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Celebrating My 30th Birthday on the Island of La Gomera

I sat, on the morning of my 30th birthday, bare feet resting against the railings of our balcony, sipping tea and marvelling at the sunshine and blue skies.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain

At first, there was complete silence; a noiseless air that carried only distinct interruptions like a neighbour’s cough or a stranger’s heavy footsteps.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
And then it broke from a suspicious silence into simple tranquillity as I started to notice the constant island sounds: the rhythmic roll of the sea against the pebbly shore, the papery rustle of palm leaves in the wind, the chit chat chirping of birds and the batting of wings as they take flight.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
The things you never hear among the constant drone of city life in London.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
Jorge and I spent the weekend of my 30th birthday at the end of December at Hotel Jardín Tecina on the small island of La Gomera.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain

His grandmother was born at home in a house that was still stands in the village of Playa Santiago where we stayed.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
On a day that is usually cold and snowy for me, I was pleased to open the thick curtains to a tropical view, bright, early morning sunlight spilling into the room on my birthday.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
Turning 30 hasn’t fazed me yet, but I couldn’t ask to be in a better place in my life right now.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
The previous day, we caught the ferry, an hour’s journey from Los Cristianos in the south of Tenerife, one of the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, and where we spent the majority of the holiday.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
On the deck, the wind whipped through my hair, the sun warming my face, one island disappearing and another soon coming into view.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
The ride was pretty calm. There were even sailboats out there floating along.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
The ferry docked in the capital of San Sebastian, but more on that in the next post.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
We drove up into the centre of the island and back down again, roads curving continuously around the volcanic island’s peaks and ravines.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
From San Sebastian to Playa Santiago is less than six miles or so if you could drive straight there, but the landscape of the island made it into a 40-minute journey.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
It was a beautiful drive, though – serene, with few other cars in sight.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
The whole island is home to only about 20,000 people.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
Jorge told me stories of the way the landscape influenced the culture of the island, specially the way the people communicated.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
The indigenous people used a whistling language called Silbo Gomero, which is a baffling idea to me, but apparently it works!

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
The whistling can be heard up to two miles away, and when Jorge’s grandmother was born, her father used it to register her birth and name with the government offices.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
Like playing ‘telephone’ at school, the name they wrote down didn’t match the original that was whistled by the time the message arrived.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
It’s not used anymore, but the children learn it in the local schools to keep it from becoming extinct.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
Another interesting tidbit is that La Gomera was the last place that Christopher Columbus stopped to replenish supplies before crossing the ocean blue in 1492.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
Because of this, sugarcane from La Gomera was the first to reach the New World.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
Speaking of people associate with the island, La Gomera is home to German photographer Oliver Weber. He has a great series called “Social Life at the Beach” in which he’s documenting touristic life on the Canary Islands. It’s now a book.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
My favourite type of photography to look at is portraits and Oliver has another wonderful series called “La Gente” – black and white images full of characters that would make amazing subjects for pencil drawings.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
La Gomera is an island with a slow life mentality, hard-working fishing and farming communities and busy ports that shuffle people and goods from one place to another.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
Outside in Playa Santiago, people sit under the sun watching life go by with companions, leaning on canes in friendly silence. In a tree outside of a restaurant, there are three swinging cages full of birds. A woman sips her coffee alone.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
We spent the day relaxing by the water and exploring. We even stumbled on a banana plantation at the edge of the hotel.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
One of my favourite things to do is to take my camera to a place I’ve never been so it was a perfect way to spend the day.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
And, we ate.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
We had some typical foods like freshly caught sardines, patatas arrugadas con mojo (wrinkly potatoes with salty skin with a Canarian sauce) and almogote which is ripened goat’s cheese mixed into an orange paste with peppers, tomatoes, olive oil and garlic.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
And, as seaside visits demand, we consumed a lot of ice cream.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
My 30th birthday ended with a delicious dinner in Restaurante Club Laurel where, with a background of sophisticated live music, we had champagne, a tasty local white wine and a tasting menu with many courses.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
The table setting included four forks, three spoons and three knifes – the most I’ve ever used for one meal.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain

I had wonderful company, of course.

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Plus, the staff was lovely and brought me a freshly picked pink hibiscus and along with my dessert, a shimmering candle on which to make a 30th birthday wish.

La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain

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4 Comments

  • Reply
    Diana Mieczan
    January 6, 2014 at 7:18 pm

    Happy 30th birthday, lovely lady:) The last photo is just so amazing and you look beautiful:) Btw: what a fantastic place to celebrate and your photos are making me dream about warm sand and blue warm water. Muah

    • Reply
      littleobservationist
      January 6, 2014 at 8:26 pm

      Thanks Diana! It was a wonderful way to spend my birthday and I’d love to still be there now. Nothing like bright sunny days in Winter. x

  • Reply
    Mandy
    January 8, 2014 at 7:18 am

    What a lovely post with fabulous photos! Happy belated birthday! It sounds like you had a truly idyllic birthday and it’s great that you got to gain an in depth understanding of island life and culture while you were there. I have always wanted to go on a winter holiday to Tenerife and now I’m even more determined.

  • Reply
    littleobservationist
    January 8, 2014 at 12:54 pm

    Thank you! It was definitely a peaceful escape. I’d recommend it. I’m sharing photos from Tenerife soon – head north if you go and avoid the tourist traps in the south. x

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