la gomera

us
Puzzled question of our favorite Ghanaean waitress Kalay (who grew up in Hamburg, speaks accent-free German and recognized H and me from our Gomera trip two years ago): "What kind of group are you guys????" My answer: "Well, the 3 guys graduated from school together, and this one is my dad and this one here happens to be my husband." I tend to forget that we're a weird family because next thing, she assumed that my (step-) dad's gf was my mum. Which sort of annoyed my dad's gf because she's not quite old enough to be the mother of a 30yo. But it's true, the 2 Peters and H have been friends for more than 30 years. I got to know them when one of them became my stepdad when I was 4. And married one of them 2 years ago. The 3rd one and his wife were our witnesses. It was the 1st trip of the 6 of us together.

Of course, all 6 of us have our special traits and characters. My dad Peter was the busybody who fixed everything within reach, couldn't spend more than 1 day in a row just reading and relaxing, always raced ahead and carried around his big bagpack (I wouldn't be suprised to find a toolbox somewhere in there), was somewhat suspicious of food he doesn't know (mussels? octopus? eek!) and who woulnd't mind alternating between pizza and spaghetti bolognese fo dinner regardless of the fact that these are Italian favorites. His gf Andrea, the newest addition to the whole group, seems to be the same kind of busybody, climbing around the hills to collect all cactus figs and passion fruit within reach, racing Peter up and down the mountains in search of the most interesting trail, clearing the rubble off the stairs and, unlike my dad, being very open towards everything there was to see, experience and try.

The 2nd Peter served as our interpreter as he was the only one of us who really speaks Spanish (I sort of understand a lot but kept involuntarily answering in Chinese and realized once more that I prefer to spend my holidays in places where I speak the language. Like France or China.). As usual, he exulted self-confidence for two and always knew where to go, what to do and what to think. His wife Doris was the thoughtful soul of the group, keeping everything in order, making sure everybody had enough to eat and brushed their teeth, begged Peter to play with her and was as always fun to be with but always careful not to hurt anyone. The two of them are one of the most harmonious couples I've met.

And then, there was H and myself. H kept cracking his usual bad jokes that everybody is sooo used to and as always spent a lot of time taking a nap and missing his daily newspaper and home. And I, being the baby in the group, usually went to bed first, didn't say much, talked to every flower and every cat I came across, missed Tuesday, took literally 100s of pics, wrote about 20 postcards and managed for the first time in my life to get a real tan without going through the lobster stage first.

the house
The house belongs to H's boss and is situated in the valley of Hermigua, the greenest valley in the north of La Gomera. It's an old local house (renovated and with all necessary amenities like hot water, washing machine, oven and fridge, of course). We had loads of space with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two big living rooms, a giant garden and two sea-view terraces for reading, breakfast, ocasional dinner and long evenings with lots of beer and wine.

la gomera
With 376 square km, La Gomera is the 2nd smallest island among the Canary Islands in the Atlantic off the African coast.
Unlike for example neighbouring Tenerife, La Gomera isn't a classical beach island as there aren't many beaches, these are usually unattractively black and/or covered in pebbles, and the currents are too strong for real swimming. Hiking is a much more interesting option because of the many different landscapes like canyons where nothing grows but agaves, date palms and cactusses; green valleys like Hermigua with terraces covered in banana plants (long an important source of income for La Gomera) and other fruit crops: grape, chestnuts, papayas, figs, peaches...; romantic fishing villages, tiny mountain villages in the middle of nowhere; steep barren coastlines and the laurisilva forest, a World Heritage site covering the whole center of the island.
La Gomera has long been a favorite with German dropouts, so there is a well-established (and pretty weird) German community with vegetarian health-food shops and meditation centers (we didn't exactly look for those).

national park
The central peaks of the island are covered in laurisilva, a unique ecological system dating back to the tertiary era. The 4000 ha of laurisilva on la Gomera are one of the largest still existing specks of their kind and were declared as World Heritage site by the UNESCO in 1981. The main water source for the often endemic plants are less the scarce brooks but rather the humidity taken from clouds that are driven up the mountains by the trade winds and get cought in the peaks (the highest of which is the Alto de Garajonay with close to 1500m). Thus, clouds tend to hang low above the peaks (while the sun is scorching in the valleys). The laurisilva is also called "foggy forest", and the trees and landscapes are coverd in moss and lichen. Great for taking pics :-)

hiking
We did two major hikes and one somewhat failed one (the description in the guide didn't match the real layout of the village) on the last day.
The first one went from the peak of Contadero (1350m) straight down into "our" valley of Hermigua, through laurisilva, macchia, deserted mountain villages, a steep descent along a waterfall and through banana fields before reaching the town where we called my dad (who as always had been running ahead with his gf while we took our time enjoying the landscape, talking to cats, goats and donkeys and (it's me, after all) keeping everybody waiting by taking 100s of pics) to pick us up and save us the last 40 minute descent down to our house (he couldn't spare us the 57 steps up the stairs from the road to our house, though).

The second one was shorter and went up from a former volcanic crater (you wouldn't guess) on 1260m to the highest peak of La Gomera, the Alto de Garajonay (1486m) from where we had a 360 degree view over the island and would have been able to see all the other Canarian islands - if visibility had allowed to see more than the somewhat ubiquitous Tenerife. The climb was a bit boring, along a dusty road for forest maintenance. But we varied the descent and came through laurisilva, alternating with spacious chestnut forests and sweet-smelling macchia before ending up in the restaurant at the crater for a couple of beers and an afternoon snack.

food
I could live there for the food alone (and the sun and the heat and the flowers...). Each meal was a feast of fruit, different cheeses (mainly produced from goat's milk), loads of fresh fish and seafood, goat or rabbit meat, the typical Spanish tapas (little snacks like tuna salad, meat balls, marinated cold sardines...), always accompanied by fresh white bread, cooked potatoes with salt crust and red or green mojo, little pots of sauce made from herbs, chili and olive oil. And for dessert a pudding made from milk with palm honey or local fruit.
YUMMIE!!!!
The best food we had were the tapas at a bar called "Cuba libre" on the central plaza of San Sebastian, the African-influenced dishes in El Piloto (pumpkin with cashews and peanut butter, vegetables with ginger and coconut, shrimps with red peppers boiling in olive oil, mussels with tomatoes) where we had dinner a LOT and, surprisingly, the really tasty meat and snacks we tried on the camp site in El Cedro during our day hike.

the sea
Beach-wise, we were lucky in Hermigua, with an immaculate beach just down the road and a natural pool as well as a sea-water pool around the corner at the former banana port. And La Caleta, supposedly one of the most beautiful beaches of La Gomera just over the hill. Not to mention that they had a snack bar with terrific almogrote, cold beer and fresh fish and the most charming beach snack bar cat ever. It's actually possible to walk there. But I passed the 40 minute steep climb and descent in plain sun. All other beaches we came across weren't half as nice. But I took some great pictures in San Sebastian.

animals
Apart from the birds which I can't really tell apart - unless it's those menacing big things that loudly crying almost attacked us one night, reminding us of Hitchcock, the most prominent animals on the island are ugly little dogs, goats literally IN the rocks, the ubiquitous cats that often enough were surprisingly friendly, bats at night, geckos in the houses (two years ago, H had never had that before and insisted that we locked the bathroom gecko out at night by closing the bathroom door). And thousands of lizards hustling between the leaves, taking a sunbath on our terrace and fighting for breakfast crumbs.


elections
Main topic during our stay and with all other Germans we came across (or rather the minority among them that we felt like talking to): the early parliament elections in Germany. All of us had duly voted before leaving for La Gomera. Though, to be honest, I think these elections are just a joke because there won't be any positive change in Germany, no matter what kind of government we'll get. But anyway. Like 3 years ago, during the last parliament election sunday that H and my dad spent in Taipei, surfing the internet all night to catch the latest polls and emptying a bottle of liquor they had originally brought for ME from Germany, H got all nervous in the early afternoon. Andrea went to a German apartment owner in Hermigua and asked if there was any chance of watching German tv somewhere close. I was looking forward to sending them all off and enjoying some quiet time with myself and my laptop because imho, there isn't anything more boring than watching the polls for hours and hours. I'd be content to learn the final result and the outcome when they've decided what to do with their meagre percentage numbers that force them to form a coalition (traffic light - red, yellow, green? or Jamaica - black, yellow, green?).
Alas - no luck. No pub with German election news anywhere close. So H spent an hour tuning the old radio to find Deutsche Welle, and they all gathered around the crackling radio, got all excited about minimal percentage differences and laughed about stupid politician quotes. While I retired to our bedroom with a thick book, was in a foul mood during dinner (what a stupid waste of time) and went to bed early.
The whole thing was the trigger for H's "I miss my daily newspaper" mode, so after proudly telling all Germans in reach what the results were, each couple had to go to San Sebastian on consecutive days to buy a German newspaper. Until we finally got the one with the detailed election results. He even put up with the somewhat reactionary FAZ for that. But he managed to score with the others when he told them his mum's quote: "If the greens go together with the blacks, it's the last time I've voted for them." What??? How did you manage to make your mum vote green?