The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

La Gomera – jewel of the Canaries

(with two bonus Tenerife hikes)

La Gomera is known as the Walkers Island due to a labyrinth of wonderful footpaths which snake through pockets of cloud forest, timeless villages and colorful flora. Its uninterrupted coastal views and dramatic volcanic landscapes make it the perfect destination for a Canary Islands walking holiday and a distinct change from my hikes on nearby Lanzarote (see by previous two blog posts from there). I spent six days walking this wonderful island with a KE Adventures group of 14 clients and a very knowledgeable, enthusiastic guide. We flew into Tenerife South airport and took the one hour ferry from Tenerife to the port of San Sebastian, the largest town on La Gomera. After a somewhat less than restful night at our hotel – due to Carnival – we transferred up to the Garajonay National Park for our first hike. . .

Physical Map of La Gomera. Roughly circular and about 14 miles in diameter, this rugged volcanic island has not had an eruption in millions of years. Red triangles indicate the towns and villages where we stayed. Garajonay National Park is seen in the center.
Some of our group of 14 clients and one guide heading through the cloud forest of Garajonay National Park on day 1
View from Alto de Garajonay (1484m), the high point on La Gomera. Strong winds from the southeast on our first couple of days walking brought a shroud of Saharan sand and disrupted flights in Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.
A zoom photo of a kestrel cowering from the wind at Alto de Garajonay. Buzzards were observed huddled in the forest rather than soaring this day.
A derelict vineyard house of typical Gomeran dry stone architecture in the village of Chipude where we stayed after our first day’s walk. The village, not this house.
A small parish church in Chipude’s square. Unlike in mainland Spain, the Canarians don’t seem to understand the concept of a plaza. If a town or village does have one, it is usually simply a large expanse of cement or paving stones.
The village of El Cercado at the start of our day 2 walk
Barranco del Agua, one of many deep ravines we crossed during the week
A forest path near Las Hayas, Garajonay National Park. Many of the paths at higher elevations were reminiscent of the island of Madeira (see my blog post from last March), with laurel and heather trees among many other species.
Our first view of Vallehermoso, where we stayed for two nights. Although the winds were reduced somewhat, visibility on day 2 was still fairly poor.
Coastal view from near the Hermitage of Santa Clara, seen on our circular walk from Vallehermoso on day 3.
Vallehermoso in the morning of day 4. Our guide’s family was from this picturesque town.
Another view of Vallehermoso, with Roque Cano on the right
A Tangier Pea (Lathyrus tingitanus)
Some of our group approaching the Mirador de Abrante on day 4. The desert-like landscape was quite a change from the cloud forest at higher elevations.
Atmospheric cliff-side view from the Mirador de Abrante as the mist rolls in. We hiked the very steep trail down to Agulo, seen below.
Coastal view from Agulo with the hamlet of Lepe and the fishing harbor of Hermigua beyond
Upper Hermigua, seen on the morning of day 5. Overall this town extends several kilometers along the valley.
A zoom photo of Pico del Teide (3718m, or 12,200 ft) taken from above Hermigua. This was our first view of the highest mountain in Spain, on the island of Tenerife.
Coastal view from above Hermigua. By day 5 the usual northeast trade winds had cleared the air.
Completing our circular walk on day 5, this is a view across Hermigua valley and beach, clearly showing the terraced agricultural fields that predominate on La Gomera
Pericallis steetzii, an aster endemic to La Gomera, seen at the start of day 6. For this final day hiking, we completed more than 12 miles on the long distance GR131 that crosses six of the Canary Islands.
Detail of Blue Tajinaste, another Canarian endemic, with a bee
Vista from the Mirador del Morro de Agando, one of the most spectacular viewpoints on the island
Detail of the laurisilva forest at Garajonay National Park. The laurel branches contain whole ecosystems.
Vista of Pico del Teide with Blue Tajinaste in the foreground
An old holloway in Garajonay National Park. The park occupies about 15 square miles in the center of La Gomera and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.
Landscape looking south as we descended on the GR131 to San Sebastian. More farming terraces are evident here, as were signs of sheep and goats, although we never actually saw many. Most of the younger generation have left the hard rural life of La Gomera for the city in Tenerife or mainland Spain.
The port of San Sebastian. We had come full circle on the island!

After a week on La Gomera, rather than return to depressing weather in England, I chose to extend my holiday with four nights in Vilaflor, at 1400 meters (about 4600 ft) the highest town on the island of Tenerife and one of the highest in Spain. It is located on the southern flanks of el Teide and is a convenient base for any number of walks. Although I didn’t climb el Teide due to the red tape, I did go on a couple of wonderful nearby hikes. . .

The town plaza in Vilaflor, start of my first hike, the popular Paisaje Lunar
Vilaflor from near the start of the Paisaje Lunar hike
Abandoned-looking farm seen on the Paisaje Lunar loop hike
Paisaje Lunar trail through the Parque Natural Corona Forestal. The pine trees are Pinus canariensis and this nature reserve contains perhaps the largest surviving tract of these trees.
A rock formation in the Parque Natural Corona Forestal.
Lunar landscape at about 2000m (6560 ft) elevation, which gives the walk its name. It is a bit reminiscent of Bryce Canyon in Utah (zoom)
A fine example of Pinus canariensis, seen on the return loop
My second hike was the traverse of Alto de Guajara, the fourth highest mountain on Tenerife at 2717 meters (8914 ft). Here Pico del Teide, the Parador at the trailhead (bottom center), and the Roques de Garcia (on the left) may be seen.
From the Alto de Guaraja summit, Gran Canaria may be seen above the clouds. My first visit to the Canaries was two weeks on that island – 31 years ago!
Another view from the Alto de Guaraja summit. La Gomera is the island visible behind the rocks in the center of the photo.
A female Gallotia galloti galloti, the Southern Tenerife Lizard. I had just woken her up, which is why she stayed still for this photo.
Utah-like rock formations on the descent from the peak. I couldn’t resist some illicit scrambling.

After a 15 hour layover at Heathrow, later today I leave for my first “city break” in 2020 – Lisbon. Following three days in the Portuguese capital, I will spend nearly two weeks walking on the Cape Verde Islands, located in the Atlantic off the coast of Senegal, about 1000 miles south of the Canaries.

Wherever you may happen to be, keep walking and enjoying nature.

The Vagabond Hiker

Walks in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Bogotá

Following a diverse six weeks in Colombia, my route back to Hastings, England was somewhat circuitous: via a week in Nicaragua, three days in El Salvador, and finally a one day layover in Bogotá, Colombia. A few interesting walks were the highlights of my journey.

Granada Cathedral. This city was my base for a week in Nicaragua, and features a very pleasant center with a large plaza and colorful Spanish colonial buildings, some fine restaurants, and miles of lake front walking.
Granada, view of Lake Nicaragua, the largest in Central America. While too rough for swimming, the linear park along the waterfront provided shady trails and a great opportunity for bird watching. I also spent a morning kayaking and birding with a guide among the nearby Las Isletas.
Volcán Masaya crater. Although it didn’t involve any walking, an early evening trip up to the rim of the most active volcano in Nicaragua is obligatory for anyone visiting Granada. The churning lava 1000 ft below the crater rim is hypnotic.
Trailhead at the Café Las Flores at 2300 ft altitude on the slopes of Volcán Mombacho. They produce some fantastic coffee, perhaps the best in Nicaragua. Most hikers took a 4wd to the crater, but I thought the cardio benefits of a 1600 ft climb would be worthwhile.
Volcán Mombacho crater trail through the cloud forest. There are three trails around the rim of the volcano, ranging from 1.5 to 4.7 miles in length. The trails are well-maintained in this ecological reserve.
The orchid Sobralia macrantha, seen on the crater rim trail
A fire-star orchid (Epidendrum radicans) on Volcán Mombacho
Looking down into the Volcán Mombacho crater. Eventually the clouds dispersed, but the day was too hazy for any good photos.

From Nicaragua I took a one hour flight to El Salvador, and immediately transferred to El Zonte, a sleepy village on the coast where the surf culture predominates. With only a couple of days in the country, there wasn’t much opportunity to explore, but I did climb the country’s highest and most active volcano, Santa Ana.

Volcán Izalco, Cerro Verde, and Santa Ana (left to right) on the road from San Salvador. Maize fields are in the foreground.
Lago de Coatepeque, seen from the road up to the trailhead for the climb.
Volcán Izalco from the Santa Ana trail. Coffee plantations are clearly seen below the trail here
Santa Ana crater, 2381 mslm (7811 ft). Clouds of sulfate gases are visible in the crater and the sulfur smell was quite strong. The last eruption was in 2005.
The Vagabond Hiker on the Santa Ana crater rim
My Hotel Palo Verde terrace view in El Zonte. I wasn’t exactly slumming it in El Salvador.
El Zonte beach at low tide. I happily airbrushed three people right out of this photo!

My flight schedule precluded a quick return to England from El Salvador, so I took advantage of a layover day in Colombia’s capital of Bogotá and climbed the popular Montserrate, which dominates this sprawling city of 8 million.

Vista of Bogotá from the lower portion of the hiking trail up Montserrate. There is also the option of a funicular (in the morning) or an aerial tramway (in the afternoon) if the nearly 500 meter (1600 ft) ascent over 2.4 km (1.5 miles) is too intimidating. (Confession: although I walked up, I paid the $3.50 for the funicular back down to save my knees).
Panoramic vista from the summit of Montserrate. It rises to 3,152 meters (10,341 ft) above the sea level, where there is a 17th century church surrounded by scads of stalls selling tourist tat.

I am now back in Hastings, enjoying first world amenities after nearly eight weeks in Latin America. The weather, however, has been a bit mixed. . .

A gorgeous dawn on Valentines Day over the English Channel in Hastings
Forty eight hours later and the morning vista could not have been more different. Storm Dennis is lashing the coast. And no, this is NOT a black & white photo.

Next week I fly to the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco, this time to Tenerife and La Gomera, for a series of day hikes. Then, following three days exploring Lisbon, I will head a bit further down the coast of Africa to the Cape Verde Islands for two more weeks of hiking, before coming back to Hastings for a long weekend. Somewhere in there I hope to have time to post a couple of blogs!

Happy trails,

The Vagabond Hiker

Colombia: nature, walks, and the Lost City Trek

Situated in the northwest of South America, Colombia boasts the second-highest biodiversity in the world after Brazil (which is about 7 times larger) and the greatest biodiversity of birds, representing about 18% of all species according to Wikipedia. Its territory encompasses Amazon rain-forest, highlands, grasslands, and deserts, and has islands and coastlines along both the Atlantic and Pacific, the only country in South America having that distinction. Altogether Colombia is a great destination for both nature lovers and hikers. Our journey started in the small town of Salento in the Zona Cafetera – the Coffee Zone – a short flight west from the capital of Bogotá.

Northern Colombia. Our travels were concentrated in this region, with areas visited indicated by the red diamonds.
View to Reserva El Cairo, Salento. After arriving from Europe the evening prior, we started the day with an early morning birding tour from our lodging, seen in the photo above. The guide claimed we saw or heard 32 species that morning.
Salvia scutellarioides, seen on our birding walk. With my new Panasonic Lumix DC-TZ200 (a wonderful Christmas present I gave myself), I am endeavoring to improve my macro photography.
Heliconia, also seen on our birding walk. There are so many different species of Heliconia that I have not attempted to identify the exact one.
A Leafwing, possibly Zaretis ellops. Admittedly, I only saw this amazing butterfly when the guide pointed it out to us.
Salento Valley view along the Quindio River. What a beautiful landscape. We walked from Reserva El Cairo to the town of Salento and then on to the Finca Ocaso for a very informative coffee tour and tasting.
Rather than walking back from Finca Ocaso, we took a Willys Jeep colectivo, immensely popular in the Zona Cafetera. They hold about a dozen passengers, including three standing on the back bumper. Try that in the States!
The Valley of Wax Palms, Cocora Valley. The Wax Palm (Ceroxylon quindiuense) is the national tree of Colombia, and is restricted to this area. If you have only one day for a hike in the Salento area, it should be some version of this loop. We did a 5-6 hour variant, taking in many different ecosystems at elevations up to about 3000 m (10,000 ft).
Cocora Valley view (b&w). Well, we were in a cloud forest!
Trail-side Lonicera flowers
At our high point along the trail, some mountains finally emerged from the clouds
A wild Viola tricolor
Buff-tailed Coronet. We detoured up to the (private) Hummingbird House for a coffee and some views. My new Panasonic Lumix helped greatly with this shot!
Reddish Mapwing (Hypanartia kefersteini) on Salomons. For far better photos of Colombian butterflies, I recommend Jeff Pippen’s blog.
A mossy-covered bridge across the Quindio River, looking like something out of Indiana Jones.
Asclepias curassavica

After an enjoyable Christmas in and around Salento, we flew via Bogotá to the city of Medellín (due to very long travel times by bus, for the most part we took low-cost flights between cities) where we rented an inexpensive AirBnb apartment in the leafy Poblado neighborhood, convenient to all of Medellín. We spent two of our 4 days seeing sites around the city and the other two visiting the nearby Spanish colonial towns of Guatapé and Santa Fe. During these trips we experienced more different modes of transport than I thought possible in such a short time: cable cars, taxis, the metro, a tuk-tuk and buses both large and small. And of course, our feet. The area around our apartment was not at all bad for walking and the traffic seemed calmer than in most cities.

Our Poblado apartment view towards Parque Poblado.
Piedras el Peñol. Obligatory on any trip to Guatapé is this popular climb up 750 steps to a 360 deg. view point.
Atmospheric view from the top of Piedras el Peñol. Hydroelectric power from the surrounding man-made reservoirs supplies 30% of Colombia’s electricity.
Guatapé street view. This small town was very pedestrian-friendly.

On New Year’s day we caught a flight north to Cartagena and the Caribbean coast where we spent the rest of out time in Colombia. Our wonderful (air conditioned!) AirBnb apartment in the barrio of Getsemani, about 10 minutes’ walk from the walled Old Town of Cartagena, provided an ideal base for the next three nights. Getsemani is now jammed with the backpacking crowd driven out by the outrageous prices in the Old Town, and sadly is now just as touristy in its own way.

The Palace of the Inquisition, Old Town. A misnomer, this museum is a must-see if you’re interested in the pre-Colombian and Spanish history of Cartagena de Indias.
Flowers spilling from Old Town balconies. Spending a morning simply wandering around the Old Town on foot is a great way to appreciate it.

After Cartagena we took a 5-hour shuttle bus east along the coast to Santa Marta, our jumping off point for the Cuidad Perdida, or Lost City trek. The most famous trek in Colombia, and one of the most well known in all of South America, it is not to be missed. We did a 4 day, 3 night version with Magic Tour Colombia, but one can also choose 3 and 5 day options. In any case, guides are mandatory as part of the agreement the licensed tour companies have with the indigenous population to permit tourists on their land.

A Cuidad Perdida schematic map at our restaurant in el Mamey where we had lunch before starting the trek. The trailhead is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Santa Marta. 4WD required.
At the start of the Cuidad Perdida trek, Magaly our guide and Wolf our interpreter explain what we’ll be doing for the next four days. There are only four guides on the Lost City trek that have the most recent certification (out of about 60 total). Magaly is one of the four.
A day 1 vista as we ascended from el Mamey.
Spider at our day 1 camp. Practicing my macro photography.
Dawn vista on day 2. We started walking at 6 AM as soon as it was light enough to see the trail, partly since it was cooler in the morning and partly to get to camp before other groups. The wild popularity of this trek means you’ll never walk alone, at least in the high season.
An indigenous Wiwa hut early on day 2. The Wiwa are one of four indigenous communities in Tayrona Park. Apart from the first day, when we hiked through farming communities, the rest of the time we were on indigenous land.
A Kogi vallage on day 2.Their huts are generally circular.
A Kogi water carrier. We weren’t supposed to take photos of the locals without their permission. For the most part this proscription was honored.
A vista on day 2. Each day we gained more altitude as we hiked through this undulating country. From 200 meters at the start, we eventually reached about 1200 meters at Cuidad Perdida.
A small waterfall on one of the many tributaries of Rio Buritaca
A Blue Morpho at the start of day 3. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get her to open her wings on my hand.
Photo courtesy of Maggie.
Our only wet river crossing. I had expected more wet crossings, but many of the bridges were quite new and January is the dry season.
Maggie begins the climb up from Rio Buritaca to the Lost City, about 1300 steps
We arrived at Cuidad Perdida before the sun. This is a view of sector 1, the commercial sector of the city, established about 800 CE.
Magaly explains the map carved into this rock at the Lost City
With Maggie on the Queen’s Steps, which head up to the main sector 2 of the city
Looking up the main sector 2 as the sun arrives
View back down on sector 2, now in the sun. I photo-shopped a couple of people out of this pic.
On the afternoon of day 3, we began our descent back towards the trailhead as the only option is an out-and-back route. Here Maggie is crossing one of the many bridges.
Heliconias at Camp 1 where we stopped for a break on day 4 of the trek, a long day back to the el Mamey trailhead
Leaf cutter ants hard at work. This is crop from an 8 megapixel still frame extracted from a 30 fps burst shot on my camera. Tough to get proper focus here as the burst mode is better designed for human-scale action shots!

We returned from the Cuidad Perdida trek looking forward to a few days of rest and relaxation (well in my case, a few weeks!). I rented a unique ecological AirBnb, Casa Biyuka in the hills just outside of the fishing village of Taganga, a few kilometers east of Santa Marta, but a world away from that supremely uninteresting city.

Taganga and sea view, taken from just above Casa Biyuka.
Sunset from the upper deck of Restaurant Babaganoush, Taganga. Highly recommended for both the views and the menu.
The Vagabond Hiker relaxing at Casa Biyuka, Taganga with The Guardian App.
Photo courtesy of Maggie.

After getting a bit bored at Taganga, I caught a taxi up to the village of Minca. Situated in a valley at about 600 meters elevation, it is the birding capital of northern Colombia.

My “room” at the Minca Ecohab Hotel was in fact a two storied house built partly of bamboo and thatch. Minca is both cooler and quieter than the coast around Taganga.
There are a couple of good hikes around Minca and I undertook a tough one: from town up to the view point of Los Pinos
Marinka Cascada lower falls, on the way up to Los Pinos. There were only a couple of people there at that early hour when I visited.
I walked along a jeep track up to Los Pinos, returning by a steep trail to make a 12 mile loop hike. This is the vista from about 1400 meters elevation.

After two nights in Minca and I returned to the coast to an apartment on the Playa Rodadero, a few kilometers west of Santa Marta, for better swimming and views for my last few days in Colombia.

View north from my Rodadero apartment balcony

This weekend I travel to Granada, Nicaragua, my base for the following week as I explore some highlights of the west of that country. A quick 3-day stopover in El Salvador will be followed by a one day/night layover in Bogotá on my way back to the UK, from where I will post my next blog. Until then,

The Vagabond Hiker

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