Monday, April 3. Docked in Arrecife. 20 C. Sunny sky. Day 90, home in 38 days.
Hard to believe that it's exactly three months to the day that we set sail on this ship from Fort Lauderdale.
We were on tour again this morning. Once again, a safe and interesting tour that is only four hours long. It was named Island of Fire.
We are on the Island of Lanzarote, one of the eight Canary Islands. The Canary Islands were formed by volcanic eruption millions of years ago. In 1730 several volcanoes erupted over a period of six years. The existing inhabitants, farmers mostly, fled the site and some left the island completely. After four years they found that they could, with a lot of work, grow crops here in spite of the place being spoiled by ash, lava sand and lava flows, now hardened and cooled.
The island only gets sparse rain, and sometimes none at all, for a year. It is really a moon or mars landscape. Over 10,000 farmers toiled to re work the barren landscape so they could, once again, farm their land. They found that the sand and ash, being black, absorbed the heat and the cooling at night, created moisture in a dew-like process and the water would trickle down allowing the course sand to moisten and the crop to flourish, or at least survive. These are not dense crops or vines they are well spaced apart. They protect the crop by forming wind-breaks of lava rocks or walls. An unimaginable amount of manual labour is involved.
Regardless of the details, it worked and is still working. The Vineyards on the island produce over 1,000,000 bottles, mostly all consumed domestically. One of the more popular is a sweet dessert white wine called Malmsey. We bought one, for Fellette as she liked it, and smuggled it onto the ship today. Don’t tell anyone please!
The Tour today was one of the best, ever. The female guide, from the island was fully fluent in English and very, very knowledgeable of every aspect of the island and its very long history. The bus had an audio presentation presented to us on the amazing drive through the spectacular terrain, synchronized to where we were physically located.
Interesting to know that the diary of these eruptions was recorded by a Priest living at the time [1736] who did not evacuate when advised because he did not want the Pirates, who hung out here at the time, to loot his Church should they chose to do so when the village was vacant. So he recorded thoroughly with dates and even times of the happenings. Yet in Maui when they were devastated with an eruption, about the same era, the only date known was because a Spanish Explorer made a note of the eruption when he visited Maui two years after a previous visit in the same bay when there was no volcanic action. So much for Oral History.
Fellette and I have never been to this port, but we have seen similar landscapes in Maui and Mt. Etna in Sicily, but they were nowhere as vast as this. It was an educational and pleasurable day for us.
One interesting thing today was the quality of the engineering and paving of the windy and weaving roads around cinder cones and lava tubes etc. It was superb! First World Plus. There was no shoulder at all between the perfect paving job and the moonscape lava, at all. They had to have a Patch Up Crew come by when the excavators and paver equipment had left and spent an incredible amount of time making it perfect. Well done!
A Good Day. Morocco Tomorrow!
Enroute to the Lava Flow Area.
On the way up in the hills. This is not a backward place, at al!
Quality roads here.
This bush burst into flame almost instantly from the heat of the lava two meters down when placed in the hole. The volcano is still considered active.
Forget the women and the guy with the big belly. These chickens and sausages are being cooked for use in the restaurant only from the heat of a well in the lava about six meters down!
Steam generated from a six inch diameter pipe in the hot earth three meters down when the gent pours water into the pipe that turns to steam in a flash. That is not my finger and camera.
That is the oven room that cooks with heat from the hardened lava below.
It is hard to catch a good photo that can convey the concept of this way of farming.The walls are to protect wind from drying up any moisture from the crop.
That is one single grape vine that can grow without rain for a year or more. Life is not easy for these farmers.
My best photo of the day.
Our first Selfie this trip. Probably the last as well.
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