In the BBC documentary “A farm for the future” it is discussed about the oil shortage that will occur in our very near future. Today, the way we are living are incredibly depending on oil and the way this will effect us mostly is that the food prices will go up very fast when the oil is disapearing. Not only are oil used for transportation of all kind of food today, but it is also used in the fertilizers when farming and of course also by the farmers machines.
A friend of mine in Gran Canaria have an organic farm, which is one of the possible solutions to this problem with todays technology. This is also brought up in the BBC documentary, where a few examples of organic farms is shown. These farms looks more like wild forest then designed agriculture, but the production can still be the same or even more then the today standard farm. Another positive thing is that these farms needs much less work from the farmer then a normal farm. If you want to learn more and experience an organic farm for yourself, visit the WWOOF web site which helps you find an organic farm to volunteer on.
Regarding the farmer machines, Marcin Jakubowski is working on Open Sourcing these machines along with all the other machines needed for a basic civilization. This hopefully means that the machines will become both more effective and economical. Of course this will create a negative effect for the today producers of these machines, but hopefully they will be able to find their own target group and not be affected to much. To learn more about the Open Source machines for the future civilization, listen to his speech at TED Talks.
Also NASA is working on personal transport helicopters, both for a single person or for transporting goods to and from us without the need of a driver. This will make it less necessary to live near the sources of the goods/customers and also minimize transport need.
Hopefully all the technology needed will be ready at the same time the results of the oil shortage will be visible to the public.
Last weekend (in double meaning) on Gran Canaria I spent camping on a hidden nudist beach with a friend. Because of the easter holidays just starting the beach was full of tents and people. What started as a problem when our tent broke ended up as a perfect solution sleeping under the stars and full moon, accompanied by the sound of the waves and guitar music.
Although most people don’t know it, there are some free government campings on Gran Canaria. To find them you need to know where they are because there are no signs for them or even information on the governments official web site.
If you instead decide to camp in the nature there is a fee of some hundred euros if the police finds you, which means that most people doing this option choose a hidden place for the tent.
In the case you are camping near the ocean, have in mind the high tide which peaks at 12 o’clock in the morning and at full moon.
Last weekend I finally got to scuba dive here in Las Palmas, just a week before I am going to leave Spain (booked a flight some days ago). The dive I did was a wreck dive on 30 meters deep with a visibility of about 5-10 meters, which is not so good as the normal conditions here. Anyway, this was my first wreck dive so I was very satisfied with the dive, but also happy to come back to the surface because of a water temperature of only about 18 degrees Celsius.
The dive site I went to is called Frigorífico (“The Fridge”) and is a new dive site in Las Palmas, just 10 minutes out from the harbor with a boat (towards La Isleta). The name comes from that the people who dived it in the beginning thought it was a fridge boat, but later realized it’s a fishing boat from Soviet. The sea life around the ship was not anything to talk about but the ship itself is very interesting and with several possible places to dive into the ship. Also the superstructure is beautiful and well preserved.
Some of the most visited dive sites available here are: Baja Fernando, Caleta Baja, El Cabrón, La Catedral, Pecio Angela Pando, Pecio Arona, Pecio Kalais, Playa Chica, Playa Grande and Sardina del Norte
With La Catedral being supposed to be the best one, where you scuba dive in a beautiful volcanic environment.
Price for scuba diving here on Gran Canaria is about 30 euro for one dive + 15 euro to rent full equipment (only at a few diving centers the locals get a cheaper price). On top of this the diving centers here insist that you have a scuba diving insurance, which will set you back another 12 euro for a one day insurance if you don’t have it already. You can also pay a bit more to get insurance covering a whole year.
Yesterday I visited an interesting archaeological place here on Gran Canaria called Cuatro Puertas. This is a collection of hand made caves on the Montaña Bermeja where the religious priests or outcasts of the ancient Guanche people, Gran Canaria’s original inhabitants, used to live a long time ago. The name of the place comes from one of the caves with four openings in the volcanic rock, which was used for gatherings.
But to find the best place here you have to walk a bit further to a community of caves where people used to live, called Cueva de los Pilares. These caves are also hand made and have doors, windows, drainage systems and places for special rituals and beliefs, like a triangle marking for fertility. Besides the very well preserved caves this place also have a really beautiful view of the ocean and valley, and strangely enough no other people walking around so you can enjoy the scenery for yourself.
My camera is still in the repair shop, but I am surprised how good photos my mobile camera (without auto- or manual focus) took this time, even in the evening with bad light. All the pictures below are from the Cueva de los Pilares:
A week ago I started taking surfing lessons here on Gran Canaria. I had only tried surfing once before in Ponta Do Ouro, Mozambique, but still I managed to stand on the board already on the first wave thanks to some practice on my technique before getting wet. Now I am totally hooked and just want to surf all the time, although it is really physically demanding even if you are well trained from the start.
Anyway, for any beginners out there that want to learn how to surf and have access to a board but not lessons, here are some initial surfing tips for you:
Use a beginners board, that is, a long thick board. This will make it more difficult to turn but will help you with the balance.
Check where the other surfers are in the water, or ask somebody where the best surfing spot is. If no other surfers are present, try to look for where the most white water is and where there are least rocks.
Lay centered on top of the board, with your feet slightly out in the back and your chest lifted up
If the nose of the board is high up, move more to the front. If the nose instead is dipping in the water, move back on the board or lift your chest even more if possible.
When you see a good wave coming in your direction, check that nobody else is going for that wave (before you) and that nobody is in the direction that you want to surf
Start paddling (like the swim style crawl) slow and softly straight out from the wave/white water (90 degrees) about 3-5 seconds before the wave will hit you, while looking back to have control of where the wave is
At the moment the wave hits you, paddle fast to get even more speed
When you feel that the board are leaning forward/down it’s time for you to stand up on it
Put both your hands in front of you on top of the board, not on the sides. Then first put up your back leg quickly followed by your front leg. Stand up!
Keep your legs bent and relaxed, and look at the direction you are going (not on the board)
Try moving back/forth on the board or change your weight of the legs if the nose of the board is to much up or down. If the nose of the board points up it will make you loose speed.
Don’t get happy about standing on your feet and jump of the board to fast, try to make it all the way back to the beach
When falling, try to land on your feet. If this doesn’t succeed, protect your head with your hands not to dive into a rock or get a flying board on it.
When you feel more secure, you can try this:
Instead of paddling straight out from the wave, paddle diagonally out from it. Your weight should be more against the wave when it hits you, not to turn over. Then, when standing on the board, turn the board even more towards the wave to follow it for maximum speed. To turn your board, just turn your waist/upper body and look in the direction that you want to go.
Instead of standing up when the board start to lean down, stand up when you are on top of the wave. With this technique you need more weight on the front of the board though, to get initial speed.
If you don’t feel sure about what you are doing, or don’t feel confortable being in and under the water, I recommend you to find a surf mentor. I have done some wind surfing and other water sports before so that was not a problem, but I still felt that I want to know the right surf technique not to loose my time trying it out or learning it wrong. The school I attend is Ocean Side and I am really happy about my choice, mostly because of great surf teachers and that they are in a good location in Las Palmas (10 meters from Las Canteras which is the beach walk with some of the best surf spots here).
I know I have published this video before but my camera is still at the repair shop so I have no new pictures or movies from Gran Canaria.
I am just back in Gran Canaria after spending a weekend in Tenerife. I had a great time and really enjoyed Tenerife which is more green than Gran Canaria, both in the main city Santa Cruz de Tenerife and in the nature.
One of the interesting things that happened to me was when trekking with a friend in the north west part of the island. The plan was to only trek for one day, but the first afternoon we met a couple we started to talk to on one of the trails. The man told us he is a doctor and that he comes from a small village where he was visiting a patient of him, a kind of hippie. He also tells us that we probably can stay the night with Juan, as the man in the village is called. We continue our walk and ends up in the small village, which a man at the pub later that night tells us only have 10 inhabitants.
After some searching in the village we find Juan and his friends who are visiting him for the weekend. We end up staying at his place and head out the next morning for a walk to a bigger village where the car road starts, managing to hitch hike back to Santa Cruz de Tenerife with only some hour to spare before our ferry back to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria departs.
The most strange thing about this is the story a friend of mine told me when returning to Santa Cruz de Tenerife after the trek. She told me that her parents actually met on the beach in this small village of only 10 people which I had just returned back from. On top of this my friend and her parents lived before in a hippie community in exactly the house where I had spent the night, and her brother was also born there in that house.
There are two ferries from Gran Canaria to Tenerife and the most cheap of them are Armas which takes a little bit more time (2½ hours). For a timetable and prices, visit this web site:
Standard price for the Armas ferry is about 50 euro for a return ticket, or half the price if you have the Canary Islands residency (NIE), which is very easy to get and costs only 20 euro. The NIE you can use for the rest of your life, or as long as you stay on the Canary Islands.
I just arrived back to Las Palmas after travelling for five days without a plan. It all started with packing my backpack with a borrowed tent, my computer (for work) and some other things, adding up to a total of 14 kg. Five days later I have learned that hitch hiking on Gran Canaria is easy, I have camped under orange trees & at the hippie festival Rainbow Gathering but most of all walked up and down a lot of mountains.
The trekking here is nice with some small villages that does not feel too touristic, some empty trails and a lot of beautiful views. Following the trails is tricky though, as the markings are really bad if even existing, and the markings look the same all over the island which means that you can easily mix up the trails and end up somewhere else than planned. Also the maps are not 100% correct and some trails or even roads are not existing on the maps. The good thing is that you usually end up near a road anyway and can hitch hike to your goal instead, which is also the bad thing here that the roads are everywhere. So don’t expect to be alone after a full day of trekking to a top, instead you will find a big car park and a lot of tourists, with the street sellers that come along with tourism in an area.
I post some pictures below from a borrowed camera as my own camera is in repair at the moment. Also you will find the map I used to trace where I have been these days, although it may not be totally correct or easy to see.
The earth is all about the ocean and the mountains. About 75% of the planet’s surface is covered by water and the other 25% are the mountain “tops” that we are currently living on. The water also continuously reshapes our planet, with both quick drastic changes like landslides and changes that takes millions of years.
Erosion is probably the most common tool our planet has to reshape its surface, and also the slowest. The erosion can be done with some different techniques:
* Moving water from rain/rivers or on the shoreline moves or grinds land which ends up as pebbles, sand, silt and clay at new locations
* When water transforms to ice it forces land to crack which reshapes and moves it. Also land moves together with ice in what is called glacial erosion.
The results of the erosions are beautiful coasts and landscapes, incredible land formations and never ending caves, many of them beyond our dreams.
The weather here in Lisbon is really interesting. Because of a lot of wind (which you don’t feel on the ground) the weather changes quickly during the days. This means that the day usually start with sunshine, blue sky and around 16 degrees, but at any moment during the day heavy rain will probably start. Then the rain and sun switches place all along the day, sometimes every 5 minutes. Also the rain can be ice-rain instead, but not so commonly.
When I arrived here was biting cold winter, but now two weeks later the weather is great. What I have heard though is that December and January should be the coldest months here.
I was lucky enough to get perfect weather for New Years Ewe, celebrating it with some friends at the Praça do Comércio together with thousands of other people. The free concert was not so impressive but the opposite can be said about the firework show.
Here are some weather statistics for Lisbon:
Summer
Winter
Degrees
22-28 C
14-19 C
Days of rain
2-8
11-15
Rainfall
5-40 mm
65-114 mm
One of the results of the wet weather here combined with badly isolated houses is that mold are very common in Portugal in the apartments. Some people try to make it better by reducing the moisture level with machines, but this just helps a little bit and most people just let it be. Long term exposure on high levels can result in mold allergy, which you will recognize by coughing, headaches, irritated eyes, problems breathing, tiredness and sneezing.
