El Hierro and a bit of Tenerife. Days 4-6 of the trip

Morning of March 11. It was cold at night, and we even had to switch on the heater. Probably because the room had so many windows that it lost heat quickly, and of course there were no radiators in the house, this is the Canaries after all.

As usual I woke up earlier and saw that the weather looked poor, so I immediately thought we did not need to hurry. It was foggy and damp all around. We took a long time getting ready, but when we finally drove off I realized my mistake. It was damp and cloudy only in our town. As soon as we drove away from it, we saw sunshine and good weather, so we definitely should have hurried.

Our first stop was this viewpoint:

From there you could see where we were going: down there and then along the coast so as to loop around the whole island.

Here we had already come down from the mountain. The place where we had recently been can be seen above:

The next stop was a set of semi-natural pools on the ocean shore.

There Sveta realized that she had been wrong not to bring a swimsuit. She had expected bad weather, but it turned out that it really might have been possible to swim. So we decided to come back there the next day before leaving the island.

And here we were already on the edge of the island, and you can see the hollow we had driven through:

Then we unexpectedly came across a place that had not been on our maps at all. We simply saw a sign and turned off. There were several arches above the water set among red volcanic ground:

Here was an interesting mountain with a rocky mass of a completely different material jutting out of it:

Then we arrived at another viewpoint:

And then one more just after that:

Finally that day we visited a place with some interesting tree. But when we got there, we saw it was already closed. We had missed it by about 20 minutes. Fine, nearby we found giant aloe vera bushes instead:

Then we headed back home and on the way stopped by some local shop, bought fish and a bit more food, and drove home to cook and eat it. Before going to bed I spent a long time choosing a hotel for the next two nights in the north of Tenerife.

Morning of March 12. We got up with difficulty and were even a little late. After a long, slow packing session we finally left. Before going we photographed the house where we had been staying:

Boris came out of the neighboring house to say goodbye.

First of all we drove once more to the same viewpoint we had visited the day before. But since we reached it earlier than yesterday, there was more shadow below:

Then we returned to yesterday's natural or semi-natural pool, and Sveta swam there.

I did not dare because I thought I would not be able to handle the cold. Sveta did, and besides, her back had just started hurting.

A Russian couple from Kaliningrad was there with us. They said they had also been to La Palma and La Gomera and had swum in many places on El Hierro, but that this one was the warmest.

In general we really liked this island. There were very few people and very few cars, nothing like Tenerife. But it was time to head to the ferry. Before boarding we stopped by one beach from our list of points. It is known for its black sand, but when we arrived we did not even bother to get out of the car. After Iceland, that beach was not particularly interesting to us.

We reached the ferry, waited for boarding, which actually started earlier than expected, and the ship itself left 13 minutes ahead of schedule. That is probably why they ask you to arrive well in advance. The rocking was even stronger than on the way there, though this time I was not feeling so sick. This ship also had access to fresh air on deck, but there was not much room there. While sailing we decided to buy something to eat. The barman took a long time to prepare it in such heavy motion, and then the card machine kept refusing the payment. Carrying the food to the table while the ferry was shaking felt risky. When we passed La Gomera, the rocking suddenly stopped, but before reaching Tenerife it started again.

During the drive Sveta's back hurt more and more. She kept trying to find a sitting position that would hurt less.

We arrived in Tenerife, drove off the ferry, and immediately remembered what crowds were. Cars were everywhere, people running in all directions. Our route went from Los Cristianos to Icod de los Vinos. On the way we stopped at our standard place where we had already managed to eat several times. As usual we ate well for about 10 euro. Then we drove on. We passed several beautiful places. The weather changed from sunshine to fog and heavy cloud, and at one point we even drove above the clouds:

We reached our next accommodation, where we were supposed to spend two nights. I went inside to check in and met the young man in charge. He was Polish and did not speak Russian. He showed us the room. He brought the barely walking Sveta there, her back was hurting so badly that she lay down and hardly got up again that evening, while I was the one handling everything.

The room had a window opening directly into the hall, and luckily there was a curtain there. But when I tried to move it, the curtain and the rod it hung on both fell down.

That was what it looked like, and of course it was not fixed properly at the sides either. The room itself was cramped, so our suitcases hardly fit. There was also a hole in the room which, as I thought, led to the roof, and in case of rain we might have ended up flooded.

Anyway, we ate whatever food we had and went to sleep. I had booked this room for two nights because I thought we would spend the next day driving around the area and then return to sleep here. But because of Sveta's back pain I no longer knew what we would do next.

Morning of March 13. Her back still hurt in the morning, so we decided she should take one ibuprofen tablet. It helped almost immediately. She started feeling better and her back slowly loosened up. But we still spent the whole day at the hotel. The only thing I did was walk to the nearby Mercadona supermarket and buy some red fish.

I also went up to the roof, which was accessible to all hotel guests, to see where the hole in the ceiling actually led. It turned out to be simple enough. Here it is, with two openings on the right leading to two rooms, and it was covered with glass.

This was the little town where we got stuck:

That was basically it. The day passed very slowly, but perhaps that was for the best because we managed to rest from everything that had happened in the previous days. And in fact this day was exactly the midpoint of the whole trip.