LA GOMERA: 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.
There are no decent beaches: 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!
