La Gomera, December 2012 − Travels − Captain Tom

La Gomera, December 2012

Another Christmas holiday escape from the nasty Berlin weather. We go again to the Canary Islands. Having visited Gran Canaria, Teneriffe and Lanzarote we go this time to La Gomera. For the first time it is just my Dad and me.

The journey to and from La Gomera reveals to be a little adventure. See below. But we have found what we urgently needed. We had sunny and warm weather, the island presents gorgeous scenery and you can very well relax.

1 Journey to La Gomera

Everything starts as usual with a flight from Berlin to Teneriffe.

Nasty weather the day before we leave Berlin.
After our departure close to Berlin
We see Black Forrest ...
... and Basel
Land ahoy. First La Palma ...
... and then La Gomera
After arrival in Teneriffe we get transferred to the port of Los Chistanos. There we will go by ferry later this day. So first we have to walk around.
The ferry arrives during sunset and gets us over to La Gomera. There we have to go 20 miles by bus on pitch black mountain roads before we arrive at the resort.
2 Exploring the area

The hotel sits on top of a cliff. Below we have a little village called Playa de Santiago.
On the boardwalk
Port
Dad on the mole
The resort
The view to the sea offers great sunrises
3 Excursions

We do two tours. First a sightseeing tour by bus around the island including a short walk through the rain forrest. And then a longer hike on the island.

The sightseeing tour: Above 3000 feet elevation you are within the clouds and you can feel nasty cold wet and heavy wind. Temperatures are below 50 F. Views into the valleys are great - if you can see anything through the clouds.
Sometimes one can see the volcano Teide on the neighbouring island Teneriffe
Valle Gran Rey is quite steep and deep.
Dad does not want to get out of the bus at a viewpoint
Quite reasonable. It is cold, wet and windy outside.
Another tour brings us to a 6 mile hike in very steep terrain through the laurel wood of the island.
Afterwards we have a coffee in the little village Playa de Calera in Valle Gran Rey
4 The Resort

It is quite nice with very nice and friendly staff, good food and a nice pool.

One can watch beautiful sunrises there
And looking into the other direction one can look across an empty bay towards Tenerife with volcano Teide, the highest mountain of Spain
5 The journey back

The journey back is as elaborated and exhausting as the journey to the island

The day starts with a nice sunrise.
Our adventure starts with island hopping. As the ferry does not go on first of January we have to fly out with a little aircraft of Binter Air.
Goodbye to La Gomera
El Hierro in a distance
Teneriffe and Teide ahead
In Teneriffe we arrive in the very north of the island on TFN. Then we had to go for an hour by bus all across the island to the south where the international Airport TFS is located. Farewell Teneriffe.
We reach the continent at Viana do Castelo in Portugal close to the northern border to Spain.