Asinasa

Hey,

One of the excursions we went on was to Asinasa. We first went on a mini bus ride through Alghero to collect others going on the trip and then we drove to Stintino. Once arrived at Stintino we got on a small boat to Asinasa where we got into a small bus that took us on a tour around the island. Our tour guide was Gabriella who repeated the Italian into English for the 4 of us.

Our first stop was to look at 2 different types of flower: one that changes colour with the seasons: winter is green; spring is orange and summer is red. This plant is also used for fishing as it has poisoned milk in it. The donkeys also use this plant to find water as it is the only plant that stores water. The second plant is a plant that smells like liquorish, that can be used in herbal medication which was the main source of healing in the 1970s.

We then stopped off to see the donkeys and have a break as well as take photographs of the donkeys and landscape surrounding us.

After this, we stopped at a turtle hospital where we got a tour, where they told us what was wrong with the turtles: Veronica was hit by a plastic bottle which damaged her shell, this takes a year to heal; Polly ate plastic that consequently meant she couldn't eat properly and therefore had to be fed via a tube, but she ate on her own the day before so is ready to be released into the ocean in September, so she should be back in the wild now; and finally the newest turtle who also ate plastic and is now in the hospital getting treatment.

We then saw a prison branch with the artist’s work in it. This artist is the only one living on the island. We then walked down to the bunker where we had a tour which was informational. I found that the 21st of March is a day of remembrance for the victims of the Mafia, this was over 1000 people.

We then had a two-hour break where we could eat lunch which for us was a banana and sweets as the hotel didn't provide lunch and there was nowhere to buy food. This break was at the beach so we got to go swimming.

     

The final stop before going back to the boat, was the main prison branch where Gabriella gave us a tour. Here we found out that the left side of the prison were for those sentenced to life whereas the right side with the guards supervising the prisoners. This prison was open until 1997 which is when the prison closed and everyone was booted off the island as they made it a nature reserve and therefore the island and its natural inhabitants was protected.

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More to come

Thanks for reading

Amy x