Saturday was not a good day to observe the La Palma volcano. Ash rained down like water, blackening the sky and making vision worse. However, the viewpoint at the church in Tajuya (El Paso) was packed with people watching the eruption. It is the point from which the volcano is best seen, where almost all the tourists who this weekend, All Saints Bridge, flock to the island. There is such a level of hotel occupancy that the Cabildo de La Palma has enabled eight buses that leave every half hour from the old Buenavista airport, near Santa Cruz, the capital – away from the ash cloud – and that leave tourists next to the church.
“This is impressive, how could I not come to see it?” Says Ricardo Gutiérrez, a 38-year-old from Seville protected with an umbrella. It is in the first line of the viewpoint. Two friends, right behind him, try to break through the crowd to see the mountain of fire. They are María Pérez and Adelaida Ramos, both 29 years old and Valencian: “The truth is that it doesn’t look as good as I expected and it overwhelms me a bit that there are so many people, but I don’t know when I’ll be able to witness a volcano again,” says Pérez . After a while observing the mountain of fire, at 22.00, they leave the viewpoint to catch the bus back to Santa Cruz. But the line is long, very long. There is a girl who kills boredom by playing with volcanic sand, a teenager who records how the ash falls on her hand, and a couple who watch a series on their mobile, from which the black particles are removed from time to time.
“We’ve been here for an hour,” says the first in line, Juan Antonio Herrera. “The buses take half an hour to get to the other side. We have been thinking about coming for a long time, but we were a bit reluctant because people are having a hard time. But when you see that the rest of the island invites people to come to see the volcano, well we decided. It is also a way of supporting, ”says this 47-year-old from Tenerife, who has come to the island with his family. Imobach García, a 25-year-old from Tenerife, says: “We had many doubts and that is why we did not come from the beginning. We gave a margin because it is a drama for many people. But it is that in the end it is something that you do not know when we will be able to see again, being as respectful as possible. In the end this is almost normalizing, we have been on the volcano for more than 40 days ”.
This internal debate distresses many of the visitors. On the one hand, they want to enjoy an extraordinary natural phenomenon, but at the same time they understand that some of the people who have lost their homes may find it frivolous. As Herrera said, the island’s own institutions encourage volcanic tourism. “We appreciate that so many tourists come. We have asked for support, and this is it, to solve part of the problems we have on the island. This confirms what we have said every day, that the island is safe, ”Miguel Ángel Morcuende, technical director of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca), said at his press conference on Saturday. He estimated the arrival of tourists at 10,000 people. “I have come more times and I have never seen the viewpoint of the church so full. You can see that we are on the bridge, ”says Lorena Pérez, a 38-year-old resident of Santa Cruz.
Rent prices rise
Carmen Justiniana, a 50-year-old Bolivian resident of Los Llanos de Aridane, does not agree with Morcuende’s approach. Lava has swallowed up his brother’s farms and the homes of several friends. “They can call it a show, but for us it is not. How much money do all these people spend, and where? I come from Los Llanos and the center is empty, you can’t see anyone, ”he says. “People who have lost their houses are trying to rent and they find it more difficult because of all the tourists who come. [los precios han subido desde la erupción]”Adds Justiniana angrily in the contributed area of the Tajuya church. Inside the temple there are people who shake off the ash. The brush is at the entrance, looking at the visitors, full of coins and some bills.
Although most visitors reach the church by bus, many others opt for taxis or private cars. The road that goes up from Los Llanos to the viewpoint is dotted with badly parked cars, despite signs that it is not possible to park. There are even traffic jams. Many visitors walk along the verges of this winding road, the lines of which are blurred by ash, which is thrown into flight by passing cars. The most cautious advance with reflective vests and with the flashlight of the mobile on. “We have diverted traffic and enabled the shuttle to improve people’s safety. We are trying to avoid victims of an event such as the one that concerns us and concerns us, ”Morcuende added on Saturday.
In a safe area of the highway, away from the crowds, four friends observe the volcano. Two of them are from Murcia. “To get there we had to make the journey from Murcia to Alicante, from there to the north Tenerife airport, two hours by bus to Los Cristianos (in the south of the island) and there we took a ferry to La Palma”, explains Paco Díaz , 54 years old. They left at eight in the morning and arrived at ten at night. Encarna Vera, 54, comments: “We are taking impressive photos. We have gone to other parts of the island to see it, such as the Time viewpoint. From there it looked like Mordor [tierra volcánica de El señor de los anillos de Tolkien]”. “It is a journey of contrasts. You see people very sad, hopeless with this constant tremor. When we were eating we were hallucinating with the noise of the volcano and a neighbor told us that it was nothing, ”adds Díaz.
They had lunch in the port of Tazacorte, the most touristic area near the volcano. “There were very few people,” recalls José Luis del Saz (55), arrived from Madrid. Together with him, Cristina Cezón (54) wonders “what would be happening on the island if no tourists came on top of it”. “And in the viewpoint everyone is very quiet, I think people are aware that this is a drama and you have to be respectful. I don’t see a ha ha ha ha”, Adds this Madrilenian.
Full hotels, if they can open
A look at hotel booking platforms like Booking confirms that staying on the island is almost impossible. The Villa María apartments, in El Paso, are one of the hotel accommodations that are closest to the Tajuya viewpoint, the nerve center of tourists. But they are closed. “I would like to be open, but it is impossible for me. The ash rain is constant, centimeters and centimeters accumulate. Barres and is the same right away. I cannot open in any way ”, explains the person in charge of the apartments, José González. He is sure that the accommodation would be full if he opened, but he has his staff in ERTE.
The hotels that can open in the area closest to the volcano are full, confirms Alejandro Herrera, a worker at the Valle de Aridane hotel: “85% of our rooms are intended for people evacuated by the volcano. The other 15% is filled with tourists who come to see the eruption. ” Sergio Pérez, coordinator of tourist apartments in the area, assures that he does not stop receiving requests and that he has had to reject them: “You have to book well in advance.” Several hotels in Santa Cruz, on the other side of the island and where the buses leave, confirm that they are full. It is the most touristic area of La Palma next to Puerto Naos, within the exclusion zone due to the volcano.
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