We'd heard that the 'Salt Museum' was worth a visit so headed for it this morning. It is part of the chain of state run museums on the F-island - some are free and some charge a basic €5.
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| Las Salinas de Carmen, Caleta de Fuste |
The Salt Museum has an exhibition hall explaining the history of salt production and the salinas here; once we were genned up on that we followed the trail out around the foam collection tanks, heating tanks and evaporation ponds before picnicking in one of the shady shelters with stripy Barbary Squirrels for company.
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| Barbary ground squirrel : Arrdilla moruna : Atlantoxerus getulus. This was introduced to the F-island from the mainland in 1965 and has settled in well! | | | | |
After lunch we headed to another of the museums, the Poblado de la Atalyita. This is a majo village which was inhabited by the indigenous people of the island before the conquest and lies on the southern edge of one of the a'a flows that run down to the coast here. The flow ran past a small conical hill known as La Atalayita 'the little watchtower', hence the name of the village. The houses themselves are dry stone huts built of rough blocks of a'a lava.
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| Looking south across the a'a flow (the Malpais Pequeno). La Atalayita is the low conical hill on the left. The village lies to the right of this, on the far side of the flow |
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| A ruined stone hut built of blocks of lava. Jan for scale. |
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To wind up the day we went on down to the coast at Pozo Negro where we found a lovely restaurant right at the back of the beach and enjoyed sitting there for some time watching fishing boars being launched.
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Fishing boats are launched straight off the beach at Pozo Negro. The nets (there are two here) are taken about a mile offshore
To wind up a good, varied day, as we drove back along the side of the Malpais Grande we saw a dozen or more Egyptian Vultures circling above the cuchillete on the northern side of the valley. Sadly too far off to photograph :( |
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