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From Tenerife, La Gomera sits on the horizon like half a walnut shell, crowned by a
heavily-forested central massif Alto de Garajonay (National Park) and fringed by deep ravines. Thanks to favorable climatic conditions the Canary
Islands, along with Madeira, survived the great freeze and the ancient laurel forests are a microcosm of that lost world. The Garajonay park which
occupies ten percent of La Gomera is considered of such importance that it was the first nature area to be made a World Heritage Site in Spain.
There are no decent beaches: the abrupt coast is mainly sheer cliffs and the interior is so mountainous that the islanders have a special whistling
language to communicate across the gorges. Touring is hard work but rewarding, for La Gomera is a tightly packed natural wonderland, its scenery
both dramatic and soft, with bananas filling the valleys, more palm trees than all the other islands put together, and Thai-like terraces up
impossible slopes tended by farmers who pole-vault between crops!
La Gomera Info
The Canary Islands form an archipelago located 1120 km south of Spain and just 112 km west of Morocco and with the Azores, Cape Verde and Madeira
they form what is known as Macronesia. From the long sandy beaches of Fuerteventura and dunes of
Gran Canaria to the majestic Atlantic cliffs of Tenerife and misty forests of La Gomera to the buzz
of Arrecife, the heart of Lanzarote. The highest
mountain in all of Spain is the Teide peak, which dominates the landscape of Tenerife.
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