Living the Gomeran dream
Living the Gomeran dream (First-hand tips from Kiki’s tour partner. Join us in Lisbon in the Canary Islands in February)
Almost every Northern European knows about the Canary Islands. Especially the big islands, Gran Canaria and Tenerife. It’s our Florida. The only place in Europe where you are guaranteed to be warm in winter. Only technically Europe though, being less than 100 miles from Morocco and over 800 miles from mainland Spain. In the 1970s, Franco’s government created a masterplan to bring in foreign tourists and their money to the Canaries by creating huge resorts on the southern coast of GC and Tenerife, away from any significant local populations, apparently to avoid cross-pollination of liberal Northern ideas. Still today, the two big islands are divided between the local northerners and the tourists in the south.
Many tourists also make it to the other eastern islands of Fuerteventura (especially Germans and Scandinavians) and to Lanzarote, the home of the most famous Canarian of all, the great artist Cesar Manrique. But very few people venture to the western islands of La Palma (population 80,000), La Gomera (population 22,000) and El Hierro (population 12,000). I have to admit that I had barely ever heard of them before moving there by accident.
A pandemic extension
Our journey was supposed to be for three weeks. In November 2020, my partner David and I had decided to escape lockdown in Berlin by taking a break on La Gomera. It was a random choice, made with pure pandemic escapism in mind and guided by a spin of the globe and a point of a finger. David thinks he was there on a day trip during a package tour to Tenerife in his wayward years. He seemed to think I might like it. And boy was he right.
Negative PCR tests in hand, we took a 5-hour flight from Berlin to Tenerife and hopped on a fast ferry across to the small harbour at San Sebastian, the 5,000 inhabitant capital of La Gomera. Behind us back in Tenerife was Spain’s highest mountain, El Teide, rising above the clouds to a height of over 4,000 metres. In front of us, essentially, was a volcano surrounded by a flank of green on all sides. To get anywhere on the island, you have to go “up and over”. So up and over we went, to an AirBnB in the village of Hermigua, a necklace-like settlement in a long valley of banana plantations which sweep down from the steep hillsides of Mount Garajonay to the wild Atlantic.
Fast forward a while and our three week holiday had turned into eight months, we were still on Gomera, we were happily stuck in Hermigua. We had found a gorgeous house to rent, with a roof terrace, a view of the sea, the plantations and the mountains, and most importantly, a five minute walk to a couple of restaurants and two great local pubs. Back in Berlin, the university where I worked had shut its doors and moved everything online. We were free to live and work wherever we wanted. So we extended, and extended, and extended. La Gomera was a revelation.
My new office and Hermigua from above
Island life
Cock-a-doodle-doo from 4am takes a bit of getting used to, but one day you don’t hear it any more. And if you do, it’s worth it. There’s a certain smugness that people living in warm climates get when we think of those enduring winter. The pandemic intensified this feeling. Well, La Gomera has winter too. The average daily high drops to about 20 degrees in January. On my regular Zoom calls to Berlin, I was still up 30 degrees on my colleagues. And nobody knew where La Gomera was or why we were there. It was, and still is, our secret place.
Life on the island is slow. Agriculture is still the mainstay of the economy. Bananas, potatoes, tomatoes are grown on any available arable land. Food is simple and hearty. We expected a bounty of fish, and the tuna is fantastic, along with some particularly muscular Atlantic fish varieties on offer across the island. But the locals are big meat eaters. Goat, black pig, beef and veal dishes feature prominently. Everything seems to come with wrinkly potatoes and two unique dips, the red one (spicy with chillies and red peppers) and the green one (which can be made with either parsley or coriander, but always garlic).
Wild Atlantic fish El Teide, visible everywhere
A few years have passed since our first landing on La Gomera. I’m very excited to bring a small group to “my” Gomera. I want to show people the incredible trails that criss-cross the island, going up and down the mountains and valleys. The paths pass through one of the world’s last intact laurisilva forests which trap cloud water above 1000 meters and feed the rest of the island with water. The magnificent GR 132, a round island path which links the islands many villages and offers a true paradise for those looking for fresh air, amazing views of the sea, cliffs and for at least half the journey, the towering El Teide glaring over from Tenerife.
I want to take people to El Pescante, a man-made sea pool where we can swim in relative safety while the Atlantic waves crash over the waist high walls. To Valle Gran Rey, the hippy outpost which used to be at the end of the world, where we can hire a boat to meet pockets of pilot whales and hundreds of dolphins who will swim with us if we are lucky, and cap off our day with freshly caught tuna or local sama fish and a bottle of excellent Canarian wine. To Pedro’s Bar or Don Juan’s in Hermigua to chat with locals and mingle with the few tourists that make their way through the islands, usually Germans on a hike. To the Mirador de Abrante, a look out point with a glass floor perched precariously over the gorgeous little village of Agulo. To the little market in San Sebastian, where everyone from the island seems to gather on a Saturday morning to find out all the gossip and where big decisions are made.
El Pescante Great hiking trail network
The dolphins at Valle Gran Rey Pandemic pleasures
It’s a wonderful place to enjoy some winter sun while hiking around, luckily without ever getting too hot. A great place to work off a few excess calories (and to replenish them if the mood takes you). And you won’t meet anyone from home. Guaranteed.
