¿Oh No, Not Another Beautiful Beach?

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Very cool flying fish escorted our ferry from Lanzarote to Fuerteventura. They were quite the fliers too. They would jettison out of the water and fly the length of a football field before diving back into the ocean. It was great entertainment on the 25 minute voyage.

Fuerteventura, which means Strong Adventure, has great beaches and LOTS of them. There are nearly 150 beautiful sandy beaches for swimming, kiteboarding, windsurfing, and walking. Sun lovers of all varieties flock to these amazingly unspoiled shores.

The southern peninsula of Jandia is the site of some of the best beaches. It is also the location of the World Windsurfing Championships. With the ever present trade winds and the beautiful turquoise water it looked like a fantastic way to spend the day. While enjoying the windsurfers in Morro Jable, on the Jandia Peninsula, we also saw 2 Gold-crested Cranes flying down the beach. Once again we were reminded of our close proximity to the African continent.

Goats and windmills dot the rugged interior landscape which looks like Arizona-by-the-sea. There is also a Dunes National Park along the coast with vast expanses of golden sand which has been blown in from the Sahara Desert. Best of all is the drive along the coast with all the incredible beach views.

So, to sum up our 2 summer investigation of the Canary Islands: the roads are some of the best we have ever seen, the food is quite good, the temperature stays at about a constant 70 degrees, and it is always windy. Gran Canary is more developed and cosmopolitan and has the best dunes. Tenerife has an outstanding shield volcano, Teide, and striking cliffside views of the ocean. La Gomera is blessed with one of the world´s oldest and largest natural Laurel forests. It´s a hikers paradise. Lanzarote has the artistic influence of Ce'sar Manrique and over 300 volcanoes. Fuerteventura has nearly 150 beaches, strong winds, rugged terrain, and an awesome coast road. Each island is unique, beautiful and well worth a visit. In fact, there are still 2 islands that we haven´t explored, so we might be back again.

Tonight we fly to Madrid, spend the night there, before continuing on to Sofia, Bulgaria on Tue. morning. After Bulgaria, we will be heading into Greece. We´ll check back in once we get to Switzerland.

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Photos

Welcome to another lovely beach
Grades Playa near Corralejo, Fuerteventura

Corralejo "town" beach
Even the town beach was beautiful!

A windy island has to have windmills.
There are many modern ones and a few of the remaining old variety.

Guanche leaders of rival tribes
These statues depict the very tall original inhabitants of the Canaries, the Guanches. On this island there were two rival tribes. A wall divided the island into the territories of each tribe.

The crashed car
Not too surprising because they drive really fast on these high, winding roads.