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You can lose everything, but nobody will take away what you saw and what you experienced...
............ 
Jan 15, 2022 10:00 PM Blowing strong!
I slept little in the night because the very strong wind opening and shutting the door and windows of our old house... But after breakfast sun was shining and I decided to hike the mountain overlooking Valle Gran Rey.
The trails here are well marked ( this one in the patriotic for Poles white and red colors) and well maintained. You czn spetd on Gomera a week walking different routes. My hike gave me great views of the valley and surrounding peaks. Doing many zig- zags I climbed to the level around 500 m above the ocean where the wind became so strong, that I decided to go back. This was already near the picturesque orange and brown rocks and pillars. 500 m up, 500 m down - good exercise for my knees! I didn't want to beat any record - just to enjoy new perspective of Gomera!
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Jan 14, 2022 10:00 PM Playa Alojera - the nicest on the island?
I was reading on the guidebook that Alojera is the nicest beach on Gomera so I decided to go and see. There should be guagua going from Valle where I stay to Villahermoso at 11 am. When I arrived at guagua station the driver told me that I have old timetabe - it goes now at 12.30!! They gavee old timetable in the tourist office - shame on them!
Guagua left me at the junction 7 kms from the beach. I was hitchhiking. After 10 minutes nice French couple gave me a ride down to the coast. Thank you! After many zigzags we entered nice village dotted by picturesque palms. But the playa is further down!
Driving down we saw finally little nay framed bu high mountains
onthe bank in the bay I saw maybe a dozen squized white joused accessible only by stairs. Two of them house seafood restaurant. But where is this nicest beach!?? There is an empty stretch of black sand dotted by stones on the side of the houses
. But what a disappointment! Do not trust the guidebooks! I returned by guagua and hitchhiking. It was still an interesting experience. Strong wind is blowing. They say we can expect the rare rain on Monday!
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Jan 13, 2022 10:00 PM High cliffs, black beaches...
The city I stay has very spectacular location at the bottom of steep, high mountains. The stretch of the low coast around Valle Grand Rey has only around 3 kms. Starting from the left (north side) there is a little port for small tourist boats and fishing. This part ot the village is called Vuelta because the road ends here. There is miniature beach in the port. Then going south I passed banana plantations - very popular on Gomera, Next were Puntilla beach and Calera Beach - the last one is close to the hotel & shops quarter. All this beaches are black sand beaches, offering volcanic sand. One km further you will see secluded Playa los Ingles located at the bottom of the high mountain. This is very picturesque place, occupied by nude naturists, but not only... People were swimming there despite the high waves. Sun is shinning, but stormy weather is coming. The captain of the tourist boat asked about possible tours said -Only on Sunday, maybe! Let's hope!
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Jan 12, 2022 10:00 PM Gomera - so different!
From the ferry approaching San Sebastian Gomera looks like huge muffin with high. Rocky coast on both sides. San Seba is a little, charming town with a breakwater protecting marina and two ferry docks. I was walking to the nice coastal promenade looking for reliable info, but the tourist office is far away - near the church. Columbus was here on his voyage to discover America!
They surprisede on the office - I got for free the road map of the island, 25 kms wide and a map of the walking trails. But the best news was that they have public guagua network. I will catch the linea 1 bus to reach my accommodation on the other side of the island - 49 kms away! Paying only 5 euro!
Linea 1 timetable shows 5 departures per day. If you go straight from the first ferry to the guagua station you will catch the first guagua at 10.30. I didn't, so I had enough time to photograph the best know monument of San Seba - stoney Conde Tower...
Just before midday I boarded green bus and we started to climb the mountains. If you sit just over the driver with the map such a 1,5 hours journey is like cheap excursion across the island. You will pass canyons, gorges, rain forest and little villages. The views are gorgeus! Gomera is so different! After almost 2 hours I reached my hostel Casa Escuela in Valle Gran Rey on the black coast. Very interesting day!
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Jan 11, 2022 10:00 PM Guagua to the ferry
Wake-up in the darkness. At 7 am I was alreadu marching to the guagua stop "Casablanca". For the historic reason Canarinos call the bus "guagua". So from the south airport area guaguas no. 111 and 450 goes to Christianos - a quite big city in the southwestern corner of Tenerife. I paid 2,20 euro to the driver for the 20-minute ride. He left me at the guagua station - quite far from the port and ferry dock. I was walking about half an hour with all my stuff - good morning exercise! Ferries (for foreigners) are expensive on Canary Islands. Imagine that for one- hour sail on the junk ship to Gomera I paid online 32 euro with a senior discount! Locals pay only 7 euro, and this is the honest price...
Sun was rising when I was embarking - they scanned only the number of my passport. The view from the deck was great: the port and Christianos town were bathing in the strong morning sun. Soon we departed enjoying the view of Mt Teide and jumping dolphins. Gomera was hardly visible in the mist on the horizon.
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Jan 10, 2022 10:00 PM Climbing Montana Roja
I started my long walk just after sunrise - at 8.15. Blue sky, no clouds! Using GPS I walked mostly on empty but bumpy gravel roads, passing many cacti and euphorbias. There were nice views of Mt Teide -the highest peak of Spain. On the southern side I saw Montana Roja - Red Mountain raising up to some 200 m just on the coast of the navy blue ocean. I reached the parking at the bottom at 10.30 and then the hike to the top took me another half an hour. What a view! Beaches on both sides. Looking east - coastal town of Medano - the capital of kitesurfers. Looking west - wide beach and fishng town of Abrigos. And the airport if looking inland.
I returned to my pension tired but happy (I did some 18 kms in total)
Great, sunny day!
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Jan 09, 2022 10:00 PM Tenerife Sur
The name of this pension is a bit strange: WiFi Tenerife Sur. It is inexpensive: 18 euro per room with shared bath and kitchenette. It is far from the beach but close to the Tenerife South Airport - walking distance 2,5 kms. So who stays here? Budget travellers like me, people who do not like the crowd and those from late arriving flights or departing early. But I met here also veterans: long-staying elderly, retired guys from Fance and Norway paying reduced rates.
The pension is located on the slope -with the nice view of the airport and the coastline. I can see many cacti covering the slope. There are other houses around - some of them surrounded by nice flowers.
What a difference comparing the snowy Europe! Today it is cloudy and about 19 deg Celsius. I expect sunny day tomorrow. :)
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Jan 08, 2022 10:00 PM Running to the gate
To fly to the Canarias on a cheap I bought two tickets 15 euro each for low-cost Wizz Air flights: Gdansk to London Luton and London Luton to Tenerife South. Before the covid wizz check-in was simple: you did it online, printing at home your boarding pass and in the airport you went straight to the security control. NOW you can check-in online, but to get boarding pass you still must go to checking counter. The line was not too long... But when I went onward -to the security control a Nightmare began: some 300 people was waiting there in the zig-zaging line!! I was waiting there almost an hour and then running to the gate 1. Lucky me - I reached the gate just before closing. After 2 hours flight we landed in Luton. Brits since 2 days do not require test from transit passengers, but on arrival I was waiting another hour or so to get to the border control (in Luton there is no shortcut for transit passengers directly to departure hall) Brits do not check any vaccinations or location forms on arrival - everything was checked before the flight.
Second plane was only 25% full -what a comfort! I went to the long-leg emergency row...
After 4 hours in the air, at sunset we landed in the Tenerife South Airport. Warm -18 deg! They checked after immigration control if you have location form done in advance online.
It took me half an hour walk to get to the booked pension. I am happy, but I need a rest!
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Jan 07, 2022 10:00 PM First voyage in 2022!
I'm embarking on my first trip in 2022. I am flying to the Canary Islands, where daily temperatures still reach 20 degrees. I've been there before, but only on those big islands that are popular with tourists. And besides them, there are also small ones that I do not know, but which are waiting to be discovered. On one of them a volcano erupted recently. When I was preparing this voyage, it turned out that there are no direct connections between these small islands, which is why the itinerary shown on the map is so complicated. To jump island to island I will be forced to go around very often... Keep your fingers crossed, please! :)
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Dec 22, 2021 10:00 PM Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2022, dear friends all over the world! I wish you good health, success, a lot of personal happiness and, of course, many fascinating journeys to the most beautiful corners of our globe!
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