Here's the Photo album from my recent trip to La Gomera and Tenerife. Either view the photos individually with captions ,or as a full screen slideshow. They include the usual assorted food ,veg and flowers as well as mountains.
On La Gomera I stayed in San Sebastian the capital, before moving on to Vallehermoso in the north of the island and then Valle Gran Rey on the west coast.
Damage caused by the severe August 2012 fires in the central mountainous area and the higher Valle Gran Rey villages ,after virtually no rain last winter, is still fairly obvious.However the more recent heavy rains seem to be helping nature fight back.
So please no moaning about how wet our own summer has been ,just make sure that your veggies have swimming lessons.
Bus times on La Gomera seem to be planned to fit in with the ferry transfers rather than the needs of island walkers (and the locals?), but with a bit of planning and the aid of Sunflower Landscapes "La Gomera" blue book a lot of very good walks can be done including several straight from the door in the various places I stayed.
After La Gomera I took the ferry back to Tenerife and stayed the last few nights in the capital Santa Cruz ,near the eastern tip of the island close to the Anaga mountains.
Tenerife has a very good integrated bus service plus a new tramway between Santa Cruz and La Laguna.Top tip is to buy a Bono-via ticket which you can then use on any bus or tram at discounted rates.
The main spine of the Anaga mountains and the surrounding coastal villages are well served by local buses and you can do a wide variety of interesting walks.I only scratched the surface in the short time I was there ,so it's a place that I want to go back to. The last Thursday of my stay coincided with a national holiday and the bus was jam packed with locals who on alighting at various spots then disappeared down trails aided by their long wooded walking poles. Perhaps they were all millionaire pensioners using their free bus passes.
