Season's greetings to all

Valle Gran Rey Christmas programme 2019

Above the programme for the Christmas season in Valle Gran Rey. First there's the annual 'Noche en Blanco' with live music and late shopping in Vueltas this Saturday. A similar event takes place a week later in La Playa. The New Year's Eve fiesta happens in La Playa this year and then we'll have the main Los Reyes Christmas fiesta from the 5th to the 7th of January 2020 in El Guro.

Music shop in La Gomera

The island of La Gomera now has got a music shop again after the last one closed down more than a decade ago. The new venture called MusiGomera is located in the capital San Sebastian de La Gomera very close to the historic main church and offers a wide variety of musical instruments from percussion to ukuleles and also sells accessories and amplification.

So stop ordering through the internet and support this important service for musicians.

Keep the fingers crossed !

Lower Valle Gran Rey with the port of Vueltas (top)

Yesterday the parliament of La Gomera approved a government motion calling for the reopening of the ferry service between Los Cristianos in Tenerife and Valle Gran Rey in La Gomera which had recently been suspended indefinitely by shipping company Naviera Armas (see previous post). The motion also calls for the port of Vueltas in Valle Gran Rey to be included in the list of Canary Islands ports with an 'obligatory public service' (Obligación de Servicio Público, OSP) by the Canarian ministry for transport, which would mean that a ferry connection will have to be provided.

Further, the approved motion also calls on the port authority to further improve the harbour of Vueltas and integrating it better into the town.

In an interview La Gomera's president Casimiro Curbelo also said that ferry company Armas was already actively looking 'in all of Europe' for a suitable ship to charter with which the ferry connection can be reopened viably.
In 2018 the service transported more than 170.000 passengers and 30.000 vehicles, most of which would have passed through the national park in the mountains had the ferry not been there.

Just after the announcement of the suspension of the service about 1.200 signatures for a petition in support of the ferry line were collected in Valle Gran Rey in a very short time and presented to the local mayor.

Keep the fingers crossed...

Bad News

It has recently been announced by the ferry company Naviera Armas that the ferry service between Los Cristianos in Tenerife and Valle Gran Rey in La Gomera has now been suspended indefinitely. The direct service between the two ports by high speed catamaran was introduced two years ago, but since this summer only sailed at weekends. The company has also stated that it will study the viability of a similar ferry service to be reinstated in the future, possibly with a smaller vessel. 

This is sad news for Valle Gran Rey and bad news for the forest in the national park which is experiencing higher volumes of traffic since the ferry stopped operating as all goods and traffic have to go across the mountain through the park on that road now.
Read more with an update ...

Major Reggae Festival in Valle Gran Rey

A major Reggae event is coming to the port of Vueltas in Valle Gran Rey this Saturday, Sept. 28th 2019 from 8 pm. Several bands will perform during the night. The fifth edition of the 'Reggae Can' festival is touring the Canary Islands and is the largest event of its kind here. This year the theme is 'Reggae Against Plastic' and no single use plastics will be allowed at the event. No cover charge and all are welcome.

A previous 'Reggae Can' event.  Image: eldia.es (click for more info)

September 11 tragedy 35 years ago in La Gomera

The whole world now remembers 9/11, but in La Gomera the date is remembered for another very sad incident which happened in 1984. On the 11th of September 35 years ago today twenty people died in a forest fire near Roque Agando, a landmark rock formation in La Gomera's mountains above the village of La Laja where a forest fire had broken out. The spot is on an exposed ridge and the victims were trapped there when the wind suddenly changed direction trapping them in fire and intense heat. Among the victims were local volunteer firefighters and several people from Tenerife, including a former mayor of Puerto de la Cruz. The tragedy is one of the worst fire-related disasters in all of Spain ever and the sad-looking rusty steel monument (see my archive image above, the monument has since been repainted) near the spot lists all 20 names of the victims. The area around Roque Agando, which stands at the eastern end of the national park, was ablaze again  during the devastating fire of 2012, but thankfully there were no casualties in that major fire.

Spectacular rescue in Argaga yet again

Above images were taken by the Spanish police early in the morning on Saturday, August 3rd 2019, during a spectacular rescue of a mountain hiker who had become trapped in a cliff of the notorious  Barranco de Argaga area near Valle Gran Rey, which is however part of the municipality of Vallehermoso. The trapped hiker had to spend the previous night in the precipitous location to await daylight and rescue by the Guardia Civil mountain unit police helicopter. In the first image (and the close-up of same below it) a rescuer had already been set down near the trapped man to assess the victim's state of health. Luckily he was unharmed and was then brought down to the heliport of Valle Gran Rey.

Please stay away from Argaga, as numerous accidents and even deaths have occurred there. Read more...

Free reggae concert on the capital's beach

Jazz concert in San Sebastian de La Gomera

A free concert of jazz music tomorrow on the main square of La Gomera's capital 

Canaries in the Canaries

A wild canary taking the evening sun on a tree in La Gomera, Canary Islands. (Picture: Damien Enright/Irish Examiner

I overheard the following conversation in a pub in rural Ireland yesterday:

''I'm just back from a holiday in La Gomera''
"Where is that ?''
''Oh, it's one of the Canary Islands - but strangely I didn't spot any canaries there.''
''That's peculiar. I am just back from a holiday in the Virgin Islands...
- and I didn't find any canaries there either.''

Fiesta del Carmen 2019 programme

Above the programme for the 2019 Fiesta del Carmen in ValleGran Rey.
Vallehermoso and Playa de Santiago also hold fiestas in honour of Carmen (see below) so there's no shortage of entertainment in La Gomera this week...

Explore La Gomera's north

The town and valley of Hermigua in La Gomera's north

The much quieter and greener north of La Gomera island, which includes the municipal areas of Agulo and Hermigua, is well worth exploring and the following link has loads of information in English: northgomera.com

Gomera banana in action during bonfire night

Once again there were many bonfires and parties all over La Gomera last night during 'la noche de San Juan' (St. John's Eve) to celebrate midsummer. Here in Ireland the same tradition is still alive, but the music is a bit different. The 'Gomera Banana' was in action here briefly during the Jim Dowling Uilleann Pipe and Traditional Music Festival in beautiful Glengarriff, West Cork as you can see (and hear if you click the sound on) in the above video taken at about midnight last night when the Gomera banana was shaking up fiddle player extraordinare Ross Couper. The video below was taken earlier during the festival on the pub sessions trail called 'piping for a pint'. Well more than a dozen musicians (some out of shot) got together and played until the cows came home...

New mayor in Valle Gran Rey

The new mayor of Valle Gran Rey, Cristopher Marrero (image: gomeranoticias.com)

Valle Gran Rey's new local administration has now been formed and Cristopher Marrero of the PSOE is the new mayor, even though his party holds only two of the eleven seats on the council. His election was facilitated with the help of the two councillors of the Si Se Puede grouping and the two of the Nueva Canarias party, leaving La Gomera's strongest party ASG in opposition with five seats. See all La Gomera local election 2019 results...

Recent fires in Valle Gran Rey

''Fears grow that Valley Gran Rey is target of an arsonist

June 12, 2019 by TenerifeNews

A shocking fire on picturesque La Gomera has reinforced a view that an arsonist could be at work in the municipality of Valle Gran Rey.

The blaze affected 20,000 square metres of land and led to the evacuation of several houses and three apartment complexes, some of them being used by tourists.

The authorities have praised the swift actions of the emer-gency services for controlling the fire before it spread even further. Fortunately, no-one was hurt and there was no damage to any properties.

However, there are fears that it was started on purpose and follows on from another fire a few weeks ago.

The Mayor, Angel Piñero voiced “his sincere gratitude, on behalf of residents and the corporation, for the effective-ness and predisposition of Civil Protection, volunteer firefigh-ters of Valle Gran Rey, the Environment Brigade of the Cabildo, the Police Local, Civil Guard and other groups that collaborated to stop the advance of the flames, as well as all citizens who helped and collaborated for hours.”

He added: “Valle Gran Rey is suffering sabotage and intentional arson for months. The Civil Guard will investi-gate the causes of this event, but what is clear is that the town does not deserve what is happening.”

The fire began during the night on the coast of Valle Gran Rey and affected an area of 20,000 square metres.

The flames were detected at 10pm (May 19th 2019, Ed.) in the place known by residents as Quiebracanilla, next to the road that leads to Playa del Inglés, about 200 metres from the coast. 

The head of the volunteer firemen of Valle Gran Rey, Guillermo Barroso said the fire “was very virulent” in the first hours, due to the existence of “strong gusts of wind”. 

At one stage, the flames threatened to spread towards the apartment complexes of El Guirre, Los Tarajales and El Cieno. Because of this, they were evacuated, together with several houses, and parked cars were removed.

The first fire was recorded in this municipality a few weeks ago at a private property (at the municipal recycling compound on April 30th, Ed.) in the area of El Altito. There has also been continuous sabotage carried out against the drinking water supply network during the last months. ''

Local election results La Gomera 2019

Casimiro Curbelo

The independent La Gomera socialist ASG party of the island's president Casimiro Curbelo (image on top) was the clear winner in the recent local elections, followed by the socialist PSOE. The graphics below (source: gomeraverde.es) first show the results for the election to La Gomera's cabildo (island government) followed by the results in all five municipal areas of La Gomera, where in some it is not clear yet who will form the new local government ('escaños' = seats). Left environmental group SSP (Si Se Puede) won two seats for the first time in Valle Gran Rey and Vallehermoso as well as one in San Sebastian de La Gomera, plus two seats in the cabildo.

                                                                             CABILDO:

MUNICIPAL AREAS:

Golden Skink

Some time ago I snapped the above image of a 'Lisa Dorada', a golden skink. Only La Gomera  is home to the endemic spotted golden skink  (Chalcides viridianus coeruleopunctatus) which is a subspecies of the West Canary skink or Chalcides viridanus, a species of skink in the family Scincidae. Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae and the infraorder Scincomorpha.

Their natural habitats are temperate forests, temperate shrubland, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, temperate grassland, rocky areas, rocky shores, sandy shores, arable land, pastureland, rural gardens, and urban areas where they're found in altitudes up to 2,000 m. They reach a mximum of 18 cm in length and even though they need lots of sun like to 'charge their batteries' the Gomera skinks are extremely shy and vanish like a flash when there's the slightest disturbance.

''La Gomera'' shortlisted for film awards in Cannes

The 'El Silbo' monument at sunset beside the chapel of Igualero with just-risen full moon

A movie called ''La Gomera'' (aka ''The Whistlers'') by Romanian film director Corneliu Porumboiu has just been shortlisted for the awards at this year's Cannes film festival alongside films by well known directors such as Ken Loach and Pedro Almodovar.

The comedy ''La Gomera” tells the story of Cristi, a police officer who arrives on the Canary island to learn El Silbo, the unique whistled language and ancient form of communication still in use all over La Gomera island (find out more here...). His mission is to release Zsolt, a controversial businessman under arrest in Bucharest.

''La Gomera” is a co-production by 42 KM FILM- Les Films du Worso (France), Komplizen Film (Germany) and Arte Grand Accord and is listed as a French/German/Romanian co-production. The one hour and 37 minutes long movie was shot in Bucharest and on location in La Gomera.

Drone views of Valle Gran Rey's coastline

The beautiful video above was taken with a drone last summer and shows Valle Gran Rey from its coastline

Green light for green energy

Wind and sun power this electric car charging-point in Hermigua

La Gomera's island government has provisionally approved the allocation of initially 500.000 Euros in subsidies for the installation of photo-voltaic panels by private house owners and businesses. Grants of up to 60% of the cost of the installation of solar energy systems will be paid out with a maximum of 12.000 Euros for small to medium enterprises and up to 24.000 Euros for private household installations. This announcement by the island's president Casimiro Curbelo was made last Friday and is a further step towards La Gomera's ambitious plan towards becoming independent of external energy sources. This well-intentioned plan has sadly suffered delays in the past due to the energy-supplying companies dragging their feet while their ageing diesel-powered electricity generating station keeps belching out thick smoke in the island's capital, so above news is most welcome.

Further, thinkspain.com reported some time ago:

''The Canarian island of La Gomera is aiming to be powered 100% by 'green' energy sources within 12 years, slashing its power costs by 37%.

La Gomera, just off the coast of Tenerife, will be the second island in the region to try to go completely 'renewable' after El Hierro attempted it between 2014 and 2016.

The latter survived for months on wind energy alone and, in 2016, covered 39% of its electricity needs using wind farms – then, in January and February this year, had all 10,700 of its inhabitants supplied entirely by renewable sources for 18 consecutive days.

But La Gomera's plans are far more ambitious – the westernmost island in the Canaries (Ed: no, that's La Palma) currently depends upon fossil fuel for 99% of its power needs and, aside from a handful of solar panels owned by private individuals, has just two wind generators of 0.4 megawatts (MW) of power.

Despite La Gomera being famous Europe-wide for its extensive forests, being the home of the Garajonay National Park and a pioneer in 'eco-tourism' dating back over 20 years, its obvious potential for powering itself through entirely renewable sources is wasted more than anywhere else in the Canary Islands.

The regional government wants to turn La Gomera into another Iceland by 2030, mirroring Europe's northernmost country's 100% green energy supply.

By then, it aims to have enough wind farms to create 8MW of power, sufficient solar panels to generate 5MW, and for 20% of the island's cars to be electrically-powered.

The overall objective is for the island, whose population is twice that of El Hierro and which has tourist resorts with capacity for 800 visitors (Ed: surely an error - see this post), to be entirely fossil-fuel free and rely on green energy for its electricity, heating and transport – lorries and buses will be electric or hydrogen-powered.

Hydrogen generators, water pumps and storage systems are being analysed as back-up for when there is insufficient wind and sun to cover the whole island's energy needs.

The considerable cost of this ambitious project would be offset within around seven to 12 years thanks to lower production expenses, meaning that by 2042 La Gomera will start to see a return on its investment.''

Abundant rain in La Gomera's north

While all of La Gomera got some decent precipitation over the past few days, the northern regions received a lot of rain yesterday. The weather station at the visitor's centre above Agulo reported just over 70 mm of rain yesterday and the station in Hemigua recorded almost 40 mm. The above video by gomeraverde.com shows one of the many waterfalls in Agulo yesterday.

The next few days should bring sunny spells but also further showers to La Gomera and some of these may again be heavy with a risk of isolated thunderstorms. Caution is advised when out and about, even when it is not raining, as rocks and soil may have become unstable due to the rain and will expand during sunny spells.

Angela Merkel planning retirement in La Gomera

The German chancellor and the many variations of her trademark uniform of blazer and trousers. 

We still don't know if the the German chancellor Angela Merkel will find the time to spend a private Easter holiday once again in La Gomera, as she did last year when she visited this island for the sixth time (click to read more about it...), but we do know that La Gomera is her ''favourite island''. In a recent interview broadcast on German TV she was asked if she would consider moving to La Gomera after her term as chancellor ends in 2021, she smiled and said that she could well imagine doing just that in retirement. The fact that at least one of her aides has recently taken up part-time residence in La Gomera adds to the speculation.
I can now reveal that the current 'most powerful woman in the world' is indeed planning a move to La Gomera, but not for retirement. Instead of putting her feet up in the sunshine with a good book and just relaxing, she is instead planning to start a business here.
As she has managed to create a unique fashion style during her many public appearances in a uniform-like outfit of blazer and trousers, she now intends to promote and commercialise this style under her own label once she has left the political stage completely. Indeed, during her last visit to La Gomera she has viewed several shop premises in Valle Gran Rey which are for sale or lease. The most touristically developed town in La Gomera's south-west attracts more and more conservative German tourists who would be the ideal customer base for her outfits. There is also a large number of ageing female German residents in La Gomera who would benefit from updating their attire with the help of the planned new designer label outlet 'AB', i.e. Angelas's Blazers.
Last year Mrs Merkel and her husband Wolfgang Sauer were also enquiring about the possibility to produce the garments in La Gomera for exporting bespoke blazers worldwide and the commerce and industry department of the island's government has pledged its support as they expect some local women who already have the necessary skills will find badly needed well-paid employment with the new label. Local gossip has it that 'Modas Merkel SL' is supposed to initially open a small atelier and workshop in La Gomera's north which is renowned for its skilled craft workers.
Angela Merkel's boutique in Valle Gran Rey is set to open on April 1st 2022, but I am sorry I am not a liberty to divulge in which part of Valle Gran Rey the premises are located. We'll also have to wait and see if the formidable lady will occasionally appear in one of her own blazers behind the counter herself...

Merchandising Mrs Merkel is well underway in La Gomera. Above is a fun postcard which I bought a couple of weeks ago at the organic farm shop close to the bus station, one of the shops where they sell a good selection of Merkel-themed cards by a local artist called 'Alex' (?) I believe (sorry, but there's no copyright or other information printed on the cards).

More rain showers expected

More welcome rain showers are expected today and a status 'yellow' weather warning has been issued for toady, Friday March 29th 2019, for rainfalls of up to 15mm in one hour. Isolated thunderstorms may also form. Caution on roads and hiking paths is advised.

For the coming days more showers are forecast, but again with good sunny periods at times.

Rain at last

After weeks of extremely dry and dusty conditions some  significant amounts of rain fell all over La Gomera this morning. In the southwest up to 16.4 mm ( in La Dama) had fallen and most of the island had received between 7 and 14 mm by 10 am. There's a status 'yellow' weather alert for the western Canary Islands for rain up to 20 mm in one hour and for isolated thunderstorms, valid until tonight. Caution is advised on roads and hiking paths.

For the next few days some further rain showers may be expected, but with good sunny periods too.

Ferry to VGR back in service

The direct ferry between Los Cristianos and Valle Gran Rey which had been out of service for some time due to the annual testing and inspection of the vessel in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, arrived back in the port of Vueltas late last night and is operating scheduled sailings from today and bookings can be made through the Armas website once again.

Hello Halo

Hello there, just to let you know that I'm still on the ball, BUT I'm having minor 'accidental' health issues and major issues with my internet connection - hence the absence of more regular posts.

FERRIES: The connection to V.GR. is suspended temporarily due to a 'technical revision' of the vessel serving the connection. It is expected to be back in service with a new timetable very soon. Keep the fingers crossed !

WEATHER: We've had around 20mm of rain today in V.GR.. A good bit, yes, but only temporarily relieving the drought. Hurray anyway, and I've shared a few beers with local farmers who were grinning like children at Christmas.

***Much more happened lately, but my window of web space is narrowing, i.e. my neighbour wants me to talk to him rather than me talking to you via his connection... 

More and more details  soon, hopefully. 

By the way, above image of a halo around the moon was taken about 40 minutes ago. Good night.

The port of Valle Gran Rey

The port of Valle Gran Rey situated in Vueltas handled about 158.000 passengers in 2018, most them using the new high speed car ferry service introduced by Naviera Armas towards the end of 2017 and the smaller Fred. Olsen passenger ferry which arrived in the autumn of 2017. The latter also sails to La Gomera's southern port of Playa de Santiago which handled almost 41.000 passengers in 2018. I took the above image of Vueltas ln late December 2017 when a small luxury cruise ship passed by at sunset.

Closer but insignificant quake off north coast

Just a few days after the locally felt tremor off the north-western coast of La Gomera another seismic tremor averaging just 1,6 (with a peak value of 2,2 mbLg at GOM station) on the Richter scale was registered less than 25 hours ago a short distance off La Gomera's north-north-eastern coast in a depth of 15.2  kms. Quakes of such a minor strenght are inappreciable and happen frequently in and around the Canary Islands, but are rare near La Gomera's coastline. Read more...

Film castings in La Gomera again

La Gomera's island government through their La Gomera Film Commission has announced castings for extras and secondary actresses for the shooting of a Neflix series here in spring. The first casting will take place in the visitors centre near the beach in the island's capital on the 4th of February 2019 and the following day in the tourist office in La Playa, Valle Gran Rey. See poster above for the times. They're looking for women of all ages over 18 and for girls  between 8 and 12 years old. All applicants must bring copies of their Spanish DNI, or their foreigners registration number (NIE), their social security number and a document showing that they have a bank account. Selected budding film stars will be paid and the work which is handled here by Sur-Film is insured. More information can be had by contacting above email address. 

This time males need not apply. The above image was taken during the casting for Ron Howard's 'In The Heart Of The Sea' in 2013 when I was very lucky to get a lot of work as a double.

The beer ship is back

Above: The three-masted 200ft sail training ship Alexander von Humboldt II, sometimes nicknamed 'the beer ship', heading for Vueltas, the harbour of Valle Gran Rey, at about 8:30 am this morning. Read more about the vessel...

Fred Olsen now offering service to Spanish mainland

The Fred. Olsen ferry company is now connecting the Canary Islands with Huelva on the Spanish mainland in competition with FRS-Iberica which sail the same route, previously operated by Naviera Armas ferries and still listed in their schedule. Queenie's Tenerife blog has more:

''Fred Olsen Express has launched a new triangular route to mainland Spain, with the collaboration of the Baleària shipping company and now links the port of Huelva with the two main ports of the Canary Islands, Puerto de la Luz on Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

This new route will be operated aboard the ship ‘Martín i Soler’, owned by Baleària. The ship is to depart the Puerto de la Luz, in Las Palmas, every Tuesday and Sunday, at 12 noon and will take 44 hours to reach its final destination the Andalusian port of Huelva, after a 4-hour stopover in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

The ship will set sail from the Peninsula on Fridays at 8:00p.m. and head to Gran Canaria where it will have a four-hour stopover then return to its moorings in Tenerife.

The route will offer various services including a restaurant, bar, shop, internet connection, outdoor areas, a children’s area and a pool as well as cabins and various seating options either tourist or superior.''

Minor earthquake felt in La Gomera

The red star (left) shows the epicentre of the minor earth tremor

A minor earth tremor averaging 2.8 on the Richter scale occurred at a depth of only eight kilometres in the Atlantic very close to La Gomera's west-north-western coast at around 11:10 pm late Tuesday night, January 22nd 2019

This is nothing to worry about, as La Gomera's former volcanoes are long extinct and the island has not experienced any volcanic activity for far more than a million years, being one of the oldest islands in the Canaries. La Gomera existed long before the volcanically very active neighbouring island of El Hierro was even born. However, the abundant seismic activity in and around the Canary Islands rarely comes as close and in such shallow depth as Tuesday night's minor earth tremor.

Generally volcanic activity in the Canaries is of a 'mild nature', but magma movements deep under and around the Canary Islands cause regular tremors. It is however a rare occurrence that such a quake is registered by the seismic station situated in the mountains of the national park with an epicentre so close to La Gomera, and last night's tremors were felt by the population in La Gomera's sparsely populated west and north, see the pointers in the map above, which the show locations of verified reports published by the Spanish National Geographic Institute (IGN). This quake also registered at all seismic stations in neighbouring islands, with the peak value 3.9 having been recorded at the station in La Gomera (EGOM)  a few seconds before 23:10h, at the start of the tremor.

The last minor quake recorded close to La Gomera was recorded in September 2017, see previous post...

Evento	Fecha	Hora UTC	Hora Local (*)	Latitud	Longitud	Profundidad (km)	Magnitud	Tipo Mag.	Int. max.	Localizacion
es2019apdcj	22/01/2019	23:09:47	23:09:47	28.2262	-17.5079	8	2.8	mbLg	II	ATLÁNTICO-CANARIAS