La Gomera

Again, the original inhabitants, the Guanches were assimilated by the Spanish in the 16th Century.  The same clouds form the main source of water on this Island, but this time they cut surface channels to redirect the water to farms and towns.  the Guanches on this Island formed a way of communicating across the deep ravines by means of a whistled speech called “Silbo Gomero”, which can be heard and understood 2 miles away.  Because of its usefulness in this terrain, Silbo Gomero was adopted by the Spanish settlers in the 16th Century and survives today because it is compulsory to be taught in local schools.  The local Guanches worshiped their God in the mountains who they called, “Orahan”.  The summit and centre of this circular Island served as their grand sanctuary.    The same God, Orahan was known on La Palma as, “Abora”, and on Gran Canaria and Tenerife as, “Arocan”.  The Guanches also interred their dead in caves, which are still doted around the landscape.

La Gomera was Christopher Columbus’s last port of call before crossing the Atlantic and going on to discovering America.  He took with him cuttings of sugarcane from this island, which were the first to be planted in the New World.

We had a really good evening at the restaurant as it was Italian night.  Unfortunately, Ian and Sue missed it as they had fallen asleep.  Sue had to settle for pizza at the buffet later on.  Everyone was dancing around the service bar waving their napkins around their head.

Following dinner, we went to the White Lion where Claire kidnapped a little girl to dance with.  They have a really good entertainment crew on this boat that travel between bars causing mayhem.  They had a wedding party today where the groom was trying to stay with Sue while the bride was dragging him away and the old man in the white beard preferred Claire.  I didn't get any decent photos of them; I must try harder.

Most of the bars are on decks 5 and 6 but I noticed that they had one on deck 7 so we went up to try that and found that we were the only ones there so the girls had the dance floor to themselves.

We then thought it time to sample the cocktails but Sue’s Margarita was a little sour.  You are supposed to drink it through the salt Sue, not the lemon.

We actually landed at La Gomera in the evening but we didn’t get off until the morning after breakfast.  The sun was obscured by clouds but it was still quite warm but very windy.

We had a little walk around the local town where we docked which happened to be the capital called San Sebastian.  Columbus has a house here that he used to stay at prior to setting off for the New Land.

This is the famous Church of La Asuncion.

We had a coffee at an internet cafe, downloaded our emails and headed back on board for some more fun.  Tomorrow we are embarking at Madeira and we have a trip booked so more then.  Its my Mum’s Birthday today.  Happy Birthday Mum!