This day I drove all the way up to Roque de Los Muchachos on La Palma. From El Jesus it takes about 1:10 – depending on the driving style. One thing to take in mind is that one is going upwards from ~600m to ~2400m by car. Some people even may suffer from circulation problems. So when being up there move slowly and remember that the air density is reduced by about 15-20% compared to El Jesus or similar starting points. The next ambulance is about 1:30h away from this point. So one should only go up there if he/she feels good.

The Roque de Los Muchachos summit itself has a small parking place for about 10-15 cars. Furthermore there are some places near the road close to the summit. Once up there one has a great view into the caldera and on one part of the Roque de Los Muchachos observatory. Beside others you can see:

• William Herschel Telescope (WHT)
• Northern Optical Telescope (NOT)
• Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC)
• Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Chernobyel Telescopes (MAGIC)
• Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG)

Furthermore, but not reachable by car are the following observatories:

• Dutch Open Telescope (DOT)
• Liverpool Telescope (LT)
• Swedisch Solar Telescope (SST)
• Isaac Newton Telescope (ING)
• Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope (JKT)

However, there is a path leading from Roque de Los Muchachos to Puente Nueva – which is another smaller summit not far away. From here the other telescopes can be spotted quite good as well. Here are a few more photos of the site.

Clear skies!