We're British and We Don't Like Football

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We had agreed that our son, his girlfriend and our daughter could all go to the water park today, so I dropped them there, paid for the tickets and left them too it. We needed to stock-up on water and some other supplies, so I stopped off at the supermarket on the way back. Sadly I took a wrong turning coming out of the supermarket, ended up in the Corralejo one-way system and had to do the scenic route in order to get back to our villa.

For some reason the beautiful, clear sky that we had had every day to date had been replaced with some overcast, semi-cloudy haze. This was probably a good thing since the kids were spending the whole day in the water-park, however we suspected that the sun would still every bit as likely to burn as it would in previous days. It was a bit of a downer for me as I was planning to take the car and go out and get some photographs and a sky like that is not going to make nice photographs.

Still, that plan was to set out in the car, so set out in the car I did.

I had been given instructions to try and find some camel rides, instructions that I failed to fulfil. The sand-dunes to the south of Corralejo looked like the best bet, but I couldn’t see any, at least from the road, in the car, driving at 90 km/hour. I was surprised how many cars were parked along the side of the road. People obviously drive out here to take advantage of the beaches, which, if you like beaches, looked fantastic with the beaches and the endless sand-dunes being indistinguishable from each other.

I first drove to a village called La Oliva. According to my guide book this is one of the most picturesque villages on the island. If it is, then it doesn't look good for most of the other villages and there probably isn't much point in trying to see the rest of the island. There was a nice church in the middle, with what must be the longest name for any church being called Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, and some good views of the nearby Montaña de Escantraga volcano. That is as far as you could push the picturesque angle as far as I was concerned.

I then drove to El Cotillo. That was more like it. There were some good opportunities for some photos there, although the overcast sky had still not shown any signs of changing. After some time walking about to have a look at the harbour and the old cylindrical Fortalaza del Toston fortress that overlooked it, it was back to Corralejo.

We went back down to the harbour for the evening, as, after the previous evening, that seemed like the best place to go. On the way there, we had to pass the usual touts trying to get us to go into their bar or restaurant. Many seemed to think that since we are British, we would consider the fact that their bar or restaurant had live football to be a plus point. Believe it or not, most British are not obsessed with sodding football. Well, actually some aren't, or maybe a few aren't, or, probably, there are a hand-full like us who aren't. Actually, that said, my son would probably have been up for it, if we had given him the option.

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Photos

La Oliva
The Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria.

Montaña de Escantraga
The volcano near La Oliva.

El Cotillo
The harbour and fortified tower in El Cotillo.