A new essential stage in the understanding of this island: lava flows.
The big eruptions of the last fifty years have generated lava flows that have reached the sea and have profoundly transformed the landscape of this southeast coast. By completing the course with period films and speaking with a few people, we better understand the impact of these natural disasters on the landscape and on the men who live here and who often return to live in the same place once the lava has cooled down. . The volcano remains the major fear of the inhabitants of this coast, much stronger than the cyclones which nevertheless are regularly devastating. During the few hours we spent on this road , we saw the great flows descending along the flanks of the volcano (which remains as usual hidden behind its cloud of fog); we saw the vegetation regaining possession of the land: first lichens, then small shrubs, then larger trees; we have seen the metamorphosed coastline with cliffs of lava brutally hardened in contact with water, erosion has not yet made its effect and everything is extremely raw and sharp. We saw this church spared by the lava as well as this statue of the virgin with the blue umbrella itself become miraculous when the lava has spared it several times (a little helped by the hand of the man who has several times moved her at the last moment). The fear of the volcano and the impotence of the inhabitants naturally reinforced the beliefs and devotions to all that can reassure …
The coast continues to the south spared by the volcano in recent times. It is wild, beaten by the swell of the Indian Ocean, its storms and cyclones. Vacoas plantations (this strange local tree that seems to grow on stilts) gives it a very particular appearance.
I added in this series the preparation of the palm kernel salad, a local specialty that you must taste once in your life to forget forever the awful hearts of canned palm tree we all have a metallic memory .. .
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