Sandwiched between imposing
steep-sided headlands, the busy
transport hub of
SAN SEBASTIAN
was the first Spanish settlement on
the island and has grown to be far
and away La Gomera's largest town,
though with a population of 5000 and
a waterfront that runs to just 400
metres, it's hardly hectic or huge.
Central to the functional little
town's role as the island capital is
its good sheltered
harbour ,
home to many yachts and docking
point for ferries from Tenerife. The
harbour was also party to La
Gomera's most famous hour, on
September 6, 1492, when Christopher
Columbus led three small caravels
out of the bay on his first voyage
west to the Americas.
Over the years the harbour has
drawn the attentions of other
seafarers, including English,
French, Portuguese and Dutch
pirates. Gomerans became well used
to doggedly defending their patch,
fleeing to caves in the hills with
their possessions and fighting
fiercely from there; as a 1599 Dutch
raiding party found: "Canaria
is by interpretation, dogs kinde,
for they ran as swift as dogs, and
were as tyrannicall and bloudthirsty
as the ravening Wolfe". Losing
over a hundred men in skirmishes
further up the valley, the Dutch
contented themselves with setting
the town ablaze. English pirates had
even less luck; Sir Francis Drake's
attack of 1585 was successfully
repulsed, as was Charles Windham's
in 1743, as is celebrated in murals
in the town's major church.
The harbour mostly turned itself
to less dramatic events after this,
as San Sebastian busied itself with
the island's agricultural exports
, first silk and rum and later
cochineal dyes. But when the boom
and bust cycles of these
monocultures hit the island's
economy, the port was host to
tearful goodbyes as many of the
islanders left for South America.
There is still something of a
rural atmosphere in San Sebastian,
and though most visitors tend to see
it as a noisy transport hub,
high-tailing to quieter parts of the
island as soon as bus timetables
allow, there are plenty of
attractions here and these days the
little place is emerging as a good
base in itself. Away from the
cliques of tourists in Valle Gran
Rey it is a fine place to retire to
after a day in the mountains, with
plenty of bars and restaurants. If
you only have a couple of days on
the island and no car, you'd do well
to base yourself here, from where
all the island bus services radiate.
