September 19th is the anniversary of the La Palma volcano eruption. Tajogaite Volcano first erupted on September 19th 2021 in the Cumbre Vieja National Park. Authorities had been monitoring the situation for a while but I was still shocked when a Twitter notification buzzed my watch that day. A photo with a plume of smoke and ERUPCION in capital letters.
Local news crew from RTVCanarias were reporting on the island that day and coincidentally caught the first seconds of the eruption live on tv. I still get chills thinking about it. I was literally standing in the cheese aisle of the supermarket at the time and I didn’t know what this meant for the islands and more specifically the people who lived in the path of the volcano.
News soon made it to the UK/Europe and although we are on a different island friends reached out to check if we were safe. One of my dreams has always been to see a volcanic eruption. I’d always thought this would require a trip to Hawaii or Iceland but turns out later on in 2021 I’d get to see it for myself. The day of the eruption we planned a trip for November. The government insisted that it was still safe for tourists to visit during the eruption and that people leaving and cancelling holidays was actually really bad for the island.
The west of the island was badly affected (A WHOLE TOWN DISAPPEARED UNDER THE LAVA!) but the rest struggled on. People thought we were a bit crazy planning this trip but we made sure to be respectful about it. We booked our accommodation on the opposite side of the island so we could evacuate if needed by boat and plane and we weren’t taking space in the hotels closer to the eruption site that locals might need. I’ll tell you about the rest of this trip in a future post and I can’t even begin to explain the suffering that the La Palma islanders went through and still endure as they rebuild. That’s their story to tell.
On This Day 2021
I feel so badly for the people that have lost their homes and livelihoods, thankfully there have been no fatalities although some rescued animals have suffered burns.
No there’s not going to be a mega tsunami caused by a piece of land crashing into the sea, this catastrophe is bad enough. The lava flow is currently making it’s way to Atlantic ocean where the reaction with the salt water is supposedly going to cause acid rain. 😳
On the rest of the islands, life is carrying on as normal, but it all seems a bit surreal and very 2021. Like wtf is next?
On This Day 2017
Omg they have a pumpkin coffee at Dunkin! 🎃☕️ It tastes AMAZING!!! Like Autumn in a cup. 😍
On This Day 2016
Woohoo! I got a Pokémon Happy Meal. There are 16 to collect from 6 generations of Pokémon. I got a Togepi Happy Meal toy and it’s so cute, I haven’t stopped spinning it. Fingers crossed for a Dedenne in my next meal.
Thanks for reading,
Vikki 💖