On Tuesday the 9th of November Tall Ship Pelican arrived at La Palma. La Palma is one of the Spanish Canary Islands, off northwestern Africa. The island has an area of 708 square kilometres and out of the seven main Canary Islands it is the third smallest.
La Palma is known for its huge volume of banana crops, dominating almost the entire agriculture sector!
Our visit was mainly educational for the Ocean College students, to learn about the island and volcanos. La Palma is one of the youngest islands of the archipelago, and a composite volcano which was formed by three overlapping volcanic centres. Whilst we were there, the locals were telling us of the devastating destruction the volcano was bringing upon them and their island, which the students could only really appreciate by visiting and seeing for themselves, witnessing the raw power of nature.
Here is one member of the crew’s account of their visit to La Palma:
‘Is not often you get the chance to see an active volcano but today our students had the opportunity to do so. We drove through banana plantations and volcanic landscapes to reach the western side of the island. From there we could see the volcano spewing out ash and the hot lava rolling down the hill.
It was a real eye opener to see the power of the volcano and how it can destroy peoples homes and businesses.
On the return journey we visited the caldera ring at the highest point of the island where we could see Tenerife, some 80 miles away!’
