CUMBRE VIEJA ERUPTION
We are going to travel to the
Canary Islands in a few months. This Spanish archipelago off the coast of
Africa has been in the news recently because of a 3-month eruption of the Cumbre
Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma.
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| The devastation of Cumbre Vieja |
For 91 days Cumbre Vieja spat out lava
and spewed ash into the air, destroying some 3,000 buildings, displacing 7,000
people, severing a major highway and forcing the suspension of flights to the
airport. At its widest the lava flow was over 2-miles and reached the sea
forming what’s called a lava delta, which means more land was created by the cooling
lava. Thankfully no one was killed, but a lot of tourists had to be evacuated.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG?
On Christmas Day 2021 officials
declared the La Palma eruption had ended and in late March, roughly 90 days
after that we will travel to the Canary Islands. We are not going to La Palma though, but to
Tenerife about 120 miles away.
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| Mt Teide, Tenerife |
Tenerife does have its own
volcano, Mt. Teide, which last erupted in 1909, so with our luck we’re due for
an eruption while there!
Mt Teide rises to 12,188 feet
in elevation, and it’s the highest point in all of Spain. If measured from the
ocean floor Mt. Teide rises 24,600 feet and is the 4th tallest volcano
in the world. The volcano and the surrounding area are a popular tourist
destination and Mt. Teide National Park sees millions of visitors yearly.
I DON’T KNOW
To paraphrase the Jimmy
Buffett song about volcanos, I don’t know / why we’re going to go!
So, If you’re thinking that
volcano eruptions are rare, just look at last weekend’s eruption of the Hunga
Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano in Tonga. If you think that’s a mouthful, look at
this video of several views from space of the eruption.
Here's NOAA's look:
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| Space.com |
Even during the depths of the
COVID pandemic last year millions of international tourists visited the
Canaries and that doesn’t include the many Spaniards who travel here, lured by
a subtropical climate, cheap flights and great vacation packages. Most of the
visitors are from the UK, Germany and France, and now us Americans. If you want
to go into a deep dive about the data go here:
CANARY ISLANDS STATS
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| Canary Islands flag |
GOING TO THE DOGS
There’s been enough excitement
in this particular entry, so here’s some comparatively droll stuff.
The Canary Islands are just 62
miles west from the coast of Morocco and the bird is named after the island, not the other way around. There
are several theories as to why they’re called Islas Canarias. One says it’s
from Latin “Canariae Insulae” – Islands of the Dogs. Evidently Pliny the Elder,
the historian and not the Double IPA beer from Russian River Brewing Company, said lots
of large dogs lived on the islands.
RUSSIAN RIVER BREWING 
The Canary Islands are part of
Macaronesia. Not to be confused with Micronesia, the multitude of islands in the
South Pacific, Macaronesia, is NOT where the macaroon was invented, but a
collection of four archipelagos off the coasts of Europe and Africa. They are the Azores
and Madeira, part of Portugal, The Canaries, and an independent West African
country, Cape Verde. The name Macaronesia is from Greek meaning “the Fortunate
Islands.”
HOT TIMES IN TENEREIFE
At 785 square miles Tenerife
is the largest of the Canaries, so there should be plenty of places to hide if
Mt. Teide wants to join the recently erupting club.
Most of the tourists to the
Canaries visit Tenerife. Before COVID the numbers reached 5 million yearly. As
there are so many tourists, competition for the Euro is fierce. This is good! Low-cost drinks
and vacation packages are always alluring to your favorite traveling duo. Typical
of the Spanish way the revelry throbs deep into the night with bars and
nightclubs not really gearing up until around midnight. The port town of Playa
de las Americas is the party capital of Tenerife and there will be plenty of
choices of watering holes for us to explore.
Thankfully though we are
staying at the Santa Barbara Golf and Ocean Club by Diamond Resorts about 10
miles away. Our area may not convulse with a frenetic insistence like Playa de
las Americas, but this is good because Janet can’t keep up and needs her rest. We
do have to pace ourselves. Most of the naturist beaches are clustered in the
South Coast area where we are staying!
We are staying in Tenerife for
two weeks and plan to do all our exploring the first week and then relax when
family flies in from England. We plan on taking an all-day bus tour of the
island one day which will take us to Mt Teide National Park among other
destinations. Another day we are going on a winery tour. And, we plan on
renting a car for a few days to explore some nooks and crannies which may
interest us once we arrive.
This is going to be a great
trip, as long as the place doesn’t erupt!
Thanks for reading
Love Janet and greg
© 2022 by Greg Dunaj
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