La Palma and La Gomera Islands. Days 6 to 8 of the trip

Morning of September 18. We woke up and when we came down from the bedroom into the kitchen, we saw another resident of our cottage:

We had breakfast, packed up and set off. We still had plenty of plans before leaving for La Gomera. First we returned to the place we had visited on the second day of our stay on the island. Back then we had turned around because of a sign saying the route was too dangerous. This time we decided to try our luck and reach that point by a different way. At first we walked through a pine forest:

Then we had to climb a steep slope:

Then the road got even steeper, and once again there was a sign saying the path ahead was dangerous. We ignored it and kept going. Climbing up was fine, but I already understood that going back down would be much harder because there was every chance of slipping and tumbling downhill. Still, we continued because it felt like something beautiful was waiting at the top. And here we were, with this view:

You could see Teide from there:

That day was planned minute by minute. I had calculated how much time we could spend at each location and still make the ferry, and we stuck to that plan. We were even a little ahead of schedule.

We came down from the mountain. Our boots were covered in dust, so we had to clean them. At the bottom we got a bit of a disappointment: after that long walk we had wanted to buy a chicken sandwich and coffee, but when we got down we saw that the vendor had only just started setting up the stall, so we drove on empty-handed.

Next came a swim in semi-natural pools. We arrived, changed in the cabins, and immediately ran off to swim.

Everything there was free, except that if you wanted to use the shower by the changing cabins, you had to put in half a euro.

We swam in two different pools. Sveta stayed in the water longer than I did, while I got afraid of burning in the sun like in the Maldives. By the time we were done, I realized that we had already lost the time we had gained on the hike up, so we had to rush to the ferry.

We made it to the ferry. We did have to look around for the entrance because the maps app I was using, MapsMe, showed the wrong road. We parked the car in the hold and went to walk around the ship. It was better than Armas. We had wifi right away. Here is a photo from the deck:

We arrived on La Gomera and immediately ran into a lot of tourists. The town was full of them. It was nowhere near as empty as La Palma. So, forgetting for a moment that we needed to refuel, we drove straight into the mountains. Here is one of our stops, the town of San Sebastian de Gomera:

Nothing special. The most interesting part began when we got closer to the center of La Gomera. There they were, clouds spilling over the mountains, my favorite kind of landscape:

Here is another angle:

I even shot a timelapse there, but I cannot embed it in the blog because there is no way to host video.

As we approached our hotel for the next two nights, we crossed a mountain ridge and suddenly found ourselves in completely different weather. It was damp and foggy. That weather helped us keep moving though, because we had spent so much time stopping at every beautiful viewpoint. We entered the town, but first decided to refuel. That meant driving a little past the hotel. The gas station was expensive and very small. A woman there filled the car for us, and we moved on. Before checking in we also stopped by Spar. In the end we parked near the hotel. It was already dark, and the parking was some distance away from the hotel, which we did not like. We walked up to the hotel and found everything closed, with nobody at reception. Then Sveta noticed a sign right at the entrance with my name printed on it, our room number, and instructions to go in. The key was already in the door.

We stepped into the room and were stunned. It was one of the coolest rooms we had ever had on any trip. First of all, there was a lot of space. It was a studio, but the sleeping area was separated from the main room by doors. There was also a small kitchenette, though as always without a microwave. I still do not understand why they never put microwaves in rooms. But the best part was the two panoramic windows with a view of the mountain and the banana plantations:

We even regretted booking it for only two nights. The price was good too, about 50 euros per night. In Dubna, renting a studio for one night could easily cost more, and here we got Europe plus an amazing view.

We went to bed. I decided not to close the curtains, so as I was falling asleep I looked at the plantations and the mountain, and in the morning I woke up to the same view.

Morning of September 19. I woke up early while Sveta was still sleeping. I just lay there looking at the scenery through the panoramic window. Then Sveta woke up, we had breakfast, packed up and left. First we drove to the coast not far from our hotel. We turned off the main road to reach our point, and that access road was a bit scary. We had seen a lot by then, but that road scared us because if a car had appeared from the opposite direction, I have no idea what we would have done. Most likely I would have had to reverse along the cliff edge with only a few dozen centimeters to spare. We got there, found some restaurant, and walked around it:

Then we drove on to the next point. There was a beach there and a nearby pool with paid entry. We just walked around, looked at it, and went back to the car. On the way we passed a strange place: a round road with a hole in the middle. We looked inside, and an Alsatian immediately started barking at us from down there. I have no idea why they had put it there.

Next we drove to another beach. It was one of our marked points, and the note said the water there should be warm. Sveta went for a swim and said it was not warm at all, actually rather cold. Here she is coming out on a wave:

Meanwhile the sun outside was blazing, so I did not swim and just sat in the car waiting for Sveta.

Then we drove to another place where we could not find parking. We had to go a bit farther, leave the car there, and walk back. The place was beautiful:

La Palma can be seen in the distance in that photo.

After that we went to some park. Nothing special. There was a berry growing there that looked like a blackberry. I even thought about eating it, but decided to wait. Then we found its description and it became obvious that it was definitely not a blackberry. So it was good that I had not eaten it. Near that park there was a small restaurant, and we decided to have something there. We went in and asked for the menu. We saw chicken there, and it looked cheap. It said it was half a chicken, so we went ahead and ordered two portions for the two of us. Twenty minutes later they brought us two enormous chickens. Sveta said she was happy at first, while I, on the contrary, started doubting whether I would manage to finish mine. Once we started eating, Sveta did not like that something red was running out of the meat and that parts of it were reddish. She suggested the chicken might not be fully cooked. I honestly do not know if that was normal or not. After all, people do eat steaks with blood at certain levels of doneness. Anyway, we gnawed through what we could. We mostly avoided the bloody parts. When they took the plates away it felt a bit embarrassing that we had not finished everything. To make things even worse, while eating I broke a tooth, though to be fair it had been asking for it for a long time.

On the way back we stopped again at the place where I had shot the timelapse the day before. But that day the weather was good and there were no clouds at all. Maybe they were supposed to arrive closer to evening.

When we got closer to town, the navigator as usual led us along the shortest route, which meant a street so narrow that our car was barely squeezing through. Another five centimeters either way and we would definitely have scratched something. In the end we wound up at a tiny shop, something like a supermarket. But the whole place felt ancient: the air conditioner was not working, it was hot inside, they only accepted cash, and they rang everything up on a prehistoric cash register.

When we got back to the hotel, Sveta immediately noticed that someone had been in the room because the bed had been made and her shorts and T-shirt were neatly folded:

We do not really like people coming into our room to clean. We were not staying there for two weeks, so I do not think there was much point in cleaning it.

In the evening we rested at the hotel, and I took the chance to shoot another timelapse: I fixed my phone to the window and filmed the clouds flowing around the mountain while it was slowly getting dark. I must have been filming for about forty minutes, and the resulting video was only one minute and forty seconds long. After that I booked our accommodation for the next day, actually an apartment, and also booked an Armas ferry to Tenerife, choosing the second-to-last sailing. The woman whose apartment we had booked contacted me on WhatsApp almost immediately. She was Russian, and we arranged how we would get in touch the next day.

Morning of September 20. We woke up as usual to a panoramic mountain view, ate breakfast, packed the car, and headed toward the center of the island. There were still several places we had not managed to visit the day before. On the way we stopped again to wipe the windows because driving was getting too uncomfortable: in the sun the windshield looked like a cloudy film. This is where we did it while also looking at the valley where we had spent those two nights:

We arrived at an interesting place. We had no idea how symbolic it was until we reached it:

It is something like the center of La Gomera, its highest point. From there you can see the whole island as well as the other three islands: Tenerife, La Palma and El Hierro. To get there you have to walk for about forty minutes. The way back is quicker because it is downhill, and in general you can also use the closed road. While we were walking up and back, I relaxed a little too much and started walking around in a T-shirt without worrying about sunburn. That was a mistake, although the actual burn was still some time away.

Then we stopped at another beautiful place nearby:

Then we passed once again through the place where I had filmed the timelapse. All the roads went through it, so there was no way around it. But again there was nothing to shoot there that day.

After that we stopped in some town:

We walked along the beach there, but it did not feel particularly inviting. We did not want to swim there at all. So we drove to another beach nearby which, according to the comments, was a nudist beach and not very crowded. Here it is:

We walked up to the water and realized we wanted to swim there too. There were nudists there, but they were spread out over a large area, so they were not really in the way. I noticed some old naked man in the distance wearing nothing but a hat. Apparently he had lived a long life and never abandoned his tradition of swimming naked.

Here I am swimming:

It was great. The water really was not as cold as usual. We did not even want to get out. We swam, changed clothes, and continued on. On the way we turned onto some road that led to our next point, but after less than a kilometer we turned around because the road looked too sketchy: it was dirt, sharp stones were lying everywhere, and passing an oncoming car there would have been difficult. It even took us quite a while to find a place where we could turn around.

That was the end of our La Gomera locations, so we headed for the port. We got there rather early, so we had to sit and wait for a long time. That was when I started to feel my hands stinging. While we were sitting in the car I turned on the internet and found a message from the woman whose apartment we had booked for two nights. She said that the boiler in that apartment had broken, but she could offer us another apartment instead. She also added that the view from the window was even better. We agreed.

Once on the ship, we immediately went to buy ourselves something to eat and asked the cashier for the WiFi password.

Here we are approaching Tenerife:

Before docking we went down to the car deck, got into our car, and then had to wait a long time before they let us out. It felt as if the bow ramp through which we were supposed to drive had jammed. Everyone around was annoyed and honking. I do not understand people in situations like that. Their horns will not solve the problem faster. If anything, they only distract the people who are actually working on it.

Eventually the bow opened and we drove off. And once again we ran into crowds of people, something we had already gotten out of the habit of on La Gomera, let alone La Palma.

Then we headed to our new accommodation. We got onto the highway but missed the turn, so we had to loop around and drive that stretch again. Then there were some traffic jams and so on. Finally we arrived. There was nowhere to park, but in the end we squeezed into some spot. A woman met us and showed us to our room. The room itself was excellent and large, but getting there was not very convenient. You had to enter through reception and then walk what felt like half a kilometer through corridors. And strangely enough, there were almost no people there at all. On the way we saw only one family. Carrying all our things from the car took a lot of time. The apartment had a small balcony with a sea view, though it also looked out onto a pile of huge boulders. Once we had carried everything in, we realized we still needed to get to a store. But it was already late, and the stores might have been closed. We ran to the nearby shop and found that it was closing in five minutes. We quickly bought what we needed and hurried back to the apartment.

In the evening Sveta had to put cream on me because my hands and neck were burning. The plan for the next day was the water park, but in the end I suggested that we split up: she would go to the water park, and I would drive alone toward my favorite mountains.