Pueblo Don Thomas About La Gomera

La Gomera is one of the smaller seven Canary Islands along with El Hierro and La Palma. The island is an ideal escape for any tourist or resident wishing to retire for a few days in the tranquil surroundings of a beautiful natural island with its own national park. The island has dense permenantly green forests and a continuous mist in its central region; this is a genuine subtropical island not to be missed.

From Tenerife, La Gomera sits on the horizon like half a walnut shell, crowned by a heavily-forested central massif Alto de Garajonay (National Park) and fringed by deep ravines. The abrupt coast is mainly sheer cliffs and the interior is so mountainous that the islanders have a special whistling language to communicate across the gorges.

Touring is hard work but rewarding, for La Gomera is a tightly packed natural wonderland, its scenery both dramatic and soft, with bananas filling the valleys, more palm trees than all the other islands put together, and Thai-like terraces up impossible slopes tended by farmers who pole-vault between crops!

La Gomera entered western history in the 15th century with the arrival of the conquistadores. In 1492, on his way to unknown lands, Christopher Columbus stopped in the bay of San Sebastián, the island's capital. Since then, Gomerans have called their island the Isla Colombina, in reference to Columbus's visit. The Tower del Conde, the Church of La Asunción, where members of the expedition and their mission were blessed, and the Well of the Aguada, all still existing, were witnesses to the presence on the island of the discoverers of America.

La Gomera is a small island having a total area of some 378 sq kilometres and hardly 20 km. from north to south. Yet it conceals an ecological treasure without precedent and has been declared a Property of Humanity by UNESCO. Few places in the world have such a wealth of natural beauty as La Gomera, even more interesting because of its past prehistoric character.

The island, with its steep terrain, drops sharply from the peak of Garajonay down to the Atlantic Ocean in a sequence of mountains and cliffs that form almost perfect circles. The rich vegetation, a relic from the beginning of the time, and having species that are almost non existent on any other part of the planet, descends little by little to the coast. Steep ravines lead down to fertile valleys and agricultural areas, where the human hand works hard to gain the fruits of the land, and at the same time shapes the landscape.

Rain clouds driven along by the mild prevailing winds, meet the high mountains and unload their moisture, drop by drop, in a unique way called horizontal precipitation. As a result of this the entire island is covered with a fine mist that extends over the lush vegetation. Garajonay is a genuine rain forest, where trees can grow as tall as 500 metres, taking on whimsically twisted forms that give the landscape a magical and surprising appearance.

La Gomera has a great gastronomical tradition. The delicacies from the surrounding sea, the agricultural products grown on the island and the special culinary methods all make for simple yet very tasty dishes. Typical dishes waiting to be discovered in the small village inns. Dishes like the watercress soup, served in wooden bowls. A unique culinary experience. Or the cheese, amde from the milk of three different breeds or prehispanic goat, which is made in the old way and considered by some to be the best fresh cheese in the world. The people of La Gomera use this cheese to make a special food calles almogrotre. Butter, oil, garlic, pepper, salt and sometimes tomato are the others ingredients. The result is a piquant and delicious spread for bread or potatoes.

The two variety of potatoes used, called locally papas negras and papas bonitas, were brought from the American continent several centruries ago. Today they are still cultivated in the traditional way and they have become a real delicadecy for even the most demandig appetites. With these potatoes and a popular local fish called vieja, which has a very special flavour, a succulent dish is prepared which is typical on all the Canary Islands. But the queen of Gomeran gastronomy is the palm honey. A syrup extracted from the Canarian palm tree, of wich there are more than 100,000 such trees on La Gomera, boiled and thickened, it servers as a raw material for a long tradition of local desserts. It is also used for making different kinds of cocktails or served with cheese or gofio, which is toasted wheat or corn flour.