Let's Pretend Lunch Was The Last Meal of The Holiday

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It was the last day of our holiday today and we needed to be out of the villa by 10.00am, so we thought we would get sorted, leave and then spend the day travelling around the island. For once, we actually managed to get ready and leave on time, although we had a bit of trouble getting all the bags in the car, which turned out not to be as big as the one that we had originally planned to hire from Avis. It meant that I spent the whole day with a case on my lap.

I had already been to El Cotillo, but the others wanted a quick look, so that was our first stop. Next, we drove south to Betancuria, which is in the centre of the island, high-up in the crater of a former volcano. The scenery on the way to the village was stunning and there were some stopping points, to enjoy the views, along the side of the narrow, winding, steep and all together rather disconcerting road.

Where La Oliva is, according to our guidebook, one of the most picturesque villages on the island, Betancuria is THE prettiest village on the island. That claim seemed a lot more justified, although it was ruined somewhat by a massive tower crane, which dominated a building site in the middle of the village. Until 1834, Betancuria had been the capital of Fuerteventura.

Next we headed further south to another pretty little village called Pajara. There is a small church called the Nuestra Señora de la Regla, which was stunningly beautiful inside. We also had a quick look round the small market, which was set-up outside.

As we were unlikely to have enough time for a decent meal in the evening, given how uptight I am about getting to airports, we decided to go for a nice lunch. We found a lovely, charming little tapas restaurant, so we thought that we would give that a try. The kids were all a bit reticent, but went along with it. We ordered about eight dishes between the five of us. We could tell that we were no longer in a Brit resort as the waitresses did not speak any English, although we got there in the end and the food that arrived was what we had ordered. My wife and I were not disappointed as the food was fantastic and a million miles away from the steak, chips, burgers and full English breakfasts that were so common back in Corralejo. The kids were no so impressed, although there was enough that they were still happy to eat.

They seemed to be very surprised when we left a tip and it was at that point that the English Spanish got to be an issue. In fact, thinking about it, tips seemed to have been unexpected for most of the holiday. The Segway guide in particular seemed to be excessively happy with the tip and the dune-buggy guide was gone before we even had a chance to give one to him, although we thought that was to get away before we had a chance to start asking for a refund due to the broken down buggy.

Next, we carried on south to La Lajita where we had been advised there were camel rides, near somewhere called Oasis Park. There were probably some back up in the north, in amongst the sand-dunes somewhere, but we couldn't find them. We didn't want to go to Oasis Park itself, but we managed to find the camel rides.

These were not just camel rides, these were camel safaris. They were advertised as 35 minutes long, although we are sure they were longer. My wife and I stayed to relax for a while, whilst the three kids were seated across two camels with quite a bit of general messing about (there is a weight limit for each camel and the weight needs to be evenly distributed) and finally off they went. We caught a glimpse of them at roughly their half way point, whilst there were walking across the ridge of a far-away hill, silhouetted against the sky.

We had planned to finish our tour of the island at the capital, Puerto del Rosario. As we were approaching, however, it was evident that that this was not the quaint, little island town that we had been expecting. It looked massive and industrial. We drove past a shopping centre and so we decided just to stop there, which I suspect was the plan of the others all along.

It's not a massively interesting point, but the parking in the shopping centre was free, as it has been everywhere we have been in Fuerteventura. We have not had to pay for parking anywhere, the whole time we have been here. Good one Fuerteventura.

After a surprisingly small amount of shopping, we thought we would grab something to eat before heading to the airport. Given that we were pressed for time, the only realistic option available was a Burger King. I really, really didn't want our last meal in Fuerteventura to be a dreadful fast-food burger, but needs must. Fortunately, there only seemed to be two people working there and there was an horrendously long queue, which was sufficient an excuse for us to decide to leave and eat at the airport instead.

After filling-up with diesel (thankfully there was a very clear sticker on the fuel cap or the holiday would have ended very badly when we filled up with unleaded) and dropping the car off, we checked in and then looked for something to eat. All I can say is that we were very pleased that we had the excellent meal for lunch, as the choice at the airport was limited to burgers, sandwiches and ice-cream. We went for the burgers and, although it pains me to admit it, Burger King would have been the better option. It was awful.

There was no air-conditioning in the airport, so thankfully this flight was on time.

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Photos

Parque Rural de Betancuria
The scenery of the Parque Rural de Betancuria.

The Iglesia de Santa Maria
The church in the centre of Betancuria.

Parque Rural de Betancuria
More scenery in the Parque Rural on the way south from Betancuria.

The Nuestra Señora de la Regla
The beautiful inside of the church in Pajara.

Tapas Restaurant
The picturesque restaurant in Pajara where we had our official last meal of the holiday.

Camels
Ready for the camel safari.