Barbecue in the Bosque

El Hierro is full of nature, and a couple weeks ago I was invited by some teachers at school to a lovely barbecue up in the mountains by Frontera, the other populated province on El Hierro (with a whole 3,900 people).

We met up at school in the morning, went to the grocery store and butcher shop, and drove way up to this cute little park set up for barbecues and picnics called Hoya del Pino. It had tables, a stone shelter, and several fireplaces. Before lunch, we went on a cool hike that started in a traditional forest (with grass and tall trees) and ended up going almost straight up a mountain in a rainforest (complete with mushrooms, mud, and lots of moss).

Whoever designs the roads in El Hierro doesn't really seem to believe in the switchback, so a lot of roads--even for cars--are basically straight up, at about a 45 degree angle. It was beautiful, though, full of ferns and trees with winding roots and moss. We hiked a loop, through the rainforest to arrive to a path lined with trees that were actually changing colors! It reminded me of fall at home, since I haven't seen any fall colors at all here.

The trail looped back to the park where we began, and we all gathered wood. I helped start a fire in one of the barbecue spots. It was quite a fire! At lunch, we had special El Hierro wine made from a grape that went extinct on the Peninsula hundreds of years ago but that survived here. It was indeed delicious, very fruity red wine.

Some views on our wood-gathering expedition. You can only light fires in established fire circles because there is so little water on El Hierro; the fire hazard is pretty high all the time and a rogue match could do a lot of damage very fast.

For our meal, we had lapas, a specialty of El Hierro. I had never even seen one out of the shell before, but they are limpets! Héctor had gotten up bright and early that morning and gone out to the sea to collect fresh ones for us :D We put them directly on the grill over an open flame and watched them closely--they only cook for about 90 seconds each. While cooking, they are brushed with homemade mojo made with garlic, oil, and saffron. They were delicious and I'm so glad I tried them with people who knew what they were and how to eat them. :)

We also had El Hierro cheese and the ever-popular choripan (chorizo + pan), which is sausage on bread and which I first tried many years ago in Argentina. You squeeze the sausage directly onto the sandwich and grill it. For the main course, we grilled chicken. Lunch was quite a venture but it certainly paid off! Delicious all around :)

After lunch (which finished around 6pm because the Spanish know how to eat), we went for coffee at La Maceta, a swimming area in Frontera. There was a very cool piece of art carved out of iron that is shaped like El Hierro and has the famous Juniper tree of El Hierro (la Sabinosa) carved out of it, so you can see the ocean on the other side.

I definitely want to come back to La Maceta to swim! They have swimming pools that are built directly in the sea, so they are protected from the waves but you are still swimming in the ocean.

The sunset was gorgeous!

A lovely day in nature filled with good food!

¡Hasta pronto!