Day 3: January 24

Today we continue on, around the circle, clockwise — from the south up along the west coast. The autobahn (a wide, large road) ends, and mountain switchbacks begin. Along the way, we make our first stop in the mountains and go for a short walk “deeper” into the mountains.

From here, you can see the “rainbow” mountains in the distance, as they are called here — green, red, and yellow islands of rock. It is very beautiful here. What an incredible variety of cacti and all kinds of other amazing plants! All the mountain slopes are covered with cacti of different shapes and sizes.

Then we drive about 10 km and stop again — there is a path right through the rainbow mountains, so we decide to take a short walk. We rest near a large hollow boulder.. Clouds are gathering.

We keep going to our place to stay. Along a narrow road we descend down to the ocean, passing the sleepy little town of Tasarte. We arrive at our accommodation and… Volchiy looks and says, “Maybe it’s time to run away?” “Yes, but I’ve already paid…” I reply. So we stayed. At the barking of dogs behind the gate, a very sweet hostess came out and said, “Oh, my dears, who are you here to see?” We explained that we had booked a room here (apparently), and then she led us to show us her house and our room.

This house made a surprisingly mixed impression. On the one hand, it had a certain special atmosphere of its own. A towering cactus stuck up above the house, there was an orange tree, paths and walkways, a rooftop terrace with soft sofas and a view of the ocean, Indian-motif shawls hung here and there, and on the table there were flat black stones on which someone had very beautifully painted various little pictures in white paint (I even wanted to buy such a stone with a fish painted on it, but I didn’t dare ask about it).

Probably our room was one of the best, with a separate entrance (through a dubious door without a lock :) and its own small terrace with a table and chairs. Black and black-and-white cats were lying everywhere, there were so many of them that it was simply impossible to count. The room was tiny, the toilet and shower were separate outside, but we had our own kettle, cups, and a small refrigerator. As decorations, there were stones and pinecones on the shelves in the room. Volchiy said that the hostess of this house is me in old age.

When we went out to have tea on our terrace, the cats instantly came to life; we could barely keep them away from the table, and they kept tirelessly climbing the stairs and getting onto the terrace. With great difficulty, we managed to calm them down a little and have our tea.

At first, we decided to walk to the beach. Farms were located along the road. They looked dismal - iron bars covered with some kind of rags. It made a depressing impression. Dogs were barking in the distance. I got scared, so we went back and drove to the beach by car.

There is a very beautiful bay here, with huge smooth black cobblestones. The waves rolled back into the ocean with a dull deep rumble, shifting the enormous stones. We lay on large square benches and listened to the roar of the waves; it seemed as if the sound was vibrating inside me. And then Volchiy said, let's go get some wine and watch the sunset here.

We returned to our hut, took wine, beer, cheese, ham. The sky was covered with clouds, but right where the ocean met the sky the clouds parted and it was possible to see the sun slowly sinking below the horizon… Why is this moment always so moving? Why do people all over the world attach so much importance to sunset and sunrise?

It was one of the best moments of our trip. A deserted, quiet beach, the sunset, the roar of the waves. Volchy went for a walk along the water’s edge. And I stayed sitting on the lava, watching Volchy’s moving figure, and tears quietly ran from my eyes. It was such a pleasant, soothing sadness, filled with gratitude to this world for everything and everyone who is in my life.

It had grown completely dark. We were sitting on our little terrace and drinking tea. The wind had blown away all the clouds above us, and the sky appeared, with an incredible number of stars. Volchiy suggested going to the beach for the third time today—to look at the stars there in pitch darkness :) We took blankets from the hut and drove there. The sky here is completely different, the stars are arranged differently. We saw a large bright meteor.