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Saturday, March 06, 2021

Campers evicted in Valle Gran Rey

                                                                                                                                                                                    
About 20 persons found camping ''illegally'' along Valle Gran Rey's coastline in the south-west of La Gomera were evicted by police from their hide-aways early yesterday. The eviction was filmed by Canarian TV (see video above). These evictions happen once or twice a year, supposedly to protect the environment, and can cause great hardship for those evicted, as some of them are homeless and most cannot afford to rent accommodation. An added excuse for the latest eviction was the pandemic and the mass of restrictions. 
It must be said that all of these people called 'hippies' by the authorities are harmless and usually keep their surroundings very clean and tidy, often even collecting litter left by 'normal' tourists and locals.

Below I'm quoting an article written by former La Gomera resident Damien Enright for the Irish Examiner some time ago in which he explains the island's hippie culture:

''...Pressed shorts or crisp new holiday gear may look seriously out-of-place in Valle Gran Rey. A battered straw hat, faded levis, a washed-out T-shirt and well worn sandals is better suited.
Thus accoutered, one may even meld with the long-term foreigners with their battered cars, and join the local culture where ‘making a million’ comes second place to living a hassle-free life, and sartorial elegance is strictly for ‘occasions’.

The first foreigners to show up in latter day Gomera were dubbed ‘beatniks’, but were actually ‘peaceniks’, American draft-dodgers fleeing the governmental diktat that they were obliged to go killing people in a far away country called Vietnam.
By 1970, a colony of 20 of so had somehow drifted in and set up camp at the Playa Ingles, a beach still as wild and unspoiled today as it was then.

The locals had no objection. As a friend of mine Barbara Belt wrote in Living Tenerife magazine “Cities like Paris, London and Stockholm offered them shelter. So, surprisingly, did an isolated valley in La Gomera.

In the late sixties, Valle Gran Rey was about as far away from modern Europe as you could get.
There was no blacktop road. In bad weather, even walking in the valley was tricky. The only ferry left from the other side of the island and then took all day to reach Tenerife. No-one had mains electricity.
Telephones were a rarity (as were the state police, the Guardia Civil). It was the perfect spot to hole up and wait for the world to change.”

This group expanded. Girlfriends arrived. Barbara continues the history “The parties were famous; the foreign girls spectacularly uncovered and uninhibited and the boys “hairy like Robinson Crusoe”.
The beach became a magnet for the young people from the village. Interestingly, there was no parental paranoia, no warnings to keep away. These – the first foreigners to come and stay – were seen as ‘buena gente’ (good people ).

They were gentle, friendly and well-mannered, and were welcomed. Valle Gran Rey, to its credit, was an open-minded community, blissfully free of sensationalist (or indeed any!) press or TV.
Locals contributed to their welfare, bringing fish for baking in their rock oven, potatoes for the pot, avocadoes and papayas. They shopped for non-local essentials at the tiny local shop.”

The idyll drew to an end at about the same time as the war they’d wanted no part in. By 1975, only a few of the original group were still here.
These drifted home one by one, leaving their valley to be discovered by other young travellers who’d heard of ‘the Gomera scene.’
The Gomeros remember los americanos with great affection. Strange to think that they were treated with more tolerance here, in a distant outpost of Franco’s dictatorship, than in their own country...''

''...Gomera’s association with alternative lifestyles is still here, and attracts holidaymakers wanting to avoid the brash commercialism and big resorts.
The ‘alternatives’, now dubbed ‘hippies’, lead separate lives, but their sunset drumming and fire shows draw ‘straight’ visitors in their dozens to join the exotic milieu. At the Sunday craft market, they display their wares.
Many are skilled jewellers, potters and artists.

The local authorities, however, face a dilemma. Recently, they licensed a remote beach for an international Rainbow Gathering of people who annually congregate somewhere on earth to celebrate a month of peace, harmony, freedom and respect.
However, after it ended, stragglers wandered to Valle Gran Rey, bathed and washed their clothes at the beach showers, and strolled the town naked, waiting for them to dry.
Not a good image, the authorities decided, and turned off the water. The eye-catching unclothed soon drifted away, and showers are, again, today, restored. But how to reconcile hippy ambience and vacationers’ expectations?

There’s the rub...''        (Damien Enright February 2018)

4 comments :

  1. "... and showers are, again, today, restored"?

    Shortly after installation the showers have been removed again. Maybe because the showers have been misused by "hippies", "beatnicks", "peacenicks"or any other sort of visitors washing their clothes there. Until today they have not been restored. Maybe they are considered to be a corona hot spot?

    If I remember right Rainbow Gathering was allocated somewhere around Alojera Beach. I haven't been there but a friend visited that place. According to him the sanitary situation was very bad. Not a single toilet had been installed there by the organizers.

    By the way, toilets are mssing at any beach of Valle Gran Rey. Every year there are lots of camping cars parked along the beach between La Playa and La Puntilla. The smaller ones are to small to have built-in toilets. In case the owners use buckets these buckets need to be dumped somewehere.



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  2. Hi Bernd and thanks for your comment.
    Please note that Damien's article that I quoted is from February 2018 and since then the showers sometimes worked and sometimes not...
    The lack of public toilets in La Gomera generally and in Valle Gran Rey in particular is a major problem and everyone agrees that they are badly needed. See my 2018 post https://lagomera1.blogspot.com/search?q=public+toilets.

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  3. Hello. I think it's probably more correct to ask permisdion before reproducing somebody else's work, dont know about you?
    Yep, you put in"" one sentence & said it was mine, but what follows is a direct lift from something I wrote.
    Writing's also work & I'm a bit old school about this. I don't know who you are but I'm easy to find. Ask me next time please.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi 'Unknown' (or is that you Damien ?) and thanks for your comment. To answer your complaint let me clarify the facts:
    The first paragraph was written by me and then I wrote:
    ''Below I'm quoting an article written by former La Gomera resident Damien Enright for the Irish Examiner some time ago in which he explains the island's hippie culture:''
    The words Irish Examiner are an active link (blue colour) to the article in that newspaper.
    Then follow several longer extracts from that article, marked from first to final word by '' and ''
    and finally the author is named again as follows: (Damien Enright February 2018)
    So I don't really know what your problem is as this is the way personal blogs like mine
    should quote authors when they give free publicity to them and the papers they write for.
    I've quoted Damien several times and also posted several of your Irish Examiner pieces,
    as well as other sources. I'm sure all these authors got paid for their good work, and the
    quotes were always marked as such and linked directly to their source. The traffic generated
    from my blog should bring extra revenue to the newspapers through their advertising.
    My blog remains ad-free and I've never made any money from it.
    I just do it out of love for La Gomera.
    So please check your facts before accusing me of plagiarism.
    Thanks and kind regards.

    ReplyDelete

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