{"id":553,"date":"2019-11-19T08:51:33","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T08:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=553"},"modified":"2019-11-27T10:09:05","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T10:09:05","slug":"sara-del-salinas-speaks-of-salt-and-sees-its-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2019\/11\/19\/sara-del-salinas-speaks-of-salt-and-sees-its-future\/","title":{"rendered":"SARA DEL SALINAS SPEAKS OF SALT AND SEES ITS FUTURE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SARA DEL\nSALINAS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have no idea if the Spanish have a phrase\nthat is in any way equivalent in meaning or nuance to the English idiomatic\nsaying of \u00b4take it with a pinch of salt.\u00b4 In fact, when I first pondered the appropriateness\nof the phrase for this article, I realised I wasn\u00b4t even quite certain of what\nthe phrase precisely means even in my own language, when we advise people to\ntake what they hear with a pinch of salt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dictionary of English idioms and sayings\nwould suggest that using the phrase is to advise someone to take what they hear\nwith some scepticism, or \u00b4a pinch of salt\u00b4. The implication of the saying is\nthat \u00b4a pinch of salt\u00b4 often makes food (or a story) more palatable and easier\nto swallow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like so many words and phrases attributed to\nthe \u00a8English\u00b4 language the term dates back to different lands and different\nlanguages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pompey
The Great<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In this case, there is a story that the saying\nwas first employed by Pliny The Elder, a Roman author born in Italy in around 43\nAD. He was a naturalist and philosopher and served as a commander in both the\narmy and navy of the early Roman Empire. There are those who believe that Pliny\nhimself borrowed the phrase from a listing of ingredients of an antidote to\npoison, allegedly created to protect the King of Mithridates. The list was\nfound, according to Pliny\u00b4s writings, when \u00b4Pompey\u00b4 (The Great) a political and\nmilitary leader of the Roman Republic of the time, and his men, seized the\npalace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the foot of a list of more than 70\ningredients was the advice that this concoction be taken \u00b4after fasting, with a\ngrain of salt\u00b4 and it was Pliny\u00b4s recording of this advice that seems to have\nbrought into general usage a piece of linguistics that means, literally and\nfiguratively, \u00b4to accept something with reservations, to avoid swallowing\nwhole.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
SALINAS DE JANUBIO<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There is no shortage of salt to take a pinch of at the beautiful Salinas De janubio on Lanzarote but, although visitors who take the tours of the salt pans with their guide Sara will be provided with three or four pinches of different flavoured salts at the tasting session afterwards, they will certainly not be needed to avert scepticism. Instead they will open taste-buds to the versatility of salt in the same way as Sara\u00b4s enthusiasm opens eyes to the past, present and future of a place that is timeless and peaceful and that provides perhaps one of the most beautiful panoramic views on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were first made aware of the daily tours\nthat are offered by the owners of these salt fields in Miguel\u00b4s weekly\nLanzarote Information web site at https;\/\/lanzaroteinformation.co.uk\/ and since\nthen have taken three tours with different friends who have come to visit us\nhere on holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara so impressed us with her smiling, good\nhumoured delivery of facts and figures and her obvious passion for the site and\nits tradition that we thought she might make a great subject for a blog\ninterview. When we asked her if that might be possible she agreed immediately\nand it was all fixed up within a few days. We looked forward to learning more\nabout her and how she came to be working in a role that, at first, seems a\nmillion miles away from the island\u00b4s busy tourist industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was wonderful, therefore, to hear how far\nreaching are her hopes and plans for what was once one of the island\u00b4s most\nimportant industries, with a huge workforce. We also learned how much she feels\nthe arts could contribute to the future evolution and growth of the site,\nmaking her an absolutely perfect guest here on our Sidetracks And Detours all across the arts<\/em> blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Dee and I sit with Sara on a recently built\nlittle look-out platform, right on the very lip of the salt fields, it is\nevident how rich is the area in natural attributes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sara Del Salinas<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4Toblerone\u00b4 piles of salt glisten in the early morning sun, and the water in the fields, that has been gathered from the sea, a further quarter of a mile away, shimmers in a hundred different shades with a slight pink being quite predominant. The waves beyond the natural shelf that forms a \u00b4wall\u00b4 between the sea and the site are breaking gently on the shore, and some exotic looking birds are circling serenely in a clear, blue sky. Visitors who take her tour learn much more from Sara about all these aspects of the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this is only two days after strong winds\nhad wreaked havoc (that being the reason Sara was already at hard at work,\nsweeping brush in hand, in the bodega when we arrived at 9.00 am for our\nappointed interview.)  Nevertheless she\nhad immediately led us down to where we now are, on a quaint wooden bench on\nthe viewing platform, at the rear of a natural amphitheatre, looking out across\nthe sea to a horizon beyond which lies Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Dee shuffles around taking photographs I\nstumble into my questioning. I have no list prepared, though the fact that Sara\nhas come armed with files and information suggests I should have. Nevertheless,\nit is our way to simply follow various Sidetracks and Detours, even if we set\nout on this particular question and answer session in a tried and trusted\nmanner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u00b4With\nour love of alliteration,\u00b4 we tell her, \u00a8we want to call you Sara del Salinas,\nbut for our readers, would you please tell us your full name and a little bit\nmore about yourself ?\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a8Yes, my name is Sara Hernandez Hernandez. I\nwas born on Lanzarote but I went to Gran Canaria to gain a degree in Tourism. I\nalso got a grant to study in Germany to improve my German speaking skills. It\nfelt important to me to improve my languages so I acquired an Erasmus grant. I\nspent a whole semester in the South of Germany and for me it was an amazing\nexperience that really opened my mind. For me it was very nice, but very short\nand so when I completed my degree on Gran Canarias I decided to move back to\nGermany.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a8This was in 2009, when there was the economic crisis and the situation in Spain regarding employment availability was not good. I ended up spending another seven years in Germany, but now my German speaking skills are quite good, quite fluent. Lanzarote was always on my mind, though, and its nature and its heritage that I had loved since I was a child. That is why it was always important to me to return to Lanzarote and work in this \u00b4slow tourism\u00b4 and to connect tourism, and to re-connect myself to Lanzarote and its nature. At this time I was living in Munich and was very busy and I was often stressed but whenever I returned to Lanzarote for a holiday during this period I would immediately find myself slowing down and re-connecting with nature. Lanzarote has so many natural assets that are not well known to the rest of the world, so I started to again improve my communicative skills, because I am quite shy. It wasn\u00b4t easy, but my love for Lanzarote is so strong I knew I had to try.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is interesting to hear Sara talk about a\nslow life style, because whilst many tourists from the UK and similar countries\nwould view the pace of life in Lanzarote as quite relaxing I wonder if an\nearlier generation than Sara\u00b4s might not feel that life is relaxed as once it\nwas. Even Sara\u00b4s parents must have felt the last forty or fifty years has been\nlike a lap with Lewis Hamilton as Lanzarote has developed so quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4Yes, that is true,\u00b4 she agrees. \u00b4Perhaps, even\nnow, the time is difficult. Our young people have the opportunity to study and\ngain good qualifications, but in Spain and on The Canary Islands over the last\nfew years, it hasn\u00b4t made any difference how good your qualifications might be.\nThere is not the work available. So it can be frustrating.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That last comment perhaps anticipated the\nquestion I asked next. After explaining to her the nuance of the \u00b4what\u00b4s a nice\ngirl like you doing in a place like this kind of question, I then went ahead\nand asked it anyway, changing it only slightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what is an attractive and obviously very\nclever girl like you doing shovelling salt to earn a living?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a8Good question,\u2019 Sara laughs. \u00b4All of us who work here help to look after it, and I really care for this place and this industry and want it to reach its full potential in so many ways. Actually I have a lot of different work experience. I have worked at a travel agency and at the airport and I have even worked in a bank! What I really enjoy, though, is this sort of job. Working with nature and taking part in all aspects of the operation here. This is, to me, a very important job. I want people to come to know and love this place and that is why I try to share all my knowledge and all my passion for the place with our visitors and those who come for the guided tour. I really feel it is an important job. What we have here is unique.\u00b4\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dee and I know, and so do our friends Martin\nand Sarah, and Harry and Catherine, two couples who have followed our advice to\nbook on to one of Sara\u00b4s \u00b4walk and talk\u00b4 tours, how she shares her knowledge\nand passion in a way that makes the whole tour a fun event. She talks a lot\nabout the history of the area, of course, and makes us aware of how vitally\nimportant the salt industry once was to the island. She doesn\u00b4t disguise the\nfact that the role of salt on the island is not quite as pivotal to life here\nas it once was, so we wonder if she still genuinely believes there is a purpose\nin the industry.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4The money is not there in quite the same way\nas it used to be. It doesn\u00b4t generate as an industry the revenue it used to,\nbut I feel my role is to help the owners of this field to raise its visibility\nand the public awareness of what we do here. There is funding available for\ndeveloping industries and I think we can re-generate and that we do have a\nfuture. Of course.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sara Del Salinas with our photographer Dee Dutton<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In saying this, Sara has touched on something\nDee and I ponder on whenever we visit this wide, expansive bay with its\nsheltered, natural lagoon. Just a few yards away and a few feet overhead is the\ncoast road from Yaiza and the dual highways that run in and out of Playa\nBlanca. The place, though, is so hushed that you can hear a bird cry, from over\nthe sea. How does the quietude of this idyll sit with the busy tourist island?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4We have a place in a slower paced sector of\ntourism, perhaps, but we want to show the history of the salt industry and its\ncontinuing relevance today and we also want to show people this region as an\nexample of why Lanzarote was made a World Biosphere Reserve in 1993.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u00b4t want to divulge too much of what Sara\nimparts to her tour parties, as we would rather encourage readers to visit\nLanzarote for themselves, and even to then ensure they book on to a walk for\nthemselves and see just how knowledgeable Sara is about the history of the\nindustry and its past achievements. It is perhaps that awareness of, and pride\nin, its past that sees her working so hard to ensure and shape its future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I have a dream,\u00b4 she says with a smile, \u00b4and I know the owners have a dream too. They want to preserve this area. They want the industry to remain important in the 21st<\/sup> century and they want to not only do all that, but to do it well. Nevertheless, despite all this natural beauty and our perfect surroundings it is not always possible to move quickly forward. We have to ask, we have to wait, and we have to follow advice. In some ways things on Lanzarote still do move very slowly. I would like to see different things brought here to revive the area. With over a million square metres to look after we can\u00b4t change or renew all the landscape, but maybe certain parts can be altered and made receptive to other activities we might be able to bring here. To be honest, I would love one day to see a visitors\u00b4 centre here or a small restaurants.\u00a8<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure it is a bigger model than Sara has in\nmind, but as she speaks I see an image in my head of the Timanfaya Information\nCentre on the volcano field a few miles away, with its incredible\nreconstruction of the eruptions and audio and visual clips of local families\nwho have lived in the region for generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4We could even offer Spa facilities here one\nday,\u00b4 Sara enthuses, \u00b4it being such a restful place. There are similar salt\nfields on the mainland of Spain that have followed that route.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mention that Dee and I come from an area in the UK that was once the home of a thriving cotton industry, until that production fell into decline partly because of the cheaper imports becoming available. Over the last quarter of a century, though, many ramshackled and empty cotton mills have been re-gentrified into hotels, enterprise business blocks or even holiday homes, and a whole new interest in the industry has been awoken by the mill floor songs the workers used to sing. We know there is a tradition of similar salt songs on Lanzarote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4That is an area I would like to explore. There are only a few men working here these days, and I would like to reach out to former female employees, or their families, to talk to me about earlier working conditions and traditions of the salt industry. And perhaps I could even persuade them to give occasional talks to our visitors! The salt industry has played such an important part in Lanzarote history that it would be a shame to let its legacy fade away. I have much work to do to ensure that doesn\u00b4t happen but I have other roles to fill here, too, and I have to manage my time. But we are on the way.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking around the site with Sara and listening\nto her dispense facts and figures we certainly feel, too, that the Janubio is\non the way to greater things. Nevertheless, production and staffing levels are\nconsiderably lower than at its zenith, so we wonder whether that fact alone\nrepresents a sign of decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4In that sense, it is true the area has been in decline for many years, but there are some interesting examples from elsewhere,\u00b4 she responds fiercely. \u00a8For instance, in Fuencaliente Salt Flat in La Palma there is a small salt flat in full productivity, so it seems there is a change. People want to support good quality local product, and at the same time want to look after the landscape. So, whilst we are in decline from a former greatness there is the hope that awareness of us and demand for our product are growing.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara is undoubtedly positive and optimistic but\nshe recognises that none of this will be easy to bring about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4Not everyone would want to work here,\u00b4 she reminds us. \u00b4Harvesting the salt is a very hard job in difficult conditions. We know that some people would enjoy this sort of work, of course, so let\u00b4s just see what happens.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The salt industry has gone through the same\ndynamic change, as has the island, over the last hundred years with a sudden\nsurge of technological changes, like refrigeration, of course, that brought\nsuch challenges to the salt industry, and the influx of tourists and the growth\nof that industry. If the old artisan traditional workplaces can no longer\nprovide jobs or attract a workforce, will that mean future generations have to\nleave the island to find employment and opportunity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I see my job as one of making employment in\nthe salt production a meaningful job, and for it to offer a community work\nspirit as it regains its place in the island\u00b4s values, \u00b4says Sara. \u00b4I want salt\nand its landscape to play an important part in the future of the next generations.\nThis industry once worked parallel with a fishing industry that also is today slightly\nless important than in the past. I would like us  to restore that synergy. People will not\nvalue and protect an industry or a product they don\u00b4t know about, so my first\nsteps in this job will always be to raise awareness of salt\u00b4s great history.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own experience in the UK, in my various\nguises as songwriter with Lendanear, creative writing facilitator as Just Poets\nand as an agent for change as a journalist writing all across the arts tells me\nhow important it is to create cross over audiences to raise awareness, but Sara\nbeats me to making that point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a8We have a fabulous opportunity here, \u00b4she\nsays, sweeping her arm across the breadth of the vista. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I could see yoga sessions here, choirs, poets,\npainters, photographers, bird watchers all perhaps gaining some awareness, for\nthe first time, of Lanzarote\u00b4s salt heritage. These guided walks are already\nraising that awareness and as more people become aware they will agree that is\nan area with a past worth preserving.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sara Del Salinas and Norman Warwick walk and talk<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As we wound up the interview Sara told me that\nshe has always been an artistically curious person, following sidetracks and\ndetours down routes of flower preservation and arrangement and photography and\neven origami, so I pass on to her that I am a poet and would love to perhaps\nput on a salt-themed poetry event at the Salinas one night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I may have been away studying in Germany for a\nlong time,\u00b4 she confesses, \u00b4but all the time the volcanoes of Lanzarote were\ncalling me back. They pulled me back, like a magnet, and I believe that was for\na reason. I am proud of my island and its heritage and want to share it with\nthe world.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As she says this, Sara\u00b4s eyes are staring into the middle distance, over the salt fields, across the lagoon, past the shoreline and beyond the point where the sea meets the sky. I wonder, then, what, metaphorically, she sees coming towards us from that horizon. What does she think the future might hold?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I see opportunity.\u00b4 It is said with certainty. \u00b4And I know in my heart that we must be in a position to, and be ready to, accept and take advantage of whatever those opportunities may be. These guided tours are part of that preparation and I know the Padron Lleo family now in their third generation of ownership of this Janubio, , wants to move forward with dignity and respect and to do the right thing, but also wants to move forward with energy.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We and our friends are certainly not alone in\nthinking the walk and talk tours offer fantastic value for money, as a\nselection of comments, below, picked off facebook, clearly indicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4Had\na tour round the Salinas de Janubio this morning. Apparently they only started\ndoing tours this summer.  They do these\ntours from Monday to Friday and we just turned up. Found it very interesting\nand informative and got to taste different types of salt. Well worth a visit.\u00b4 Andy\nDent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4We\nwent on Wednesday morning and had booked in advance on visitas@salinasdejanubio.com<\/a> Amazing visit. The\nguide, Sara, is very knowledgeable. Definitely worth a visit. Really\ninteresting.\u00b4Stephanie\nHall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4You\ncan book on line. They are not every day and (delivery) languages vary but, as\nAndy said, its very informative and surprisingly interesting.\u00b4Rob\nJones<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4 Thoroughly enjoyed the tour in September. Very good, price, too. Our guide was Sara and it was just hubby and I.\u00b4Lita Abbey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4Love\nthe colours of the Salinas.\u00b4Eva Fristedt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judging by their names these are comments from an admittedly small but international selection of visitors. Why not book yourselves a visit? Say you read all about it in Sidetracks And Detours all across the arts<\/em>, and then keep your eye out for some of those alternative events Sara alluded to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We at all across the\narts are grateful to Sara for her time and wish her luck in this stage of her\ncareer. If hard work, a great personality and an employer that offers employees\nsome latitude count for anything then she is bound for success. And you\ncertainly don\u00b4t need to take that with a pinch of salt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The web site is https:\/\/salinasdejanubio.com\/visitas\/<\/a>\nand you will find information about the area and about the walks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SARA DEL SALINAS I have no idea if the Spanish have a phrase that is in any way equivalent in meaning or nuance to the English idiomatic saying of \u00b4take it with a pinch of salt.\u00b4 In fact, when I first pondered the appropriateness of the phrase for this article, I realised I wasn\u00b4t even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}