I took the above photo of Casa Maria when it was first put up for sale a few years ago.
Legendary Casa Maria and its popular bar, restaurant and rustic guest house which has remained closed since it was put on the market a few years ago could finally be saved and given a new lease of life.
The building at the popular sunset meeting point sadly was deteriorating rapidly with parts of a balcony facing the sea collapsing onto the coast road and ugly security fencing protecting passers-by from crumbling masonry.
Various attempts to buy the building were made and there even were plans to turn the landmark into a McDonalds fast food outlet (see here...), but as often with any plans in La Gomera, none came to fruition.
Then in 2021 I reported that the authorities had decided to bring an additional police force, the Policia Canaria, to Valle Gran Rey to deal with all the homeless and hippies there and that Casa Maria would become their station. Well, the new police officers are there now, but not in Casa Maria.
Now it has transpired that the proliferation of police, not having much else to do in the small town, have created a large number of ''homeless'', i.e. hippies who have been evicted from the rocks and bushes under which they rest and sleep in a ''major clean-up operation''. Some of them don't have the means to travel onwards to a more welcoming place or to rent a place to stay in La Gomera. Prices for accommodation have risen considerably in recent years and with mostly full occupancy at peak times beds are hard to find even for many well-heeled tourists. Some hippies are not short of funds, though, but prefer to sleep under the stars by choice. I once met a raggedly looking 'cave-dweller' who was flashing his gold credit card around the shops, but giving all he bought away to his needy hippie friends.
Most of the evicted hippies though have no other choice but to find another bush, rock, crevice or cave where to unroll their yoga mats and sleeping bags from whence the police will then eventually make them move on once again. Thus a vicious circle has developed which is dividing the community with some saying that the hippies do no harm and started all the tourism industry in La Gomera by adding to the island's special charm, while others see hippies as untidy and scaring off the increasingly posh and elderly tourists.
The local administration, the Ayuntamiento de Valle Gran Rey, has now been forced to come to the rescue of the homeless to defuse the situation, and will lease the Casa Maria building for an initial five years. The ayuntamiento will carry out emergency repairs first to make the building safe and will then carry out basic refurbishment to temporarily house homeless hippies.
This is a stroke of genius by the local politicians as Casa Maria and its bar and restaurant is exactly the place where hippies came to as the first tourists in the 1960s, when there was no proper road, no electricity, and no tourism at all. They were most welcome then, sitting outside Casa Maria playing their guitars and drums. If they needed food, running water and a bed, Maria offered it all to them for a few Pesetas that could easily be earned in a few hours busking.
The beach is just across the road where the same music still fills the air at sunset every day during the busy winter season since then, and long may it last...
As everything takes quite some time in La Gomera, the temporary ''homeless hippie hostel'' is not expected to be ready and filled with happy hippies once again until April 1st next year.
Sunset gathering at Playa Maria, named of course after Maria of Casa Maria
