Thanks to modern science, many people are aware of the “horizontal rain� effect, those droplets of water that are formed when the trade winds blow clouds over the Canaries. One of nature’s gifts, this particular one is responsible for the lush green forests on the most westerly islands. However, the Bimbache, the indigenous people of El Hierro, saw this as little less than a miracle and, as such, the Garoé – the tree that wept water – was sacred to them.

They went peacefully about their lives until the advent of the first foreigners, under the command of Juan de Bethencourt. According to an ancient prophecy, the Bimbache believed that “only good and benefits will be brought by the strangers� and so Armiche, the King of El Hierro, was more than happy to surrender. But legend has it that a group of dissidents, unwilling to capitulate, met to discuss the best means of fighting off the invaders. “We must hide the Sacred Tree. There is no water on the island other than the precious drops that flow from the Garoé,� said brave Erese, and they all hurried to hide the wondrous treasure. The Castilian Crown troops failed again and again in their attempts to conquer the Bimbaches, unable to find water on the arid and river-less island. And they would have continued to fail had it not been for a handsome officer who wooed the Princess Guarazoca. Despite the threat of death to any islander that revealed the secret of the Garoé, she confided in her sweetheart. Perhaps this love story changed the destiny of the people on the island, who were overcome by the invaders once they had access to the plentiful water captured in the leaves of that mythical tree.

The Garoé – which, legend tells us, provided drinking water for the island’s thousand or so inhabitants – sadly no longer exists. It was uprooted by a hurricane in 1640 and in its place, there now stands a 40-foot tall Linden tree. Visit it when it is shrouded in mist and you will marvel at the sight of water condensing and dripping from its leaves.

La Gaceta Hotel