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!