Sundag, 27
November 2022
On our way to Fuerteventura
Hola, as they say in Spain. Today is the 27th
of November 2022 and the first thing I did was wishing I could go back
to sleep, but hey, I gotta go on vacation. So, after managing to get up
and not waking anyone (that’s a personal victory for me) and only
putting on my shoes outside because I’d make too much noise otherwise. I
headed out to go and pick up my bestie, Lorelenn.
The road was very calm, I saw
around 5 cars in total so that was an enjoyable ride. Lorelenn was happy
to go on vacation too but we were both working on 10% battery. So, after
a wee at her place and triple checking if she had everything, we headed
out.
Again, going to Nantes was enjoyable, quick and no problems at all. We
arrived too early to the point that the gates at Izipark weren’t even
open ! So we sat there and waited. It was eventually the same nice young
man that picked me and the old ladies up from the airport when coming
back from the Algarve.
At the airport, we could immediately register our baggage and head over
to our gate. Security went well, didn’t beep for once and Lorelenn
neither so it was very quick.
The flight was ok, just too long
but we were too tired too, we barely could sleep with the light but
keeping our eyes open was impossible too. I did take a small nap, when I
woke up I thought we were almost landing as it was 8h20, but that was
French time. You could say I was disappointed but not surprised. So I
took another nap after taking a picture of the pink-ish sky of the
sunrise.
When landing, we were really tired
still but also very excited to see what Fuerteventura had to offer us. I
immediately noted the volcanic landscapes and that you could see
Lanzarote in the distance. Lorelenn on the other hand was just in awe of
the first palm tree and cactus she saw.
Anyways, heading from one end
aaaaall the way to the other, we got our bags, mine came first and we
didn’t even recognize it, so let’s just say we hobbled after it to grab
it.
Bags acquired, we headed to “La Salida” and then to Autoreisen’s booth
where a very nice and patient Maria was sitting. I managed to do a few
things in Spanish, very challenging if you haven’t practiced it in a few
years but eventually she switched to English. We signed our papers and
were on our merry way. N°42 was our car, it was a poop brown Citroën
Cactus. I wasn’t excited, not because of the color but because damn it’s
really big compared to my Twingo. I miss my Twingo by the way. The car’s
fine, it’s just getting used to a new car. It drives pretty swell I must
say.
We drove to the apartment where
Claire was waiting for us. Claire is French. The apartment’s fine, some
things just disappointed us, it is filled with the bare minimum. We’ve
got 3 towels for the both of us and no toilet paper, I expected at least
a bit more. Oh well. She gave us the run-down, a list of restaurants and
the wifi code !

We got ourselves sorted before
heading out realizing in the car that today was indeed Sunday as
everything looks closed and abandoned. So the plan was to find some
place to eat while going on with our day.
The first stop was Parque Natural de Corralejo with the road going
through the sand dunes. It was just impressive to see the landscapes and
it was beautiful weather. Sun and 25C° . The black road going through
the bright white sand was very pretty, and the beaches were fully packed
with tourists. Made me want to go for a swim too.


After stopping at multiple places
along the road to stare into the distance at either the volcanoes on
Lanzarote and Lobos on the other side, you could just sit there for
hours I think.
At Corralejo, the plan was to go to the Popcorn beach but we were a bit
lost so we headed straight to the Villa Commercial el Campanario where
we only walked around and discovered the Super Dino ! A supermarket, the
only one that was open today. We checked some stuff and bought a few
groceries and lunch. I just desired fruit and freshness, so I grabbed
some watermelon and fruit juices as Lorelenn grabbed a sandwich with ham
and cheese. We ate in the car before heading to the next stop.






Next stop was Playa del Bajo de la
Burra via the most shady road ever but it was an official road.. Yes…
That dirt path, locals call the road. It was a great adventure, despite
having all my insides scramble like eggs, it was actually a nice scenic
route and did cause a lot of laughter between Lorelenn and I. I didn’t
swear once.. Okay, maybe once. But, I was more amazed by the views. At
our first stop we quickly got greeted by popcorn sand ! It’s kinda
funky, I filled up a small bottle with a bit of it to bring home, it’s
really weird and I truly wonder how it got like that. There was a small
surfer’s hut too, it seemed cute from far, not from up close but oh well
!



We then headed back on the dirt
path toward Majanicho, a very tiny abandoned looking fishing village. I
had seen just one photo and since we had to go there for our next stop,
why not have a look. In the end we were both happy we did, it was quiet
and the water was really blue. There’s not much to say, it was a tiny
lagoon with boats.



On to the next place ! Hold on to
your boobs because damn they were flying everywhere, even for Lorelenn
who has way less than me. Anyways, on to Faro de Toston that we could
slowly see approaching in the distance. Of course one straight road was
too simple, we had to turn and go up and down and dodge rocks the whole
way to go. Let’s just say we were on a safari ride without the animals.
But eventually we made it and we almost cried tears of joy when we saw
that the road was paved at the lighthouse !

Cotillo was supposed to be our next
stop but Lorelenn was getting really tired and my head and hands were
starting to hurt so we decided to visit Super Dino for some sandwich
food and dinner before going to our last stop at Volcan Calderon Hondo
which we had to travel through Lajares for. Lajares seemed really cute,
a lot of cute looking houses and restaurants, we didn’t stop though but
it left a good impression on us anyways. Maybe we’ll go back another
day. Anyways, we drove another ‘road’ to the volcanoes, sadly the walk
was 4h long only to the top so I took Lorelenn to an open crater instead
so she could still see a volcano up close. We’ll be seeing more later on
in the trip anyways but they’ve been following us in the background all
day and it’s even better to see them up close.





And that was our first day after an
adventure of going back down the hobbly mountain. We had tiny pizzas for
dinner and a choco croissant variant as dessert. Tomorrow we’ll probably
eat some carbonara. Very excited for tomorrow’s adventures ! See ya !
Mondag, 28
November 2022
Another day on Fuerteventura which means another day of adventure on
dirt roads.
This morning was looking grim with the sky being very cloudy when we
woke up, so we thought of bringing our vests because it might’ve been
colder where we were going but as we were heading further and further
from Costa de Antigua the sun came out and the skies were blue again. By
the time we arrived at our destination, there were no more clouds in the
sky. Lucky !
The road to our first stop was very vast and just as impressive to see,
like a desert that’s broken up by giant mountains. So, stop one was the
Molinos de Tefia. I had heard of one of them but in the end, found
another one on google maps by chance. The old and the new, I’d say but
both were very cute I have to admit. Sadly we couldn’t go in nor up the
stairs for a different kind of view. I’m pretty sure Lorelenn and I got
pictures from all angles. From the old windmill we headed to the newer
one ? Actually I don’t know which one was older but they both looked way
different from each other. I preferred the second one, it had a better
view around it but it was very tiny and adorable. So after another few
pics, we headed out again.
Next stop we headed to Embalse de los Molinos. What shall I say ? The
road to this place, I kept thinking we took a wrong turn somewhere but
it was a straight road.. So none to make. We were on a hard road and
had to turn left onto another.. You guessed it, dirt path. So there went
our insides again. But it was less hobbly than the one we took yesterday
and again, it was really worth it. The whole way we were completely
alone so many we stopped to have a look at the surroundings. We were so
in awe, we never would have thought that there was a valley alongside us
if we hadn’t stopped. We saw some goats, wild ones probably just
climbing the rocks. We also found our lava rocks that we’ll be bringing
home with us. Arriving at the end of the dirt road, we finally saw the
dam and were happy to see we could even walk on it. The views were
great, and the ducks.. Or geese, I actually have no clue were really
interesting too. They made really weird sounds and they looked caramel
brown with white. They were having fun in the dirty water, that’s for
sure. We had a look at the abandoned building next to the dam but that
was too spooky for us so we chickened out.
The dam road was one-way so we headed the same road back towards Los
Molinos where we had a very sharp road towards the three houses that
make this village apparently a village. There was however a restaurant
and we think 2 surfer houses. It was cute though, we didn’t do much but
they had a small bridge we walked by with ducks Lorelenn terrorized by
offering them nothing in her hand. You could just see the disappointment
on the ducks’ faces.
Anyways, as she went up the cliffs, I headed to the water. The photos
look great and I’m actually happy we went all the way down even though
there was nothing. Again, we headed backwards on the road and went to
our next stop.
The roads here and out were pretty good except when you headed to the
beach.. You guessed it, we headed to Playa del Valle. Funky road to go
all the way down the mountain just to see some water. Again, worth it
but there was nothing, just one little restaurant overlooking the sea
and it was closed. So we instead explored a bit by climbing some small
rocks until we noticed the tide was becoming higher and higher. I told
Lorelenn to get up a higher rock as I thought I was safe. My wet sandals
say differently. Feet wet and Lorelenn now stuck on a rock surrounded by
water, this rock climbing had become a rescue mission. I put my
electronics back on the beach, high enough before going back to the
water to grab Lorelenn on my back. This all sounds very heroic but
honestly were looked very dumb and clumsy but we were having a blast.
Anyways, we got back to dry land safely, nothing broken and only my
sandals and feet wet. We sat down on a big rock we knew we couldn’t get
wet on and at our lunch. The waves were really wild and high, very
impressive ! When the water was almost getting to our rock, we decided
it was time to leave.
Next stop, Mirador de Morro Velosa. As the name implies, we headed from
the beach all the way up in the clouds. A viewpoint to see everywhere we
had been in the morning and of course a good part of the island. We were
again in awe at the view. Everything was yellow and orange. Sadly the
visitor center was closed, everyone else hopped the fence but we decided
to not participate in criminal activities and simply enjoyed the view
from where we could. In the distance we saw a stop we had planned
another day but since it was so close, we just went for it. This was
Mirador de Guise y Ayose. Two kings in protecting the Furtaventurian
land from the Normans in 1404 and turned christian later on.Sadly I
didn’t take a picture of their story but it was interesting ! I expected
the statues to be bigger too but I was not disappointed.
We took the car again and headed back down to Antigua to walk around. I
wanted to walk around the town and maybe sit at a restaurant or café for
a drink but nothing was open. There were no people and everything was
closed, very abandoned and spooky. We were disappointed here and after
walking around a few blocks, headed back to the car. I think that if it
were not time for La Siesta and if it were summer, it might have been
crowded.
After Antigua we headed to our last stop of the day, Esculturas “Moais
de Fuerteventura”. Easter island heads in a small version made from lava
rocks. Found this stop this morning and just thought it was funny.
We headed to our home area after a few photos and decided to just walk
around the stores in the area. The IKEA was super tiny, it was very
funny. The choice in furniture was limited, I’m guessing a lot of people
here have the same stuff.. They didn’t even offer the hotdogs !
Sacrilège ! I was in the mood for one too. Next to the IKEA was
Superbarato. This one was gigantic, at least four normal stores could
fit in it and they had literally everything it’s ridiculous. Also not
expensive at all. I bought hair rollers for my fringe, Lorelenn got some
stuff for her dog and family and we decided to get matching keychains as
a souvenir.
Afterwards we quickly headed to the Lidl for something to drink but left
with more than we needed, it’s ridiculous that we don’t have self
control ! Ok, at least we got some fruit with our very sweet desserts.
That was our day, now onto tomorrow where we’re taking off where we left
at the statues.
Cheerio, Mariecke
Tuesday, 29
November 2022
Day three started with clouds in the sky and cold feet in bed, but hey,
yesterday everything went okay as the sun came out later on.. So we
didn’t panic. Sitting at our table, we ate breakfast and finished
uploading the photos from the day before as the wifi here has been very
slow. But while this was all happening, I discovered that I can download
offline maps on google and have saved my phone’s data ! I can now turn
on my GPS anywhere on the island and not use any internet. Technology
sucks a lot but also saves me just as much.
Anyways, we finally started the day and took the long 44min drive to
Mirador Astronomical Sicasumbre. The road was long but oh boy did I not
regret taking it because it was beautiful. We passed through Pajara
which was particularly adorable looking and we want to go back another
day. We slowly got more elevated and the views quickly became stunning
360° all around. We weren't even on the highest point ! First part of
the mountain was the parking, the second you had goat statues and the
third part you had the astronomical rock circle where you could see many
valleys of the mountains/volcanoes. We sat there for a while before
heading back down with the car.
The next stop was Ajuy, a small coastal town where I wanted to walk
around and if possible even get to the caves but high tide kept us from
exploring every crevice. So walking along the bright white and blue
houses, we managed to get to our first official black sanded beach and
it was a delight. The water looked very turquoise next to the black
sand. The waves were going wild too and kept smashing against the
cliffs. The latter we could walk on, so we took the small passageway up
for a better view of everything. In the distance we could see the caves
and even a sign that would’ve indicated where we should’ve walked to go
to them but high water almost going into the caves showed us it was a
bad idea. Having a nice long look around, we headed back and decided to
go eat at our first restaurant, a small restaurant that was called Cueva
de Ajuy Restaurante. Pedro, our server, was very nice and reminded me a
little of Guillaume at Camping La Plage where Emma works, same Golden
Retriever attitude ! We had some garlic shrimps and some puntillos de
calamar which were absolutely delicious.
Lunch eaten, we were ready to head to our next stop at Mirador Barranco
del Aceituno and a bit further in the mountains Mirador del Risco de La
Palmas and then after that Mirador Las Peñitas. These viewpoints were
all next to each other yet you had different views every time. Lorelenn
once more was preoccupied with the local Cabras way in the distance as I
was more interested in the scenery. There was a cave that we wanted to
go to but it seemed way out of reach, so while I was having fun admiring
the surroundings, Lorelenn tried to get up to it as the view from it
would’ve been pretty good, and there was a random palm tree there too !
Sadly you had to climb to it so she didn’t go all the way and we soon
went on with our trip. Skipping a few stops as it was getting later in
the day, we decided to keep a hike at Vega de Rio Palma for a different
day and head straight to Betancuria.
Betancuria was a village we had seen from afar the day before at the
Guise and Ayose statues. I had imagined it being bigger as you see the
name appear in blogs and comments online but it’s actually really small.
We both agree that only the town center was interesting and nice
looking. It was very taken care of and we saw many of the beautiful
flower trees that latin countries in Europe seem to put everywhere, very
colorful ! We really liked it and actually wanted to sit at a café for a
drink but everyone was closing.. It seems we can’t get the hang of the
local rhythm ! Whenever we want to have lunch or sit down for a drink
it’s either time for la siesta or time to close ! Bummer, real bummer..
I hope we’ll have more luck one of the next days.
Clouds had started to take over the sky so this meant we were heading
home, it was 6 pm anyways so we headed home. The struggle with our wifi
went on and we’re simply preparing the next day. They announced sun for
tomorrow and thursday but Friday and Saturday it should rain, I pray it
won’t but we’ll see.
See you for another adventure tomorrow !
Cheerio, Mariecke
Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Today was another cloudy morning, but it had become routine to us that
the sun would come out, and as we approached Coralejo, it did.
We had a fun day planned, we were supposed to go to Isla de Lobos from
10a.m until 13.20p.m and then snorkel in the turquoise water we’ve been
seeing during our trip.. But when we arrived at Coralejo’s port, we
found out there would be none of that. The captain of the ship told us
the boat would not be moving as there’s too much wind, the waves were
too high at Lobos to dock.
We were so disappointed, but it is a reason to come back another time in
the future I suppose. Heads held low, we headed back to the car to go to
the beach instead as we were already wearing our swimwear anyways and
the sun was already out and about.
We sat down and enjoyed the time at Coralejo’s Gran Playas until the
people started to come. It was too early to see that many wieners, and
all of them were old wieners shrinking because of the cold water but the
men were still striding proudly. Kinda impressive having that much
confidence when you’ve got nothing to show off. Hats off.. Or more like,
pants off.
After the beach, we went home for a change of clothes before we went out
again towards Puerto del Rosario. I had heard many good things about the
city and thought the port was a good start, oh boy was I wrong. It was
quite a boring town I must say, there was nobody around and everything
was closed, really depressing honestly. I think that we just came at the
wrong time again or wrong time of the year honestly. We walked around,
drank a rather disappointing smoothie and headed back home again.
Today was not the best but we made the best of it by buying souvenirs
and taking a nice shower.
Tomorrow more things are planned, I think it will be filled with some
amazing views again.
Cheerio, Mariecke
Thursday,
1 December 2022
Another sunny day with a cloudy morning. It seems the weather is being
predictable at this point but it’s actually quite nice ! This lets us
organize our days better. We woke up early today, at 8a.m to leave at
8.40a.m-ish as today was going to be a long day.
The day started after an almost two hours ride to Mirador de Cofete.
Very long but I did think it was kinda worth it, however, there were
many turns in the road and as we went higher up the mountain, it did get
narrower too. Sometimes looking over the edge gave me chills but hey,
I’m writing this so I made it. The drive to the Mirador was better that
the drive we had the very first day actually and up top was great, windy
but great. You could see La Pared in the distance on one side and the
Faro punta de Jandia and I guessed that behind the mountains there was
Faro Punta Pesebre, both where I had wanted to go but Lorelenn wasn’t
convinced by. So we didn’t and instead headed back down the narrow
mountain road towards our next stop Morro Jable.
Morro Jable was a big surprise, we thought that the south would probably
be pretty calm and abandoned but not at all ! Morro Jable is where all
the shops are, and even big names like Mango and Guess. This is the
center of tourism ! I’ve never heard so much German in one place. The
town/city had an actual boulevard you could walk along and that’s where
we decided to grab some lunch. Two barbecue panini’s and nestea before
heading further along the walkway and grab an ice cream later on. I
grabbed two balls of Strawberry Cheesecake and Yogurt with Red Fruits
whereas Lorelenn grabbed Coconut and Raspberry. Delish ! Morro Jable is
also where Lorelenn absolutely fell in love with even more of the
wildlife, squirrels, cute but not gonna lie, I wasn’t there for them..
Rather, I loved the tiny parrots sitting in the palm trees instead ! I
haven’t seen these in the wild before.
Anyways, after being fed, we headed to Playa Sotavento, this was THE
beach all the blogs showed off, it looked paradise-like.. Well when we
arrived there it looked like those salt placed in the US. Completely
flat and kilometers long. The water was very clear ! I definitely want
to go back for a swim, but I think I’d be the only one out of us sadly.
The water wasn’t cold at all, it was just very windy outside of it. We
waddled along the water for a while before heading back for our next
stop.
El puertito was one of those stops I added back in June when I was
making this planning but completely forgot why because when we arrived,
there was absolutely nothing there ! The view of some cliffs were nice
though, too bad it was getting a bit cloudy though. We saw divers in the
water with flippers, I think they were looking for shell animals.
Next up was Gran Tarajal where everything was closed and a bit like a
ghost town, again, our rhythm with the locals is off but we did walk
along the coast a bit for the statues. It had a lot of potential of
being very touristic. But oh well.
After some disappointment, we had some great success at Faro de la
Entallada ! The lighthouse stood tall on a mountain which was kinda
interesting and a really narrow road to get to it. Luckily mother wasn’t
in the car, I could hear her nagging in the back of my head the whole
way up because she’d be scared. I’m pretty proud of my driving, I must
say. I’m almost a local, ignoring the speed limit, not using blinkers
and not saying thanks for anything ! Yeah, speed indicators are just
suggestions, even police don’t keep to them. Anyways, that’s another
subject ! The lighthouse was way different than we had seen before,
white with black bricks here and there and a nice clear light bulb. It
was stunning ! Definitely recommend going !
After the lighthouse, we headed to the last stop which was Pozo Negro, a
tiny village of like five or six houses overlooking the sea just as
Majanicho did but just in a more wider size. I actually quite liked the
look of the place, small and cute and nicely painted houses again. We
didn’t stay long though, hunger was upon us and so were the clouds
meaning it was getting late.
We didn’t have any bread for our next two lunches so we had to go to the
shop, tried out the Mercadona this time and it’s pretty good too ! Until
now, grocery stores have been quite cheap I must say, I’ve been quite
enjoying it.
Anyways, that’s it for today, my organized days are now over so we’ll
see what we’re going to do next. Hopefully another adventure.
See ya soon.
Cheerio, Mariecke
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