EAGLES AND EARTHQUAKES

   EAGLE – this was the symbol of THE ENEMY in 1940 - the Germans, who were naȉvely presumed to have been soundly thrashed in the First War. 

The thought that another generation of young men had to fight and die was horrific to their parents, yet the sound of a military band was enough to stir the heart of EDDIE, Bert’s younger brother, who volunteered and joined the army with him and Albie in my novel Helter-Skelter.. 

EIGHTEEN was officially old enough to fight, but Eddie was horribly homesick, with potentially disastrous results.

Can Albie's quick thinking and inherited instincts save him?

EL HIERRO is the smallest of the Canary Islands but, seismically speaking, the most active. In October 2011 an eruption started just off the south coast, forcing one entire village (La Restinga) to be evacuated due to toxic fumes and rocks exploding from the sea. It quietened down after a few months, but recently there has been a series of EASRTHQUAKES, including one of 4.9. 

The rash in the sea in this picture shows where they occurred. El Hierro is small enough to drive round in a morning - anyone fancy a holiday?

CAMPEONES & Earthquakes.

As you can imagine, last night was not a quiet one here in Tenerife.

It started in the afternoon with children chanting “España!” in the pool. Then one of our neighbours moved his television onto his terrace, lit his barbecue and invited all his friends round. 

 Every bar was bedecked with flags, and the football shirt manufacturers  had obviously done a roaring trade.





A few practice bangers exploded and my cat cowered. She won't allow me to comfort her at times like these - Canarian or not, she hates fireworks - so I built her a tent in her favourite corner and went to my daughter's apartment to watch the match in comfort.

Then there were shouts, screams, fireworks and general rejoicing. Four-nil! I am not a football fan, but the excitement was infectious.

Even the children were dressed up, and this man, his wife and his family were all decked out in Spanish colours.

I did feel sorry for Simone, owner of the lone Italian flag on our block. I found him sharing a drink with a Spaniard, and patted his back in sympathy. “No importa,” he said, but his expression was sad.

And there have been more earthquakes on the island of El Hierro - see its dedicated page on the right..

EL HIERRO PIRATAS

You may remember I have blogged several times about El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands that recently had an undersea volcano erupting two kilometres off its coast.
They have been struggling to survive ever since. The fish stocks have dwindled or fled the contaminated sea, decimating the income of the fishermen. Diving schools, that are another main source of income on the island, were also badly hit, though they are recovering since the ban on approaching the now quiet volcano has been lifted, but their economy is still fragile.
It wasn't helped when the ferry company Armas announced it would no longer be going there because the route was losing money.
So last week the Mayor (whose name is Armas, oddly enough) and fifteen other El Hierro politicians took matters into their own hands and prevented the ferry from loading. Eventually the boat sailed. The Captain radioed ahead to say he had "several stowaways on board." and asking for the Policia to meet the boat. The politicians were referred to in the press as "Piratas". They seem to have talked their way out of being arrested - politicians are good at that.
Someone arranged with Fred Olsen to take the abandoned goods to El Hierro in one of his ferries, and he began talks with the Canarian Government about taking over the route.

Surprise, surprise! Armas Ferries have now decided they might be able to see their way clear to operating a service after all.

The yellow tree I commented on three days ago was buzzing this morning. There must have been a bee on every twig and the ground underneath was bright yellow with fallen blossom. I wonder what the honey tastes like?

And this is the latest photo of the cactus, with my hand to demonstrate the scale of the bud that is growing fast.

VOLCANOES

VOLCANOES There are 411 volcanic mountains on Tenerife, all of which are inactive – for now. Some of them are so small you can climb them in an hour, others would take more than a day, and some you would be wise not to attempt at all. Some have been quarried for massive lumps of hard grey rock that is used for decorative finishes on walls, or the creamy white rock to make building blocks - all kinds of rock right down to the pebble-like white, brown or black picon that decorates gardens,

There are two mountains we see as we drive up through Guaza that have the profiles of a man and a woman, another has one almost VERTICAL face, but the mountain everyone associates with Tenerife is Mount Teide. We drive up there sometimes, to show VISITORS round, or for a barbecue picnic with friends, or just for a change of scenery.

We’re used to the road now, and in recent years they have put metal crash barriers along the steeper edges which give one a greater sense of security. Even so it’s a character-forming drive.

I love the way the cloud lies in the VALLEYS like a pile of candy floss, and you can see the top of it as if you were in an aeroplane – I don’t recall ever seeing the top of a cloud in England. There are strange cloud formations that loom overhead too, in smoothed-off shapes that could be flying saucers. Sometimes we are in the forest when cloud sweeps in, and tendrils of cloud stroke your face with damp fingers – that’s quite eerie, and the temperature drops 10 degrees in as many minutes.

There are designated picnic areas scattered all over the island, and the favourite ones are high up on the mountain. The terrain is a bit rough, but the Cabildos have built stone barbecues where you can light a fire safely, there are piles of logs left by the teams who manage the forest, and a few pine-cones make wonderful fire-lighters. The favoured spots go quickly at weekends, so if we’ve arranged for a large group barbecue, an advance party will drive up to occupy one of the picnic tables and get the fire started.

Canarian families bring saucepans of potatoes and VAST slabs of ribs, but a few chops and sausages are all we need to go with salad, bread and beer. None of us drink much – there’s the long drive down to be considered, and at a mile above sea level the air is thin. A gentle walk to a spot from which I once saw four other islands is the most exercise I want to take up there, and just watching kids kick a football about is exhausting, but I know of at least one couple who joined the “Mile High Club” without leaving the ground.

There’s a thought – the actual peak is over two miles high. Would an adventurous couple get double points?

Our nearest active volcano is on El Hierro, the smallest Canary Island and a mere 150 kilometres away. If you take the ferry past La Gomera you can be there in less than 3 hours.

Last October, after months of small earthquakes, a volcano began erupting under the sea off the south coast. The brown stain on the sea was VISIBLE from La Restinga, a small VILLAGE whose only industry is fishing and dive tourism. The eruption sent huge lumps of fiercely hot lava shooting skywards, all the fish died or fled, and the air was so full of sulphur that La Restinga’s inhabitants were evacuated.

The experts say the eruption has stopped now, and the cone is still fathoms deep. El Hierro is trying to return to normal, but there were two more earthquakes last week.

VENOMOUS creatures. There are no venomous snakes on Tenerife, and the only insects that bite are mosquitoes and small jumping spiders. The lizards won’t harm you and they eat the insects – I’m all in favour of that – and you get used to the sound of the cicadas after a while.

Venomous animals – now that’s a different matter. There are all kinds of predators about, especially in the sleazier tourist bars in the small hours.

And I discovered to my dismay recently that those beautiful strelitzia (Bird of Paradise plants) are poisonous. 

E FOR BRICK

As in A for ‘orses, B for mutton, C for yourself, Dee-fer- ential.

This is my attempt to apologise for yesterday’s Dismal blog. In my Defence I had spent an hour in the Dentist’s chair while he took a hammer and chisel to a temporary crown. He smiled and said “Demaciado bueno” (too good) – I presume he meant his glue!

Be that as it may, a light-hearted topic for E ELUDES me. E is the most used letter in the alphabet – EVEN my name, ELIZABETH, starts with an E - yet my mind is EMPTY of inspiration.

Today is the first of the EASTER holy days – Jueves Santo - no humour in that.

Then there’s EMBEZZLEMENT – a lot of that in local government here - EVEN less humorous.

Or ENERGY. I’m all in favour of the renewable kind, just lacking in any myself.

There’s been ENOUGH talk about the EURO without me adding my EIGHT-cents’ worth, and I’m sure you don’t want to hear about the time I got stuck in an ELEVATOR.

Ah – got it – ENTROPY. That wonderful musical duo Flanders and Swann (remember "Mud, mud, glorious mud"?) summed up the First Law of Thermodynamics in these words; “Heat don’t pass from a cooler to a hotter/ You can try it if you like but you’d far better notter.”

Definition No3 of Entropy in my Collins goes thus; “Lack of pattern or organization: disorder.” EXACTLY – my brain in a nutshell.

Meanwhile I’d better EXPLAIN my illuminated letter E. The island of EL HIERRO has quietened down after all the EXCITEMENT of the past few months. For those of you who are new to my blog, you might like to read my El Hierro page which I started last October, when the undersea volcano first made its presence felt.

I mention it again now because, although no longer front page news, the ECONOMY of the island is still reeling from the impact of the ERUPTION, and if you fancy an away-from-it-all holiday, you could do worse than ESCAPE to an island you can drive round in half a day.http://www.turismodecanarias.com/canary-islands-spain/tourism-office/el-hierro-island/

ESCAPING from the crowds to an isolated beach can be EXTRAORDINARILY difficult. These two ELDERLY EXPATS only found this little place last year, when our son and girlfriend came out determined to snorkel with turtles. A diver friend of ours said “Go to EL PUERTITO,” so we did.

EASY to find it is not and the road down the barranco twists like an EEL. There’s only one bar which charges EXTORTIONATE prices – ESPECIALLY if you’re obviously an EXTRANJERO – but the bay is EXQUISITE, there's a sandy beach, the houses pile on top of each other like a child’s toppled brick tower, and our young couple actually stroked a turtle. One word sums up their reaction – ECSTATIC!

News and views

This was the view as we parked our car on Friday at Las Galletas in the south of Tenerife. We simply stood and watched the boat sail by - lovely, isn't it?

One good item of news for the Canarians this week - the government have finally got around to paying the chemists the 120 million euros they were owed. The chemists had been threatening to stop filling prescriptions - even to cease stocking drugs at all - unless they were paid. Who can blame them?

And El Hierro, the island I have posted about before, is publicizing geo-tourism.
If you have to live with the threat of a volcano, you might as well make a profit out of it!

A holiday with a hint of danger.

From the local paper this morning -
El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands, has had its red flag replaced by a yellow one.
La Restinga, a tiny fishing village on the south coast, woke up in October to discover a stain on the sea and dead fish floating - a volcano was erupting under the sea only two kilometers beyond their small harbour. (See my earlier posts.)
Since then the inhabitants have been struggling to survive with two of their main sources of income banned - fishing and dive-schools - and the tourists stopped coming.
Last month the Crown Prince of Spain made a well-reported visit, so show solidarity with the beleaguered herrenos and to demonstrate the lack of danger. Ticket and accommodation prices were cut to encourage tourism, and now the local government is publicizing volcanic holidays.
The massive stain over the eruption is fading and the tremors are now too faint to feel. At least for now. The volcano is only sleeping, not dead. A yellow flag is not an "All clear". Fishing and diving are still banned, so you won't be able to eat local-caught fish, but goat stew is delicious, wine is cheap, and you might - just might - experience an earthquake.
But that's the attraction - an island holiday in the sun, with a hint of danger. Maybe I'll go and see for myself.