La Palma, Canary IslandsSpain (España)

The Most Mediatic of the Cataclysms to Happen


A Television Apocalypse
An installation in keeping with the media coverage of the Cumbre Vieja mountain near the summit of the San António volcano.
volcanic flora
Lush vegetation precariously installed over a lava field west of La Palma.
De Las Nieves between Palmeiras
The iglesia of Las Nieves, one of several churches on La Palma, a heavily Catholic island.
The San Juan Neighbor
black walk
Visitors to La Palma walk on the trail that skirts the crater of the San Antonio volcano.
lava coast
Rugged coast of La Palma, cut by small cables of solidified lava
volcanic flora II
Bright flowers grow at the foot of a lava-covered slope to the west of La Palma.
One of many Craters
Section of the crater of the San António volcano, with houses from a nearby village in the background.
"To Diaz su Patria"
Children play around the statue of priest Manuel Díaz Hernández, a parish priest who played an important role in the XNUMXth century in the Canary Islands' ecclesiastical life.
Taburiente Boiler
A dense pine forest covers the slopes of the Caldera del Taburiente, one of La Palma's supreme volcanic formations.
Live nature
Cows graze on a lush meadow halfway to the Taburiente caldera
square talk
Two residents talk at the base of the cruise that marks the first commemoration of the conquest of the island of San Miguel de La Palma.
Live nature
Detail of pine leaves, abundant around the Taburiente caldera
From Crater to Pinhal
Pine trees grow from the San Antonio crater, one of several along the Cumbre Vieja.
About to leave
Senhora removes a painting from inside the church of Nª Señora de Las Nieves
Pasture on Lava
Cows graze on lush grass with walls made of volcanic stone in La Palma.
The BBC reported that the collapse of a volcanic slope on the island of La Palma could generate a mega-tsunami. Whenever the area's volcanic activity increases, the media take the opportunity to scare the world.

We walked through the center of Santa Cruz de La Palma.

A Mass ends inside the church of El Salvador and believers return to the dim light of the gray day and a healthy secular coexistence.

Francis – the guide we have during some tours around the island confirms the religiosity of the palmeros and also his love for the good life, preferably outdoors: “We here in La Palma are probably among the most Latin American Europeans there are.

We have the second best tobacco in the world, after Cuba, of course. We are also big fans of “pure” smoking and parsley, from rumba and other Caribbean rhythms.

In La Palma there are no clubs. There is street music and, most of the time, live.”

Travel through the history of Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands, Belfry of the Church of San Salvador

The volcanic stone tower of the Church of San Salvador, at one end of Plaza de España.

For those visiting the westernmost part of the Canary Islands for the first time, it is difficult to say which of the two aspects occupies most of the residents' minds.

Anyway, the palmeros they have good reasons to give themselves to the faith of heart and soul.

O volcanism Potentially Blasting the Island of La Palma

According to a considerable part of the scientific community, they live half-walls with a gigantic time bomb whose detonation period has not yet been deciphered.

The next day dawns even more leaden but the rain doesn't disturb the way to the La Caldera de Taburiente National Park.

Cumbre Vieja, La Palma, eruption, Tsunami, Caldeira do Taburiente

A dense pine forest covers the slopes of the Caldera del Taburiente, one of La Palma's supreme volcanic formations.

We go through a tunnel dug into the mountain that Francis assures us that the natives treat by del Tiempo: “It's just that when we enter from the other side and the weather is bad, it's almost guaranteed that, on the opposite, it will be good.”

We gradually climb the slope until we reach a section covered with lush pine trees, which the sunlight saturates with an eccentric yellowish-green.

From there, we can see the supreme contours of the caldera of the great volcano of La Palma, traversed by a caravan of clouds that the prevailing winds manage to force into the crater.

Bearing in mind the ecstatic beauty and natural peace that is experienced, we wonder how the palmeros to the unexpected media and globalized alarmism around its mother island.

The Great Leap of Expected Eruptions to an Apocalyptic Tsunami

After the Southwest Asian tsunami of December 25, 2004, the media rushed to find possible successors.

The BBC, in particular, released the documentary “Megatsunami, Wave of Destruction” based on the theory arrived at by Stephen N. Ward and Simon Day.

The duo developed a computer simulation of the effects of an eventual collapse of the western slope of the Cumbre Vieja volcano (1949 m) over the Atlantic Ocean, triggered by a large eruption.

The simulation estimated that the debacle would generate huge waves.

They could have, in origin, 900 meters high.

After three hours, they would reach the Iberian Peninsula – to the north – with about 5 meters, but after more than six hours of crossing, they would still reach the Caribbean islands, several of them as volcanic or more.

These are the cases of Montserrat. Soufrière Hills volcano. From Martinique and its Pelée, Guadalupe quality Saint Lucia – to mention a few examples.

They would also hit the opposite coasts of North and South America, with between 10 to 15 meters where they would cause overwhelming destruction.

Since 2005, the media has made the most of the audience-raising potential and turned this scientific study into a mega-eruption of sensationalism.

More and more channels, magazines and websites used the duo theory to develop documentaries and articles.

Almost always committed to easy hysteria, with the North Americans leading this carnival, promoters of Hollywood images of giant waves swallowing the inevitable island of Manhattan.

The Cumbre Vieja Time Bomb Volcano and its Various Craters

The Cumbre Vieja remained undaunted and serene. On September 19, 2021, it erupted again and on October 10 (revision date for this text) it remained so.

Cumbre Vieja, La Palma, volcano, eruption

From intermediate altitudes as we walked, we ascend towards Roque de Los Muchachos, at 2426 meters.

There, we are on one of the highest points in the Canary Islands and in the whole of Macaronesia, which, for this reason, has hosted one of the best space observatories in the northern hemisphere, alongside that of Mount Mauna Kea, neighbor of the Kilauea volcano that generates most of the Big Island lava rivers.

A cloud cover below prevents us from seeing the scenery of La Palma, Tenerife and the supreme volcano El Teide.

With no alternatives, we head north and approach the western coast, which we have covered almost the entire length.

Through picturesque villages but also through lava fields until we approach the exact area of ​​La Palma, which can yield at any time and which caused all the commotion.

Cumbre Vieja, La Palma, Eruption, Tsunami, Volcanic Flora

Lush vegetation precariously installed over a lava field west of La Palma.

We pass the colorful houses of Los Canários and Fuencaliente.

Shortly thereafter, we are ascending to a new crater, this time that of the San Antonio volcano, one of several that appear on the long slope of the Cumbre Vieja.

The cone is black, covered with a land of lava overlaid by old eruptions.

In contrast, fearless pine trees sprout from the bottom of its crater.

Cumbre Vieja, La Palma, eruption, Tsunami, From Crater to Pinhal

Pine trees grow from the San Antonio crater, one of several along the Cumbre Vieja.

By itself, the scenery is worthy of amazement but it doesn't stop there.

An Installation of Homesick Furniture near the San Antonio Summit

We walk along a narrow path that goes around the crater and we come across some art installation that someone had temporarily left exposed on the ground.

A center of the room from the 50s – or, whatever, the 60s – stood out from the dominant blackness.

It was composed of a sofa, a lampshade, a rug, an old wooden radio and, on top of it, a TV made of the same material and from the same period.

Cumbre Vieja, La Palma, Eruption, Tsunami, A Televisioned Apocalypse

An installation in keeping with the media coverage of the Cumbre Vieja mountain near the summit of the San António volcano.

Mystery thickens, like the mist that hovers in the distance over the sea in case of collapse, the receiver of the vast slope below us and the culprit of the Atlantic Apocalypse that would follow.

In the past, other landslides could have generated enormous destruction had it not been for the area in which they were found to be virtually uninhabited.

On July 9, 1958, one of Alaska's frequent high-intensity earthquakes caused the landslide of a slope in Lituya Bay.

The 30 million km3 of land released created a wave that reached 500 meters in height.

The Dreaded Collapse of the South Coast of La Palma and the Controversial and Dreaded Cataclysm

However, if that happened, the release of the Cumbre Vieja would release 500 million km3.

The resulting wave would disperse over an area incomparably wider than that of the Alaskan Bay.

Cumbre Vieja, La Palma, eruption, Tsunami, Black Walk

Visitors to La Palma walk on the trail that skirts the crater of the San Antonio volcano.

To the south, we see Teneguia, another sub-volcano of the Cumbre Vieja, let's call it that – the last non-submarine in La Palma to erupt, in 1971, with one of the volcanic activities the thinnest and shortest ever recorded in the Canary Islands.

Lately, it has been the nearby volcano El Hierro to take the lead. Since mid-2011, it has suffered nearly 10.000 earthquakes caused by magma activity at the island's base.

Some have approached 4.5 on the Richter scale, figures that have already forced authorities to ban fishing around and even divert traffic from more sensitive parts of El Hierro.

The media wasted no time.

In recent months, they have again raised awareness of the imminent risk of the collapse of the Cumbre Vieja and of a tsunami, caused by an eruption due to the widespread intense activity of one – or several – of the El Hierro volcanoes, just 128 km away.

From there, from the top of San Antonio, the only thing we saw plummeting into the sea was the almost scarlet sun that the Atlantic swallowed without any oscillation.

Cumbre Vieja, La Palma, Eruption, Tsunami, One of Many Craters

Section of the crater of the San António volcano, with houses from a nearby village in the background.

At that moment, we had more to worry about than the mere destruction of the civilization we knew. Night fell and the cold began to bother us.

Finally, in the second half of September 2021, the Cumbre Vieja erupted and, to date, has generated a destructive lava flow that has razed hundreds of homes.

Nature is capricious. We wait and see.

Tenerife, Canary Islands

The Volcano that Haunts the Atlantic

At 3718m, El Teide is the roof of the Canaries and Spain. Not only. If measured from the ocean floor (7500 m), only two mountains are more pronounced. The Guanche natives considered it the home of Guayota, their devil. Anyone traveling to Tenerife knows that old Teide is everywhere.
Tenerife, Canary Islands

East of White Mountain Island

The almost triangular Tenerife has its center dominated by the majestic volcano Teide. At its eastern end, there is another rugged domain, even so, the place of the island's capital and other unavoidable villages, with mysterious forests and incredible abrupt coastlines.
El Hierro, Canary Islands

The Volcanic Rim of the Canaries and the Old World

Until Columbus arrived in the Americas, El Hierro was seen as the threshold of the known world and, for a time, the Meridian that delimited it. Half a millennium later, the last western island of the Canaries is teeming with exuberant volcanism.
Chã das Caldeiras, Fogo Island Cape Verde

A "French" Clan at the Mercy of Fire

In 1870, a Count born in Grenoble on his way to Brazilian exile, made a stopover in Cape Verde where native beauties tied him to the island of Fogo. Two of his children settled in the middle of the volcano's crater and continued to raise offspring there. Not even the destruction caused by the recent eruptions deters the prolific Montrond from the “county” they founded in Chã das Caldeiras.    
Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park Indonesia

The Volcanic Sea of ​​Java

The gigantic Tengger caldera rises 2000m in the heart of a sandy expanse of east Java. From it project the highest mountain of this Indonesian island, the Semeru, and several other volcanoes. From the fertility and clemency of this sublime as well as Dantesque setting, one of the few Hindu communities that resisted the Muslim predominance around, thrives.
Volcanoes

Mountains of Fire

More or less prominent ruptures in the earth's crust, volcanoes can prove to be as exuberant as they are capricious. Some of its eruptions are gentle, others prove annihilating.

Valencia to Xativa, Spain (España)

Across Iberia

Leaving aside the modernity of Valencia, we explore the natural and historical settings that the "community" shares with the Mediterranean. The more we travel, the more its bright life seduces us.

Matarraña to Alcanar, Spain (España)

A Medieval Spain

Traveling through the lands of Aragon and Valencia, we come across towers and detached battlements of houses that fill the slopes. Mile after kilometer, these visions prove to be as anachronistic as they are fascinating.

São Nicolau, Cape Verde

Photography of Nha Terra São Nicolau

The voice of the late Cesária Verde crystallized the feeling of Cape Verdeans who were forced to leave their island. who visits São Nicolau or, wherever it may be, admires images that illustrate it well, understands why its people proudly and forever call it their land.
Big Island, Hawaii

Searching for Rivers of Lava

There are five volcanoes that make the big island of Hawaii grow day by day. Kilauea, the most active on Earth, is constantly releasing lava. Despite this, we live a kind of epic to envision it.
Tanna, Vanuatu

From where Vanuatu Conquered the Western World

The TV show “Meet the Native” took Tanna's tribal representatives to visit Britain and the USA Visiting their island, we realized why nothing excited them more than returning home.
Ijen volcano, Indonesia

The Ijen Volcano Sulphur Slaves

Hundreds of Javanese surrender to the Ijen volcano where they are consumed by poisonous gases and loads that deform their shoulders. Each turn earns them less than €30 but everyone is grateful for their martyrdom.
Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain (España)

Fuerteventura's Atlantic Ventura

The Romans knew the Canaries as the lucky islands. Fuerteventura, preserves many of the attributes of that time. Its perfect beaches for the windsurf and the kite-surfing or just for bathing, they justify successive “invasions” by the sun-hungry northern peoples. In the volcanic and rugged interior, the bastion of the island's indigenous and colonial cultures remains. We started to unravel it along its long south.
Lanzarote, Canary Islands

To César Manrique what is César Manrique's

By itself, Lanzarote would always be a Canaria by itself, but it is almost impossible to explore it without discovering the restless and activist genius of one of its prodigal sons. César Manrique passed away nearly thirty years ago. The prolific work he left shines on the lava of the volcanic island that saw him born.
La Graciosa, Canary Islands

The Most Graceful of the Canary Islands

Until 2018, the smallest of the inhabited Canaries did not count for the archipelago. Arriving in La Graciosa, we discover the insular charm of the now eighth island.
PN Timanfaya, Lanzarote, Canary Islands

PN Timanfaya and the Fire Mountains of Lanzarote

Between 1730 and 1736, out of nowhere, dozens of volcanoes in Lanzarote erupted successively. The massive amount of lava they released buried several villages and forced almost half of the inhabitants to emigrate. The legacy of this cataclysm is the current Martian setting of the exuberant PN Timanfaya.
La Palma, Canary Islands

The "Isla Bonita" of the Canary Islands

In 1986 Madonna Louise Ciccone launched a hit that popularized the attraction exerted by a island imaginary. Ambergris Caye, in Belize, reaped benefits. On this side of the Atlantic, the palmeros that's how they see their real and stunning Canaria.
Vegueta, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Around the Heart of the Royal Canaries

The old and majestic Vegueta de Las Palmas district stands out in the long and complex Hispanization of the Canaries. After a long period of noble expeditions, the final conquest of Gran Canaria and the remaining islands of the archipelago began there, under the command of the monarchs of Castile and Aragon.
Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands

A Journey into the History of Santa Cruz de La Palma

It began as a mere Villa del Apurón. Come the century. XVI, the town had not only overcome its difficulties, it was already the third port city in Europe. Heir to this blessed prosperity, Santa Cruz de La Palma has become one of the most elegant capitals in the Canaries.
Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Grand Canary Islands

It is only the third largest island in the archipelago. It so impressed European navigators and settlers that they got used to treating it as the supreme.
Rhinoceros, PN Kaziranga, Assam, India
Safari
PN Kaziranga, India

The Indian Monoceros Stronghold

Situated in the state of Assam, south of the great Brahmaputra river, PN Kaziranga occupies a vast area of ​​alluvial swamp. Two-thirds of the rhinocerus unicornis around the world, there are around 100 tigers, 1200 elephants and many other animals. Pressured by human proximity and the inevitable poaching, this precious park has not been able to protect itself from the hyperbolic floods of the monsoons and from some controversies.
Faithful light candles, Milarepa Grotto temple, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 9th Manang to Milarepa Cave, Nepal

A Walk between Acclimatization and Pilgrimage

In full Annapurna Circuit, we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). we still need acclimatize to the higher stretches that followed, we inaugurated an equally spiritual journey to a Nepalese cave of Milarepa (4000m), the refuge of a siddha (sage) and Buddhist saint.
A Lost and Found City
Architecture & Design
Machu Picchu, Peru

The City Lost in the Mystery of the Incas

As we wander around Machu Picchu, we find meaning in the most accepted explanations for its foundation and abandonment. But whenever the complex is closed, the ruins are left to their enigmas.
Full Dog Mushing
Adventure
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.
Big Freedia and bouncer, Fried Chicken Festival, New Orleans
Ceremonies and Festivities
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

Big Freedia: in Bounce Mode

New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz and jazz sounds and resonates in its streets. As expected, in such a creative city, new styles and irreverent acts emerge. Visiting the Big Easy, we ventured out to discover Bounce hip hop.
Weddings in Jaffa, Israel,
Cities
Jaffa, Israel

Where Tel Aviv Settles Always in Party

Tel Aviv is famous for the most intense night in the Middle East. But, if its youngsters are having fun until exhaustion in the clubs along the Mediterranean, it is more and more in the nearby Old Jaffa that they tie the knot.
Tsukiji fish market, Tokyo, Japan
Meal
Tokyo, Japan

The Fish Market That Lost its Freshness

In a year, each Japanese eats more than their weight in fish and shellfish. Since 1935, a considerable part was processed and sold in the largest fish market in the world. Tsukiji was terminated in October 2018, and replaced by Toyosu's.
Tiredness in shades of green
Culture
Suzdal, Russia

The Suzdal Cucumber Celebrations

With summer and warm weather, the Russian city of Suzdal relaxes from its ancient religious orthodoxy. The old town is also famous for having the best cucumbers in the nation. When July arrives, it turns the newly harvested into a real festival.
combat arbiter, cockfighting, philippines
Sport
Philippines

When Only Cock Fights Wake Up the Philippines

Banned in much of the First World, cockfighting thrives in the Philippines where they move millions of people and pesos. Despite its eternal problems, it is the sabong that most stimulates the nation.
Africa Princess, Canhambaque, Bijagós, Guinea Bissau,
Traveling
Africa Princess Cruise, 1º Bijagos, Guinea Bissau

Towards Canhambaque, through the History of Guinea Bissau

The Africa Princess departs from the port of Bissau, downstream the Geba estuary. We make a first stopover on the island of Bolama. From the old capital, we proceed to the heart of the Bijagós archipelago.
Navala, Viti Levu, Fiji
Ethnic
Navala, Fiji

Fiji's Tribal Urbanism

Fiji has adapted to the invasion of travelers with westernized hotels and resorts. But in the highlands of Viti Levu, Navala keeps its huts carefully aligned.
Sunset, Avenue of Baobabs, Madagascar
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio

days like so many others

Dusk in Itzamna Park, Izamal, Mexico
History
Izamal, Mexico

The Holy, Yellow and Beautiful Mexican City

Until the arrival of the Spanish conquerors, Izamal was a center of worship for the supreme Mayan god Itzamná and Kinich Kakmó, the one of the sun. Gradually, the invaders razed the various pyramids of the natives. In its place, they built a large Franciscan convent and a prolific colonial houses, with the same solar tone in which the now Catholic city shines.
Graciosa, Azores, Monte da Ajuda
Islands
Graciosa, Azores

Her Grace the Graciosa

Finally, we will disembark in Graciosa, our ninth island in the Azores. Even if less dramatic and verdant than its neighbors, Graciosa preserves an Atlantic charm that is its own. Those who have the privilege of living it, take from this island of the central group an esteem that remains forever.
St. Trinity Church, Kazbegi, Georgia, Caucasus
Winter White
Kazbegi, Georgia

God in the Caucasus Heights

In the 4000th century, Orthodox religious took their inspiration from a hermitage that a monk had erected at an altitude of 5047 m and perched a church between the summit of Mount Kazbek (XNUMXm) and the village at the foot. More and more visitors flock to these mystical stops on the edge of Russia. Like them, to get there, we submit to the whims of the reckless Georgia Military Road.
Baie d'Oro, Île des Pins, New Caledonia
Literature
Île-des-Pins, New Caledonia

The Island that Leaned against Paradise

In 1964, Katsura Morimura delighted the Japan with a turquoise novel set in Ouvéa. But the neighboring Île-des-Pins has taken over the title "The Nearest Island to Paradise" and thrills its visitors.
Lenticular cloud, Mount Cook, New Zealand.
Nature
Mount cook, New Zealand

The Cloud Piercer Mountain

Aoraki/Mount Cook may fall far short of the world's roof but it is New Zealand's highest and most imposing mountain.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Grand Canyon, Arizona, Travel North America, Abysmal, Hot Shadows
Natural Parks
Grand Canyon, USA

Journey through the Abysmal North America

The Colorado River and tributaries began flowing into the plateau of the same name 17 million years ago and exposed half of Earth's geological past. They also carved one of its most stunning entrails.
Crocodiles, Queensland Tropical Australia Wild
UNESCO World Heritage
Cairns to Cape Tribulation, Australia

Tropical Queensland: An Australia Too Wild

Cyclones and floods are just the meteorological expression of Queensland's tropical harshness. When it's not the weather, it's the deadly fauna of the region that keeps its inhabitants on their toes.
In elevator kimono, Osaka, Japan
Characters
Osaka, Japan

In the Company of Mayu

Japanese nightlife is a multi-faceted, multi-billion business. In Osaka, an enigmatic couchsurfing hostess welcomes us, somewhere between the geisha and the luxury escort.
Vietnamese queue
Beaches

Nha Trang-Doc Let, Vietnam

The Salt of the Vietnamese Land

In search of attractive coastlines in old Indochina, we become disillusioned with the roughness of Nha Trang's bathing area. And it is in the feminine and exotic work of the Hon Khoi salt flats that we find a more pleasant Vietnam.

Glamor vs Faith
Religion
Goa, India

The Last Gasp of the Goan Portugality

The prominent city of Goa already justified the title of “rome of the east” when, in the middle of the XNUMXth century, epidemics of malaria and cholera led to its abandonment. The New Goa (Pangim) for which it was exchanged became the administrative seat of Portuguese India but was annexed by the Indian Union of post-independence. In both, time and neglect are ailments that now make the Portuguese colonial legacy wither.
white pass yukon train, Skagway, Gold Route, Alaska, USA
On Rails
Skagway, Alaska

A Klondike's Gold Fever Variant

The last great American gold rush is long over. These days, hundreds of cruise ships each summer pour thousands of well-heeled visitors into the shop-lined streets of Skagway.
Tabatô, Guinea Bissau, tabanca Mandingo musicians. Baidi
Society
Tabato, Guinea Bissau

The Tabanca of Mandinga Poets Musicians

In 1870, a community of traveling Mandingo musicians settled next to the current city of Bafatá. From the Tabatô they founded, their culture and, in particular, their prodigious balaphonists, dazzle the world.
Casario, uptown, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar
Daily life
Fianarantsoa, Madagascar

The Malagasy City of Good Education

Fianarantsoa was founded in 1831 by Ranavalona Iª, a queen of the then predominant Merina ethnic group. Ranavalona Iª was seen by European contemporaries as isolationist, tyrant and cruel. The monarch's reputation aside, when we enter it, its old southern capital remains as the academic, intellectual and religious center of Madagascar.
savuti, botswana, elephant-eating lions
Wildlife
Savuti, Botswana

Savuti's Elephant-Eating Lions

A patch of the Kalahari Desert dries up or is irrigated depending on the region's tectonic whims. In Savuti, lions have become used to depending on themselves and prey on the largest animals in the savannah.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.