On 19th September last year there were a number of earthquakes and a volcano called Cumbre Vieja erupted. Over the next three months over 2,000 homes were destroyed and one man in his 70’s died whilst trying to clear ash off his roof.
Whilst La Palma is a volcanic island this was the longest eruption ever recorded (i.e. since the Spanish arrived), the last time there was any volcanic activity was in 1971 when there was a smaller eruption in the south of the island.
The picture taken from about 5 miles away shows the volcano still smoking although it has not been "active", whatever that means, for 12 months. The black area to the right is the lava flow.
Today we drove over to have a look at the damage, the main west coast road is now 20ft under a pile of larva so the chief activity seems to be building a new road. There are lots of signs warning of C02, the main resort town of Puerto Naos is closed and empty, not because of any damage but due to the gas although none of the hundreds of workman building the new road had any masks or other protection.
The molten lava destroyed most buildings in it’s path but a few were spared and now sit forlornly in the middle of a black sea of rock and are presumably uninhabited and worthless.
Puerto Naos is mostly holiday homes, bars, restaurants and one huge hotel, goodness knows when the tourists will be allowed back. I presume the experts don’t think the volcano will erupt again, hence rebuilding the road, it might be famous last words.
We had snow on the top of the mountains on Christmas Day but we now have strong winds from the East bringing dust storms from Africa, it is a very comfortable 23c at sea level and hopefully will remain so. Once the dust storms pass after tomorrow the forecast is good for the rest of our holiday, I do hope that it is right.
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