Ferry Terminal, Los Cristianos
Playa de las AmericasLa Gomera – 3-12 March 2006
Friday
La Gomera is one of the smaller Canary Islands, just 45 minutes by fast ferry from Tenerife. There is an airport on the island, but it is not big enough to handle international flights. Our intention was to spend some time walking in the excellent mountain terrain there and relaxing on what beaches were available.
Our flight touched down in Tenerife’s La Reina Sofia airport in the south at 6.40pm, time to get a taxi (€10 approx) to an apartment in El Medano nearby and head out for a walk and an evening meal.
I chose the apartments Durazno Sur again for convenience and because they are relatively quiet. The beds are comfortable enough and the apartments are functional enough for an overnight stay. They are also just 100 metres from the sea.
I thought I’d try to find El Magallan seafood restaurant again, but there was no trace of it now and no one seemed to remember it. We wandered along the sea front on the boardwalk seeing what there was and the place seemed a bit different, but I can’t say how.
After surveying a few menus, we settled on a sea-food place called El Astillero in 2, Paseo Marcial Garcia, close to the sea. In fact the sea washes up to the walls at high tide.
The restaurant has some locally caught fish displayed in a cabinet, but also specialises in fish/shellfish and rice dishes, including black rice and rice stews or calderas.
We opted for a shellfish caldera and it was excellent. I noticed the wine list contained some Ribera del Duero wines from the Castile region of Spain. These wines are not as well known as those from the Rioja region, but are every bit as classy. Well, we were not disappointed, we picked the second on their list and it was excellent.
Another speciality of the restaurant is their home-made dried fig ice-cream; very nice.
We had another walk along the sea-front before heading off to a good night’s sleep.
Saturday
We had checked the ferry timetables online before leaving home and the most convenient one looked to be the Garajonay Expres ferry for 11.30am. The taxi ride takes about 20 minutes (and €24.00) from El Medano to Los Cristianos. Unfortunately when we got there, no ferries were due to depart for another 2 hours. The Fred Olsen ferry was the next to go at 1.30pm. The ticket office opened at 12pm and we were able to place our suitcases on the luggage trolley before having a beer in a nearby café and watching some beach volley ball.
Ferry Terminal, Los Cristianos
Playa de las Americas
There are 3 ferry companies operating from here to La Gomera. Fred Olsen is the fastest at around 35 minutes. Garajonay Expres takes about 50 minutes, but can’t take cars and Naviera Armas takes 90 minutes and likewise does not take cars.
The weather was sunny with a pleasant breeze. The crossing went well, but we saw no dolphins or porpoises. Views of Mt Tiede were excellent.
The
ferry crossing with Mt Teide in the background.
We had arranged to pick up a hire car by the harbour wall from Hermigua Rent a car and it was there as ordered. The rates were very good at around €17.5 a day all inclusive for a Daewoo Kalos, a small hatchback. We stayed in San Sebastien long enough to pick up a few essentials and then drove off to Hermigua in the north east, where we had hired a cottage for the week.
San Sebastien
The drive took about 35 minutes and was very twisty all the way. The scenery was impressive with great gorges and mountain ridges running from the centre of the island.
We settled up with the car hire people in Hermigua and then carried on to the cottage situated on the opposite side of the gorge at Llano Campo.
The cottage has some steep steps to negotiate, but not too bad. It was very well fitted out with a double bed, fridge-freezer, cooker washing machine and a decent shower. The property, known as a casa rural, has a very large balcony and terrace for our exclusive use and overlooks the gorge, the floor of which is almost entirely covered in banana plantations. Surrounding the gorge and village on three sides are the tall cliffs of the encircling mountains and at the open end lies a stormy beach some 350 metres away.
Views
of and from the terrace
The beach is not considered safe to swim from with heavy breakers and a strong undertow.
We asked for a recommendation for a restaurant and someone told us to try a small place overlooking the beach. I can’t remember the name, Las P…..s, but it is on the lane parallel to the beach. There was a blackboard outside with a few dishes listed on it for €10, the menu del dia I suspected. However, once inside I soon discovered there was no other menu.
We ordered a bottle of red wine, the roast goat for starters and the paella for the main course. The goat was excellent and the paella a real home made one. Dessert was two bananas. The red wine turned out to be another Ribera del Duero and superb.
The place was run by three women, probably mother, daughter and grand-daughter. The younger of the three did not seem to understand my Spanish and seemed to take me for a space cadet. The middle one fortunately did manage to communicate easily enough.
We sat at the front of the restaurant overlooking the bay; very picturesque.
The bay at Hermigua and the barranco inland
The road to Playa de la Caleta
Sunday
We did some shopping at the supermercado by the church, drove back and then did a short walk to look at the track to Playa de la Caleta, the best beach on the north of the island. The first kilometre is very rough, but driveable. At the start, you pass a few cottages with some wonderfully scented flowers.
At the top, the track becomes a tarmac road all the way to the playa, another 1 km downhill.
We decided to leave the playa for another day and drove off instead to Vallerhermoso before exploring more of the island. The town is small and compact. The only way to expand is up the mountains. It does make a good base for walkers though.
En route to Vallehermoso
Vallehermoso
There are several bars and restaurants in Vallerhermoso and we had an excellent light lunch of hot and cold tapas variadas in the central plaza with bacalao, goat, chickpeas, salad, octopus, roast chicken, tortillas and tuna.
Once in the national park, we drove in thick swirling mist encircling the top of the island.
Hermigua was still overcast when we returned.
We cooked a chicken dish ourselves before going for a bracing walk in the stiff wind to the beach.
Monday
We aimed to do a proper walk today, starting from the cottage. We started up the track to Playa de Caleta and at the top, branched off inland on another broad track heading roughly south. The north is often covered in cloud and is far from the arid landscape of southern Tenerife. Flowers and succulents abound in the slopes, including a large variety of daisies, aloe vera and dandelion.
Views from the first part of the walk
Kestrels and buzzards are frequent sights and the air is filled with birdsong, although most of the songsters are hard to spot.
The track passes to the west of Casas el Moralito and then circles round towards Casas del Palmar.
Before the track reached the Barranco de Taguluche, we turned off to follow a tiny path through thick undergrowth. The path was rocky, but well marked with paint daubs and tiny stone cairns and therefore easy to follow. On our right we could make out a ridge on the horizon with goats on its spine. We saw plenty of partridge here.
In a few minutes we found ourselves by a bit of a hovel with chickens running about and a sign in English saying “Goats cheese and bananas for sale.” No sign of anyone though.
We turned left here through a meadow full of tall plants, two bullocks and a lot of wild fennel.
Soon we descended a gorge by the sea and wound our way around the headland 2/3rd of the way up the cliff. The path is generally easy enough, but can be a bit narrow at times and would need great care in wet or very windy conditions.
Sea cliffs
At the seaward point of the cliff, we came to a tiny mirador perched on the cliff edge and overlooking Playa de la Caleta a long way down. Isabel experienced a touch of vertigo looking down. Some parts of the cliff path are high and sheer and requires a reasonable head for heights.
Looking east from the mirador and down to Playa de la Caleta.
The cliff path behind me.
We continued along the other side of the cliff back inland until we reached the road above the playa and joined it back home. The walk including the picnic took around 4 hours. It can be done a lot quicker, but there is a lot to take in if you slacken your pace.
For dinner that night, we thought we would try El Silbo, one of only two restaurants recommended by the AA guide for La Gomera. It is perched above Hermigua on the Vallerhermoso road.
We ordered a local wine, which was rather thin, drinkable, but undesirable.
The restaurant is on a balcony, slightly open and we found we needed a light fleece as the evening was slightly cool.
I had a starter of pulpo gallego (octopus) and Isabel went for tomato and garlic. For the main course I had conejo salmorejo (rabbit) and Isabel the cordero asado (roast lamb). All were excellent. The home made ice-cream was OK, but nothing to get excited about. We finished off with a brandy and an apple liqueur.
Tuesday
After Saturday, the weather turned cloudy and mist covered the mountain tops. It was warm, but certainly not hot. Isabel suggested we try to find the sun by driving over to the other side of the island to Playa de Santiago, reputedly the warmest resort on the island.
As we reached the top and the national park, the clouds got thicker and all views obliterated. Visibility reached 30 to 40 metres at times. A couple of kilometers over the top the sun broke through the cloud as if by magic. The change was quite dramatic and the rest of the drive was accompanied by bright blue skies and hot sunshine all the way to Pl de Santiago.
We wandered around the promenade and harbour before settling down for lunch in the restaurant attached to the apartments Abona. It has a nice veranda overlooking the sea with sun and a slightly chilly breeze and the food was nicely cooked. The parrillada only contained tuna and mackerel, but was tasty. We drank the local Dorada beer, not bad.
Playa de Santiago
To compensate for the lack of exercise earlier, we stopped by Roque de la Zarcita on the way back to Hermigua and tried out a short walk straight down the valley. It was a fairly steep descent into the Regellada del Tanque towards La Laja. The walk has dramatic views and passes an abandoned hut. We only walked for 1 ½ hours, but the hike back up was a real test of lung power.
Views
from the Roque walk.
Later in the afternoon, we returned over the mountains to find ourselves enveloped in cloud again and the temperature decidedly cooler than on the south side.
Views from a mirador en-route
Back at the cottage, we made a light dinner with cheese, olives and chorizo sausage, followed by lemon and walnut cake and turron duro, a kind of superior nut brittle normally eaten at Christmas in Spain.
Wednesday
Wanting to explore more of the island, we drove over the top to Valle Gran Rey, again bathed in sunshine whilst Hermigua remained draped in cloud.
We ate lunch at a restaurant called Charco del Conde. The starter was ensaladilla, a mixture of boiled eggs and potato with mashed fish and mayonnaise. Not a favourite of mine. Luckily they had fillets of medregal which cooked up like a really nice pork escalope. The flavour is something between pork and swordfish with a nice open texture. Isabel went for chicken wings in garlic, tasty and repeating. Portions were a bit parsimonious for the island.
There are safe bathing beaches here for children in front of the restaurant and another by the harbour. We walked along the cliff bottom past another beach to a barranco. The path crosses a creek with some deep clear pools, before edging up the walls of the barranco, at times with no clear path. The path got more eroded further up and we decided it was more effort than we wanted to expend, so turned back and made our way back home.
Valle Gran Rey 
Childrens beach
Little Egret
The harbour beach
Another beach around the corner
The barranco
For the first time since Saturday, Hermigua was bathed in sunshine when we returned.
We were able to eat dinner on the terrace, finishing off the tapas style cuisine from last night and hoped to get some respite from the yapping dogs at night.
Thursday
Sleep proved a bit difficult. It was much warmer than previously and those dogs yapped most of the night. Consequently we had a late breakfast before driving to El Convento at the top of Hermigua. From there we walked across the bridge over the river and shortly after turned right to climb a flight of steps to a minor road. From there we turned right and just before a hairpin bend, crossed a short bridge on the left. Turning right after the bridge, we followed a waymarked track to El Cedro.
This is a very pretty hike and we were fortunate at first to have plenty of sunshine and good visibility. The track gives way to a path following a watercourse and water pipes through tiny cultivated fields. The path is rocky at times and crosses tiny streams. Close to the start of the walk, the imposing twin pinnacles of Los Roques de San Pedro dominate the landscape and are said to represent lovers who were fused together in stone and then split by a ray of the sun.
Los Roques de San Pedro
Flowers are abundant, some familiar like snapdragons, arum lilies, flowering tradescanthia and blue pimpernel, others were a variety of daisies, mainly yellow. Aloe vera, banana trees and bamboo provide a green contrast.
At intervals goats munch on herbs before the path starts to climb at a mildly strenuous incline. Passing a concrete water tank in lush undergrowth, we reached a large dam after about 1.5km. The way to El Cedro is not marked here, but you need to pass to the right of the dam. The reservoir behind the dam is about 100 metres long and perhaps 40 metres wide and is full of goldfish up to 23cm long.
Goats munching
The reservoir
Near the top
At the other end of the reservoir, the path becomes quite precipitous. It is relatively safe in dry weather, but the rocky surface could become muddy and slippery when wet.
The last 1.5km was hard going in the hot sunshine, but the views were lovely.
A long waterfall drops from the top of the mountain in a thin ribbon to feed the waterfall. At times it helps to have a good head for heights as the path zigzags upwards with some sheer drops.
We finally reached the top and looked out for La Vista, a café/restaurant attached to a campsite. We passed an ironic invitation to use the outdoor showers; “with or without clothes, as you wish.”
La Vista is perched on the mountain overlooking the gorge and does a superb selection of local food. We were very hungry by now and opted for the goat stew. I can’t convey my disappointment when all the hot food ran out and the person two places in front of me in the queue had the last portion of goat stew. I was close to throwing my toys out of the pram, but magnanimously settled on watercress and potato soup served in a carved wooden bowl and a chorizo and white cheese bocadilla.
As we ate on the veranda enjoying the views, we watched the local birds swooping down for crumbs, including one that looked like a blue chaffinch. I put a blister plaster on as my newish boots rubbed on the side of the heel all the way up.
Before long, wisps of cloud started filtering up the gorge and sliding over the top. Gathering pace, they soon blotted out the sun and the temperature dropped a few degrees. Fortunately, visibility was not so bad as to be unsafe and we made our way back down the path to Hermigua.
The cafe and the clouds roll in
The walk up took us about 2 hours 15 minutes and the descent took 1 hour 40 minutes.
It is too steep to rush down and our feet and knees felt the effects of the pounding on rocky path.
The waterfall
We thought we would treat ourselves to another meal at El Silbo that night. Sadly, they didn’t do goat stew, but I had a starter of thinly sliced marinated and chilled beef fillet and Isabel had mushrooms in salsa verde. Both were delicious.
She had chicken kebabs for her main course and I had roast lamb. Both were delicious, but the lamb was more bone than meat. This time we ordered a Ribera del Duero wine and it was superb. As the light waned around 7.30pm, we watched thick clouds gathering over the mountains.
Friday
We wanted to get a view from the top of the island and so drove to a car park near Alto de Garajonay. We left Hermigua where the temperature was 15۫ C. Once over the cloud cover, the difference was unbelievable. As we walked up the wide track to the summit in bright sunshine, we saw our first swallows in dozens.
Mount Teide towered over the cloud cover, still with some snow on the summit, but that was beginning to melt. Again we saw lots of flowers, including forget-me-nots.
The Miranda at the top was full of German tourists and Spanish school parties. In the distance, we were able to see the tops of La Palma and El Hierro poking through the clouds.
Views from Mt Garajonay
Isabel wanted to have a swim, so we drove on to Playa do Santiago which was bathed in sunshine. We had lunch at Dom Tomate which was very good, fillet steak in green peppercorn sauce for me and champignon penne pasta for Isabel.
We had our lazy afternoon on the beach and Isabel did go for a swim, but found the breakers and undertow hard work. I tried fishing, but the undertow kept burying my tackle in stones, so I gave that up as a bad job. The water was pretty warm at about 21۫ C.
We moved back towards the town and one of the breakwaters. I fished from one of them, but only caught crabs.
Playa de Santiago
Driving back, as we crossed over the cloud barrier, we noticed a sheet of cloud passing over a ridge and tumbling down the other side like a giant waterfall. Hermigua was still overcast when we got back, but the temperature had risen to 19۫ C.
We got a bag of frozen paella mix, a bag of clams and some paella spice mixture from the local supermercado and cooked our own paella. It was pretty good washed down with a lovely bottle of white wine from El Hierro.
Saturday
Isabel fancied another day on the beach, but this time on Tenerife, so we drove to the San Sebastien around 9.30am and were pleasantly surprised to find the nice lady from Hermigua rent-a car already there. Just as well, as it was impossible to find anywhere to park at the terminal. We unloaded our suitcases and handed over the keys to her.
The marina, San Sebastien
Hermigua was a bit cloudy when we left, but it was very sunny here. We had a coffee and croissant at the terminal before boarding the Fred Olsen ferry at 10.30am.
The crossing was bright and this time I did see a large dolphin or pilot whale break surface in the ferry’s wake.
We disembarked at Los Cristianos in hot sunshine and a light breeze.
The taxi back to El Medano cost €24.50. We dumped our luggage at the apartment and then chilled out in a sea-front bar after a wander round.
Kite
surfers beach, El Medano
The food was good there, Isabel had tuna salad and I had a whole grilled baby cuttlefish.
We decided against spending the day on the beach, it was just too hot and windy and full of noisy kids. We contented ourselves with walking over to the beach where the kite surfers operated from, did some shopping and had a siesta instead.
We had dinner in El Astillero again with seats overlooking the sea, until the sun set.
We went for fresh fish this time. I had the sama (bream) and Isabel the sea bass. Unfortunately, they don’t do that very well. They skin one side and fry the fish, before smothering it in granulated sea-salt. The restaurant got packed by 8pm and it took half an hour to get our bill as there is only one waiter.
Sunday
We rose late and had toast and coffee in the same café on the sea-front at No10. We walked along the beach past some sandy coves to watch the kite surfers. We could have carried on to the headland, but it was getting too hot for that.
Isabel sat on the pier and read a book whilst I watched the local anglers catching tiny rock fish off the harbour wall.
El Medano, very much a locals' resort.
We headed back to the airport around 2pm and had lunch there in a restaurant called Grill Plus or something similar, before you go through check-in. It is better than the eateries after check-in and does local food.
There are quite a few shops after check-in, selling international and local wares.
La Gomera was worth visiting and there is a lot more walking to be tried out. The best beach fishing is probably around Valle Gran Rey, but a charter boat is a better bet for big game fish.