Национален парк Гарахонай, остров Ла Гомера

Garajonay National Park is located on the territory of the island of La Gomera, which is part of the Canary Islands in Spain. The island is known for its rare subtropical forests and over 450 species of plants, thanks to which it has been declared a World Natural Monument by UNESCO inheritance. The name of the park comes from a legend spread on the island about the love between Princess Gara from the island of La Gomera and Prince Honai from the island of Tenerife.

The island of La Gomera itself is a small island with intact vegetation. In its interior is the area of ​​Bosco del Cedro, with its hundred-year-old laurel trees and the small cedar, which, together with the Garajonay National Park, fall under the protection of UNESCO. 

 At the tip of La Gomera, one can observe a peculiar climatic phenomenon, in which the higher you climb the terraced terrain, the more fog descends around you. However, it is assumed that it was because of this climatic phenomenon that the dense forest was formed, which is believed to have existed in the same place even before the ice age.

 

The wealth of Garakhonay lies in the unique laurel forest, which is abundantly watered by the many streams and springs. Among the rarer representatives of the plant species are the canary willow, the canary gel and the cedar trees. Here are some of the rarest subtropical forests that stretched across the Mediterranean millions of years ago.