Read the video transcript here
El Paso, La Palma, Canary Islands
Simon Märkle, La-Palma-Urlaub.de
»In reality you don't even try to think about what might come
next
, that's the only thing that really works at the
moment
;
because if you do that you go crazy.
That will not do."
Lava has been flowing out of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma for weeks.
“There's ash all over here. And today you only see smoke from the volcano! "
The Märkle family has lived on the island for ten years, they live in the El Paso area, four kilometers as the crow flies from the volcano, just outside the evacuation area. Sleep is still out of the question.
“Depending on whether the volcano is explosive or whether more gas comes out or more lava, the volume is sometimes devastating. You can't sleep, the windows tremble. A deep rumble can be heard. The last two nights it was fine and now it's like that, if you think oh, now he's quiet, then you are afraid that something will come again.
So we are not afraid for our health or our lives now, but it is still oppressive to go out too, one is insecure and yesterday after the fire at the cement works there were 3,000 people locked in who did not evacuate were, simply because of possible poisonous gases. And those are things where you always think: yes, no, it doesn't have to be. "
The entire southwest of the island has been cut off, the zone has been evacuated.
Even if the infrastructure itself works, everyday life is limited:
»There is everyday life, that people go to work, that the shops are open even though there are hardly any people there. In principle there is a normality, but then again it does not take place at all because it is somehow carried on, because it has to go on. But otherwise it's not like that, the schools are still closed. The idea was to open again tomorrow. But that doesn't work because you should close the windows because of the volcano and open the windows because of Covid. And that contradicts itself. And to that extent it is not normal, although more or less everything is normal
. "
Simon Märkle and his wife run a small agency that brokers holiday homes from local owners.
At the moment they advise against traveling to the Aridane Valley, anyway from sensational tourism.
Your message to tourists:
“The moment the volcano has stopped spitting, please come here. So all of you, the friends of the island, please come here and spend your money to support the local people. Because, of course, there is also the great fear here that when the great spectacle and the media-effective spectacle is over, you will somehow be forgotten. "
Despite the devastating situation, the Märkle family remains loyal to their adopted home:
“We feel at home here. We also feel at home here in El Paso. We can't leave here or we definitely don't want to leave here. And I also believe that this is the palm eeros that are from here, that have this deep rootedness, for them it is also out of the question that you leave here because this is the third outbreak in the last 75 years . Whereby the others weren't that devastating. But it's just that when someone says yes, then you just start all over again and start building again, because my grandfather has already done that. After the last outbreak. And then you do it again now, because that's home here. "
How long the Cumbre Vieja will continue to eject lava, no one can reliably predict at the moment.
The islanders have no choice but to wait and see - and don't give up hope.
