Cruise ship season ending soon

The MS Braemar in the harbour of Valle Gran Rey

AidaVita visiting La Gomera

 This winter season La Gomera almost doubled the visits of cruise ship with about 80.000 passengers coming to see the island. The season is drawing to a close as cruise operators  move their ships to the Mediterranean and the Caribbean for the summer season. Today however the 'Braemar' operated by Fred. Olsen cruises is expected to call on La Gomera the second-last time and on Saturday the 'AidaVita' is expected to dock for the last time this season in San Sebastian de La Gomera for a stop that was programmed for last week but postponed due to adverse weather conditions. The 'Thomson Celebration' will also visit La Gomera one more time until the new season begins in October.

MS Thomson Celebration arriving in San sebastian de La Gomera recently

Road partially collapsed due to heavy seas

The road along the beach between La Puntilla and La Playa was badly damaged by heavy seas during yesterday's bad weather. The road is normally protected by an old low protective wall which is curved at the top to throw the waves back and had been previously damaged to a minor degree by large waves a few years ago. During this winter the wall was further weakened and gravel and larger pieces of rock had been thrown up and piled against it  by wave-action. This minor road tops an embankment along the shore and the land opposite the shore lies several feet below the road at the location where it has been damaged. 

The foundations of the wall suffered undercutting and a partial collapse yesterday evening causing subsidence along quite an extensive stretch of road. Local police and the mayor of Valle Gran Rey were on the scene to asses the damage and the area has been fenced off by the authorities. A traffic diversion is in place via an old track below and parallel to the affected stretch of road.

Maintenance of this coast road connecting La Playa and La Puntilla has been neglected over many years due to legal and fiscal problems arising from the unresolved question under who's jurisdiction the area lies. 

Weather conditions should gradually but substantially improve during today allowing further examination of the damage to prepare yet another temporary repair.

Rough seas damaged the road to La Playa in Valle Gran Rey

GOLD FIND IN LA GOMERA

Secrecy surrounds night-time tunnelling operations in Valle Gran Rey

Many people have been wondering over the years why a horizontal mineshaft resembling a tunnel was being driven in an easterly direction into the side of Teguerguenche mountain in Valle Gran Rey. The excavation started several years ago from a spot very near to the floor of the dry riverbed in the valley, and just above the large mains-water tank. Officially it was said to be a tunnel to eventually bring water from an underground deposit to the tank. Every now and again work stopped completely, officially due to lack of funding, only to suddenly start again some months later with different crews. 

But why were they digging mostly at night, why was the tunnel so large, and why were there mining experts and engineers from places as far away as Russia and Australia at work ? It was joked locally that they were building a metro-style underground to Playa de Santiago...

Hard work: Secret minor 'mine' in
the mountains. Donkeys are used
to carry the ore. There are plenty
of  cracks and crevices to explore.

'There's gold in them thar hills'

There were some persistent rumours of gold since excavations started, and now bit by bit the truth slowly has come to light: It is a gold mine ! Howevr, many of the local people 'in the know' were already aware of the reason for the secrecy: The mountains around Valle Gran Rey contain gold in important quantities. 

Some time ago an inebriated Australian  employee of the company excavating the 'tunnel' had  shown around a sizeable lump of the precious metal found there in a local bar, causing quite a stir. It didn't take long and a lot of digging was going on in remote spots in the mountains and the valley. A few hard-working locals seem to have been rewarded and appear to have struck veins of gold, because they suddenly could afford to buy new cars, pay off mortgages, and order huge rounds of drink.
Local government and and all other officials however remain tight-lipped and have refused to comment.

The main vein of gold

Gold of high quality
A mining expert who wants to remain anonymous has explained that the gold found here is encountered in 'lodes' which are  deposits of metalliferous ore that fill, or are embedded in, a fissure (or crack) in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock. ''The aurum (gold) we've encountered in La Gomera is of relatively high quality and purity, making this an important and commercially viable discovery. We can now be confident to hit the main lode in the not too distant future'', he said. The gradual increase in the number of police officers stationed and patrolling Valle Gran Rey over the past months is an indicator that he is right.

Apart from the larger deposits which are found and exploited directly during digging in the shaft, there are secondary finds of smaller amounts of gold, which are extracted from the already excavated material. New machinery for grinding and sifting through this gravel has been installed and some of it can be seen working a bit further down in the valley working through large amounts of material from the tunnel:

Gold rush ?
Where this unexpected gold find will lead to is anybody's guess at this moment, but the very strict environmental protection that most parts of the valley enjoy should ensure that no wild and unsightly mining boom will spoil the area's natural beauty. Many local people feel that only limited amounts should be allowed to be dug out. Mind you, the Spanish government will claim most of what is found anyway, but apart from the main commercial mine they can't check  and control every shovelful that a local farmer brings up carefully when ''digging a well for the goats'', and tourists poking around in between rocks will be left alone to try their luck. Madrid will have to be content with selling more prospecting licences and taxing the commercial finds. At least the gold will give some badly needed hope in these times of economic crisis that ironically helps to keep gold prices high. 

Canary Islands won again - cast your final vote now !

NASA Earth Observatory have  just released the results of last week's round of voting and the image the Canary Islands has won again to enter the final. Nasa writes:

''Last year, a longshot image showing an underwater volcanic eruption near the Canary Islands came from nowhere to win our first-ever Tournament Earth. The championship round of the 2014 tournament has arrived, and yet another Canary Islands image seems poised to capture the crown. However, “Trailing the Canaries” will have some stiff competition in “Activity at Kliuchevskoi,” a spectacular shot of ash streaming from one of the highest and most active volcanos on the Kamchatka peninsula. Vote for your favorite by Friday at 4 p.m. EDT / 8 p.m. UTC.''

Click NASA Earth Tournament 2014 to vote again and remember you can vote as often as you like.

Art VS Photograph Section

#2 - Trailing the Canaries Read more

 Vote for this image

VS

#6 - Activity at Kliuchevskoi Read more

 Vote for this image

Intriguing Mural in Valle Gran Rey

There is a house on the road along the beach near La Puntilla in Valle Gran Rey where an artist resides and some time ago this mural was painted on the front, including the garage door:

Mural in Valle Gran Rey, La Gomera

The reported plane crash that never happened

Great confusion in the Canary Islands on Thursday after a TUI plane was erroneously  reported to have crashed into the sea or made an emergency touchdown in waters a couple of miles off the coast of Gran Canaria, triggering a huge search and rescue operation, as IslandConnections.eu reports:

''Gran Canaria: - The incident is likely to trigger a review of procedures at the Canaries 112 emergency number, where staff are being blamed for sparking a massive scare at 3pm by Tweeting details of the alleged disaster without waiting for confirmation. News wires buzzed with details of the 'crash', which turned out to be a false alarm caused by a photograph of a cargo ship which had a large plane-type structure on board. From a distance it looked as if a plane had made a sea landing two miles off the coast of Gran Canaria and the photograph spread like wildfire on social media and in digital papers. Fifteen minutes later, as media including the BBC mobilised correspondents to gather information on what looked like a major incident, a statement was issued by the Airports Authority and then the government denying that a plane had crashed. For the rest of yesterday, various official bodies blamed each other for the scare, with staff at the 112 hotline insisting they had received confrmation from air traffic control that a plane was down. The Spanish Transport Minister, who was giving a press conference with the president of the Canaries when she was informed of the crash by aides, was said to be very angry at the embarrassing gaffe.''

It did look a bit like a plane in the sea off the coast of Gran Canaria (images above and below from Canarias7)

The folded Dutch floating crane (inset) that vaguely resembles a TUI plane was sailing past Gran Canaria.
Images source: canarias7 , where you can see lots of jokes about the incident. The social media are full of jokes about this embarrassing incident as this photo on Twitter (below) mocking the all-out mobilisation  proves:

Source: Canarias7

UPDATE:

There's no end to the jokes about the incident (see the two examples above).

The 112 emergency centres have published their radio conversations with air traffic control which show that the false alarm which triggered the all-out mobilisation of hundreds of rescue personnel was based on the confirmation by officers of the Spanish national police on shore that a plane was in the water - while all planes in Canary islands airspace were accounted for. 

Polcia Nacional 'plane spotting' on Thursday   Image: Canarias7

La Gomera - Magical Island

I just rediscovered this great La Gomera video by Marc Bradley with his own music:

President confirms subsidies for La Gomera ferry

The president of the Canary Islands Paulino Rivero has announced during a speech in the Canary Islands' parliament yesterday that his government will subsidise travel on the so-called 'interior ferry line' of La Gomera. Residents would receive a 75% subsidy for tickets and this should make the ferry line viable and very attractive for the prospective operator of the service. Politicians from all parties have welcomed the statement, and the mayors of the towns on La Gomera which the service is hopefully going to connect once again soon have expressed their support for the decision. It is hoped that the subsidies will make it more attractive for ferry operators to apply for the contract to supply the service. Persistent rumours circulate that 'more than one' company has been waiting for this decision before finalising their proposals and that on of them is the former Garajonay Express company.
The passenger ferry operated on and off over a number of years, attracting more than 150.000 passengers per year before ceasing operations in late 2012. It was a rapid and comfortable service cutting journey times between the towns serviced . It also helped to reduce the amount of traffic in the mountains and through the national park.
We're still keeping the fingers crossed...

Please vote again for Canaries !

The satellite image of the western Canary Islands including Gran Canaria  has won the last round of voting and is now amoung  the final four images of  the NASA Earth Tournament for the image of the year.  So come on and click NASA Earth Tournament 2014 to vote again in this year's semi-final. You can vote as many times as you can click and do tell your friends. This round of voting closes this Friday, March 28th 2014.

Can you whistle a poem in English ?

El Silbo teacher Jesus,  here whistling
 it skilfully without the use of his hands

That's the question posed by poet Albert Pellicer of the Contemporary Poetic Research Centre of the Royal Halloway University of London. The professor and author has written a poem called Breath of Sense which explores the El Silbo whistling language of La Gomera and for quite some time he'd been hoping to try if this poem could be whistled in the El Silbo language. He's now teamed up with the singer/songwriter and El Silbo master Rogelio Botanz and travelled to La Gomera to put it to the test here. With the financial support of La Gomera's local government six students from Tenerife travelled to La Gomera to interpret the poem through El Silbo. The artist Helen Petts will compile a video of the experiment with the landscape of La Gomera that gave rise to El silbo as a dramatic backdrop. The video is being shot for the universities of Kingston and Birkbeck who also do contemporary poetics research in collaboration with Pellicer. The group is due to leave today to publish their findings.

Well, if you've ever been on one of the excursion tours on La Gomera you'd know that the El Silbo demonstration given during the lunch stop always includes whistling in whatever language the guests want and the whistler will gladly whistle even your name, no matter how complicated. El Silbo whistles are phonetic and can be employed in any language, as words and phrases are formed by the varying pitch of the whistling. On La Gomera, the whistling is quite complicated, with varying lengths, ranges, pauses and emphasis on vowels and consonants.

The outcome of this new poetic experiment can only be positive and it will foster the interest in this ancient form of communication internationally even on an academic level.

Major Revamp for the Port of San Sebastian

The area around the terminal building in the harbour of San Sebastian de La Gomera is to be remodelled and improved. San Sebastian port handles about 1,2 million passengers per annum and parking in the harbour has been notoriously difficult for many years. The planned new and much larger car parks should make it easier for travellers and those picking up passengers, buying tickets as well as for the hire cars and taxis. Ample parking for buses and heavy goods vehicles, trucks and containers will also be provided. Let's just hope the new car parks will remain free of charge, but a 'hut to control parking' will be constructed which doesn't bode well for free parking. 

Planned redevelopment (click to enlarge)

The embarkation areas for cars intending to travel on the ferries will also be redesigned as will be the final stretch of the port access road. Even traffic lights have been mentioned - these would be the first of their kind here, as La Gomera has been delightfully free of traffic lights up to now. Some trees and green areas are also included in the plans and a general tidy-up of the whole area. 

The building phase is to take just eight months and the whole project is to cost 1,7 million Euros. Another 2,9 million Euros is to be invested in the extension of the pier by 38 metres to accommodate more and even larger cruise ships next season. The number of cruise ship passengers visiting San Sebastian de La Gomera has doubled during the current season from 40.000 last season to over 80.000 and La Gomera is receiving the highest ratings by cruise ship passengers. Work on the pier extension which will also include works on the marina, beach and existing pier is to begin shortly with all the paperwork in place and contractors appointed already.

Let's hope that the derelict-looking outer harbour of Valle Gran Rey will be next in line for an upgrade. Can we have a piece of that cake, pleeeeease ?

The port of San Sebastian de La Gomera seen from the marina

Springtime: La Gomera in full bloom

Spring on La Gomera starts early and often lasts  into early summer. There is a multitude of different plants and trees blossoming all over the island and wildflowers often carpet entire regions, causing every breeze to bring the fragrance of flowers.

Below are just a few impressions snapped a few days ago:

Blooming heather trees 

Eucalyptus 

Gomera Broom

Sow Thistle

Gomera Burgloss

Team up with fish and eat a friend

...according to this signage spotted by Martin Fagan in the Canaries and first published in the Telegraph:

... and don't forget to order fried dads (papas fritas) with your French-blue friend Gordon, the chicken.

A rock solid foundation

This unique house sitting on a large boulder can be seen in the village of La Laja in La Gomera's east.

Vote for the Canary Islands !

Last year a satellite image of the El Hierro eruption won the NASA Earth Tournament and became image of the year. This year's competition has entered the finals and again a beautiful image of the Canary Islands called Trailing the Canaries (below) has made it into the final eight - so do your bit and give it your vote. You must select four of the eight images according to your preferences and the image of the Canaries is in the art section. Voting closes tomorrow night, but you can vote as often as you like after clicking: NASA Earth Tournament 2014.  
UPDATE: This round was won and now see the next round of voting

NASA writes: ''The play of light on water can reveal overlooked details and nuances to photographers and artists on Earth. The same thing can happen when looking from space.The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite looked down on the Canary Islands on June 15, 2013. The Atlantic Ocean has a silvery or milky color in much of the image, the result of sunglint. Sunlight is being reflected off of the ocean surface directly back at the satellite imager, revealing details about the water surface or circulation that are otherwise invisible.   
In the image above, wavy, windsock-like tails stretch to the southwest from each of the islands. The patterns are likely the result of winds roughening or smoothing the water surface in different places. Prevailing winds in the area come from the northeast, and the rocky, volcanic islands create a sort of wind shadow—blocking, slowing, and redirecting the air flow. That wind, or lack of it, piles up waves and choppy water in some places and calms the surface in others, changing how light is reflected. Ocean currents, oil or pollution slicks, and internal waves can also alter surface patterns, though none are necessarily visible in this image.
According to sailors’ guides to the area, winds on the leeward side of the Canary Islands often blow in the opposite direction of the prevailing winds. The play of land and wind can also create a funnel effect, speeding up air flow around the coasts. The swirling nature of the leeward wind field is shown in a long, helical trail of clouds stretching southwest from Tenerife (the second island from the right).''

Last snow on Tenerife slowly melting

Spring has arrived in the Canary Islands but there's still some snow on Tenerife high up on Mount Teide. Its 3,718-metre (12,198 ft) summit is the highest mountain in Spain. In winter the top of this still active volcano is  covered in snow at times while far below the peak at sea level it is very warm and people are out on the beaches sunbathing and swimming in the sea. I took these photos  a couple of days ago from La Gomera and they show the southern slopes of Teide with the remnants of the last snowfalls on its summit.

Mount Teide's southern slopes just one month ago (above) and now (below and top)

Two fast ferries to La Gomera - changes to schedule

Soon to sail to La Gomera: Fast ferry Alboran   (Image: Trasmediteranea)

From this Thursday, March 20th 2014, the ferry company Armas which connects San Sebastian de La Gomera with Los Cristianos on Tenerife with their ship Volcan de Taburiente, will introduce a trimaran called Alboran on the route while their regular ferry Volcan de Taburiente is undergoing the annual review and inspection. The  faster ship will directly compete with the similar Fred.Olsen-operated Benchijigua Express 

The Alboran, built by the same yard in Australia, can also do the same maximum speed as the Olsen ferry at a staggering 42 knots per hour (about 80 km/h), but normal service speed is 36 knots. At about 300 ft the Alboran is 100 ft smaller than the Benchjigua (which happens to be the largest civilian trimaran in the world), and can accommodate about 900 passengers and 265 cars. This additional Armas ferry is owned by Trasmediterranea ferries under the Acciona brand and has previously plied routes in the Mediterranean. 

The Alboran will later begin sailing the regular route to El Hierro from Tenerife with occasional stopovers in San Sebastian de La Gomera, when the Volcan de Taburiente will be back in service maintaining the previous La Gomera connection. The current El Hierro ferry Alcantara Dos, also owned by Acciona will be withdrawn from that route due to problems with reliability, etc.. 

N.B.: A revised timetable will apply from Thursday for most departures. This will be published shortly. Check ferry timetables in English by clicking button Travel + Transport beside Home above). 

The Armas ferry Volcan de Taburiente

St. Patrick's Dog

The former fish cannery at La Rajita

I found the following interesting article today:

''La Rajita was formerly one of the centres of La Gomera's fishing industry, thanks to a factory operated by the Alicante-based Lloret y Llinares company, and until the 1960s it played an important role in the island economy.

Several such small fish salting, processing and packing factories were established in the nineteenth century and by the 1920s were flourishing, thanks to the island's situation and topography.

La Gomera was situated on a main tuna migration route, (and still is, but today's tuna population is miniscule in comparison).  There is also an ample coastal platform where valleys meet the sea.  The potential profit of this wealth of mobile food passing by, together with the relative ease of siting sheltered coastal fish factories, was soon efficiently exploited.  There were three such plants on the island's southern coast, one of which flourished from 1909 until 1986 at La Rajita.

© IslandConnections.eu

During the 1960s, a massive three quarters of all fish disembarked in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, that is, on the islands of Tenerife, La Palma and El Hierro, as well as La Gomera, was absorbed by these three plants on La Gomera, two of which were set in isolated valleys, and the third in Playa Santiago.

The 60s heralded the end of their heyday.  Various factors, such as an outdated fleet, Japanese factory boats, the depletion of fishing grounds, lack of capital for modernisation and increasing local demands for fair wages, together with the availability of cheap labour in North Africa, caused crisis in the sector.

None of the three plants survived, despite this promising early 70s Agencia de Extensión Agraria report: “The preserves factory in La Rajita on La Gomera processes fish caught in the south of the island, the most important species being tuna and mackerel.  The factory also makes 'caviar Gomera', which is much appreciated (mackerel and sea bream roe).  La Rajita has an annual production of approximately 2,400 tons”.

Many workers came round by boat, weather permitting, from nearby Valle Gran Rey on a daily basis.  Women worked as fish cleaners and packers, men as tradesmen and fishermen.  There was a single story, cement factory, surrounded by workers' flats, boat houses for the small fishing fleet, a jetty, a football pitch, a shop, a gofio mill, chicken houses, goat pens, a thriving school and a chapel.

La Rajita's population slowly dwindled when the factory closed.  By the late 80s, the last families moved out.  Valle Gran Rey's tourist trade was growing, offering employment.  The access road between La Dama and La Rajita was in poor condition and in any case, there was little opportunity for either work or leisure activities in La Dama.

A few workers found employment in the banana cooperative there, but the school that La Rajita's children were relocated to was tiny, with children between three and twelve in one class.  The coup de grace came with the offer of newly built council housing in Valle Gran Rey for the remaining La Rajita population....''

The above appeared a couple of days ago on Island Connections.eu (click for complete article)

El Hierro earthquake activity increases again

After almost three months of relative calm on El Hierro island since the strongly-felt 5.1 earthquake on Dec.27th, 2013, in the past two days a new 'swarm' of minor shocks was recorded there. Of the more than 165 events since Thursday most were of magnitude 2 or less and the strongest was a 2.4. They almost all occurred in safe depths of between 15 and 20 kms and none was felt by the population.

The location of the recent quakes is new however as the bulk of the activity now is happening under the eastern half of the island. Previous activity was concentrated under  and around the western parts of El Hierro. A new intrusion of magma is the likely explanation for the renewed activity and it remains to be seen what further effects, if any, it will have on the neighbouring island. Almost exactly on year ago there was a sudden swarm of quakes which then culminated in a magnitude 4,9 shock.
The total number of recorded El Hierro earthquakes since the beginning of the current cycles of activity in July 2011 now stands at a whopping 21.500 and counting.

Locations and depths of recent El Hierro earthquakes

UPDATE Sunday March 16th, 2014, 10:30am:

The renewed activity continues unabated and by now there've been 270 minor earthquakes in the past 3 days. There is no change in the depth and the strength of the shocks remains around and below magnitude 2. Most of the quakes are still in the eastern central El Hierro region.
UPDATE Monday March 17th, 2014, 6:30pm:
The activity has decreased considerably, but deformation of the island has increased again. No other changes.
UPDATE Tuesday March 18th 2014, 9pm:
...and once again activity has almost ceased with just four very minor shocks today. The general see-saw of volcanic activity on El Hierro just experienced another upturn, and each time it seems to happen in a different way. I am ending this post and will report any future developments in a new post.