begins with the Bajada of the throne in Santa Cruz Semana Chica, the small week, also a night parade is one of the, colorful at the children accompanied by a band and colorful lanterns through the darkened city wear.

On the second Sunday in July starts Semana Grande with the move of the mascarones, the Giants and convince, the well-known fairy-tale characters and cartoon characters represent. Since 1945 focuses on the Wednesday the Minuett, on Thursday, the indisputable highlight is on the agenda: La Danza de los Enanos, the famous dance of the dwarf.

The origin of this dance goes back on the Corpus Christi celebrations, the oldest known mention of dwarf dance of Santa Cruz de La Palma dating back to the year 1833. Don Manuel Díaz (1774-1863), Pastor of the Church of El Salvador, for his era a liberal-minded man and lover of the arts, made for the dance masks from paper mache. 1905 introduced the Miguel Salazar charge in that year for the dwarf dance, the transformation of people dwarfs. In the first part, the dancers occur first in an any Panel (as monks, Sailors, Japanese, Greeks, Astronomers, Pilgrim, Old, Students). In just a few seconds, the dancers are transformed into Dwarves and begin to dance the quick and rousing polka in the same moment, the since 1925 is played unchanged. Plaza de Santo Domingo from the pull the Dwarves and their Entourage through the crowd-lined streets of Santa Cruz, where they continue to dance throughout the night, seem to the rays of the rising sun on the masts of the vessel of the Virgin at the Plaza de la Alameda, the last scene of the dance to in 5 Years.

On the next day, Friday, in the performance of the Carro Alegórico (Car of the allegories) staged various Marie themes.

The Virgin of snow embarks on Saturday then, a terracotta figure from the 14. Century, from their about six kilometres away sanctuary in the city down. It appears ready to go in her litter and done with the most beautiful robes after pilgrims mass in the Renaissance portal of the Church in Las Nieves. On the Royal Road of El planto, the train first leads up to the Church of la Encarnación at the City entrance, where the flock of the faithful the night rests and celebrates, to continue the journey in the El Salvador Church in the city centre on Sunday.

Even before the Virgin of snow reached the city, the procession makes a stop in the Barranco de las Nieves, where the dialogue between El Castillo (the fortress) and la nave (the ship) takes place. The fortress rises above, on the left side of the Gorge, the ship of the Blessed Virgin (a replica of the Caravel of Columbus directed 1940) below is located in the Plaza de Alameda and the permanent symbol of the celebrations.

At the 5. August the Virgin in a pompous parade is brought back again until the next time in 5 Years.

It would have been definitely interesting, aber wir haben ja für den Juli bereits andere Pläne 🙂

On the Monday we agreed us first in the afternoon in the South of the island for scuba diving. On our way there, We visited yet the Cueva de Belmaco, a cave with engravings of the Guanches.

Arrived in Las Cabras we encountered Caro and Ronny of La Palma diving and also on the two other divers, that had made a dive in the morning. Johanna from Passau and guy from Belgium. We had decided against two dives a day, because it is really uncomfortable, to rise again after the break in the jerk and ice-cold wetsuit. It does so on the quantity, sondern auf die Qualität an 🙂

The dive itself was a pleasure again, only the one- and exit over the stony Beach was pretty tricky and slippery. Diving from the beach one has after whatever the problem, the sand, He sticks to the entire equipment, rid of them again. Since we rinse our equipment on the bridge before the boat with fresh water and then dry on the buzzer, is this sand Dietmar a particular thorn in the flesh. The when it comes to our SUMMER, ist Dietmar wirklich sehr penibel 🙂

At the end of the day, we drove together to the best "Hamburguesta"-Bude of La Palma and talked a little while before we let cozy bar.