Flower Power nostalgia attracts visitors to island of La Gomera
by Ina Brzosk, monstersandcritics.com
February 28th 2011 8:06 PM
That\'s when the bongo drummers set off along the beach of the island of La
Gomera in the Canary Islands along with other musicians playing clarinets
and guitars. On this occasion a young juggler steps into the limelight.
Barefoot, bearded and dreadlocked, the young hippy swings a burning rope
through the warm, salty air.
There is still a flavour of Flower Power in La Playa which lies in Valle
Gran Rey, a valley in the sun-kissed south-west of La Gomera. The area is
regarded as one of the last strongholds of the original hippy movement.
Those who come here regularly certainly do not seem to have lost their
laid-back attitude over the years. Topless women bathe on the black, stony
beaches and come sundown, it\'s time to hand round the wine bottles and
hand-rolled cigarettes.
When the young fire artist has finished his performance, the onlookers toss
a few coins into his colourful hat. After all, traditions like this must be
kept alive. The Flower People descended on this Canary isle at the end of
1960s and up until then the territory had scarcely seen visitors.
It was the time of the war in Vietnam, and Americans and Canadians were
among the first to settle here. They simply camped on the broad beach at
Valle Gran Rey and lived for months among the bizarre, jagged rock
formations of the coastline.
\'Our full moon parties were legendary and very good for expanding your
consciousness,\' said Diana Clayton with a benign smile. She arrived in
Gomera back then from London and still enthuses about the old days.
Clayton, a petite lady with backcombed hair and ponytail, first set foot on
Gomera in 1970. It was an adventure that began at the tender age of 17.
\'The postal ship left Tenerife in the middle of the night and it took eight
hours to reach San Sebastian,\' she recalls. Back then there was no harbour
and passengers had to be winched onto land by crane.
The path from the island capital to Valle Gran Rey was a stony one. It led
across high peaks and through valleys whose slopes had been transformed by
local smalholders into terraces for growing crops. \'We were hoping to get
back to our roots and seeking a way of life far away from civilisation,\'
said Clayton.
The island rewarded the settlers with forests of laurel trees, banana
plantations, gorges, dustbowls and desert strewn with rocks. Modern tourists
will find well-marked hiking trails and metalled roads with warning signs
about falling rocks. Back then things were different: Some of the wooden
crosses marking the spot where some of the early pilgrims met their death
can still be seen today.
Most of the hippies ended up Valle Gran Rey, a fishing village where time
appeared to have stood still. \'When we got here we thought we\'d arrived at
the end of the world,\' said Diana Clayton.
Some things have survived from that carefree era. A few hippies do still
sleep rough in the bay and once a year the police turn up to move them on.
Pitching a tent without permission is not allowed on Gomera. Motor caravans
and dogs on the beach are also discouraged. In the winter months organised
groups of hikers arrive for brisk walks in the hills and improved harbour
facilities mean that Gomera has become a port of call for cruise liners.
Despite the changes, the second-smallest of the seven Canary islands has
managed to retain its charm. There are no gigantic, high-rise hotels of the
kind to be found on Tenerife and Gran Canaria and the typical La Gomera
tourist spends the night in an apartment.
La Playa is a colourful jumble of these hostelries, which perch among the
rocks like a child\'s building bricks surrounded by palm trees and banana
groves. In the centre of La Playa is a popular tavern where the somewhat
harsh, even alien sound of indigenous Gomeran folk music regularly rings
out.
The \'Casa Maria\' is a pub with rooms and wooden balconies. It is one of
the few places where local residents mingle with guests. Maria Gonzales, 84,
has been running the place since the 1960s. When asked about the pioneering
hippies, she peers down at her felt slippers with a rather embarrassed look
on her face.
Men and women used to dance naked together on the beaches. \'We found that
pretty amazing,\' she said. It was a trying time during which Senora
Gonzales was forced to keep a close eye on the dinner plates. It seems the
hippies were fond of not paying and used \'to be keen on grabbing the
left-overs.\'
Contemporary tourists cause little in the way of trouble, said Maria
Gonzales. Wellness thrives in Gomera too and Bhagwan-followers hold courses
in meditation, the laying of healing hands and in Bach flower remedies.
Among the more exotic instruction courses available include reiki sessions
at sunrise.
When Valle Gran Rey is bathed in moonlight the spirit of the hippies
returns. Gomera veterans know the location of secret hideaways in the cliffs
where joints are passed around and wine flows to the sound of music from
Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin. The atmosphere is every bit as laid-back as it
was in the old days when the first hippies thought they had touched down at
the edge of the world.
'; PrintArticle();//-->
Original Page:
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/lifestyle/travel/news/article_1622718.php/F
lower-Power-nostalgia-attracts-visitors-to-island-of-La-Gomera%3E
Shared from Read It Later
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Sixties-L" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
