Black vulcanic beach
Hiking was the main reason we went to the Canary Islands. But we thought we should at least go to the beach once. So we did. I must say that we are pretty spoiled with beaches, we have experience with beautiful deserted beaches in Indonesia, Phillipines and Ghana, we are not that impressed quickly. We thought the beach in La Palma was ok, but for us not something very special. It was cool that the sand was black. What was very funny to see is that the people were either old or having babies. So we perfectly blended in.
But, it was the first time on the beach for our little girl! So we let her feel the sea. She did not like it at all;) She was a bit scared of the cold water unexpectedly going over her feet.
Luckely the travel companions enjoyed the beach a lot!
Tip: Do nor bring a stroller to the beach! Ok, maybe this is just us being stupid and everybody already knows it’s a very bad idea. But a stroller does not roll on the sand. So you have to lift the stroller. Not so handy!
On the beach with a stroller, bad idea
Los Llanos de Aridane: beautiful town in the rain
Canary Islands have some nice colorful small towns. We chose to see Los Llanos de Aridane in La Palma. It was on the other side of the island from our appartment. So we had to drive over the mountain in the middle to get there. The distances in La Palma are very small, so it did not took us long to get there. On the way to there it already started raining, and when we parked the car, we knew for sure: this is gonna be a rainy day! Luckely we have a baby carrier with a jacket going over the carrier and the baby. Of course, we forgot our umbrella’s. Sometimes we find ourselves so busy making sure we do not forget anything for Lily, we forget all kind of things for ourselves. But we were very happy when we saw a shop selling umbrella’s, so we had some good equipment to see Los Llanos de Aridane in the rain.
I could imagine the town looks a bit more happier with the sun shining. Still, Los Llanos de Aridane was a nice, small, old and colorful town.
We have a tradition of eating icecream in the rain while holding an umbrella and making a photo of this.
For lunch we ate at a great place calles La Vitamina, which had a great choice of vegetarion options. The food was delicious! I really recommend eating here if you are in Los Llanos de Aridane, especially when you are a vegetarion.
Because of the rain, we made some more stops in cafes than we normally do, so we could warm ourselves inside with some tea. Of course, the travel companions also likes a sip.
In this cafe, the owner liked Lily so much, she offered to leave her there and pick her up at the end of the day.
Travelling with a baby in the Canary Islands was a nice thing to do. The local people like baby’s a lot. Lily got a lot of attention, people called her ‘Precioso’ all the time. They are very helpfull and accomodating with a baby. The facilities are not the same as in the Netherlands. They do not have changing facilities and baby chairs in all restaurants and cafe’s and we did not find baby food in the supermarkets. Diapers and wet wipes were available though. Personally I prefer nice and helping people over facilities like baby chairs. I would say Canary Islands is a great place to go with a small baby. Tenrife and La Palma are islands which are easy to get around, it’s diverse and the weather is always nice. Ok, except for that rainy day. It’s very easy going and relaxed. The most important for us were the hiking possibilities and the great landscape. The Canary Islands are so much more than just beach destinations. Go and explore the beauty!
