Marina in San Sebastian is very nice, it is tucked underneath the colourful rock...
...at the end of the commercial port. On its inner side there's also a nice black beach. It might have tempted me, but it was way too windy these past days.
The photo above was taken from these rocks, there are steps on them and one can climb to both tops.
Town is not big, easy to walk through. This is the biggest church...
...and this The Count's tower (Torre del Conde), the oldest military building in all Canaries.
There are quite some cats here, they don't seem to be afraid, not even of dogs. They are obviously looked after by someone.
And this is marina from the lookout at the side of the big rock. The big and the small ferry are just leaving.
Further from the town towards North there are hills almost always covered in clouds, sometimes one can see the clouds spilling over the ridges.
First couple of days we took it easy and didn't do much, just some small stuff around the boat. On Thursday we did a trip with bus. The bus took us to the stop nearest to the highest hill on the island, the Alto de Garajonay. Already the bus ride was beautiful, first we climbed above the San Sebastian, then drove along the ridges and climbed to the cloud forrest of laurel trees. At "our" bus stop, which was some 1200 m high, there were beautiful blooming flowers and bushes.
We found the beginning of our hiking trail and started in the cloud forrest.
Soon we climbed above the clouds and we could see mountain of Teide on Tenerife to the East. And all along the trail there were many blooming flowers and bushes. I haven't seen anything like this on other Canary island. The yellow bushy thing is a big plant with leaves with jagged edge and yellow blossoms that reminded me of dandelion (regrat), but it is much bigger.
It is enormously popular with all kinds of flying critters, like bumble bees...
....butterflies...
... and different kinds of bees. Look how orange the bags with pollen are on her hind legs.
This is the blossom of the big bush, it was just as pretty and was populated with it's own number of bees. With all the insects, there was also lots of birds, from Black birds (kos) to Tits (sinica) to Robins (taščica), and many more I didn't recognise. They were chirping loudly and entertained us all the time.
This sweetly scented bush was maybe the most common blooming plant we've seen on our hike, beside the giant dandelion. It is a bit similar to heather in growth, just higher...
...but blossoms look a bit like those of cranberries. It is hugely popular with bees, and as you can see it has the pollen of different colour - the bee's bags are light pink.
I don't know what this beauty is named, but I only spotted one in whole day.
Occasionally I also looked around and to the North there was island of La Palma visible.
From the top we could see an old volcanic mountain to the West, and behind it in the distance, barely visible was island of El Hierro.
But more than views I was mesmerized by flowers, one prettier than the next.
I really didn't expect to find a Lady bug (pikapolonico) among them.
On our way back down from the highest peak we made a stop for a picnic, among giant dandelions and other sweet smelling blooming bushes and with the view of Teide.
There were couple of more surprises - like this violet...
...and a stinging nettle (kopriva). At least it looks like one to me. I'm not sure if these plants are native here or if they were brought to the island by humans, and then spread out in the wild.
There were plenty of these as well, in lighter pink and white, and again with bees. This bee is different than most that we've seen...
...and later I've seen some more sorts of them.
And another small butterfly.
While there was lots of moss and lichens in damp cloud forrest...
...this was the only thing that resembled mushrooms that we've seen.
The hike was absolutely great, just right amount of hiking and of pretty things and sights to see. Bus ride was cheap, the only minus to the bus ride was the fact, that there is no bus time table for the stops in the middle of the island. One can get the schedule for departures from the towns on the coasts, and then has to calculate how long it might take for the bus to get to the middle of the island. Of course, one wouldn't like to be late since the busses are quite some ours apart, so one is early and then waits a long time. But in such beautiful surroundings even that is not so bad.
We reserved a car for Friday and had a great day trip and made tons of photos, that are waiting for next post. We decided to leave the Gomera and sail on tomorrow, we're heading to La Palma in the North. I'm a bit worried, weather forecast is pretty confused, so we don't really know what is waiting for us out there, but it will be worse the following days. And we have some 50 miles to make till the dark, so there will be no zig zagging against the wind. We've managed to make a reservation in La Palma marina although they are quite full, since the boats from all islands are coming there for the carnival. It is said to be quite famous. So hopefully all goes well with sailing there, and we get tucked in marina before the bad weather comes, and are then ready to enjoy the carnival and the next beautiful island.
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