Excerpt and Photo from theworld.org
It’s hard not to think of Jurassic Park in the Laurel forest.
The forest is vibrant green and shrouded in clouds. Ferns blanket the floor. The trunks of trees are carpeted in moss.
It’s otherworldly — one feels transported back in time.
Until you stumble upon a discarded plastic cup.
“Someone here has finished their coffee, said Audrey Fava, a local trekking guide. “And they just tossed their cup on the path. It doesn’t happen too often, but we do find litter regularly in the parking lot.”
Fava stuffed the cup in her backpack.
In a way, the garbage and Fava’s frustration with it say a lot about La Gomera today — the state of tourism and how locals feel about visitors and their impact.
It’s not a problem … yet.
“This forest is very important,” Fava said. “They were once found across Europe, up until the last Ice Age. This one survived.”
In fact, the forest has made it through various global freezes and mass extinctions, partly because the maritime climate has remained more or less unchanged. And because the place is so isolated.
Not all of the Canary Islands fit that description.
The beach boardwalk on the island of Tenerife is just a 45-minute ferry ride away. But it’s packed with partiers, all-inclusive hotels and souvenir shops.
“It’s the loud neighbor [that] La Gomera doesn’t want to become,” said Conchi Facundo, sitting in a quiet courtyard a short drive from the Laurel Forest. Facundo manages public access to the forest, which is in a big national park called Garajonay.