One of the best ways to get to know a place is without a doubt on foot, and La Gomera offers you hundreds of well-preserved paths through unique and unique natural spaces ... whose ecological importance is subject to different levels of environmental protection.
Today we propose a walk that will surprise you by its contrasts and variety, where the ravines, palm groves and rocks are the protagonists: the Protected Landscape of Orone, unique representative of the protection category of "Protected Landscape" in La Gomera.
Within the Protected Landscape of Orone, three Ecological Sensitivity Areas (ASE) are located that are the Fortress, the Rajita and the peripheral zone of the Garajonay National Park.
In this rural landscape of great beauty, you will find archaeological sites, important ethnographic elements, endemic species such as tabaiba de monte, coastal birds such as the small pardela or osprey, old terraces built by locals and human settlements practically depopulated.
It is bordered to the north by the Garajonay National Park, to the northwest by the Benchijigua Nature Reserve, to the south by the La Negra beach and to the west by the La Rajita beach.
This space, of approximately 1800 hectares, distributed between two municipalities, Alajeró and Vallehermoso, includes two impressive ravines, Erques-La Rajita and La Negra, connected at their head by a common basin.
Its surface includes the Natural Monument of La Fortaleza, and unique rocks such as those of Imada (1083 meters) and Teremoche and nice hamlets where practically no one lives like Erque, Erquito and Rajita.
The Natural Monument of La Fortaleza (1,240 meters and practically cylindrical in shape) is located in the Chipude Zone, municipality of Vallehermoso, which can only be reached by a narrow path flanked by rocks. It is called "Fortaleza" (Fortress) not because it has had a defensive function but this is the name given to certain mountains of rocky walls and more or less flat tops. This rock was formed by the accumulation of viscous lava around the emission conduit and on its sides you will find several endemic species such as the evergreen or the centaurea.
If you come to visit us and want to know this beautiful landscape and others do not forget to bring in your suitcase a good footwear to walk and walk along the beautiful paths that run through La Gomera!