A few suggestions / experiences for anyone considering a visit to Garajonay National Park (NP) -

a. We gave La Gomera island 2 days/1 overnight in early Dec 2015 – I am sure that those who enjoy walking holidays could (and do) spend much longer but we found this was long enough to see both the NP and the island highlights. You could tick the NP off (even including a walk) in a single day return by ferry from Tenerife but that would be very rushed having spent the money to get there!

b. Although (as per Els above) you could rely on Taxi/Bus, my view is that car rental is particularly worthwhile given the scattered nature of the sights around the island and the frequency/routing of busses. It is not as cheap as on Tenerife (We paid 50 Euro for 2 days inc full CDW) but not bad. All the international, national and local rental agencies are located at the small ferry terminal at San Sebastian. Having left Los Cristianos on Tenerife at 9 am on the fast ferry, we arrived at 9.50 and were “on the road” at 10.05 with a pre-booking.

c. The main NP visitor centre is outside the NP in the north of the island (the NP calls it the “area Pre-parque”!). See this map top right. The exhibits of geology and nature are a little old but we found the ethnological section in the so-called “House of Memories” well worth a visit - primarily for a video about various aspects of life on, and history of, Gomera (The Silbo “whistling language”, the “Salto del Pastor” pole leaping, palm honey, terrace construction, guanche “wheel-less” pottery etc etc). A spanking new centre is being built just down the road (see link). Its Canarian architect also designed the nearby “Abrante lookout” set 620m asl with stunning views over the village of Agulo and beyond).

d. At this point it is worth mentioning the “Guanches” - the aboriginal Canarians conquered (with some difficulty) by the Castilians between 1402-96. They make a good “tourist story” of course but it does genuinely seem that aspects of their life (including their genes!!) have been passed down the centuries to the present. I noticed this section in the 1986 IUCN Evaluation for Garajonay -“The Garajonay National Park nomination, as presented by the Government of Spain provides the following justification for designation as a World Heritage property

a) Cultural property. Criteria being examined by ICOMOS.

b) Natural property ……..”

followed solely by IUCN’s evaluation on Natural criteria. So it appears that Spain actually nominated the site on mixed criteria – presumably because of its Guanche archaeological remains but the Cultural aspect got dropped at the time of evaluation. However, I have been unable to find any reference to any evaluation by ICOMOS so can’t be 100% sure.

e. The NP certainly does have Guanche burial caves and ceremonial altars within it which could have justified such a nomination but, as far as I could discover, none of these are accessible or much publicised though some of the caves can be seen on exposed rock faces- they certainly seem to provide thin justification for a mixed site! At the summit of Alto de Garajonay there is a reconstructed shrine (said to be situated over the original) - but that is all we saw of Guanche “remains” in the NP.

f. You are going to have to decide which walks (if any!) you want to do in order to experience the NP beyond the road. We decided that we “needed” to see a range of the different climatic, and hence botanical, zones so chose 4 (numbered on the map above) to do in part. The weather across our visit was partly sunny with some passing cloud – in some respects we were lucky in this but I guess we did fail to experience the NP in all its misty glory!

i. No 3 – from the main parking/restaurant area at Laguna Grande hardly justifies the word “walk” – more of a stroll really, but it does provide a signed introduction to a number of tree and plant species. The rest of the NP only has signs at the route entrances but there is an App downloadable from the NP Web site (which unfortunately we didn’t have!) with explanations accessible via dot codes fixed to small posts accessed via your camera.

ii. No 17 - to the island’s highest point from the main road. As Els comments, this provides nice views of both La Gomera and, on Tenerife across the sea, of Mt Teide (Photo taken further down in a forested area), but that area of the NP was (and still is) devastated by the fire of 2012 so doesn’t really provide an impression of a “forest”

iii. No 5 - is in an area of lower, more open forest (“Fayal Brezal”) – a few months later than our visit it apparently has fine floral displays

iv. No 2 - takes in a deep “ravine” area with running stream (rare on la Gomera) and thicker taller trees. We were quite amused to hear a conversation of marital disharmony from a couple we passed in which the lady complained to her partner that the walk was “cold, damp and boring”!! Well, we thought it was a long way short of any of those but it was true that, once one had seen a few tens of thousands of trees and a lot of moss etc, there didn’t seem a great incentive to continue much further! I guess that we are “botanically ignorant”. Even the 2 Pigeon species, which so love the Laurel species of Gomera that they don’t live anywhere else, didn’t come out to see us!

g. When planning our visit to the island, I was interested to note the rediscovery in 1999 of the Gomera Giant Lizard (Gallotia Bravoana) which had apparently, for many years, been thought extinct. The UNESCO Web site states that this is one of a number of “iconic and/or IUCN Redlisted animals and plants found in the property”. Indeed it has even been transferred to this Web site’s “Connection” for WHS containing “critically endangered species”!! Wrong! Garajonay is a cloudy and cool ecosystem not really conducive to reptiles. In fact the lizard is a dry wall species and only exists on the cliffs of La Merica in the Valle Gran Rey – a “Parque Rural” OUTSIDE the Garajonay NP - and well worth visiting. See here. The AB evaluation is of course dated 1986, well before the species was rediscovered, so UNESCO didn’t gets the information which led it to claim that the species is inside the NP from there. The list contains other errors too - e.g the Tenerife lizard (Gallotia galloti) which is also listed as a Garajonay creature isn’t even present on La Gomera!! (Confirmed on its IUCN Red List page). In its 1986 Evaluation IUCN concluded that “Possibilities for extension of the boundaries of the park ……..should also be encouraged”. Well that certainly hasn’t happened yet - instead in 2012 the entire island was declared a World Biosphere Reserve (WBR). The WBR web page correctly claims the Gomera Giant Lizard and makes no mention of its Tenerifean cousin!

h. Much of the exposed volcanic and eroded geology of the island, some of which is very fine, lies outside the forested NP – but there is an area of Volcanic Plugs known as Los Roques as you enter the NP from San Sebastian. Another advantage of having ones own transport is the ability to stop at will at the many “Miradores” located at frequent intervals along all the roads and from where the “geology” is better seen.

i. Those who are interested in the UNESCO “Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible heritage” list might like to know that there is a plaque and a statue commemorating the inscription of the Silbo Whistled language on that list in 2009, situated just outside the NP at the Mirador de Igualero (a couple of kms S of the Alto). I have been unable to discover why that location was chosen – there wasn’t any explanation. However we did obtain a “whistling demonstration” there from a boy who was visiting with his parents. It appears that Silbo is now a compulsory element within the Gomeran educational curriculum!! The lady guide we spoke to at the VC told us that her son could “converse” in Silbo with her father but that her generation had missed out entirely on learning this Gomeran “speciality”!