After spending the summer in Iceland, we were really up for some hot sunny weather. So we booked ourselves a trip to Fuerteventura, the most windy of the Canary Islands, known for its waves and desert landscapes.
Day 1
Instead of hiking, we took a little apartment and a big fat car. 😎
We rented the apartment in Majanicho from Fadi and Melissa. They built their home off the grid. So it’s very ecological to stay there (To counter the jeep fact).
We were very happy to arrive there, although Iberia lost my luggage. Since the weather in Belgium is cold this time of year, I wore jeans and Nike’s. Luckily I fitted into Jan’s spare swimming pants. So this was my outfit on our first trip. 🙂
For the first trip we took a dirt road to Corralejo, to test our car and buy some flipflops. Along the road a few people built houses off the grid. Old men sat on their self made patio, enjoying the sea view. Proof you really don’t need a lot of money to have a first class home.
We took the normal road back, grabbed our swimming clothes and drove to the other side of the North: El Cotillo. Again we got off the main road and passed some beautiful places along the coastline.
After our big shot of vitamin D, we went to the supermarket (Dino) and bought some white Martini, of course, and the ingredients for our delicious home made spaghetti. We enjoyed it very much while watching an episode of the Big Bang Theory. Ho-li-day is awe-some!!!
Jan also took these nice LTE-pictures.
Day 2
The second day we explored the North West coast. It was very desolate, rocky and windy! We only took dirt roads and that was sometimes very exciting (We are not used to great adventures by car 😉 ). We found a nice beach surrounded by high rocks that was discovered by only one other family.
We drove past the mountain village of Tindaya, where we drank a very yummy and cheap espresso. Sometimes we drove through shallow rivers or over very steep “roads”.
(filmpje plakken)
To go back, we took the main road, since it was dark and we are “heroes”. 🙂
We stopped in El Cotillo where we had a meal in la Vaca Azul. The food was OK, but not superbe, luckily the view was.
Day 3
After this big adventure, we were up for a nice day of doing nothing special. We hang around the house, bought some good food and had an unexpected guest. In the afternoon we went to El Cotillo beach for a swim.
Day 4
Horse riding day! Jan got Jill a friendly, asthmatic Irish Cobb and I got Rosie a stubborn pony. But we both fell in love with Irish Cobb Snoopy and hope that we will have a horse like that when we are old an settled.
Day 5
This was a delightful morning of laziness. We stayed in bed, read, drank coffee, watched some episodes of The Big Bang Theory and enjoyed the silence of the place. If you like basic and eco friendly living, we really recommend booking this place. Fadi is also very friendly and as it seemed also a very patient and good surfing teacher!
We booked him for the afternoon. We had our private surf lesson, which was really successful. We both were able to stand on our boards after a few tries. Jan turned out to be a true surf talent. I made some movies with my phone, but no pictures.
What I can give you is Fadi’s websites about the house and about the surfing:
Day 6
The fifth day we planned a trip to the southern peninsula. It was a 2 hour drive. We stopped in Betancuria to drink a coffee and on the top of a hill to take some pictures.
After a high way drive with pretty views we finally arrived at the most southern part of Fuerteventura. This was why we hired the Wrangler. This was nice! What am I saying…the car was awesome!
Alas, also many mainstream cars with tourists were taking this road (since it was the only way to get to Cofete) so we had to ride in their cloud of dust, because they were too slow. Cofete is a small village, with a pretty tasty restaurant, in the western part of the peninsula, only reachable by a dusty dirt road. It has a long, sandy beach and nice volcano hills. Also Villa Winter is located in this village. The story goes that Hitler stayed here once in a while.
After a lunch and a swim we took our stuff and jumped in our nice ride. ^_^
We drove to the faro de Punta Jandía, where we visited a little museum about the place. It was really cool to see the ocean on your right side as well as on your left.
Afterwards we drove to a little camper village, Puerto de la Cruz, not far from the faro. It was pretty amazing to see how the inhabitants built their vehicles into their homes. They seemed happy with it, which I can understand: living at a beautiful, quiet place with a lot of sunny days…what do you want more?
After this photography moment we drove back to Lajares. We made a pit stop in Pájara. We had two beers and I thought I ordered some squid tapas, but instead I got a whole sandwich with squid. It tasted great. Before driving home we ate diner (yes, a lot of yummy in my tummy) in the best pizzeria of Lajares: La Cancela. The pizza is super fresh and made right in front of your nose. Also the wifi connection works superbl! Which was nice, since we had no internet access in our eco house (which was also fantastic!). Life can be confusing. 🙂
Day 7
It was time to relax after our busy sixth day. We drove to Corralejo Natural Park. Which ment mostly dunes. They were lovely. Also many naturist come here, but the park is so big, you can spot them from far away, which gives you the possibility not to come too close for too much details. 🙂
Afterwards we searched for some nice dirt roads…and we weren’t the only ones doing so. We drove for about 20 minutes, seeing nice sandy sculptures, made by erosion…
When suddenly…
We watched for a few minutes with the locales and wondered about the safety of those behind the ‘safety zone’. Luckily nothing happened.
We took our own racing car -yes, rally’s can be inspiring – to the beach of El Cotillo, where we ran into Fadi and Laila, our eco house owners.
At sunset we packed our stuff, grabbed a bite in La Cancela, where electricity took a break so we could only order… pizza by candle light. What a nice way to end our holiday.
