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Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Tenerife's Natural Amphitheater
Accuweather (via Forecastfox) are kindly promising us "Winds gusting past 50 mph" tomorrow here in Tenerife. I have news for them, those winds arrived already today!
At one point this afternoon, whilst out walking the hound, I was hit by a huge gust that nearly took me off my feet and I was half expecting the dog, who weighs considerably less than I do, to have gone flying on the end of her lead like a kite. :)
(Don't worry, this isn't going to turn into another of those rants about how unprepared the island is to deal with these obvious effects of global warming and climate change.)
No, it reminded me about something that you'd have to live in this valley or visit under just the right conditions to experience.
The acoustics.
There can be few places quite like it on earth.
As you can see from the satellite image above (borrowed from the nice people at NASA), the El Palmar valley - the inverted D-shaped indentation surrounded by mountains in the middle of that image - forms a giant, natural amphitheater.
Consequently, you hear the wind before you feel it.
Everything can be quite still where you are standing, but you can hear the roar, like the sound of the ocean, only amplified.
At one point today, I really thought there was a jet plane crossing overhead, until the movement of the vegetation got closer to me and the noise stopped. Planes don't do that.
It was LOUD and, both eerie and fascinating.
One of the best times to hear how sounds carry around the valley is when the fiesta is on in Las Portelas, on the higher slopes of the valley. That is in the summer, in July, I think.
As with most fiestas on the island, it culminates in a firework display, provided by the Los Realejos firm of Pirotecnia Hermanos Toste, founded in 1788 (read about them in the Western Sun), to whom my next door neighbour is related.
(They also inform me that the family firm recently entered into a contract to export fireworks to the UK.)
What happens, when the fireworks bang away in rapid succession from up in Las Portelas, is that the sound echos and ricochets off the walls of the mountains and creates an effect like a really noisy train rushing around the perimeter.
And I don't know which is more exciting: the sights or the sounds. Personally, I think the valley would make a great location for an - uncensored - Rolling Stones concert. :)
