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Published: December 18th 2015
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Tuesday 15th December, 2015. Fuerteventura, Canary Islands
After a posh breakfast we caught the free shuttle to the port gates and then walked along the seafront at Puerto Del Rosario (Port of the Rosary) which has been the capital of the island since 1860. The town centre is adjacent to the port and everything is within easy walking distance of the quay. We took a photo of a sculpture called "Overseas Luggage" which is a tribute to the round-trip migration phenomenon. It is a testimony of the Majorero who emigrated into the island in other times and that today receives a whole multicultural community. It is a nostalgic sculpture of the traveller and his luggage loaded with memories - M loved it. We found the tourist office who told us where we could find a cafe with an internet connection. M at last managed to work out the reason why she had been unable to post any blogs on this trip so far. The culprit was a new browser that had installed with Windows 10 before we left called Microsoft Edge. She downloaded Google Chrome and deleted MS Edge and everything is now fine- no "missing element" messages and pick
lists with extra windows on the screen! We posted the blogs up until yesterday and then returned to the ship for a light lunch.
Fuerteventura is the second largest island of the Canaries Group and is known locally as "La Isla Tranquilla". It has an area of 780 sq miles and the whole island is ostensibly a beach resort. Beaches on the island outnuber hotels. From the air the island looks like nothing more than an over-sized sand dune sticking out of the sea. It is less than 60 miles from the coast of Africa, and has been likened to a mini-Sahara - except that the climate here is somewhat kinder. This is not a place to seek excitement - but great for a lazy beach holiday.
Puerto Del Rosario is is the main port on the island and has a population of around 18,000. Formerly called Puerto Cabra (port of the goat) in recognition of the herds of goats, it took the capital of the island from La Oliva. In 1956 local holiday promoters, however, thought that this name would be unattractive to tourists and so it was changed. The place remains a frontier town with little
glamour (which is why we were happy to spend this morning in a bar, drinking beer and fixing the computer problems).
We went ashore again after lunch and took a stroll around the, very quiet, capital. It is a young town, barely 2 centuries old but it has a charm that only small urban communities are able to offer. It is the island's seat of government as well as its most important centre for business, industrial, cultural and recreational activities. We headed for the town centre and came across many lovely sculptures. The first was called "The Lookout Man" located on a roundabout just outside the port entrance. At the next roundabout where we turned right towards the town centre there was the Fuente de la Explanada sculpture. Next we came across the sculpture Las Cabras (The Goats) which is a collection of sculptures dedicated to the first major of Puerto del Rosario and states the former name of the town and municipality, reflecting the town's aboriginal past as in the place the goats were watered next to the gambuesas, that existed until the beginning of the 20th century. We started to joke that Puerto del Rosario must be
the sculpture capital of Canaries (if not Spain!). It was only later that we found out theat the town is especially proud of its Parque Escultorico (Sculpture Park) which is an open air museum featuring more than 80 works of art on display in the pedestrianised areas, roundabouts, squares and streets where they can be enjoyed by everyone (we didn't see all 80 and are not going to detail them all in this blog!).
We made our way to the church which is dedicated to the Patron Saint 'Virgen del Rosario'. M stuck her head through one of those boards where your head becomes whatever the painted character is on the front - in this case Santa - and D took a couple of snaps. We stopped for a beer and then walked through a lovely municipal park (with more sculptures) until we reached Playa Chica. We took some photos and walked back along the waterfront passing some lovely seats decorated with different coloured mosaic tiles.
All six of us were present for dinner. Showtime was Lee Carroll who is a TV Comedian from the former Sunday Night at the London Palladium. He was pretty good. Afterwards we
went and listened to a bit of karioke before retiring.
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