February 2. 2018. El Hierro: Self Sufficiency, Volcanic Eruption and Dinner on High...and a sacred tree to boot

The legend states that the "Garoé" was a large laurel tree that assured the life of the Bimbaches, providing them with water in sufficient amounts for their survival. The islands are located where tradewinds occur, and water from clouds condensed on the branches of the tree and it later poured rain around the island.

                                 ----Wikipedia

Paul stands guard on the sacred tree, Garoe, stinkwood of the laurisilva rain forest that produces it's own water from the cloud mists above.  Ancients depended on it for water. There is no natural fresh water in the Canaries except on La Palma.

Today we started our sojourn with a trip to La Quintera, an ethnographic museum in the capital city of Valverde. Despite being the capital, the city is small and has very little going on.  The ethnographic museum concentrated on life sustaining activities of the local people when they were very isolated from the rest of the planet. Not that they aren't pretty isolated now!

Giant bellows of the black smith shop. There are not many animals here now needing shoes, but in the past there were up to 13 registered blacksmiths in El Hierro.

The loom. Since this is an island still filled with sheep and goats, the women made looms and spun wool from primitive looms

This insect lives in the cactus plants here and produces a blue dye. The dye was an industry until synthetics replaced it. Now with the advent of "natural dyes" it is making a comeback. 

Naturally woven clothes of the area.

Pottery was produced, predominantly by women in a tradition handed down from mother to daughter. They did NOT have a spinning wheel. All done by hand.

Museum of ethnography in Valverde

Paul and I agree that the most important thing we learned at the museum was the importance of self sufficiency in an environment where outside contact was limited and not guaranteed.

Our next stop was the legendary tree, Garoe, a stinkwood tree of the laurel forest which produces its own water from the cloud mists. We cannot over emphasize how misty the walk to the tree, about 5 miles roundtrip was. Our clothes were soaked on the way. But the tree produced a lot of fresh water. And still does.

Our hiking path to the sacred tree, Garoe.

The canarian pine forest we walked beside.

Play misty for us.

These trees (and everything else) exist in a constant bath of mist

This pool beside the sacred tree measures about 5 feet wide and 9 feet deep. On an island with little fresh water, the Bimbache native considered this tree and it's pool a miracle.

Garoe. The sacred water producing tree. It still produces copious water. In the 1600s , the original 500 yr old tree blew down in a hurricane. A  replacement was planted in the 1940s to commemorate the "miracle tree."

As a modern homage to the miraculous laurisilva (laurel trees) that still produce water in excess for human and other uses, Paul and I walked through a cattle farm to get to the "sacred tree." We passed this cattle trough below a laurisilva tree. It produced enough water out of the mists to keep these troughs full for the local cattle. 

After leaving this really interesting site, we were off to another island museum... the museum of Vulcanology which specifically covered the eruption in 2011 in Restinga, a local fishing and diving village at the South end of El Hierro. I was really impressed with the information which covered the underwater offshore eruption that occured from July of 2011 well into March of 2012 with over 300 earthquakes and evacuation of the village of Restinga (which we visited today.)

Volcanic activiity from the ocean floor produced innumerable "lava bubbles" of the shores of Restinga village. No fish could be eaten and many washed ashore dead. The island got bigger during this undersea eruption and added shoreline.

you can see the volcano bubbling up into the ocean. There was a zone of "green" where the volcano erupted. The village was evacuatated. The eruption continued in various degrees of strength for about 9 months and produced > 300 earthquakes. 

This was  a fascinating museum and a good lesson about undersea eruptions. 
From here, it was back to La Frontera and our casita to get ready for dinner at La Mirador de Pena.

The unused pool at our La Frontera house...Way too cold Wind is merciless here in the current month. Apparently, its very nice March through December.

The garden of our casita

A tower of mountain above our rental car. The car is called a Leon, which is Paul's dads name.

For dinner, we made our way to the beautiful sunset viewpoint of La Mirador de Pena. Food was good. View was outstanding.

A great view of Sunset over El Golfo de Frontera

Late sunset. It was nice to watch clouds float by at eye level.

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” 
― Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

Paul's Ponderings:  Another complex day on El Hierro.  We got a slightly late start, but had a day that ranged from ancient Canarian culture in the clouds, to warm weather on the south end of the island, coupled with a great dinner at an architectural marvel in the clouds yet again.   This is what a vacation on a rock in the ocean is all about!       

Overall, nothing too aggressive, but we are learning a LOT about this unique island.  In general, so far is the most the most unusual of the islands we've visited.