Hoya del Morcillo

One of the barbecue grills


Hoya del Morcillo is a lovely picnic and barbecue area deep in the pine woods of El Pinar. Like most of these places, it's very popular with the locals. It has water taps, picnic tables, and proper barbecue grills, which makes it much easier to cook lunch without starting a forest fire.

The play area

There's a slide and climbing frame to amuse the kids while the food cooks, and plenty of space to kick a football around.

The climbing frame


There's also a camp site, and this rather fun map of the island made of branches. I couldn't fit it all in the photo: this is the south-west of El Hierro.

The map of the island

And this sign commemorates a balloon flight.

In recognition of the feat achieved by the aeronauts Jesus Gonzalez Green and Tomas Feliu who, following in the footsteps of Christopher Columbus in the first transoceanic balloon flight, departed from the island of El Hierro and arrived in Venezuela. 5th April 1992

The flight itself was in February 1992. They survived technical problems, a tropical storm, and lack of oxygen before they got into the trade winds, which blew them all the way to the Orinoco delta. The journey was a total of 5,000 km and 130 hours 19 minutes (and the previous world record was 1,075 km and 45 hours 13 minutes.)


The sign commemorating the balloon flight