Day 133: Santa Cruz De La Palma - The Canary Islands

 

A fun stop today, featuring volcanoes, wine, and a cute old town high street. The Canary Islands are a set of 7 large volcanic islands between 75 and 200 miles off the coast of Morocco. They’re now a playground for the rich and famous of Europe and Africa, living up to their ancient name of the “Fortunate Isles”. 

The Canary name is derived from Roman times, and has nothing to do with cute little tweetie birds, but with dogs (Latin: Canaris = dog as in canine). The birds are named after the islands, and not the other way around! 




The islands are between 7 and 20 million years old, and there is still volcanic activity on some of them today. They're reminiscent of Hawaii, as there is a "hot spot" deep underground that slowly slides because of tectonic plate movement, causing new islands to be created. Multiple eruptions have occurred over the last 50 years, and the last major explosion was only in 2021. Driving through La Palma today, there were remnants of lava fields and craters everywhere. 

The Canaries were originally "discovered" by the French in 1402, although control passed across to Spain not long afterward, and they have remained Spanish ever since. Well before humankind existed, large lizards and giant tortoises roamed the islands, showing that, at some point, there may have been a land bridge all the way across from the mainland. Unlike Madeira to the North (see tomorrow's blog), the island has been inhabited for a few thousand years, mainly by cave dwellers related to the Berbers of North Africa. The ancient Greeks, Phoenicians, and Romans all made well-documented visits to the islands, giving the lie to the 1402 discovery, which was basically some explorer using an old Roman map!

Our trip today showed us the highlights of the southern (younger) end of the island. We drove through a series of small winding roads that went up 2200 feet, back to sea level, and up again. On one side, there are banana fields, and on the other, black ash and lava fields. Everything is on a slope, and any flat land is land reclaimed from the ocean. Again, it reminded us of a cross between Hawaii and Iceland.

Our main stop was at a local vineyard, Bodegas Teneguina. It acts as a collective
so that all the small local vineyards can share equipment - like vats and bottling - saving money and allowing them to remain competitive. We sampled the basic white, red and a sweeter desert wine. One particular type of sweet wine is named Malmsy. This was much beloved by Shakespeare, who referred to it in several plays and received a barrel of the good stuff as part of his annual salary. Our quick summary is that the white was drinkable as a nice table wine, and the basic red was best left in the bottle. The pricier reds were much better.



Then, onto the San Antonio Volcanic Museum. This is a quaint little museum established on the site of a 2000-year-old volcanic crater (although alarmingly, there was a small nearby eruption a few decades ago .. proving that "dormant" is a questionable and dangerous term). You can walk out the back door of the museum and hike along the crater rim. This provides an awesome view down into the crater, where pine trees have now started to grow. On the other side is a spectacular view across farmland and down to the ocean. 

Finally - a quick walk through town, along the main shopping and restaurant
street. At the end is a livesized replica of the Maria. You learn fairly quickly that Christopher Columbus is still a hero in these parts of the world. The Spanish and Portuguese don't understand why he is singled out for such vilification in the US compared to every other explorer, politician, and king of the times. It is fair to point out that CC spent four weeks in the Canary Islands on the way to the Americas. His crew were extremely reluctant to journey westwards, though he sucked as a captain and actually sabotaged two of the boats. 

All in all, it is a delightful place to visit. We have this on the "comeback" list and would also like to visit Tenerife and the other islands. Next up, sailing North is Funchal, Madeira—yet another island I know almost nothing about.

Bonus shots

1&2: Allison and I enjoying some of the views from 2500 feet up.
3:    Decorative Gate towards the end of the high street.
4:    Sunlight view
5.    The old and the new lighthouse
6.    Cute mural at the vineyard.
7.    View down the street in Santa Cruz









Comments

Post a Comment

Please leave a comment (and let us know who you are!!)

Popular posts from this blog

Day 141: Ponta Delgada - Ambling Through The Azores

Image
  Today, we visited the Azores, another set of islands in the Atlantic Ocean. They’re a group of nine volcanic islands about 850 miles west of Portugal, set in a 2-5-2 formation. To prove we’re truly heading home, they are about 1200 miles southeast of Newfoundland. We actually have to travel east-south-east to reach Bermuda, our next port of call. Allison went shopping and I took a walking tour of downtown Ponta Delgada - the unofficial capital and largest city. Considering they’re literally stuck in the middle of nowhere, the islands are impressive. Most have at least 3000 ft peaks and Pico Island maxes out at 7700 feet - the highest point in Portugal. When measured from the sea floor, the mountains in the Azores are some of the largest on Earth. The volcanoes are still active, averaging one event every 30 years. The large major blowup was 1957, so we’re overdue. Fortunately, nothing happened during our visit, although everywhere you look, there are cinder cones and volcanic remn...
Read more

Preparation And Logistics

Image
  There's actually a lot of work and preparation required before we leave.  Aside from the packing (multiple climates and dress codes), the two major items are passports/visas and prescription  drugs. First-world problems but definitely time-consuming. In order to take the trip, we need ten blank pages in our passports to account for all the entry and exit stamps. We also have to get visas for India (longest form ever), New Zealand (fairly easy), Australia (through a really cool phone app), and, in a few weeks, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and finally, Nepal. We've also created multiple paper and electronic copies of everything - just in case! The second major issue was getting a 5 month supply of prescription drugs. Nothing about the American healthcare system is easy. For those of you outside the country, prescription drugs come in 30 or 90-day supply with no exceptions. Except .. we needed more than 90 days. Engineer-brain John did some research and created a flowchart of how...
Read more

Day 241 - Four Lessons and Life-Changing Events

Image
  You can't sail around the world without it impacting your view of the world. So here are my top four from the trip. I never truly realized the horrendous impact that European Colonialism had on the world from the mid-1400s until well into the last century. The devastation and cultural destruction was massive. It seems the Spanish and Portuguese were the worst, the Danes, Dutch and Germans the best, and the French and Brits were somewhere in the middle. It's way different seeing it in real life than reading about it in a history book. And yes - my forefathers contributed on a huge scale. There was a time when the sun never set on the British Empire. 
Read more