The best New Year's Eve parties to end 2016

Vueltas harbour village in Valle Gran Rey is the place to be for this New Year's Eve. The main fiesta will be held in the harbour where a huge marquee has been put up and salsa and merengue bands will play for the dancers from 11pm until 6am. There will be lots of alternatives in the village with different live music followed by a disco later in the legendary Cacatua bar and beer garden, and just across the lane a vacant shop premises will once again house a sound system with DJ's playing electronic dance music all night and this event is also open to the partying public. Just a bit up the same lane the bar La Tasca will host another party and is renowned for their excellent cocktails. Just take a stroll around Vueltas village tonight and you might discover more...

Elsewhere in La Gomera the largest fiesta with salsa bands is in San Sebastian de La Gomera's main square from where this year the midnight bells for the countdown to 2017 will be transmitted live on RTVC  to the rest of the Canary Islands, but some of the other towns on the island will have fiestas, too.

Let's just hope the wind will die down as predicted.

Free concert tonight

German Lopez, the virtuoso timple player from Gran Canaria will give a free concert in the 'Auditorio Infanta Cristina' in Sebastian de La Gomera tonight at 8pm. The timple is a Canarian 5-stringed mini guitar and has a very pleasant sound. Lopez is a renowned exponent of the instrument and has ventured into many styles of music, including jazz and rock. He is also a composer and in tonight's concert he will introduce the audience to his latest CD called De Raiz, which features his own compositions. 

Don't miss this rare opportunity to hear one of the best instrumentalists in the Canary Islands.

The new municipal mayors of La Gomera

Angel Piñero of  Valle Gran Rey (Image: gomeranoticias.com)

Valle Gran Rey: 

Angel Piñero has been elected mayor of this municipal area on La Gomera last Saturday. His Coalicion Canaria party came out strongest in the recent local elections, winning four of the eleven seats on the local council but unable to gain a majority. However, his candidature was supported by all but the two Si Se Puede councillors and it now appears he will form a minority local government with the support of most elected councillors.

The other 5 municipal mayors on La Gomera were elected as follows:

San Sebastian de La Gomera: 

Now ruled by the new socialist party ASG (6 seats)  in coalition with Antonio Luis Arteaga of Nueva Canarias (1 seat) with Adasat Reyes  of the ASG as mayor. 

Vallehermoso: 

Emiliano Coello of the ASG elected mayor with absolute majority held by the ASG.

Agulo: 

Rosa Chinea (ASG) is new mayor, also with absolute majority of the seats held by her party.

Hermigua: 

Pedro Negrín of CC (2 seats) elected mayor, forming local government in coalition with ASG (2 seats) and PSOE (1seat). Former mayor Solveida Clemente's party is now in opposition with four seats.

Alajeró: 

Manuel Ramón Plasencia of the Spanish Labour Party PSOE managed to go against the trend on La Gomera, now being the only mayor to be re-elected with his party gaining an absolute majority of the seats.

Shipping confusion at four ports in Canary Islands

There was a lot of confusion in the port of San Sebastian de La Gomera and to a lesser degree in the harbours of Vueltas in Valle Gran Rey on La Gomera, Los Cristianos on Tenerife and Santa Cruz de La Palma over the past couple of days. 

San Sebastian de La Gomera

First, the medium-sized (about 1000 passengers and crew) Malta-registered cruise ship Saga Sapphire docked in San Sebastian on Saturday instead of Santa Cruz de La Palma where it should have been according to the Saga Cruises programme for its mainly British passengers. This ship then was to dock in Valle Gran Rey's harbour on Sunday on its way back from the island of La Palma, but it remained in San Sebastian all day Sunday, leaving expectant V.G.R. wondering. In San Sebastian, meanwhile, the scheduled visit by the Balmoral, operated by Fred. Olsen Cruises, with about 1700 passengers and crew couldn't come into the harbour due to the cruise ship berth being occupied by the Saga Sapphire. The Balmoral went on to Santa Cruz de La Palma instead (probably taking the berth left vacant there by the Saga Sapphire) and then further on to Funchal,Madeira.

Part of San Sebastian pier
from the deck of the Armas
ferry Volcan de Taburiente

Next there were problems with Sunday's last ferry sailing by Naviera Armas. Their ship Volcan de Taburiente left Los Cristianos on the last scheduled sailing early Sunday night, but had to return to said port about a quarter of an hour later due to 'technical problems', which according to some reports concerned the doors of the vehicle decks of the ro-ro ferry. Back in Los Cristianos port passengers were told over the public address system that the sailing was suspended and because it was already getting late many passengers left the vessel. However, at about 11:30 pm the technical problem was repaired and the vessel left for La Gomera with remaining passengers to arrive in San Sebastian at about 00:30 am, leaving lots of those behind who had decided earlier to temporarily disembark.

Now back to the saga of the Saga Sapphire: This cruise ship was still in the same port early on Monday morning which, according to some crew members, was 'due to poor weather', but the weather was reasonably fair, and locally those 'in the know' said it was a failure of the side-thrusters - needed to propel a large motor vessel off the pier against the wind or current). The captain was quoted in some media reports as having asked for a tug, which La Gomera doesn't have and no visiting cruise ship even in the worst weather conditions ever needed here. 
At the same time another cruise ship, the Bermuda-registered Aurora, was sailing for a scheduled stop-over at San Sebastian de La Gomera with about 2500 passengers and crew aboard, and on coming closer to La Gomera this vessel had to resolve to to sail in ever widening circles off San Sebastian while waiting for the Saga Sapphire to vacate the cruise ship berth in the harbour. Meanwhile a good number of buses, tour guides, taxis, car rental reps, etc., were waiting on the pier for a long time, ready for the Aurora's pre-booked passengers. 

At lunchtime the berth was still blocked and the Aurora decided to wait no longer and sail on, bound for Funchal on Madeira. The larger cruise ship had barely rounded La Gomera's northern point when the Saga Sapphire finally left and vacated the berth, also bound for… you've guessed it - Madeira. This left La  Gomera free of all cruise ships for the remainder of yesterday and ready for the scheduled berthing of the Italian-registered Aida Vita cruise ship with about 1500 passengers and crew this morning. Keep the fingers crossed !
All  these cruise ships originally came here from Las Palmas on Gran Canaria, by the way.
I wonder who'll be claiming what of whom for the above chain of events...

Tour buses waiting a long time in vain for the Aurora on the pier of La Gomera's capital © gomeranoticias.com