Today, we made our first stop at the island of La Gomera which is only 18 miles away from the west coast of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. While geographically close, it is worlds away in terms of its way of life. It’s the smallest of the Canary Islands, being only 146 square miles and it is nearly circular. It’s almost an impenetrable island with soaring rock walls and an amazing number of ravines that make up the island — all due to its longterm volcanic history. In fact, there isn’t even a coastal road that goes around the island — everything is “in and out, up and down” to get anywhere. Thankfully, the island’s government invested in better two-lane roads and tunnels in the 1980s/90s that made getting around the island reasonably straightforward. I can’t imagine traveling on some of the old roads that we saw. Ultimately, this island is all about nature — for such a volcanic and seemingly arid island (lots of cactus and agave), it is incredibly lush. I’m a iNaturalist junkie and I captured over 50 species of exotic plants before I gave up. Many of these were in evidence in their beautiful national park (Parque Nacional de Garajonay). The geographical challenges played into the settlement and ultimate conquering of the island. The indigenous people here (the Guanches) appear to come from the Berber communities in Northern Africa. While many of them were hunter/gatherers, they also learned to farm in this harsh environment. Much like we saw in the Sacred Valley of Peru, this meant terracing along the mountain cliffs. It’s stunning to see the huge number of terraces (some dating back to the 14th century) that are still in use today. The Spanish conquered this island in the 15th century, making it a safe place for trade and shipping. And that is the first instance of Christopher Columbus who used the narrow port here as the furthest outpost for his trips going and coming back from the New World. We passed on the capital of La Gomera where the Church of the Assumption (where Columbus prayed before his journey) in favor of going out into the countryside. What’s interesting is that following the celebrated Columbus stopovers, La Gomera went into a period of isolation from the outside world, lasting all the way until the 1950s. Locals subsisted on their farming (including bananas, sugar cane, avocados, etc.) and herding of the goats, sheep, and pigs that the Spanish introduced there. At that point, the export of their farm goods started to open up the island to the outside world. Today, while agriculture still remains a significant portion of their revenue, tourism is becoming a larger piece of their overall economy. As I noted, this island is all about nature, and the national park is the crown jewel of that natural environment. It actually makes up about 10% of the landmass of the entire island and there are at least 400 species of flora represented there. A lot of the forest is laurel, so those of you that love bay leaves would have a great time here. Even a huge fire back in 2012 has not stopped the regrowth of the area. Because of the very mountainous terrain with the multitude of canyons, each part of the island has drastically different weather/climate conditions. Just driving around had us in the mist/clouds (wearing our jackets) to the beaches where we were rapidly peeling off layers. There are also a large number of volcanic cones still in evidence around the island. Rather than one major volcano forming the island, there were multiple that were active at different points in its history adding to the island’s geographic complexity. While we didn’t get to see it, one other truly unusual aspect of the island is “Silbo,” La Gomera’s whistling language. Because of the terrain, communicating back and forth with people was hugely difficult and involved a lot of hiking. The natives developed a language which is really just translating their existing language into whistles that could be heard for much farther distances than talking/yelling. While many tribal languages have faded away, La Gomera has embraced their history and continue to teach the language in schools today. If you want to hear a sample, check out this YouTube video (https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgSnxU) and start at around minute 11:25. Anyway, this was a great way to start off our wandering of the Canary Islands.
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
