Christopher Columbus's Last Pit Stop

 

 

Original inhabitants known as Gaunches

    In case you don't already know, my favourite place for a vacation is the Canary Islands, Spain. Having just returned after a two week break on the island of Tenerife, I thought I would tell you about one of the other islands I have rediscovered after last visiting there twenty years ago.

La Gomera Rises out of The Atlantic

    Rising out of the Atlantic Ocean, off the west coast of Africa, La Gomera is an island that to a certain degree time has forgot. There is no shortage of mod cons, but the inhabitants live much of their lives as they always have throughout the ages, tilling the rich fertile land and tending to their flocks.

 

    Whether the crop be potatoes, tomatoes, or bananas the micro climate allows the small population of around 16,000 people to be self sufficient. The island is the second smallest of the seven islands, that make up the Canary islands. But what it lacks in ground mass only measuring 15 miles across, it certainly doesn't lack in beauty, including an Unesco World Heritage Site.

 

         Harbour at Valle Gran Rey

    Travelling by car from the port and capital, San Sebastian, after disembarking from the ferry, which we boarded in Los Cristianos, Tenerife,  to the resort of Valle Gran Rey, the scenery was breathtaking. The island itself is mountainous, but feats of engineering, in the way of mountain tunnels and good roads make the journey quicker and less treacherous than it was on my last visit.

A villages nestling in a deep ravine.

    Small villages defy gravity by hanging precariously onto the edge of the mountains, while others nestle in the deep ravines. But the people of each village, working as cooperatives use the sides of these mountains to grow vines and crops. Whilst their sheep and goats dot the rocky outcrops.

Castillo del Mar, Vallehermoso, on the Atlantic. 

Goods, mostly bananas, were dispatched here onto steamboats.

    It's no wonder that Christopher Columbus visited this island three times to replenish his ships with food and water. The first being in 1492 when he stopped here with three ships before crossing the Atlantic. The second in 1493, this time with approximately 17 ships and finally again in 1498 before his onward journey to the Americas.

Typical village street.

 



    I would recommend to everyone who visits the Canaries (Las Islas Canarias) to make a pit stop here, without a doubt.