Island-Hopping: La Gomera Part 1

Plans for the last weeks

As I only had three more weeks to work and afterwards ten days of holidays I had to start making plans about what to do and see before I would return to Germany. As I didn't want to do everything alone I talked about some possible things with the Vietnamese girl at work, and found out that she wanted to visit another island, too. As her boyfriend who would come to visit her at the end of her internship didn't want to do that we decided to book a one-day-tour to the small island La Gomera for the next weekend. We didn't have any holidays left, so we couldn't fly to another island and spend some days there. Actually, that was the only thing I really wanted to do before my departure, so we just talked about some restaurants she wanted to visit with me again before my internship was over. I was happy that I didn't have to do the trip to La Gomera alone - I would have done it anyway, but it would be better with somebody else of course. 

So the next day we went to one of the thousand tourist agencies and asked how much the trip was, what was included and if there were any places left for the following weekend. She told us everything about the excursion: it was 66 euros per person, bus, ferry and lunch was included and we would pass most of the time in the bus with somebody telling us everything about the interesting landmarks and places - short: it was a common tourist excursion. As January wasn't the main holiday season there were still free places left and we booked for the coming Saturday. I knew that an excursion like that wouldn't show us the whole atmosphere of the island in such a short time, but we would be able to see it and get a first impression. The most important for me was to see another island and change the perspective a bit, as work didn't offer any distraction at all at the moment and I was caught in a kind of deep whole - I hoped a lot that this excursion would help me a bit to escape. 

Tourist Excursion to La Gomera

Getting up much too early

On the Saturday of the excursion we had to get up at 4:30 in the morning because the bus would come to pick us up in front of our houses at about 5 am. I almost didn't hear my alarm because I hadn't been able to sleep before midnight and a bit more than 4 hours of sleep wasn't enough at all. But soon I felt the excitment about the new adventure and prepared everything for the trip. The day before I had been at the supermarket with the Vietnamese girl and we had bought some cookies, fruits and bread for the excursion. I didn't know what else to pack, so I just took some water, a jacket and my earphones. Then it was already time to leave the house and go to the meeting point some metres away, in front of one of the large hotels next to my appartment house. When I stepped out of the door I could see a lot of people, most of them on their way home from partying or still drinking alcohol. I had never been able to understand how one can start drinking at 10 and stay in clubs until 8 or 9 in the morning, but it seemed to be something quite normal in Spain. I went to the other hotel and saw other tourists waiting for a bus. After a while there were several buses, but none of them was mine - it arrived 10 minutes too late, but wasn't quite full fortunately. I hoped that it would stay like that and we would have some more space. 

Way to the harbour

The bus started and we went up the hill to some other hotels - also the one of the Vietnamese girl. She entered the bus and looked as tired as I did. We sat down next to each other and talked about our short night and about the comfortable bus (the others I had seen passing by the hotel before had been more than old and also full of people, I was happy that we were in a new and almost empty bus). The bus continued its way and the guide started to talk in English. He told us that we were starting our way to the harbour in the South of the island and that we would arrive in 1,5 hours approximately. He also talked a bit about the main stops and plans for the day and gave us an outline. Then he repeated the information in some other languages, such as German, Spanish and Italian. As it was still dark and we would need more than one hour to the first stop, we changed our seats (so that everyone had a row for himself) and started to nap a bit. After a while the guide told us that we would make a short break next to the highway at a gas station because otherwise we would arrive much too early at the harbour. I was a bit confused why we had started that early just to make half an hour break afterwards, but it was Spain, so I didn't start to think too much about it. My friend and I stayed in the bus during the break because we didn't want to buy coffee. We ate some cookies and waited for the break to end. 

The bus continued its way to the harbour and after 45 more minutes at the highway we finally arrived at the city Los Christianos where the harbour is situated. The bus brought us right to the small building where one could buy tickets for the ferry and have a coffee or something to eat while one was waiting for the ship. We had some free time there before we had to get on the ferry (that wasn't even there yet), so we went to the toilet and enjoyed the view over the sea. It was right before sunrise, so soon we would have an incredible view. At least one advantage about getting up at 4:30 am! 

The ferry - Wonderful sunrise

The ferry arrived and we went down to the entrance where we would meet our guide before walking to the large boat. He told us to get on the ferry by ourselves and where we would find the bus after having arrived at La Gomera. As the Vietnamese girl and I were one of the first people on the boat we had free choice in regard to our seats. As the duration of the drive to the other island was about one hour and we wanted to see the sunrise, we chose seats outside at the terrace with view to the sun. As there was still nobody in front of us (and there wouldn't be anyone) we had a perfect view and sat down to enjoy the first sunrays in our faces. We listened to all the security instructions and other information, but we didn't really care. I took some wonderful pictures of that daily natural phenomenon and then closed my eyes and relaxed. I already felt like being in another world and didn't think about work, how much time I had left or how much I was missing my boyfriend. It was just the sun, the sea and me. 

The arrival at La Gomera was as spectacular as our start at Los Christianos - we saw already a large part of San Christobal de La Gomera, and also a large cruising ship with people at their balconies waving and looking at us, as we were looking at them. It was already long time ago that I had gone by ferry, and I didn't know a lot of that event anymore, so it was fascinating to watch how it entered into the small harbour and everything. When it had finished the "parking", the speakers that were installed everywhere told us that we could go to the exits now and leave the ferry. It took some time because there were a lot of people on that boat, but after a while we arrived on the save ground again, and walked into the direction the guide had told us. We found the bus and sat down in there, waiting for the rest of the group, curious about that new place we didn't know yet. 

Photo gallery