“So instead I stare at the steaming liquid dripping into a coffeepot and start thinking of steaming volcanoes. And dinosaurs standing around drinking coffee, staring up at the giant meteor soaring through the air, commenting on how pretty it is.” ― Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Fish in a Tree
 |
| Inside a lava tube in La Frontera, El Hierro |
Yesterday, Paul and I visited a museum of ethnography, in which they convinced us that if we bought the island "pasaporte, " we could save about 8 Euros on museum admissions, as long as we visited every museum on the island. Since the island of El Hierro is only about 166 sq miles in size (the city of Knoxville, by comparison is about 105 sq miles), we figured this was doable. Plus it got to be a quest.
Yesterday, in addition to the ethnography museum we saw the vulcanology museum. That left us four to see today. So off we went.
First we went to the lava tube/ giant lizard/ housing of El Hierro museum. We were first treated to a tour of a lava tube which forms when the external lava dries around an air bubble and makes a tube. We saw these in Hawaii and also, I have visited them in Oregon on the continental USA and in Jeju island in South Korea. They are interesting structures. The local Bimbache tribe used them to house goats as well as for their housing. The temperature is pretty constant and they have also been used for wine storage. The pirate found that useful information.
 |
| The pirate gears up for his lava tube excursion |
 |
| Wine cellar, anyone? |
From here, we visited at this same museum a display of the nearly extinct Canarian giant lizard. They have wonderful protective coloration and are difficult to spot in their lava environs. The project to restore them has been partially successful without over 380 animals reintroduced into their natural habitats. They are predominantly vegetarian but do eat insects and larvae. They are threatened by natural predators such as raptors and feral cats. The eggs are at risk from the rodent population.
 |
| Can you see me? I am well camoflaged against the lava rocks. |
From there, we wandered through a series of dwellings from El Hierro covering centuries of life here. These folks were industrious and used to rugged conditions.
 |
| Thatched rooves and no AC or heat. |
 |
| A more modern version from early 1900s. We have seen many houses that STILL look like this during our drives through El Hierro. |
Once we conquered this museum, we were up the mountains above La Frontera to the museum Julan.
 |
| A look back at Frontera from the mountain top. |
We drove through beautiful pine forests to reach Julan, the most recent addition to the el Hierro museums.
 |
| Julan is the site of many aboriginal hieroglyphics. The message hasn't been interpreted and despite a lot of plunder, they have managed to preserve a good bit of these rock carvings and discuss them in this nice new modern museum |
 |
| Beautiful modern building houses some carvings and discusses their importance. |
The ride out to Julan is on a very narrow and curvy road and it's pretty isolated. But it is a scenic journey and you get the impression they are trying to preserve this heritage of the island.
From Julan, we were back to the "city" of El Pinar to the geology museum. This was a small spaced manned by a Spanish guy speaking perfect English. Generally, the geology here is that of volcanic origin and we saw much of it at the vulcanology museum yesterday. For me, the highlight was seeing actual pieces of restingolita, the rock formed from the volcanic area near the city of Restinga. It's a unique stone found nowhere else. For Paul, I'm sure the highlight was the nearby pizza store.
 |
| Restingolita stones formed by volcanic activity off the coast of El Hierro in 2011-12 |
 |
| Pizza for pirates in El Pinar |
From here, we were off to the last museum to complete our "pasaporte." The museum of the biosphere in Isora--which the pirate nicknamed Eyesore. But it's not. In fact, it has a lovely viewpoint onto the shores below.
 |
| Mirador Isora. We plan to visit this part of the island below tomorrow. It's the only place we haven't been! |
We ended up eating our evening meal again at Mirador La Pena. The local pineapple with shrimp was scrumptious.
 |
| Cheers from the pirate |
 |
| The local pineapples are small but delicious and sweet and a great pairing with shrimp. |
So tomorrow, we have only one part of El Hierro left unexplored---the shoreline of the east coast. And we will unturn that stone, godlordwillingandthecreekdon'trise!
Paul's Ponderings: Another slightly slow day by our standards, but great visits to multiple museos across the island, a good lunch, and all kinds of weather as normal here!
We can't speak for year round, but NOW, the wind blows a LOT and the temperature varies wildly across the island, as does rain and sun. Pretty much standard island weather.
It's pretty hard to imagine what living here must have been like 100+ years ago. It's pretty much "survive or die" on a place like this....there are no lazy people.
We've seen a lot of this island, some of it more than once in a different light, so think we know it as reasonably as a couple of Americans can based on the time we've been here. Not sure if we'd come back in the winter, but it's cut way down on traffic here.
Like most of the Canaries, there is NO collar to this island....it's not tropical, the beaches are minimal, etc. That's part of the attractiveness to us, but perhaps not so much to folks seeking sun and sand.
Our last day here is tomorrow, before flying back to Madrid, so a bit more to come...
No comments:
Post a Comment