Mist in the forests of El Hierro, Spain's smallest Canary Island.

by Marjolein Zijlstra

El Hierro, an island where time has stood still, where apart from a small oil refinery for the asphalt plant to maintain the infrastructure, there is no other form of industry on the entire island. Agriculture, some simple animal husbandry, fishing, and a simple form of tourism, that's all there is. Friendly people, overwhelming nature, simplicity and honesty, no luxury, no resorts, no highbrow. Ordinary life, and that's what you can be a part of for a while on holiday on El Hierro, unwind and relax, enjoy hiking through vast forests often with different trees and crops than we are used to here in our temperate climate. In fact, El Hierro is closer to the equator and has a subtropical climate. Yet on the higher parts there are often Dutch weather conditions with dense fog between the trees, driven by the wind often referred to as horizontal rain. It is greener than at the warmer sea level, up in the humid area beautiful beard lichens grow like long threads in the trees, year-round mushrooms, regularly you literally walk with your head in the clouds. At sea level, it is predominantly succulents, agaves, cacti and other more heat-resistant plants. In the south of the island near the town of La Restinga, no greenery can be seen for miles around. There it is lava, lava and more lava.
A landscape with a lava desert, a true lunar landscape with rust-red rock and the blue sea on the horizon. By the way, El Hierro is completely self-sufficient in energy, this with windmills and a water battery. Excess wind energy is used to pump water to a high lake. With energy poverty, it runs down past power-generating turbines, solving the lee in electricity production.