The Cookie and the bananas

 We are in Las Galletas.  It has Spanish people living it, as well as tourists, which is a bonus.  Google translate calls it ‘The Cookies.’  It grew as a fishing port and has a fish market - we passed it on the breakwater.  



Crossing the water front of the rocky beach we will pass El Fraile, a grid development plonked on available land.  Beyond them are the banana plantations, protected from the elements by great curtains of gauze.    They are one of those startling things the first time you see them.




The Canaries produce about 430 million kilos of bananas.  This is about 60% of the European production of the stuff.  Apparently the Portuguese brought them over from West Africa in the 15th century but it was not until the 1880s, when the British promoted the cultivation as a crop that could be brought up by ships that had stopped to take on coal.




That’s it.  A market tomorrow.








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