Monday started well, got up early, had breakfast, and down to the harbour to go whale watching. Were far too early, as is normal, so found a bench and watched the boats. Saw the ferry come in and so checked the timings and realised we can get the ferry back to San Sebastian when we leave and it will be on time to get the afternoon ferry back to Tenerife. So we’re sorted for Thursday. But then we got a call saying whale watching was cancelled due to wind. So no spending the morning on a boat. Met up with four other people who were also there to go on the trip and who had not received a call (found out later one pair had but hadn’t answered!) So we waited until after ten and several phone calls – our options were to try to get to Valle Gran Rey tomorrow morning or do the trip on Thursday. Well, we’re leaving on Thursday and don’t care to try to get to the other town tomorrow morning (not even sure what time we’d have to be there but it would involve a taxi and faff to get back so). So no whale watching from La Gomera. We do have another whale watching trip planned for El Hierro (if we can get to the port).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So a slow wander back to the hotel, check to see if the tour person was there (she was not and wasn’t all day so have to sort that tomorrow). Then back to the room and as the day was disappointing anyway, we decided to do some hand washing. So have clean clothes for the rest of the trip now. We also found out the Laguna is closed from Wednesday for a private event, so will have to do our last day at our favourite pool tomorrow. We did have lunch by the main pool today and it was quite nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So we had a lazy couple of days at the last hotel. Spent Tuesday lazing by the Laguna pool (salt water) and a bit of swim. It did look like the pool was open on Wednesday with everything else shut off but we stayed up at the main complex and rested. Too hazy to see the Geminids though – we had haze from the Sahara the last few days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thursday got up early and had a quick breakfast before getting out bags and hoping in a taxi to the port (only a few minutes by car but ages by foot, especially with rucksacks). We had thought we’d go by road to San Sebastian for the ferry to Tenerife, but decided the ferry was easier and we’d seen the drive in. Were early (of course) so watched the sun through the haze while waiting. Rode on the upper deck to San Sebastian where we had a long layover (arrived just after 9 and our ferry to Tenerife didn’t go until 2pm) and we had to wait for the 10:30 ferry to put our bags in. Once we’d put our bags in the lockers for the ferry, we went for a brief wander around. We went into the Iglesia de La Asunci\u00f3n (church) and found out the whole festival things we’d seen early was probably to do with the Virgin of Guadalupe – not the Mexican one which is what I was thinking! So we’ve possibly seen the statue, maybe. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bajada_(festival) Or if you can read Spanish: https:\/\/guadalupegomera.com\/ or https:\/\/es.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Virgen_de_Guadalupe_(La_Gomera) The Bajada only happens every 5 years, so we got the 2023 one. Loads of shops selling things related, but we resisted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rode on the upper deck outside back to Tenerife, but haze was so bad La Gomera disappeared quickly and couldn’t see Tenerife until we were nearly there. It was funny because everything I was reading indicated you could see Tenerife from some of the lookouts on La Gomera on a clear day – actually you can see Tenerife from just about everywhere on La Gomera – well all the bits facing toward Tenerife. We could see it from the beach by our hotel. It was only the last couple of days with the haze that we couldn’t see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We had a shorter wait in Tenerife, so grabbed lunch at the port and watched the people. The ferry loading was a lot more casual – Joe saw people heading that way so we followed and ended up on the ferry. Armas isn’t as slick as Fred Olsen, but it wasn’t a bad ride – two and half hours, but most was in the dark. So we arrived at El Hierro in the dark, found our taxi, and were driven to the Parador. Couldn’t see much of where we’d arrived (and I think we go back in the dark as well!) just the road ahead (twisty again) and vaguely what was alongside (much more shrub than La Gomera – we think). At one point we sat at a traffic light for absolutely ages, then when it finally turned green we turned into a one lane tunnel which was quite long! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Parador is toward the end of a dead end road, right on the sea with the mountain right behind it. We got checked in and offered a sea view room, which we took. Turns out we’ve probably got the best room in the whole place – upper level, right on the corner, with a wrap around balcony overlooking the sea and views of the mountian. Had a lovely dinner, tried to watch for Geminids from our balcony but still hazy, and then fell asleep to the sound of the sea. When we woke up we had a brilliant view of the sunrise over the sea (still hazy) and finally saw the view which is spectacular. There isn’t much here though, including walks, and the pool is closed due to erosion from the sea, so we are taking it easy on the balcony watching the sea and thinking about a walk later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Monday started well, got up early, had breakfast, and down to the harbour to go whale watching. Were far too early, as is normal, so found a bench and watched the boats. Saw the ferry come in and so checked the timings and realised we can get the ferry back to San Sebastian when we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T97-16F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3990,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/02\/happy-birthday-canada\/","url_meta":{"origin":4257,"position":0},"title":"Happy Birthday Canada!","date":"Sunday, 2 July 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"So 150 years!\u00a0 We woke up far too early. And are tired far too early. Jet lag. Ugh. So awake, so got up and got sorted. Had some coffee. Checked out the hotel breakfast which wasn't much - cereal or toast. So we had more coffee and OJ and did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4001,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/06\/highway-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":4257,"position":1},"title":"Highway 1","date":"Thursday, 6 July 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Otherwise known as the Trans-Canadian Hwy. Though we didn't get on it until nearly past Vancouver, even though it starts in Victoria, we went up to Sidney and took the ferry across from there, rather than the ferry from further north on Vancouver Island. Got to the ferry too early,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/12\/81\/","url_meta":{"origin":4257,"position":2},"title":"What we’re actually doing ?","date":"Saturday, 12 April 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"I just realised that although I've been posting test messages I haven't actually given any idea of what we're actually doing! So here it is: (by the way, the trip is still quite flexible) We leave on 1 May early in the morning as our train leaves Waterloo at 8.30am.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4185,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/27\/the-professionals-part-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":4257,"position":3},"title":"The Professionals Part Two","date":"Friday, 27 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Early start as we had to pack up and check out of the hotel before we did our boat trip. We also had a drive up to Emu Bay to get on the boat! We arrived in Emu Bay where there was very little - at least at the jetty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3992,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/03\/happy-hangover-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":4257,"position":4},"title":"Happy Hangover Day!","date":"Monday, 3 July 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"There is a theme of watching fireworks from the hotel deck this year. Last night decided we couldn't see the fireworks from our room, so headed downstairs and out onto the deck where we could watch the fireworks - and yes, they were over the harbour. In keeping with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":338,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/04\/whale-watching\/","url_meta":{"origin":4257,"position":5},"title":"Whale watching","date":"Monday, 4 January 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Just back from the best meal we've had all trip - ate at the Indigo Grill, which appears to be part of a series of places.\u00a0 But the place acts like a small independent and the service and food were excellent. We left almost too full to walk! Definitely recommended\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4257"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4262,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions\/4262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}