Far, far away

This is the view I mentioned yesterday.

It is of the north coast of La Palma. The little white dots are the houses of the next village to us, El Tablado. There is just one zig-zag road down to the village and a walking path which crosses the north coast, linking the remote villages and hamlets. If you look close enough, you might just be able to see the path leading up to the village.

People used to live in caves and these are pockmarked all over the north. In fact, we know someone who was born in a cave, Maria, and that was only 65 years ago!

In the 1930's there were around 400 residents in El Tablado, mainly subsistence farmers. Other jobs were tar or charcoal making or chopping down the pine trees in the mountains for export or the island's ship-building industry.

It was the days of large families with an average of twelve children who all helped with the potato crop, milking the goats and contributing to their livelihood. In the 50's and 60's there was mass depopulation to Cuba, Venezuela, the Americas and Europe where work was more plentiful and at least there was some money at the end of the day. Venezuela is often referred to as the eight Canarian island, as so many people went there. Our friend, Maria, went to England to work in the hotels ? cheap labour at the time. She didn't speak any English at first, but the kitchen staff took care of that starting with slang for parts of the body. She stayed in the UK for nearly forty years and now speaks English like a bloke on a building site.

As for El Tablado - only 32 people live there now, all pensioners. No school, no children.