La Gomera, Canary Islands - May/June 2003


By Ian James

I organised a club trip (Worsley SAC) to La Gomera in May/June 2003. One of my objectives is to dive each of the Canary Islands, and see how they compare to each other. This is now my third, after Tenerife and Lanzarote. Although the Canaries can be dived all year round, the more settled weather and warmer water is generally from May through to October.
I decided to try to organise as much as possible of this using the internet, as it is becoming increasingly accessible to more and more people, and the contacts in this report should enable others to follow this course of action. I organised the flights from Manchester through a friend, but this too could be through the internet, or a local travel agent.

My first task was to find the dive operators on La Gomera. There are only three on the whole island. One in San Sebastian on the East coast, where the large ferrys arrive on the island. One at Playa de Santiago on the South coast, and one at Valle Gran Rey on the West coast. An internet search showed that the dive school in San Sebastian did not have a website, or e-mail contact (or I couldn't find one), and so I discounted them. From a purely diving point of view my initial impressions via the websites of the remaining two favoured the Playa Santiago dive centre, as they have two boats available for use. E-mail correspondence showed that we could have sole use of one of the boats, and that they could arrange accommodation for us in one or more fairly local apartments, about 10 minutes walk away.

La Gomera is not like any of the larger islands from the point of view of tourism. None of the resorts there cater for large influxes of British tourists looking for large beaches, with English speaking waters and waitresses, English style menus, and bars with loud music playing late into the night. Don't go there if that is what you want from a holiday.
We didn't find any other English visitors until we were on the ferry returning to Tenerife, the majority of tourists are German. Few of the bars and restaurants have people who can speak English, even broken English, so someone with a knowledge of Spanish will be useful. Only a few bars stay open beyond midnight.
Reading a guide on Playa Santiago, it seemed that even by the standards of not expecting a lively resort, it would be too quiet for us. The group of 6 of us who had put their names down for the trip agreed that Valle Gran Rey was a better option, as it was larger and offered a few more choices.

Valle Gran Rey is a name for a triangular area of 3 villages, each about 10 minutes walk from the other. La Playa is where all the locals spend their time on the beach, with sufficient bars, restaurants and shops, and also a nudist beach for the more adventurous. Vueltas is the harbour area, which is currently being extended to cater for the large ferries. This project is expected to take a few years. There are more bars and restaurants in this area, and some accommodation just inland from there. La Calera is a more residential area, with some accommodation for rent. Between each of the villages are fields of banana plantations. Valle Gran Rey is surrounded by steep cliffs which rise quite spectacularly and provide many photo opportunities. Overall, Valle Gran Rey is supposed to have less sunshine than Playa Santiago, but there was no shortage of sunshine the week we were there.
La Gomera is also renowned for it's walks and landscape, being the greenest of the Canary Islands. Several of us in the party being walkers, we split our time there; three days diving and three days walking.

E-mail correspondence with the only dive centre in Valle Gran Rey confirmed that they had room for us (and that their boat is large enough to take at least 10 dives if larger parties wanted to go there). It is run by Germans (as are all dive centres on the island), but they speak good English. No deposit was required to be sent.

The accomodation
My next task was to find accommodation (the dive centre do not arrange this). The feeling amongst our group was that if we could find a house to rent, it would be better than a couple of apartments. Searching the internet again provided the solution, and an available house was found in La Calera, which could accommodate up to 7 and had a couple of terraces, with views over the area. E-mails again showed they had a good command of English, and the booking was confirmed. A deposit was required, which presented the first problem, as they do not accept credit cards. A cheque in Euros is acceptable, but not many English banks operate these yet, and so I ended up sending cash (Euros) in a recorded delivery envelope (€65), which worked fine. The cost per person for the week was €85. Be aware, that some of the accommodation for rent can involve a climb up steps from the nearest road (but it is why the views are good). We shopped at local supermarkets for breakfast and evening 'nightcaps', but otherwise ate out at the reasonably-priced restaurants and bars. I recommend the tapas bar above the dive centre - the owner is happy to practise his English.

The trip
I then organised the flights to Tenerife, arranging for an early flight (7a.m.) to give us more choice of ferries, costing £195 each. Initially, I thought of hiring a minibus at the airport, but the cost of taking that on the ferry was prohibitive. The Fred Olsen and Trasmediterranea ferries both go from Los Christianos (Tenerife) to San Sebastian, and necessitated either hiring a vehicle there, or getting a taxi (1 hour) or bus (2 hours) across the island. By chance I then found (on the internet) a new ferry service which had started in the autumn of 2002 which leaves Los Christianos and calls at all 3 main resorts on La Gomera, called the 'Garajonay express'. The express makes the return journey 3 times a day. The single trip price of €17 to Valle Gran Rey is cheaper than the larger ferries cost to San Sebastian! It is a large catamaran, which holds over 200 passengers. This became the choice, with the money saved going towards the cost of a few taxis, and the frequent bus service on our 'walking' days. It was also necessary to get two taxis for our party from Tenerife airport to Los Christianos (and in reverse on the return) at a cost of around €20 each. Please note that there is a ticket office for the Garajonay express in the main port building at Los Christianos (which we never saw open), but that tickets were actually despatched from a booth on the concourse near where the ship docks.

The diving
We booked a 6 dive package with Fisch & Co. (I've lost the email now, but I think it worked out about £130 each), and we took all our own equipment. We met each day at the dive centre in La Playa, and were transported to Vueltas, where the boat is moored. The only slight niggle was their refusal to pick us up with all our gear on the first day. Apart from that we got on well, and they run the business very efficiently and precisely (slight Germanic tendencies here). All equipment is cleaned thoroughly at the end of each day, and can be left overnight at the dive centre without a problem. They showed they do have a sense of humour, as can be seen in the gents toilet (ladies can view this by invitation only). Nitrox is not available, but they do carry an O2 kit on the boat. The nearest recompression chamber is on Tenerife.

The diving was generally of a standard Canary Islands fare; trumpet fish, roncadoras, turkish wrasse, octopus, nudibranches, stingrays, electric ray, star puffers, parrotfish, morays (several varieties), groupers, shrimps, lobsters, blennies, arrowhead crabs, damselfish, garden eels, goatfish, lizardfish, scorpionfish, fireworms, sea cucumber, anemone's, corals and sponges. There were more rock lobsters, than I've seen elsewhere in the islands, and the highlight of the week was when my wife found a seahorse on one of the sites - the first we've ever seen in the wild. We all managed to get impaled by the numerous urchins at some stage in the week, but thanks to Frank's magic formula cream the deposits had been removed by the next day. Our dive guide for most of our dives was Leon, who was very capable, and able to find us an octopus upon request. Personally I would say that there is as much life under the water here as in Tenerife, but slightly less than where we dived in Lanzarote (Puerto del Carmen).
Our group of 6 divers (sports diver through to instructor) had no problems with any of the dives. The standard is 20 to 25m, so the sites, although sheltered, are too deep for ocean divers. Currents were minimal, though some of the dives experienced surge in parts where we were guided to caves near the surface. We were never put on any wrecks, and I don't remember there being any in the area dived by Fisch & co., so there is not a great variety in the diving.
The dive boat, a hardboat, was just the job, if a little slow, and there was sufficient space for us, two guides, four other divers and the pilot without being cramped.
On our days walking, we could leave from where we were staying, or as we did on one occasion get the bus up the hairpin bends to near the upland plateau, and do a circular around the Garajonay national park, which incorporated the highest point on the island. This is higher than Ben Nevis, so if you want to go there you'll need stout footwear, and weatherproof clothing - not what everyone wants to take on a canarian holiday. There are lots of interesting walks and the ones we undertook had plenty to recommend them, with some spectacular views.

Our overall impressions of La Gomera were very favourable, and our advice would be to go there before it changes to become too touristy, which with the expansion of the harbour may be sooner than some of the locals would like. This may also be your one chance to see a seahorse in the wild, don't pass it up, though it's not guaranteed!

Bookings were made through the following websites;

Diving - www.fischco.de
Accommodation - www.gomera-service.de
Ferry - www.garajonayexpres.com

You can contact me, Ian James, of Worsley sub-aqua club on irjames@zoom.co.uk
I have over 400 logged dives and am qualified to Assistant Club Instructor.

Ian James - 21st July 2003

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