The island has been designated by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve. Our "snapshot" tour started at 8:30 am and finished about 2:00 pm. Ralph (from Germany) was our guide. Ralph is a travel agent who also works as a local guide. He has been living on the island for about 20 years, so he knows his way around. Jesus was our coach driver, so we felt safe. There was a auto ferry at the dock when we arrived and the two ships took up all available dock space. The ferry takes a two hour journey over to Tenerife Island (where we will be tomorrow) each day.
The island is not big and they don't have a lot of tourism. There were only two shore excursions to chose from, the "snapshot" we took and one dealing more with the recent underwater volcano eruption which was just south of the island. Ours is the last cruise ship for the season (which runs from October to April) and typically, they average one cruise ship per month during the season. On average, Ralph said they have about 2,600 tourist PER YEAR! The island has a population of only about 6,000, half of which live in the capital city of Vlaverde, high up in the hills. The island has a small, daylight only, airport on the coast. They claim to have great diving, hill climbing and fishing. They do not have any main-stream hotels. For many years, they boasted of having the Guiness Book of Records' small hotel with just four rooms. Then some Dutch hotel opened somewhere with just two rooms...grrr! They have one traffic light on the whole island. They don't have any golf courses, amusement parks or other attractions. They have about a dozen black-sand swimming beaches around the island which apparently attract some mainland Spanish visitors during the summer. The two-lane asphalt road we used during the tour was paved, for the first time in the 1980's. They also have five wind turbines which generate enough power to satisfy local demands about 20 days out of every month. As a backup, they have a diesel fueled power generation station. Ralph was very proud and enthusiastic about the wind power and that it was demonstrating to the world how things could be green!!! I later asked about a backup system and he hesitantly confessed the diesel powered system was needed about 30% of the time. According to Ralph, the turbines generate far more power than needed at any one time. Therefore they use the power to also pump salt water to a massive reservoir in the mountains. Then, when the wind calms, the let the water flow back down to the ocean turning other turbines to generate electricity. Then your have the other turbines for the diesel generators. Lots of rotating equipment...and costly, but that's the green deal...nothing more taxes cannot overcome.
According to Ralph, their tranquility is by design. They prefer it to the massive tourist centers on the other Canary Islands. There is no crime. They do a lot of agriculture, pineapple, bananas, peaches, mangoes, goats, cattle, a few horses (which Ralph emphasized they do not eat) and lizards (of which they are very proud). Their unemployment is very low, partly because many of the youngsters leave for more exciting venues when they can and partly because they seem to have a civil jobs program that finds something for people to do when not otherwise employed.
The island is volcanic, as are all of the Canary Islands. Supposedly, there are over one thousand volcanic craters in the mountains of the island. They had the last major eruption in the chain back in 2011. They have a colorful history. They used to be known as the western-most location in the known world. They had the original Zero Meridian on their western coast until it was moved to the Old Royal Observatory in the London suburb of Greenwich in 1884. There is a memorial to the original zero meridian location on the island, they still seem to be resentful for the change in location.
From the dock, the coach weaved its way up the shear mountain side.
We arrived at, what used to be the smallest hotel in the world, to begin a two mile hike along the coast line through the coastal lava flows.
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| WAS the smallest hotel in the world |
The two islands off the east coast are home to the Lizard of El Hierro. We visited the Lizard Recovery Center later in the morning.
There was an abandoned resort that, according to Ralph, was a good idea, but was a failure technically. I got the impression, no one was terribly upset with its failure.
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| Wormwood |
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| Pineapple groves |
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| Lizard Recover Center |
We then went to a "museum" which preserved domiciles from the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries on the island. I found it interesting that there was very little change over 400 years. The 17th century house did have an outhouse, but that invention did not seem to carry on beyond the 17th century.
There was also a cave that predated all the other dwellings. Sarah and I were the only two who ventured down into it to look around.
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| Dragon Tree (100+ years old), a member of the Asparagus family |
On the path back, I got a shot of the airport and the little community beside it. Ralph said there are 50 permanent residents but in the summer its population swells to 500 due to Spanish visitors.
I always try to come home with some token. I selected three volcanic rocks. The yellowish one is due to sulphur in the rock. The largest one I am going to give to Morgan for his aquarium.
The sun did finally break out in the afternoon and I was able to get some photos of from our veranda.
Crew members showed up to tie down the veranda deck furniture. The Captain came on just before we pulled away from the dock at 6:00 pm to say we will be arriving in Tenerife at 7:00 am tomorrow but he is expecting 10-15 foot waves tonight. I am looking forward to some good sleeping!
As we pulled away from the dock, the wind turbines were observable.
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