Bar at bus station reopened. Live music this Sunday

Not just decoration on the wall...

The small bar with terrace at the bus station in Valle Gran has reopened and host Ramiro is back behind the beer tap. The bar with the panoramic view over the Atlantic with El Hierro island in the background had been closed for several months and had been sorely missed by its loyal clientele of locals and regular visitors. The interior has been repainted and new tables and chairs are on the open terrace. An impromptu music session yesterday afternoon entertained the first guests and a beautiful sunset proved that this bar is one of the best spots to view the setting sun in all of La Gomera (click this for more...).

This Sunday afternoon, January 21st 2018, there'll be live music with Poisoned Folk from 1:30 pm and this will be directly followed by an open music session. Come on up to the bus station beside the bridge in La Calera and join in...

Yesterday's sunset seen from the bus station bar in Valle Gran Rey

Beautiful sunset last night

Top spots to watch sunsets - Part 4

Valle Gran Rey is the 'sunset capital' of La Gomera and I want to introduce you to some of the best and most popular locations from where to watch the spectacle over the Atlantic ocean with a cool or hot drink in your hand. The order in which they appear does not intend to give a ranking and my suggestion is that you'll try them all for the sake of variety. If you've got any further proposals please let me know, or even better send me your own post with your snapshots.

Another one of my favourite spots to watch the sun go down is in the harbour village of Vueltas in Valle Gran Rey. It can be reached through the pedestrian lanes of the town or up a few steps from the pedestrian crossing on the harbour side of the roundabout with the fishing boat. It is a small bar and restaurant called Tambara and offers a panoramic view across the Atlantic from the harbour out to El Hierro in the South and as far as La Palma in the west from the just recently extended terrace. The interior views are just as spectacular as the whole decor is of handmade mosaics and furniture in the Moorish style and transports you to Marocco just a few hundred mile to the east of where you're sitting. It was all painstakingly done involving endless hours of labour by the previous local owner, who has now handed it over to his sister and her Italian husband who is also the chef.The great relaxing music coming from the sound system often takes you on a journey around the world with frequent stops in North Africa. The food is excellent offering the best and most interesting tapas on La Gomera and tends towards Italian food with distinct North African influences. Great cocktails, fruit juices and teas as well as good wines are on offer,too, as are homemade cakes. All in all Tambara is one of the most beautiful bars in the Canary Islands.

Top spots to watch sunsets - Part 3

Valle Gran Rey is the 'sunset capital' of La Gomera and I want to introduce you to some of the best and most popular locations from where to watch the spectacle over the Atlantic ocean with a cool or hot drink in your hand. The order in which they appear does not intend to give a ranking and my suggestion is that you'll try them all for the sake of variety. If you've got any further proposals please let me know, or even better send me your own post with your snapshots.

Today it's the turn of La Puntilla, the area around the statue of Hautacuperche. It is situated about halfway between La Playa in the west and Vueltas harbour in the east of lower Valle Gran Rey. There you'll have a fantastic view across to El Hierro and even the southern end of La Palma can be seen. Sometimes there are parties on the beach behind the statue and irregularly there's live music outside Manolo's Bar Teguerguenche in the large blue building across the road from the statue which houses several more inviting bars and restaurants. For a special treat you could go to Hotel Gran Rey, take the lift up to the top floor and sip a cocktail in the rooftop bar or on the terraces from where you can not only observe the sun going down over the horizon but also enjoy the view to the north up the green valley to the mountains. 

Top spots to watch sunsets - Part 2

Valle Gran Rey is the 'sunset capital' of La Gomera and I want to introduce you to some of the best and most popular locations from where to watch the spectacle over the Atlantic ocean with a cool or hot drink in your hand. The order in which they appear does not intend to give a ranking and my suggestion is that you'll try them all for the sake of variety. If you've got any further proposals please let me know, or even better send me your own post with your snapshots.

Part of the panorama at the bus station bar

Today I want to give you some impressions of one of my favourite places for watching the sun go down. It is the bar and terrace at the bus station near the petrol station across the bridge in La Calera. The Bar Estacion de Guaguas as it is called in Canarian Spanish, because the Spanish word for bus, which is autobus, isn't used in the Canary Islands where a bus is called a guagua instead. The small bar and its large inviting terrace are on an elevated site offering spectacular views over banana plantations all across the bay and over to El Hierro island and the sunsets can be enjoyed taking in the full panorama.

The bus station bar is popular with locals and visitors all day on their travels in and out of the valley, with people waiting for the buses, and with hikers on their way up or down the mountains. Ramiro, the friendly host has a wide variety of drinks on offer, including some genuine Irish whiskeys, and supplies snacks and ice creams. As he is fond of live music, musicians are welcome to play a few tunes and local regulars sometimes have a lively session and sing-song, called a parranda. There's even two guitars and an Irish bodhran hanging on the wall waiting to be used...

 

Top spots to watch sunsets - Part 1

Valle Gran Rey is the 'sunset capital' of La Gomera and I want to introduce you to some of the best and most popular locations from where to watch the spectacle over the Atlantic ocean with a cool or hot drink in your hand. The order in which they appear does not intend to give a ranking and my suggestion is that you'll try them all for the sake of variety. If you've got any further proposals please let me know, or even better send me your own post with your snapshots.

Today I'm starting with the spot that pulls in the largest crowds by far year after year since the 1960s when young Americans avoiding the Vietnam war, world-travellers, hippies, artists and intellectuals began to gather on La Gomera and met up to watch the sunset in Valle Gran Rey. The place is the legendary BAR MARIA aka Bar Las Jornadas aka Casa Maria at the western end of lower Valle Gran Rey known as La Playa. Even though the sunset can be seen directly over the sea only during the winter half of the year from there, today it still is the main meeting point at sunset time for everyone. 

People stand around outside the small bar and restaurant and even bring their drinks across the road to sit on the beach. As the sun goes down drummers start their rhythms, sometimes joined by various other instruments, and pass the hat around the mixed crowd who are sipping their drinks. Local artist Pero often shows his smaller cARTon works on his ingenious exhibition cart, itself a work of art. When the sun has set the dusk often brings fire-eaters and -jugglers to the beach to join the drummers and dazzle the crowd.

Bar Maria often hosts live music and Canarian music sessions when the spectacle on the beach is over, and keeps the guests  entertained from 9 to 11pm. The building also offers simple 70's style reasonably priced accommodation even if it is for just for the night. The bar's very old wooden fridge with its large electric motor on top is lovingly maintained in its original condition and the adjoining large 70's-furnished dining room offers simple home-cooked local dishes which can also be ordered from the terrace on the pavement. Open all day until 11pm, but closed on Tuesdays. 

The dining room

Maria

Many years before La Playa became the built-up small tourist resort it now is, Bar Maria was already the focal point for the population and visitors down there as it also housed a general store and a post office, and there still is a letter box mounted above one of the benches. Maria, the cordial old proprietress now in her 90s is still alive and well and she still sits outside the bar regularly enjoying the scene and meeting old friends. You never know who you'll meet and what might happen at her legendary establishment, but a jovial bohemian atmosphere is always guaranteed.

Sunsets don't come much better

Valle Gran Rey could be called 'The Sunset Capital Of The Canary Islands', but that may be just local pride. I've seen many an Atlantic sunset in the West of Ireland and sunsets over the rest of the world's oceans. They all have one thing in common: There's always he odd one that takes your breath away and makes even the most stressed and hurried and cynical people stop in their tracks just to ...waaaaaatch. The good ones tend to last for much longer than the rest and no camera will ever do justice to them. In Valle Gran Rey on La Gomera sunsets have become a focal point for all, almost a ritual, often with drummers, fire jugglers, musicians and dancers - but more about that another time. Today I'll just give you a few photos of a rare, long lasting sundown which I took last night while munching a tasty cosmopolitan falafel.

...and please do find out more about the monument man Hautacuperche with his broken bowl, 'The Last of the Independents' as Rory Gallagher sang in a different context.

The island of El Hierro in the background  

Hautacuperche

There are many bars and restaurants that offer vantage seats for viewing. Photo was taken from the
'Bar Estacion de Guaguas' (Bus Station Bar) near the only petrol station (La Calera) just a week ago

Hautacuperche last night. There are several bars, restaurants and the Hotel Gran Rey within 100 yds.