All the Canary Islands came about through volcanic activity which has made figuring out what can grow a bit of a challenge. On today’s excursion, we visited an aloe vera company. Aloe vera is considered to be native to Oman and the UAE but grows just fine in the Canaries.
Turns out that for all of you who have kept aloe growing in a pot in your kitchen to soothe a burn (including us at times) may have been doing it all wrong. The woman giving the demonstration showed how to cut it, using a piece that was probably 2 feet long. It reminded me of filleting a fish. The useful part is right in the center, looks like a slab of clear jello, but it’s surrounded by latex, which is yellow. I don’t know how big a piece you need to get to the slab. It’s even edible – not much flavor – I tried it. If you only cut off the tip, not only are you not getting to the right part, but it will be a irritant (she showed us on her own arm) vs a healing agent. Of course, there were many products available for sale after the demo and the short film.
I was mostly interested in the second part of the trip to James del Agua. We’ve been fortunate to visit Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii so we knew some of that geology. On Lanzarote, an enterprising individual decided to clean up a partially collapsed lava tube, previously just used as a dump, and turn it into a beautiful destination, complete with a restaurant/bar. There’s a lake at the bottom, with an endemic species of tiny albino crabs, and, the acoustics are terrific. It was impossible to capture in pictures, but I tried. My desire to get an air mattress, float in the lake and listen to the new age music they piped in was overwhelming. I suspect the proprietors knew that, and once you exited the tube, you came upon a shallow pool at the end of the property. Great entertainment space.
Enroute to the lava tube: the vast majority of the homes were white.
Ron opted for the wine route excursion – it’s quite fascinating to find out how they protect the vines from the winds and provide water. Apparently they originally just jammed a vine into the fissures. Later, shallow depressions were dug to be followed by semi-circular lava rock walls to protect the vines from the winds. Now, there are rows of walls and drip irrigation. Photos by Ron.
Onto the island of La Gomera.