Isora's spring

The footpath down to the spring at Isora

Water is an important resource on El Hierro, like all the other Canary Islands. It's not so long ago that everyone had to go to the spring to fetch water.

In Isora, the old spring is northeast of the village centre. You can follow the signs from the main road through the village (NB "main" is relative: we are not talking about a six lane highway here) down to a car park. That's a nice view in itself, but if you take the steep footpath that meanders down from the car park, things get better.

The water tank at the spring

After perhaps two kilometres, you reach the spring. In 1943 they built a modern, concrete water tank here, presumably to store the water and keep it cleaner. If you go there, watch your step as there's a hole in the top. If you fell in, I think it would be impossible to get out again without help. (In fact I may use this for one of my stories some time).

The bit that fascinated me was the old laundry. You see, if you don't have running water at home, your clothes weigh a lot less than the water you need to wash them. So you take the laundry to the water rather than vice versa. So here are six tubs for hand washing.

The old laundry



One of the concrete panels between the tubs has a series of initials scratched in while the concrete was still wet, and the date "1963". This puzzles me. That's about the time when my husband's family on La Palma had to pump water into a tank on the roof by hand once a week, but once you'd done that, there was running water in the house. So 1963 seems very late to be carry the clothes to the spring, but rather early for restoration work. I'd have thought it would be just old enough to be boring. Of course, La Palma is a much richer island than El Hierro, so maybe people were still carrying their clothes to the spring then - and all the way back up. It certainly makes me appreciate my washing machine!

But they certainly had a fantastic view while they lathered away.

The view from the spring

The Big Green Electric Machine

One of the windmills

El Hierro plans to be the first island in the world to be self-sufficient in electricity from renewable sources. There'll be six modern windmills on the ridge where the wind generally tries to blow your hair off, and most of the time, they'll provide the electricity direct to the island's power grid.

It's not too hard to see the catch. "Generally" isn't enough. Nobody wants to wait for a windy day to switch the kettle on. They want their cup of tea now.

So when the windmills generate more electricity than the demand, the excess will be used to pump water uphill to a reservoir in a natural volcanic crater. Then when the windmills can't keep up with the demand, the water will be released to run downhill through turbines into another lake near the port of Estaca to generate the extra energy. This should smooth out the bumps nicely.

At present, most of the island's electricity comes from a diesel-fired power station. That will be on standby for the first year, while they make sure that everything really does work reliably, and then moth-balled. After that, the whole island will run on clean energy.

Of course it helps that the population is only about 10,500, and the winters are fairly mild.

The top reservoir

One of my favourite places to eat in El Hierro is the Parilla in Isora.

Parilla means grill, and they mostly serve grilled meat with salad and wrinkly potatoes or chips. It's not a particularly innovative menu, but they use good ingredients and cook them very well. The service is friendly and the prices are reasonable. What more could you ask?

"I Will Wait for You Forever"

This statue, by Julio Nieto, stands at the entrance to the tunnel, just south of Estaca. From here, you can see the ferries coming into the port. The plaque by his feet says, "I Will Wait for You Forever".

I thought it was very sweet and romantic. And then I hear that the artist's wife had drowned near here.

My Favourite Wine

Viña Frontera, from La Frontera, El Hierro.

Like all the Canary Islands, El Hierro has several different wines. One of my favourites is Viña Frontera. As you can see, there are several varieties. Personally I like the sweet white wine best, even though I know perfectly well that dry wines are considered posher. You can normally expect to pay about 4€ for a bottle of the sweet white (blanco afrutado) and usually more for the other varieties.

La Higuera de Abuela Restaurant

The courtyard of La Higuera de Abuela

There are lots of nice places to eat on El Hierro, but one of my favourites is La Higuera de Abuela in Echedo. It means "Granny's Fig Tree".

The courtyard's lovely, the food's great and the service is friendly.

The restaurant's in the village of Echedo, just north of Valverde town. They open 11 am - 4pm and 7:30 pm - 11 pm, with Tuesdays off.

Give my love to the goldfish.

The entrance of La Higuera de Abuela

Roque La Bonanza

This unusual rock is called Roque La Bonanza. It's on the road from the port to the Parador (Paradors are posh, state-run hotels, and very nice too). We promptly christened it the teddy-bear rock, because to us it looks like a teddy bear pushing something along.

The rock is just on the Parador side of the long tunnel.