The Steps of La Gomera

After an OK, but necessary, night's sleep, we awoke early and headed out to find gas, some band-aids for Jeanette's feet, and the ferry. We found them all easily enough and got tickets for La Gomera. It cost €60 for the two people and the car.

We had plenty of time, so we walked around the port, took photos, and enjoyed the sun and the scenery. Los Christianos has a reasonably extensive shopping area that's great for browsing.

When ready, we pulled the car onto the ferry and got out to ride from above. You can't ride on the car deck with your car. The ferry ride was quicker than we expected (about 30 minutes) but gave us great views of Tenerife and Mt. Teide, the huge volcano on Tenerife. We also go our first look at La Gomera and could see the Christ statue over the harbor.

When we disembarked, we pulled over for a second to stick our feet in the water. It felt great, warmer than we expected. In fact the weather was beautifully warm and sunny... definitely shorts weather!

We headed off towards Vallehermoso and made several stops along the way. Some of the minor stops included Hermigua and Agulo where we walked around and snapped some pics of the towns and countryside, including beautiful flowers and banana plantations. We stopped in a restaurant near Las Rosas where we happened to time it so that we were there for a Silbo demonstration. The whistling language, developed by herders for communication around the island, was neat and seemed to echo the Spanish syllables in sentences and phrases. Their demo included 'stealing' items from guests and instructing a person, in Silbo, how to find the items.

After Las Rosas, we continued our drive and decided to pass through Vallehermoso adn continue to Valle Grand Rey. The drive was beautiful, taking us by the Roque Cano and through a section of foggy laurel forest in Garajonay Park. We stopped at a great overlook where we could see the northwest coast, plus we could see the islands of La Palma and El Heiro "floating" in the clouds to the west.

After a bit, we made our way to Valle Grand Rey. The drive in was incredible with steep roads and amazing views of the stepped countryside. (The entire island was carved out in steps for crop irrigation long ago.) We found a winery with great local Reserva and Muscatel, so we bought a couple of bottles (which we still have unopened today). We arrived at the beach, La Playa de Valle Grand Rey, and, after some shopping around, we settled on a cute little apartment for three nights where we could see the beach and the water at high tide. It had plenty of room and the beach was right out the door.

Once we settled, we went for a great swim and watched the sunset from the beach. The black sand, the water, and the sun were beautiful. We probably spent an hour down there.

Finally, we headed out and tried to find one fancy restaurant on a mountain top that was closed. On the way back we stopped for a fantastic view of the stars and the Valle Grand Rey at night.

We ended up eating in a Mexican place. Jeanette's Canarian squid was great, but I forgot that the US was much closer to Mexico than the Canaries and didn't like my 'Mexican' dish much.

We finished the night with a beer and wine at La Terraza out the door from our apartment. An ice cream and a short walk topped it off!