I must admit that I love the coziness of the Christmas season. A white Christmas with yummy baking and hot chocolate with a Christmas tree is a kind of restful Christmas break I look forward to, and of course, getting together with friends and family and cooking for people. But when the opportunity doesn't afford itself to you, you might as well do something entirely different, so we decided to go somewhere sunny for Christmas instead. We enjoyed our time in the Canary Islands last year and decided to return this year but to visit a different island (there are 5 in total where there are hotels). We looked at options in both Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, and in the end, the latter, specifically a hotel in Morro Jable, was the one that seemed to offer what we wanted most: proximity to both beach and nearby amenities for restaurants, snacks, groceries, water, and anything else we might find we need in case we forgot to pack something.
The trip didn't start out too ideally for me. For the first time in our life in the UK, I was sick for part of our travels. I had come down with a cold a couple of days before we left, and the travel day that we had was hard on me as I was unable to lie down and sleep properly for the majority of the day, especially as our flight arrived about 90 minutes late, and we still had another 90-minute journey from the airport to our hotel. The next couple of days, I couldn't do much. The first day after we arrived, I had enough energy to go to the beach to lie there for a while and at least enjoy the sun, but the second day was a write-off. I stayed in bed all day except to go out and eat since I had no choice. Thankfully, the day after that, I woke up feeling much clearer, and I felt like I could finally actually do something interesting aside from lying around.
Although I was in better health, we decided to still have more of a low-key day. I was able to get back to the beach and actually went in the water. It's a bit cold at this time of year. The weather is sunny and not too hot, averaging around 22ºC-23ºC, but the water is a bit cooler than that. I read that the average temperate of the water at this time of year is 19.8ºC, so it's hard just to jump right in unless you enjoy a shock to the system (you'll never find me doing a polar swim!). Like last year, I had to ease my way into it, but once you're in, it actually feels quite comfortable and refreshing, and it actually seemed a bit warmer than Gran Canaria last year. We also popped out to rent a car. The place we went to initially was all booked up, so we tried somewhere else that wouldn't rent to us for just one day, so we booked the car for two, but the island is much less populated than Gran Canaria and seems less attractive to tourists, so getting parking was easy and free for the overnight period, and it gave us a lot of freedom to explore, as we came to enjoy over those next two days. In the evening, we decided to do some stargazing after dinner. We'd always pop out after sunset to walk down the promenade to where the restaurants were, and by the time we'd walk back to the hotel, the stars were out in full force. There isn't that much light pollution, so it was really beautiful to spend time looking at the stars, and my husband's phone camera can actually take quite decent photos of the stars--the stars are actually more visible on the phone than with the naked eye--so we enjoyed looking at them and identifying various constellations and planets. Indeed, for planets, we could see Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus just with our own eyes. Most of these we miss in London due to not only light pollution but also just buildings being in the way as some, like Venus, tend to be lower on the horizon. Here, we could watch the stars over the ocean with little to spoil our view.
Road Trip Day 1 - Pájara, Puerto del Rosario, and Places in Between
According to the map we had, there were various lookout points of interest for picturesque views. We started by driving to one that was only about half an hour away, but the entry into town was not obvious as it was a very local-looking dirt road, so we thought there would be a paved entrance ahead and were wrong. We decided just to keep driving instead of turning around, and we ended up in a quaint little town called Pájara. We stopped for a coffee and bathroom break and walked around a bit before hitting the road again to see where it would take us. The neat thing about the main roads on the island is that they pretty much all connect, so you're not going to get too lost, and they didn't seem to have quite as many switchback type roads we experienced in Gran Canaria despite appearing to be a hillier island, so overall, it was much less stressful to drive around without having much aim. We happened upon two lookout points on our journey. One was to see the village of Vega de Rio Palmas, which is situated in a reservoir that allows them some level of agricultural production. Evidence of past production can still be seen in the area as well. I was able to get a good photo of the little chapel where it's believed that the Virgen la Peña appeared and to which you can do a hermitage trek to it. I got photos of a backpacking couple doing that. I also found it interesting that there were some abodes nearby that looked abandoned but that were really camouflaged into the rock. One of the hills you can see there is called Ayuleta or also Teta de la Vieja; I found it funny that they left the names in Spanish in the English translation because the second one is a little rude--and when you see the photo, you'll think it does look like it, but it's a bit of a rude way to say "old woman's breast." Indeed, even when I saw it, I thought it looked like a breast before I even read the plaque.
Then the other the other lookout point, this time at Morro Velosa, affording more scenery from the top of some large hills. There are two statues there representing the two kingdoms that appeared to exist when the Normans, who were there before the Spanish, conquered the island. Like the other islands in the archipelago, Fuerteventura was formed by volcano, but it's the oldest of all the islands and so there has been more erosion and change over time. I don't have the geological knowledge to explain it adequately, but the main thing to know is that the volcanic activity combined with time are what gives the island the landscape it has. I was also able to photograph some of the flora and fauna (like the Barbary ground squirrel) that live there--the island is mainly desert, and there are some small critters and pretty flowers that do grow there. I'll have a separate photo album for the birds and critters later in the post.
We didn't really know what else to do at this point, so we drove on to the capital, Puerta del Rosario to grab some lunch and see if there was anything interesting there. It wasn't as interesting as Gran Canaria's capital, so after eating, we just walked around the area a little and just headed back to the hotel. There was a small beach there, and the water was as turquoise as anywhere else, plus we saw where the big cruise ships dock and saw people getting off one. We also saw some guy feeding the fish, so I was able to get photos of some of the local fish, some of which I believe to be European anchovies, and the rest were unidentifiable as we just don't know enough about the local fish, and it's hard to ID them when they are obscured by water.
Road Trip Day 2 - Cuevas de Ajuy
We had seen a sign for these caves the previous day, but we didn't know what the roads would be like, and the rental place told us that we had to stick to paved roads, so we didn't want to chance getting stuck in a place we shouldn't be with that vehicle and/or have a hard time getting out of (my husband was still getting used to driving the standard again after not having driven one since a year ago). After some research, we discovered that the caves were very easy to get to, and they have geological and paleontological significance, so that was our plan for the day. Before we arrived, we stopped at another lookout point called Sicasumbre. It's supposed to have some astronomical significance, but the information at the top didn't really tell us much about why it was significant. The main connection I could see is that it's been declared a UNESCO Starlight Reserve, so in that sense, there's an astronomical connection, but otherwise you're led to believe it was some sacred site when it most likely wasn't. I saw a small lizard, called the Atlantic lizard, that apparently only lives on the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, and I was feeling pretty happy to have seen something so localised. The site is a short but somewhat steep walk up to the peak of the hill, and when we returned to the little parking area, I turned to look behind me across the road and noticed something watching me: a Fuerteventura Stonechat. I wasn't sure what it was at first, and I only got a couple of photos before it flew off, but it had a shape I was unfamiliar with, and I was excited to learn what bird it was when I went to ID it later and learned it is a bird that only lives on Fuerteventura and that it is endangered. It meant I was privileged to see a bird I couldn't see anywhere else and that I might not have even seen on this island since their populations are declining.
When we arrived at the Cuevas de Ajuy (pronounced ah-hoo-EE), we weren't really sure what to expect. We knew that it was the site of the original part of the island and that it was the first of all the Canary Islands as well as that there were caves, but we didn't really get a sense of what it would look like. Certainly when I looked it up, there were photos only of the caves themselves in the site I read. So we were pleasantly amazed by a beach of black lava sand flanked by rocky cliffs and huge, turquoise waves crashing against them. My husband even got his feet wet by accident as we weren't expecting the flow of the waves to come up the beach as high as they did. I was a bit farther away and was able to get out of the way in time, but he couldn't outrun it. At least it was warm out! Once we enjoyed some time watching the waves and sand, we walked up to the pathway to get to the caves.
The Cuevas de Ajuy are a series of underground caves land are located near the village of Ajuy, on the northwest coast of the island. The caves were formed by a series of volcanic tubes that were created by volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. In addition, the caves are also known for their beautiful and intricate rock formations, including stalactites, stalagmites, and columns. As I mentioned earlier, the caves were also the site of where the Normans, and specifically Jean de Béthancourt, arrived on the island. The nearby town of Betancuria is named after him. At the caves site, limestone was exported to the other islands and to other countries. It is uncommon to find limestone and lava mixed together this way, apparently, and the lime was also extremely pure. It was mined and exported here from the 19th to the mid 20th Centuries, and the remnants still remain, such as the staircase leading to one of the caves and some old walls that perhaps were part of a dock. It's hard to imagine anything docking there, though, since the waves keep crashing around the little bay area, and it seems like the water would never be stable enough. Anyway, there is also a layer of rock in the area that has fossils in it as well. I photographed some shells in the rock, but I don't know if they are fossils or not, but it was interesting to see the shells embedded in the rock that way, and it would have been a while since they were embedded there since the rock was up pretty high from the water. We were able to explore down in the caves a little bit, which were dry toward the back, but we didn't stay long as there wasn't much to really do, and we didn't get to see any stalactites or anything interesting like that, so we headed back to the town to treat ourselves to some ice cream. It was a really fun trip to explore that area and something we hadn't really expected, so that made it even more enjoyable.
Miscellaneous
There are a few random things to mention that didn't fit well anywhere else. One thing is the harshness of the land. We stopped in the middle of nowhere just to feel the wind and get close to the landscape, and I was able to photograph what I thought was the road was some sort of red flower that covered parts of the land in droves, but it turned out to be dried up, dead plants of some sort! We also noticed how many dry riverbeds there were, which belie the notion that it is dry and desert-like all the time. Evidently there is water that comes in large enough quantities to create these little riverbeds, and it would be interesting to see what it's like then. The hills themselves reminded me of the Badlands in Alberta since you could see where the run-off parts were on the hills when the rain does fall. We also noticed that there were old stone homes that are now falling apart all over the landscape as well. Who they were is mystery to me, but it was interesting to see all these old places. Also, on Christmas day, we had another lax day and spent the day on the beach. The waves were coming from the south instead of southeast and seemed to bring in a bunch of fish with them, perhaps the same kind we saw in Puerta del Rosario. I couldn't get photos of them as I wasn't willing to take my phone or camera over the water, but we could see them through the water and even in the waves when they washed toward the beach. It was fun watching them.
Sunrise, Sunset
From our room's balcony, we could see the sunset every day, and if we went out our hotel door, we could see the sunrise from the other side. We took several photos and also took great pleasure in timing them to see if they really do come up and go down according to schedule, and they really do! You see the sun peek out at the sunrise time and the last of the little curve to pop beneath the horizon right at the sunset time. It was fun to watch that. There are enough photos that I wanted to create an album, not just to see the rising and setting but also because they are warm and glowing photos that I think will warm up some of my readers in the cold winter just by seeing the colour, even if they can't feel the heat.
Food
One Christmas evening, we enjoyed a huge buffet dinner that we reserved a spot for. There were lots of different types of fish and seafood, various kinds of steaks, a cheese platter, and many more types of delicious foods (if you had space for them all), and of course, a huge array of fruits and desserts. It was quite decadent. We had eaten seafood at some of the restaurants on the promenade as well, trying some local, fresh fish. One night, my husband had bluefish, and another night, I tried barracuda. I had some other fish as well, but I didn't catch the name of it in Spanish, and they are called different things than in English, so I don't know what I actually ate, though it was tasty. The barracuda was good as well, but it's a very substantial, meaty fish, and I was really full from it. One thing that was interesting to me was the size of the capers. They also looked like the flower buds they are, and I feel like if I had grown up with capers like this, no one could have fooled me into believing they were fish eggs at one point.
The Lighthouse
There's a beautiful lighthouse near our hotel, and we walked down to it on the morning we were leaving. It allowed us to learn about the wetland space surrounding it, and I was surprised to learn that not only was there a wetland (the only one on the island) but that it's mainly sourced by the seawater when the tide is in. I didn't realise wetlands could be supported by saltwater and thought that there were only freshwater sources for wetlands.
Cats
There are a number of stray cats along the promenade that both tourists and local people seem to feed. Some of them are even friendly, and people will pet them. There was a black cat that appeared to be the guardian of our hotel, and he or she seemed old and content, and we once caught him or her even within the grounds of the hotel, despite the door for which you need your room key to get in from the beach! I also saw another critter pass by one of the local cats-- some sort of hedgehog that lives on the island, I believe, but it was dark out, and it moved swiftly into a hole in the rock, so I couldn't figure out what it actually was.
Birds & Other Fauna
The first day of our road trip, I noticed what appeared to be a white egret flying toward a treed/park-like area, and I was trying to follow where it landed. I couldn't see it, but trying to follow it led my eyes to noticed something unusual, something that looked like an ibis. After we parked near our hotel, I walked back to where I saw the birds, only about a 20-minute walk, and was elated to find the ibises still there. It turned out they are hadada ibises. They aren't native to the area, but they do come from West Africa, so it's not unreasonable for them to live there. I also discovered some cattle egret--the white egret I had initially noticed but wasn't sure of--up in some of the trees. I was able to get some good photos of all these birds. It turns out there was a hotel that imported a bunch of birds for its botanical gardens, and though the hotel has closed, the birds have persisted in the area, though they don't seem to be invasive.
On the morning we walked to the lighthouse, I was also treated to another new bird, Berthelot's pipit. It was such a cute, sweet little bird, that was just hopping around, had a lot of energy, and didn't seem overly concerned about my presence. Watching it was just delightful! I have included only a handful of my bird photos here, but do check out my bird blog in a day or two from this posting to see more photos of these birds if you're interested. I also got several excellent photos of the birds I discovered last year in Gran Canaria: the monk parakeet. They were on the fence and the ground, so I didn't have to worry about them hiding or being obscured by trees.
I also wanted to mention how lovely it was to see pigeons (a.k.a. rock doves) in their natural habitat. They have become urbanised to become feral pigeons that we consider pests, but they are actually lovely birds that should be living in cliffs. They even have natural camouflage that makes you know this is truly their natural habitat.
In addition to the lizards, squirrels, and birds I've mentioned. I also got a photo (albeit a poor one) of a herd of goats. They mostly seem to roam the island and were brought over, and as a non-native species that is able to eat a lot of things that other animals can't, their grazing has been harmful to the environment as they destroy some of areas where critters can live through eating their way through the habitat. It's a harsh land and difficult enough for things to live, so the goats definitely don't help. I'd spot individual ones or groups of 2 or 3 here or there all over the island.
I'm really going to miss travelling to places like these islands. I do enjoy beach vacations, but I have discovered that I prefer them in Europe, or at least at Spanish beaches (I've also enjoyed the Mediterranean in Barcelona), because people just mind their own business. There are various shapes and sizes of people, some clothed, some not, and no one really cares what you look like. I feel like in North America, that's not the case, and so even though I wouldn't turn down a trip to a nice beach there, I don't feel the same sense of being carefree as I do in Europe. Perhaps on occasion we'll be able to save up for some European summer vacations in the future so that I can enjoy these types of places again from time to time.
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