Good from far, but far from good

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Geo: 28.115, -17.2317

Up for the early ferry to the island of La Gomera - I was pretty happy to be escaping the tourist hordes here. While I didn't really care for Los Cristianos, staying here was necessary in order to catch the ferry to La Gomera. I was tired this morning. My calves were burning pretty badly as I walked. My feet were killing me. My knee hurt. Every step was agony!

Bought my ferry tickets at the office and realized I could have had them cheaper online. D'oh! On board the ferry, announcements were made in Spanish, English, and Silbo - an old whistled language used only on La Gomera. Apparently whistled languages have the advantage of being able to communicate over several kilometres - pretty cool!

I picked up the rental car and one of the first songs on the radio was Akon's "Smack That" - a very fitting song indeed, as I thought about it every time I smacked something with the car today.

The car was a diesel and took some getting used to - it had an odd shift from first to second, and I'm not used to shifting at such low revs. But the low-rev torque was pretty sweet for the low-speed curves today. A gas engine would've had trouble in third gear and second gear wouldn't have provided enough speed, but this car negotiated the curves beautifully in third.

First stop - Hermigua. A nice town with a nice park, nestled amongst the terraced hills. After that, it was Playa de Las Caletas, Agula, and Vallehermoso. Today was a blur! I didn't have any luck with food today - it was Sunday, and most markets and cafes were closed.

Alojera's beach was tricky to get to, but neat. Black sand and secluded - one of those rare "real" places that you can find in the Canaries. I almost hit a jack@ss as I was driving there! He slams on the brakes in the middle of the road, and I manage to stop only a few feet behind him. Then he starts reversing without looking! I slammed the car into reverse and in my panic, my foot slipped off the clutch and took a nice layer of skin off of my toe! What an idiot! He might have actually hit me, but I'm not entirely certain.

Speaking of idiots, I was having a little too much fun driving the tight, twisy roads of La Gomera. I went into an s-curve a little too quickly and lost the back end a little bit while exiting the turn. Luckily, the steel guard rail kept me on the road - but unluckily, it left a pretty big gouge on the rear passenger-side fender. Given the sound of the impact, the gouge was surprisingly small. I'm not sure what happened - maybe I ran a little wide and caught the outside shoulder, or maybe a patch of gravel.

There were a number of neat miradors to stop at - there probably would have been some spectacular views, had they not been obstructed by the clouds. There was another Cesar Manrique-designed mirador - the building itself was closed, but it was no loss as it didn't appear to be his best work.

Valle de Rey - there was a beach there also called Playa Del Ingles. Though not that great, it wasn't as bad as the tacky resort in Gran Canaria of the same name. Unfortunately, it was a FKK beach (i.e. - German nudist beach). My eyes!!! It took a while to get pictures there, because it took time for all the sausage to vacate the shot.

Off to Laguna Grande - a peaceful park, complete with hiking trails, picnic tables, and fire pits. The park is famous for its Laurel trees - I took some pictures of what I thought were the trees, but I'm not sure if they're the right ones.

As I left, I picked up a German hitchhiker. She liked La Gomera because there were so many Germans staying there and it made it easier for her to make friends. That's exactly why I don't like much of the Canaries - it's nothing personal (I happen to really like visiting Germany), but I just don't care for places that cater to such a specific group of people.

The last stop before going to the hotel was Playa de Santiago. I found a nice spot along the beach and chilled for a bit, before driving to San Sebastian for the night. It's a small town - I took a quick stroll and had a cheap, early dinner. I considered Chinese food but figured that it wouldn't be any good.

Instead, I grabbed a baked potato with everything - aioli, shredded parmesan cheese, some other type of cubed cheese, corn, tuna, ham, butter, and salt & pepper. I asked that they skip the ketchup and olives, and they also ran out of the salsa. This potato cart does a pretty brisk business.

After eating, I sat outside and wrote in my journal for a while at Plaza de Las Americas (sadly, it was America in name only, as there were no Spanish hotties like the waitress from our last in Las Palmas, walking around). It's a typical atmospheric European square - kids playing soccer, familes chatting on benches ... a group of kids was even lighting firecrackers. I soaked it all in for a good amount of time before turning in for an early night.

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Photos

a1
Leaving Los Cristianos in the morning - the only way to describe it is "Good from far, but far from good."

a3
The beautiful, sleek, and modern ferry that I was too cheap to pay for.

a4
So instead, I settled for this one. The amount of black smoke pouring out as the engines started was hilarious - much of it had already dissipated before I could take my camera out.

a7
Though it was the identical make/model of car we have been driving in the Canaries, this one had the reverse gear in a different position. This caused me some problems in the beginning!

a8
One of the crappiest lookouts I have ever been to - not much of a view!

b
The terraced hills near Hermigua.

d
Lunch was a can of macadamia nuts. I couldn't find anything good to eat today, to I was glad to have packed these with me.

e
I was still pretty hungry after the macadamia nuts - so hungry that I considered taking a risk. Were these merely rabbit droppings, or perhaps chocolate-covered almonds that another tourist had dropped?

f
Alojera's beach.

h
The gouge on my rental car.

j
Beautiful black sand beach at Playa del Ingles. No German sausage, thankfully!

k
Mmmm ... more Spanish juice. And with fibre! A necessity while traveling in Spain ...

m
The non-FKK beach where I snacked on some pastries. It was a hot, sunny day - I couldn't tell if it was the brilliant, shimmering water, or the glare of the excessive amount of pasty-white skin on display that was making things so bright.

n
I found a grocery store and picked up some pastries. There was a croissant stuffed with meat on offer, but they gave me a plain one by accident. I also asked for a cream-filled croissant. The cream tasted a little like the pastry cream you might find in a Chinese bakery. How often you can say you've eaten a crunchy croissant? Because that's how they were, and that's not a good thing!
It's a good thing I didn't order a sausage croissant - I probably couldn't bear to eat it after witnessing the sausage party on the previous beach! I ended up eating at another beach where there was less sausage on display, I'm happy to say.

o
This might've been a laurel tree? I'm not sure.

p
What's that furry stuff down by the statue's crotch???

q
Taken at Playa de Santiago as I gazed out at the ocean.

r
Playa de Santiago.

s
Could it be? A sweet shop named Isabel? Maybe there's a tiny, cute Spanish girl working the till? I couldn't make that determination today as it was already closed.

t
San Sebastian's pedestrian street - dead today.

u
This tunnel drilled through the rockface led you to San Sebastian's other beach.

w
Tonight's dinner. Potato-licious.

x
El Papaton, the cart where I got my dinner tonight.

y
Sign of the times - kids no longer gather in the plazas to only chat or play soccer, they also do so to play video games.