The Canary Islands 2014, El Hierro

• Report rights infringement
• published: 12 Feb 2014
• views: 1900

How wonderful to change winter to summer (just for two weeks, but still)! It was a great experience getting to know El Hierro, the smallest inhabited island among the Canary Islands. The Eco-Museum is in the valley of Valle del Golfo, at the foot of the cliff known as Risco de Tibataje. The guided route through caves, volcanic tubes and other lava phenomena shows us how the original settlers, the Bimbaches, lived and how the houses and household goods have evolved from the times of the Conquest through to the present day. Each of the houses reveals different aspects of the traditional architecture on El Hierro where stone and compacted hay are the basis of the building materials. These houses, together with the multiple crops to be found hereabouts, are a monument to the History of the Island. This centre, inside the Guinea Eco-Museum, was set up to raise lizards in captivity. The Plan for Re-introduction of the giant lizard, galliota simonyi, was adopted since it was the most endangered reptile in the whole of Europe and one of the five animals most in danger of extinction in the world. Through to 1974, it was actually believed to be extinct. However, it was then that a herdsman ran across a few on La Fuga de Gorreta. The plan for re-introduction has made it possible to gradually free some of the reptiles raised in captivity in the places where they have been seen to congregate. The Ethnographic Museum: La Casa de Las Quinteras The visitor is afforded a vision of the ethnography of the island, distributed over four rooms that are devoted to different workshops: the blacksmith's, the weaver, the woodworker and the earthenware worker. The Centre also offers part of the important ethnographic collections of the Cabildo or Island Council of El Hierro. In parts of El Hierro they have a tradition of rams hunting at Carnival. These are people dressed in sheepskins and rams' heads, with bells on their waists who chase the children around. This video features the song "Motionless Land (Instrumental Version)" by Josh Woodward, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license, CC BY.