Who doesn’t like the fresh air, warm sun and smell of blooming flowers during spring. Right – everyone loves it and misses it throughout the grey and freezing winter time. That’s the reason why I decided to take off one week during February and March this year to leave good (c)old Germany for a hiking trip with a friend of mine.
“Where are you going to hike in Europe during February, if you don’t want to end up in snow-covered mountains like the Alps or face rainy weather like in the southern regions of the continent?”, you might ask.
Y”ou guessed it right! Just a couple miles to west of the Sahara.”
“Waaaaaaiiiit a moment! Didn’t you just say you wanted to go hiking in Europe?”
“Right – to be precise, on La Gomera, Spain.”
La Gomera is an island in the Atlantic Ocean and belongs to the Canaries – an archipelago forged by vulcanic activity in thousands of years. The group of islands is known for offering mild climate conditions even during winter and is popular for tourists from all over Europe. As the territory belongs to Spain, all flights to the remote region are incredibly cheap (we payed around 150€ for a round trip flight including package transportation) and grant even students the possibility to go and spend a nice vacation at the beach when it’s -5 ° C in Germany.
Our first day of “vacation” started
really early. My alarm was going off at 2:30 AM and I was getting out
of bed with almost no sleep. After a quick breakfast we loaded
everything into my car and got onto the highway. After a two-hour drive
we arrived in Berlin and departed at 06:00 AM from Schönefeld Airport.
Five hours later we already landed on Tenerife, the main island of the
Canaries. Although La Gomera has its own airport we decided to take the
flight to Tenerife South and followed up with a ride on the ferry as
this option was overall around 75€/ person cheaper.
As
we arrived I was finally getting into a mood for vacation. I guess the
temperature at 23 °C played a big part in this transition. From the
airport we had to take a bus to the next city – Los Cristianos – one of
the main holiday resorts in southern Tenerife.
As
soon as we arrived, we quickly walked to the harbour in order to catch
our ferry to San Sebastian de la Gomera. Fred Olsen, a millionaire from
Norway operates the ferries between the canary islands and lives on La
Gomera himself, which I thought was interesting to share as you would
probably expect some Spanish name on the ships of the biggest
transportation company in the region. Fred Olsen however is an
extraordinary example for people living on the Isla de los Tesoros, as
La Gomera is sometimes called. I sometimes got the feeling that the only
other people living there are old Gomeros farming bananas , European
hippies, who moved there in the 70/80s and people offering hotels and
hostels for the few English and German holiday makers who choose to go
on vacation in one of the least touristy places of the Canaries. I admit
it. I belong to the last group. I just enjoy being in remote places for
myself, think about this and that and admire beautiful landscapes and
landmarks without massive amounts of people in front of me trying to
take a selfie for instagram.
While writing this last sentence I just came up with an interesting thought. I am actually having more delightful and exciting conversations with unknown people when I am barely around anybody rather than when I am around hundreds of strange people everyday while living in a big city. Here is an example:
Before entering the ferry we met a crazy German guy. He booked a one way ticket to the Canaries and told us how he would just go to La Gomera and figure out what to do and where to stay once he got there.
He continued by telling us that he works only half of the year and then spends all of his money on vacation and taking time off as he cannot stay being at work. As he wore hiking boots we asked him, if he would go trekking on La Gomera as well and he answered no. Then he showed us his backpack and said that he packed around 20 books for the time being on the island. My brain couldn’t help but calculate how much a room would cost him without booking it in advance and I immidiately admired the guy for his free mind and optimism. My mind gave up figuring out how he could finish all the books before running out of money while we walked up the ramp onto the ship. After we lost him on board I thought: “Maybe my eyes where too prejudiced and he was some kind of well payed investment banker just trying to get off the daily hustle.”
We would meet him the next day at our B&B on the other side of the island, but at that point we already knew where the wealthy people would stay when visiting La Gomera. My illusion of the undercover investment banker unfortunatelly got destroyed by an elderly British couple sitting right next to us on the boat. They looked as British as someone could imagine. He wore a suite and bow tie while she perfectly accompanied him wearing a dress in matching colors. After a quick small talk we explained that we were coming to La Gomera for the first time in order to hike around the whole island. Knowing Tenerife from a previous trip with my parents I loudly hoped for a greener and more interesting landscape. This triggered both of them to immidiately start arguing how nice and beatiful the island was the last time they were there and made them use the word “lovely” about a thousand times giving me a great feeling about my choice for the trip.
We also got to know how they would spend their time at a hotel near San Sebastian every year playing golf and meeting other British holidaymakers with white gloves and black suits while enjoying lovely temperatures around 25°C.
After wishing each other again a LOVELY stay we left the ship and took a bus going through the whole island to our final destination for the day: La Calera in Valle Gran Rey – The valley of the great king. Situated in the south-western part, the village is known for still being a hippie hotspot and one of the most beatiful places of the canaries. I can see why, just have a look at the pictures. After a 16h trip we finally arrived at our hotel room preparing for the next day when our adventure would begin by climbing a thousand meters…
I hope you’ve enjoyed the first part of my La Gomera travel report. Please share your opinions and let me know what you think. I am always looking for ways to improve my writing skills and hope I can make this blog more interesting for you guys. Thank you for coming by and don’t forget to stay tuned for the next part. By signing up for my newsletter, you will definetelly not miss anything 😉
To be continued…
