Las Cruces de Malpique (Malpique crosses)

The crosses lie off the SW-facing rocky coast at the very southern tip of La Palma, between Punta de Malpique and Punta de Fuencaliente, reached by a shore entry down a path from the LP-207 lighthouse road. The bulk of the island to the north and northeast fully shadows the N-NE-ENE sectors, and the eastern flank of the southern tip blocks the E-ESE window, while the low Fuencaliente lighthouse peninsula and its salt flats to the SE-SSE partly shelter those sectors. The dominant W-NW Atlantic groundswell reaches the site only after wrapping the coast (WNW-NW attenuated). The exposed side is the open Atlantic to the S-SSW-SW-WSW, where the sea is unobstructed; a southerly swell or sustained S-SW wind builds surface chop and reinforces the site's notorious currents, the usual reason a dive is called off.