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.

3-D model of La Gomera

                                                                 ^   Valle Gran Rey   ^       

There is a large model of the island of La Gomera at the very informative visitor's centre of the national park. This interpretative centre also has a smaller model on show, besides explaining flora, fauna, geology, history, culture, crafts, customs, etc.. There's also a small museum cottage, craft shops, a garden with labelled plants and more. The centre is located at Juego de Bolas above the village of Las Rosas and is called Centro de Visitantes del Parque Nacional del Garajony (click for more info), but is just outside of the park itself. A definite must-see for visitors and fortunately still free of charge.

Donut Cloud

There was great variety in the skies yesterday. The day started with almost completely clear blue skies (as it did today) and ended with rainbows to the north while interesting cloud formations alternated with sunshine to the south. See for yourself:

Blue skies with Portuguese TAP Airbus A330  en route from Porto Alegre
 in Brazil to Lisbon approaching La Gomera at 39.000 feet.

TAP 46

The late afternoon sky looking north brought drizzle in the upper valley and rainbows...

…while looking south-west brought this donut-shaped cloud (right)

Two accidents leave one dead and one injured

Two separate accidents this weekend left one dead and one injured on La Gomera. 

First a local man in his eighties from the Arguamul area in La Gomera's north-west was reported missing by his family when he failed to return home late on Friday. Yesterday his body was discovered below a precipice near the chapel of Santa Clara, but the abrupt terrain made the recovery of his body extremely difficult, and only efforts by specialised mountain rescue teams finally resulted in recovering the corpse later on Saturday. The octogenarian was well known and respected in La Gomera, particularly for his reliable regular ringing of the the bells of the chapel of Santa Clara.

Arguamul seen from near Santa Clara

In a separate incident a 62-year-old woman who was out hiking in Valle Gran Rey suffered a fall and a suspected knee fracture. She had to be rescued by the GES helicopter and was transferred to the hospital in San Sebastian de La Gomera where she was said to be recovering from her injuries.

GES Search & Rescue helicopter in action (archive image)

Organic food on La Gomera

There are several of organic growers and farmers on La Gomera and some of the smaller 'super'-markets in Valle Gran Rey sell their produce and other organic wholefoods. There are also a few specialised wholefood shops: One in the island's capital and three in Valle Gran Rey, two of those in Vueltas village. 
However, my favourite place to shop for produce fresh from the field, as well as packaged wholefoods and other ecological products is the Finca Ecologica Lomo del Riego. It is not 'in town' but beside the bus station near the roundabout in La Calera. It boasts to be the only fully certified and registered organic farm on La Gomera. About ten years ago it was started by local man Jose Manuel who is presently running an organic farm in Germany, and now his brother Pedro keeps the farm going while his wife manages the shop. 

Best of all, after you've done your shopping in their idyllic farm shop, you can drop in to the bus station bar across the road and discuss the politics of food or the weather with Pedro, who frequently drops in for a short break from working his fields. You'll enjoy the spectacular view from there and later watch the sun set across the Atlantic while nursing a cold beer.

Entrance to the shop is just 5 steps up from pedestrian crossing on right

Pedro is off to one of his fields

Sunset seen from the bus station bar

Film set in Playa Santiago vanished

Many visitors to La Gomera are asking if there are parts or traces left to be seen of the film set of In the Heart of the Sea, which was recently filming with director Ron Horward in Playa de Santiago. The short and simple answer is 'No' - everything has been restored to exactly the same condition as before the film scenes were shot. There is nothing in Santiago which might indicate the changes and all the activity during the last months of 2013 as the pictures below prove:

Beach during shooting of scene

Beach now back to original condition

Where props, workshops and containers were situated...

…is now a 'green field site' again

Santiago's harbour full of all kinds of vessels during filming

...is now a sleepy fishing port again.

Nearby Playa de Tapahuga with concrete tank during the shoot

…is now restored and you'd never think there was a tank.

Russian frigate visits Canary Islands

The ‘Shtandart’, a replica of the Russian frigate commissioned by Peter the Great in 1703, spent the winter in the Canary Islands and offered 4 itineraries for young people to experience sailing in the 18th century as well as explore the islands. You can find out how this came about and the purpose of the Shtandart Project by clicking the link.

The above was first published by Queenie's Daily Snippets

Carnival in the Canaries 2014

Santa Cruz 2014 poster

Soon it will be carnival time in the Canary Islands once again and the carnival in Tenerife's capital Santa Cruz is said to be second only to that of Rio. Gorgeous participants, stunning costumes, marching bands, samba schools, music and happy mayhem. Though tied to the Easter celebrations elsewhere there is nothing at all religious about this month-long party here. The dates don't necessarily coincide with carnivals in other parts of the world and different towns party on different dates over the coming month and well into March 2014.

The main events of the month-long carnival in Santa Cruz de Tenerife are as follows:

Wednesday Feb.26th,2014:  Election of the Carnaval Queen. This event is a huge evening gala.

Friday Feb. 28th:  Once it has it's Queen, Santa Cruz Carnaval takes to the streets on the Friday evening, with the Cabalgata Anunciadora, followed by a huge fireworks display and dancing to major bands after that.

Tuesday March 4th, 2014:   The Main Parade in Santa Cruz (the Avenida de Anaga and Marítima), from around 4pm ending in another fantastic fireworks display at around 9pm.

Wednesday March 5th:  ''Burial of the Sardine'' to ''end'' the carnival. Men dress up as "Widows" to mourn the poor old sardine and generally party the night away after another great fireworks show.

N.B.: 

Poster contest entry
for VGR's carnival

These are just a few main events and even after the carnival has ''ended'' there's more to come. All in all there are hundreds of events, dances, parades, concerts, as well as dozens of stages and venues, plus several more large fireworks displays. All together it is lasting from early February to March 9th 2014 after which everyone involved definitely will need a good rest.

Full programme in Spanish: www.carnavaltenerife.es


Here in Valle Gran Rey the whole affair is a lot smaller in scale and lasts 4 days from the 5th to the 8th of March 2014 with the main events staged in the harbour. The theme for this year's parade is 'Terror'. Help !

10 new tourist information points on La Gomera

At a ceremony in La Gomera's government buildings the island's president Casimiro Curbelo together with the councillor for tourism Fernando Mendez accredited ten businesses all over  La Gomera as new tourism information points where visitors can receive information, brochures and maps, etc. After a strict selection process the accredited shops and services will now do their best to help the information-seeking tourist and act as a first point of contact for advice. It is hoped that further such points will be added to the system in the future. The ten PITs (puntos de informacion turistica) who are giving their services free of charge and are not receiving any remuneration from the government are as follows:

In Valle Gran Rey: Shop 'Vino Tinto'  (Vueltas harbour, corner opp. 'Tuyo')
                            Fitness Centre 'La Fortaleza' (behind Spar market)
                            Hotel Gran Rey  (La Puntilla)
                            Hotel Jardin Concha (La Calera)
                            Boat Excursions Tina (on quay)
In Las Hayas:        Restaurant La Montaña/Casa Efigenia
In San Sebastian:   Hotel Parador de La Gomera (on cliff above harbour)
In Vallehermoso:   Ymaguara Hiking Shop (near town square)
In Hermigua:         Arte Floral Laurisilva  (Tel. 0034-922144026)
                            Trujillo Gamez (traditional mill on main road)