All posts by Fuertecharter Team

Fuerteventura

Majorero cheese museum in Fuerteventura

From July 24th 2014, Fuerteventura has a Monographic Museum of majorero cheese. This cheese got its designation of origin on February 16th 1996, and since then it has become one attraction in Fuerteventura due to its first rate quality.

The inauguration of the museum took place in the Visitors’ centre, in the mill of Antigua, where the premises of this museum are.

The aim of the Majorero cheese Museum is to show the value of the livestock culture in Fuerteventura, associated with the goat and cheese, and its promotion as a tourist attraction.

The Majorero cheese Museum has a true didactic purpose where several rooms are distributed along the 515m2 they take up. They are classified into different topics and functional areas where they tell the two-thousand-year history this island has devoted to raise goats.

In the different units, information panels can be found, of course in different languages, as well as reproductions of natural areas that guide us in a tour of the cheese world culture:

– In one of the information areas they speak just about Fuerteventura, characteristics of the island, its weather, fauna and flora, its orography and geology.

– Another one deals with the majorera goat, as a representative icon of Fuerteventura, since one of the hallmarks of our island, often surprising the tourist, is to see free-running goats throughout the landscape in the island. In this section of the museum there is some information about the majorera goat and its relationship to its surrounding area, the different kinds of goats and the majorera race, its morphology, milking, shepherding…

– A third section of this museum tells us about the history and culture of the Majorero cheese, a fatty cheese with a strong smell, which has been elaborated throughout history in an artisan way, and nowadays also in an industrial way, having received important awards due to its quality both at home and abroad, getting the designation of origin on February 16th 1996. This is a hard-pressed cheese, and it’s made of majorera goat milk, although up to a 15% of Sheep milk from the Canary Islands can be added if the cheese is to be cured. The main secret for the success of the majorero cheese is owed to the excellent quality of its thick, aromatic, full fat majorera goat milk, the goats being able to produce up to 2 and a half litres per day, free of impurities, medicaments, preservatives and colostrum. In this museum area further information about the characteristics of this cheese, its elaboration and perfect pairings can be found, as well as majorero cheese recipes, its nutritional aspects, data about its designation of origin, the different cheeses in the Canary Islands…

– And lastly, there is a tasting room and Fuerteventura cheese shop so the visitor can, apart from knowing the history of this product, taste it and make a personal evaluation.

In the surroundings of the museum we also find the mill of Antigua, declared an asset of cultural interest in the monument category in 1994, and the restaurant, which will shortly be out to tender.
In our private boat trips or two-day charters Fuertecharter never forgets the Majorero cheese, as an added value, to offer our clients the tasting of one of the best products in our land.

FuerteCharter’s Team

Islote de Lobos

Lobos’ lighthouse

The lighthouse has always been an essential element for men’s life, has allowed them to develop and make progress towards new discoveries, even nowadays it keeps being a great reference point for sailors.

If many people know Alexandria Lighthouse, The Colossus or The Tower of Hercules, here in The Canary Islands there is one lighthouse which stands out particularly: Martiño’s Lighthouse, also known as Lobo’s lighthouse, which we can see everyday in our boat trips from Corralejo.

It stands out for many reasons: how long it took to build it, five years, due to several difficulties that arose, such as the transport of building materials carried first by camels, then by ships and in the third place by indigenous donkeys found in the very islet of Lobos; or maybe because of the nature of the islet, totally uninhabited, reason why they also had to build houses, underground cisterns, paths and yards so that the engineers, builders and the rest of workers could live for as long as the lighthouse works lasted.

Martiño’s Lighthouse started to be built in 1860, after the General Lighting Plan for the Canary Island was passed, and up to now this is the only Official building existing in Lobos. It very much looks like the lighthouses in Pechiguera and the island of Alegranza, in Lanzarote, because the three of them were planned by the same engineer, the renowned Juan León y Castillo, born in Gran Canaria.

The final outcome was a lighthouse with neoclassical style, white and yellow, 29m above sea-level. Besides the cylindrical-conical tower of the lighthouse, which is 6m. high, there is a one-storey building attached, which at the beginning was Juan León y Castillo’s occasional residence, when he visited the islet to supervise the project and later on it would be the lighthouse-keeper and his family’s residence. A cistern for the lighthouse itself was also built, located under the lighthouse, and it stored rainwater coming from the rooftop terrace to ensure water supply.

The lighthouse was first lit in 1865, a sixth class lighthouse registered in nautical charts with the international number D-2786. The main function it fulfils is that of

lighting with beacons the passage of vessels through the Bocaina Strait separating Fuerteventura from Lanzarote, and forming a triangle with Tostón Lighthouse in El Cotillo and Pechiguera lighthouse in Lanzarote.

With Lobos and its Martiño’s Lighthouse more specifically several personalities are related, among them writers like Josefina Plá, daughter of the lighthouse keeper Leopoldo Plá, who was born in 1903 and was brought up in the very lighthouse although later on she would develop her career in Paraguay. Or José Rial, who was a lighthouse keeper in Lobos since 1913 and thirteen years later he would write a novel about the island and his experiences there. Another renowned person was Antonio Hernández Páez, also known as Antoñito “the lighthouse keeper”, who actually was the last one to develop this task from the year 1936 until 1968, and also the last one to inhabit this islet. Antoñito also set up a typical restaurant there, at present run by his descendants and where you can taste fresh fish and delicious “paella” as an extra activity to be added to our trips from Corralejo.

So, it’s highly recommendable to visit Lobos and its lighthouse because of its history and the natural charm of the islet. Moreover, the visitor who climbs up Martiño’s lighthouse will enjoy breathtaking views.

FuerteCharter’s Team

Fuerteventura

Fiestas de Nuestra Señora del Carmen en Corralejo

Un año más la entrada del mes de julio da paso a las ansiadas Fiestas en honor a Nuestra Señora del Carmen, patrona de Corralejo y protectora de los marineros.

Vecinos, asociaciones y empresas de la localidad llevan semanas preparándose para festejar a su patrona, con amor y devoción, dando lo mejor de cada uno para que el pueblo luzca engalanado en estos días especiales.

Desde la Edad Media, el nombre de María estaba asociado a “estrella del mar” (stella maris en latín), y muchos monjes carmelitas aclamaban a María como “La Flor del Carmelo” (el Monte Carmelo, en el actual Israel, ha sido un lugar de devoción desde la antigüedad) y la “Estrella del Mar”, de ahí los inicios de la relación del nombre del Carmen y el mar. Y fue hacia el siglo XVIII, cuando el almirante mallorquín Antonio Barceló Pont de la Terra, comenzó a celebrar esta festividad con su marinería, sustituyendo al por entonces patrón de los marineros que era San Telmo.

Desde aquel momento, en el día 16 de julio se conmemora el día de Nuestra Señora del Carmen —fecha en la que, según la tradición, en 1251, la Virgen se apareció a San Simón Stock, entregándole sus hábitos y un escapulario, signo principal de la orden de los Carmelitas, para que constituyera dicha orden, prometiendo liberar del Purgatorio a todas las almas que en vida hubieran portado dicho escapulario—, y en muchas localidades españolas se celebran grandes procesiones marítimas donde los marineros sacan a su querida Virgen en paseo por las aguas que debe bendecir.

Sin lugar a dudas, en nuestro pueblo de Corralejo, el día 16 de julio es el más importante de estas fiestas que se prolongan hasta el día 20, con multitud de actos y celebraciones. El día 16 comenzará con una diana floreada por las calles del pueblo, a las 6:30 de la mañana, que continuará a las 12 con la función religiosa marítimo-terrestre en honor a Nuestra Señora del Carmen: procesión que sacará la imagen de la Virgen en un paseo por el mar, seguida de multitud de embarcaciones del puerto, entre las que se encontrarán nuestras embarcaciones de FuerteCarter.

Entre otros actos destacados, este año, tendrá lugar la primera edición del Festival de la Canción, iniciativa que espera contar con gran éxito en el primer año de su celebración. También se intentarán recuperar juegos tradicionales, se dará voz al IX Encuentro de Improvisadores por el Casco Antiguo de Corralejo (19 de julio), se retomará el gran asadero popular, gracias a la iniciativa de la Cofradía de Pescadores (20 de julio a partir de las 19h.), y se realizarán torneos de baloncesto, voleibol, pádel, tiro al plato, cartas, dominó, bolas, fútbol sala; tendremos proyecciones de cine, concursos fotográficos, fiestas infantiles y para la tercera edad, actuación de corales, misas, procesiones, espectáculos pirotécnicos y por supuesto la gala de elección de Mister Corralejo y de la Reina de las Fiestas.

Dentro del programa de las fiesta, este año también se ha incluido la ceremonia de clausura de la Ruta de la Tapa, que tendrá lugar el sábado 12, a partir de las 11h. de la mañana, en el hotel Barceló Corralejo Bay.

Aquí os dejamos el programa de las fiestas, para que podáis seguirlas paso a paso, sin perderos ninguno de los eventos que están preparados para disfrute del pueblo.

FuerteCharter | Corralejo

El Equipo de FuerteCharter

Fuerteventura

The alignment of El Bayuyo

Fuerteventura is the oldest volcanic island in the Canary Archipelago, where volcanoes stopped being active 10.000 years ago (La Arena mountain). The fact of being the oldest island also explains why it is the most eroded one, the buildings and volcanic cones being erected on its almost flat surface which was a fire park in the past.

A great representation of the volcanic landscape is located in the north of the island, around Corralejo. This is known as the alignment of El Bayuyo, which are several volcanoes aligned between La Caldera in the islet of Lobos and Lajares (La Caldera de Lobos, La Montaña de Bayuyo, Las Calderas, La Caldera encantada, Caldera de Rebanada, Montaña Colorada and Calderón Hondo), with NE-SW orientation and being active at the same period (recent eruptions), which made Fuerteventura grow northwards around 112 kms2, and the neighbour islet of Lobos also appeared then, as well as “el malpaís”, so characteristic in the North of this majorera island.

The volcanoes in this alignment feature a round layout and their craters are shaped like calderas. In some of them, like La Caldera de Lobos, half of the crater broke off and slid, so nowadays it has a semicircular cone.

The tour of these volcanoes is highly recommended, either on foot or by bike or car, and they are much more attractive when walking from Lajares to Corralejo, as the wonders of the landscape join the immensity of the background sea.

The first volcanic structure, which gives its name to the alignment, is La Montaña de Bayuyo (279m), located on the village of Corralejo. It’s the first mountain you can see from Lanzarote and from the islet of Lobos, where we go everyday on our boat trips from Corraejo. In La Montaña de Bayuyo, like in Calderón Hondo, there is a pathway leading to the summit to watch the crater, and it’s an area where pre-Hispanic remains of round buildings made of dry stone are kept. They are supposed to have been used as dwellings and also as a shelter for the ancient inhabitants’ cattle.

A little further to the north-east La Caldera de Lobos (127m) erupted and half of its volcanic cone slid and submerged under the water. Following towards the NE-SW you find Las Calderas (248m), a volcano on whose foot we find several “hornitos”, which are a kind of mini-volcanoes or holes existing on the lava casting through which gases, and sometimes lava, were released. Then we find la Caldera Encantada (235m) and la Caldera de Rebanada (253m).

And finally, already getting to the little village of Lajares, we find Calderón Hondo (278m) and Montaña Colorada (248m). Calderón Hondo is one of the deepest and most perfect volcanic cones in the island (70m deep). The pathway that goes to the summit is prepared for the tourists who want to visit it, cobbled and signposted, it even has a viewpoint built to watch the caldera at leisure and landscape binoculars that offer breathtaking views of the north of the island.

Out of this alignment, a little further to the north-west, we find Montaña de Lomo Blanco and Montaña de la Mancha, whose volcanoes also released lava casting, thus gaining ground to the sea, although later on it would be overlapped by the lava casting from El Bayuyo. The word “Bayuyo” is a “guanche” term, comes from the “amazigh” and is related to spiritual matters: charmed clouds, floating objects or spirits coming from the sea.

From Fuertecharter, we encourage you to discover those wonderful volcanoes on foot or, if you want to venture on our boat trips, to find out their breathtaking views from the sea.

FuerteCharter’s Team

Fuerteventura

Reintroduction of the Monk Seal in Fuerteventura

Last June 12th it took place in Corralejo the sixth meeting of working on the Action Plan for the recovery of the Monk seal in the Mediterranean and the Eastern Atlantic, where environmental technicians specialised on the monk seal (Monachus monachus) showed case studies that prove that the Eastern Canary Islands (Fuerteventura and Lanzarote) provide the ideal environment for the reintroduction of this species, which disappeared from our coasts in The Middle Ages.

As we told you in our previous article, the islet of Lobos we visit every day in our boat trips from Corralejo, was in ancient times the habitat of this species, because of the peace and quiet and the quality of its water.

The Monk Seal is one of the most primitive species that exist, dating back to 14 thousand years.

This primitivism can be the cause of their great sensitivity towards the human intrusiveness, much more developed than in other phocidae species. And as they always lived in remote and isolated places, free from the threat by terrestrial aquatic predators, they developed a trusting nature, tame and docile, not feeling the need to run away, which is why they have always been at a disadvantage when the threats of the modern world have triggered.

The number of monk seals throughout history has declined due to different reasons:

– The pollution of their habitat: oil spills, black tides…
– The overbuilding in the coast and the access to almost every corner of the coasts, which has turned the man into an intruder of their peaceful corners.
– The sea traffic and its spills, noise, accidents…
– The aggressions they have suffered straight by the men, in many occasions by fishermen who have seen in this species a threat for their catch and they have chosen to get rid of them.
– The development of the fishing gears, which have turned into true traps for the specimens of this species.

The alert on the possible extinction of this species at a global level has set into motion different projects of recovery, such as the one developed by The General Direction of Nature Conservation in the Ministry of Environment and the Regional Environment Vice-Ministry from the Canary Islands, which is trying to reintroduce this species to the Spanish fauna through the Eastern Canary Islands: Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, locations which enjoy unbeatable characteristics for this purpose.

At present, the biggest representation of monk seals in the Mediterranean is found in the colonies in Madeira and Cabo Blanco (boundary between Mauritania and the Western Sahara). The aim of this reintroducing project is that of moving out the specimens of the colony in Cabo Blanco to our coasts, so as to ensure a natural genetic corridor communicating the depleted population from Madeira with that from Cape Verde, thus trying to stop them from being isolated in space, as one of the biggest dangers they are exposed to is that of being concentrated all of them on the same area and any natural disasters (black tide, virus infections, accidents) could exterminate a great deal of them.

This project is still on feasibility study and has recently been approved by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The Scientific institutions in charge of carrying out these studies are the University of Palmas de Gran Canaria and the University of Barcelona.

The quality of the water, the wealth in marine biodiversity in the Canary Islands and the amount of protected areas in the island turn our waters into an ideal place to achieve the aims of this project.

At present there are other similar projects of recovery of this colony in Hawaii, Madeira, Mauritania, and Morocco, which are getting very good results as confirmed by Pablo Fernández de Larrinoaga, from the CBD-Habitat Foundation.

FuerteCharter’s Team

FAUNA AND FLORA, Islote de Lobos

The monk seal: an ancient inhabitant in our coasts

As many of you know, one of the greatest attractions of our boat trips from Corralejo is the visit to our neighbour islet of Lobos.

The islet of Lobos was named like this after a colony where a great deal of monk seals from the Mediterranean (Monachus monachus),also known as sea lions or sea cows, lived and nowadays they have completely disappeared from our coasts.

The quality and marine biodiversity in these waters, together with the loneliness and isolation they enjoyed in that environment turned the islet of Lobos into an excellent retreat for the development of this species, which came to gather thousands of specimens.

When the conquest of this island began to take place these animals were chased by the conquerors, who coveted their fur, grease and meat, causing the extinction of this species in our coasts in the Middle Ages.

Description
The Monk Seal from the Mediterranean Sea is a pinniped mammal, from the family Phocidae, and it’s one of the most weird species that exist. In ancient times it inhabited the whole Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic in the North of Africa, reaching Madeira, The Canary Islands, Cape Verde and its remains date back to 12-14 thousand years.

The name of the monk seal has two different interpretations: on the one hand it makes reference to the isolated character of this species, as it inhabits coast areas which are difficult to reach and far away from the human beings —just like the monks, who retrieved themselves in secluded monasteries— and on the other hand, the wrinkles around its neck look like the shawl that Franciscan monks wear on their shoulders.

It has a strong body, with rounded head and short limbs in the shape of flippers. The usual size of males is around 300cm long, and they weigh around 350kg, while the females are around 290 cm long and weigh around 300kg. The fur covering their whole body is short and either grey or dark brown (white on their belly)

Habitat and distribution
This species usually looks for shelter in sea caves, although in the past, when there were large settlements, they also were on sand beaches. We can easily imagine them sunbathing on the beach of La Concha in the islet of Lobos.

In ancient times they spread, as we have already said, all over the Mediterranean, mainly in Spain (Baleares, Cataluña, Alicante, Murcia, Almería and The Canary Islands), but little by little, The man, the fishermen’s greed, who could see their fish shoals threatened, and the boom of tourism took this species to more and more hidden areas, and nowadays, as Spanish specimens, the only ones left are in Chafarinas Islands (Spanish colony in the Alboran Sea, to the west of Melilla).

In the rest of The Mediterranean and the Atlantic the number of these specimens has deeply declined to worrying figures, 500 specimens in the whole world, so this is one of the most endangered species in the whole planet.

Breeding
The colonies of Monk seals are led by large male adults. They usually breed in hidden caves not to be disturbed during the ten-month pregnancy, giving birth to just one seal pup that depends entirely on her for three months.

Food and habits
They live an average of 20 years, reaching their sexual maturity when they are 4. They live peacefully in herds and they don’t usually go far away from the coast but to forage for food. They eat fish and molluscs, mainly during the night. Their habit to look for food in the fishermen’s nets has turned fishermen into their enemies, and they have been chasing seals for years, which is the main reason for their having become now an endangered species.

Present Distribution
At present the biggest colony of Monk seals, discovered in 1945, is found in the Cabo Blanco Peninsula (boundary between Mauritania and Western Sahara), with 250 specimens out of the 500 in the whole world, which makes the situation even more dangerous for this species in case the area were affected by any anomalies that could end with a great deal of them being located in the same area (for example, being attacked by toxins, as it already happened in 1977). There is another colony in Madeira.

The reasons we have mentioned above make the extinction of this species an imminent event which several projects of recovery are trying to stop.

In our next article we will talk about projects of reintroduction, promoted by the General Direction of Nature Conservation in the Ministry of Environment and the Regional Environment Vice-Ministry from the Canary Islands, which is trying to reintroduce this species in the Spanish fauna through The Island.

 FuerteCharter’s Team 

FAUNA AND FLORA

Los Sebadales: life in the sandy seabed

In our FuerteCharter daily routes, with trips from Corralejo, we go through an area of interest as a marine ecosystem: “Los Sebadales” in Corralejo.

Fuerteventura is the island in the archipelago having the largest number of fine golden sand beaches, and this is why it’s known as “La playa de Canarias”. These extensive sandy areas, partly submerged, give place to the meadows of marine phanerogams — similar to the grass— but unlike seaweed they have roots  (a great deal of them, so as to anchor to the sandy soil), stems and leaves.

Marine phanerogams need a salinity ranging from the 30% to the 37%, receiving the necessary light radiation to conduct photosynthesis (which is why they are located between the intertidal area and the 60m bellow the surface when the waters are clean and clear), be anchored to a substratum of quality and be surrounded by clear nutrient-rich waters.

Out of the 66 species of marine phanerogams spread all over the world, in The Canary Islands we have 4 of them, Cymodocea nodosa, popularly known as “seba”, standing out. Etymologically, Cimódoce was one of the sea nymphs in the Greek mythology, and nodosa makes reference to the presence of knots.

Distribution
The meadows of C.nodosa, “sebadales” or “manchones” are mainly located in the most protected bays in the East, South East, South and South West, in Fuerteventura as well as in the rest of the islands. They predominate in the oriental islands, which are older and further eroded, so they have the best sandy soil.

Due to the seasonality of the vegetative growth, “los sebadales” look different depending on the season of the year. The average peak values, regarding density of feet, height, number of leaves and coverage are reached in Spring and Summer, showing more foliage and a deep green colour.

Morphology and anatomy
“La seba” is an herbaceous perennial plant, with a rugged stem (rhizome) featuring knots from where leaves sprout upwards and the roots downwards. In the ancient times the stems were chewed, as they had a sweet flavour and they were called “reveriñas”.

The leaves are long (10-70 cm) and narrow (4mm), grouped in 2 or 4 beams, being able to reach the 10 beams.

The elongation of the rhizome parallel to the soil allows the plant to spread very quickly in the case of “la seba”, being able to form a meadow in just one year.

This would be a plagiotropic growth, but orthotropic or vertical growth can also take place, helping the meadows keep their leaves over the soil when, after a storm, a great deal of sediment has covered “los sebadales” at the bottom. Thanks to this kind of growth the leaves emerge again from the sedimentary surface.

Reproduction
Like other marine phanerogams, “la seba” can reproduce itself sexually, forming flowers, fruits and seeds,  or in an asexual way (cloning) by elongating their rhizomes and forming new beams with identical genetic information.

The importance of “los sebadales”
–  They provide food and shelter to many species, being a very rich habitat in biodiversity: seaweeds (up to 53 species), fish, cuttlefish, worms, seashells, crustaceans, molluscs, echinoderms… sometimes they are even visited by our dear loggerhead turtle. They are also a laying site for many of these species, and they are considered as marine nurseries, where juvenile and restocking fish are bred.

–  They generate oxygen and a great deal of biomass thanks to the photosynthesis.

–  They play and important role in recycling nutrients: they catch and produce debris and excrete dissolved organic matter.

–  They cushion the impact of the swell and the ocean currents on the seabed, thus preventing coastal erosion as they keep the sediments thanks to their roots and rhizomes.

– They improve the quality of the water, increasing its water transparency and behaving like a biological indicator of the high degree of preservation of the coastline, that is, they ensure the best waters to bathe in.

“Los sebadales” are very sensitive plants and as we have already said they need particular environmental features in order to develop. When they change and they reach values that exceed their tolerance range the plants suffer from environmental stress; if the changes remain or intensify they can deteriorate and even die, which makes meadows disappear. When they disappear, so do the services they provide like productivity, biodiversity and preservation of the coastline. So it is up to us to preserve these environmental features as stable as possible.

With our trips from Corralejo we try to show our visitors the charms of this paradise and inform them about the fauna and flora that inhabit this biodiversity-rich corner of the planet.

FuerteCharter‘s Team.

-fuertecharter-trips from Corralejo 
FAUNA AND FLORA, Fuerteventura

Loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta)

The Loggerhead Turtle or Caretta caretta is one of the 7 species of sea turtles spreading in warm, tropical and subtropical water oceans in the world, and one of the exceptional visitors of our coasts which we sometimes are lucky to come across in our trips from Corralejo to the islet of Lobos.

Sea turtles are prehistoric reptiles which date back 200 million years according to   some fossil records, although the species we know nowadays just date back 10-60 million years. They outlived their neighbours, the big dinosaurs.
Their main characteristic, common to all the sea turtle species, is the presence of a bony shell, formed by a carapace — upper part— and a ventral shell —lower part— covering all the guts very effectively, leaving enough room to let the head, extremities and tail out. These huge sea reptiles are well adapted to living in the sea (some male specimens can spend hours under water), but they keep needing air to breath and land in the breeding season.
The Loggerhead turtle or Caretta Caretta, also known as “Caguama” turtle, got this name due to the large size of its head, as compared to the rest of sea turtles.

Distribution
They spend most of their life in the sea, in surface waters near the coast, around 13,3º and 28º.
Caretta caretta is the most cosmopolitan of all the sea turtles, and it’s spread all over the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea, with a highest representation in the Southeast Coast of Northern America (Florida is the site where you can find the highest number of nests, more than 67.000 per year) followed by the coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Indian Ocean, and the Western Coast of Australia.
In the Canary Islands, it’s the most relevant species we have and find all through the year, being mainly abundant in Spring and Summer. And as we have already said, sometimes it’s an exceptional travel companion in our boat trips from Corralejo.

Family
Although there aren’t many data about sea turtles in general, as they are long-lived species with a very complex life-cycle, it’s known that Caretta caretta belongs to the Cheloniidae family, which dates back 40 million years. This family is shared by 5 more species: The Ridley turtle, The Olive Ridley turtle, The Hawksbill turtle, The Flatback sea turtle and the Green sea turtle; most of them are endangered species.

Morphology and identification
The Loggerhead turtle features the biggest hard shell of all the species (70-95cms.) Adult male specimens weigh among 80-200kgs, although there are records of 500kg specimens, and longer than 200cms.
It’s usually brown, with reddish shades, and a yellow hue is most common in edges and the ventral shell.
It features tear glands, behind the eyes, through which it gets rid of the excess salt they ingest when swallowing sea water. This makes it look, when it’s on earth, as if it were crying.
In young specimens it’s impossible to distinguish the sex through their external appearance. Adults feature some differences: males have a bigger head, longer tails and claws, shorter ventral shell and less curved carapace than females’.
They are omnivorous and they feed specially on marine invertebrates, but they also have strong jaws which allow them to crush crabs and molluscs.

Breeding
One characteristic of this species, which keeps it bound to the land, is the need of females to approach the coast in order to dig their nests and lay their eggs there. It’s a species with a low breeding rate, as females apart from reaching their sexual maturity between the 17 and 33 years (they live between 47 and 67 years) they only lay eggs every two or three years. Moreover, out of all the eggs that hatch very few of them become adults.
For this reason, apart from the fact that many nesting beaches have disappeared, that many specimens die entangled in fishing gears, strangled in trawls, caught in plastic waste…, the Loggerhead turtle is considered an endangered species.

Fuertecharter-trips from corralejo

“El Proyecto Tortuga” exists In Fuerteventura since the year 2009, trying to reintroduce in The Islands a species that disappeared from our coasts 300 years ago by translocating Loggerhead’s eggs from Cape Verd.
The beach in charge of taking in these nests is “La Playa de Cofete”, in the South of the Island. The first year more than 500 turtles were born, which proved the excellent conditions of this beach to carry out such a project.
In our next article we’ll discuss this project in detail, a project which tries to contribute to the preservation of this species at a global level

FuerteCharter’s Team.

FAUNA AND FLORA

The houseleek in Lobos

If you are one of our island’s visitors you have thousands of ways to find out this wonderful paradise, but if you are a nature lover and its exclusive eccentricities, you can’t miss our trips from Corralejo to the islet of Lobos to watch some endemic species you won’t be able to find anywhere else in the world.

The Natural Park in the islet of Lobos is a paradise of a great biodiversity, where we can find endless endemic species from the Canary Islands. But if there is one that defines them better than any other else this is the houseleek in Lobos, or “Siempreviva de Laguna”, whose scientific name is Limonium ovalifolium ssp Canariensis, which you can only find in this islet. Limonium ovalifolium ssp Canariensis is a little herbaceous plant with a lax open leaf rosette made of egg-shaped very dense ribbed hairless leaves featuring dense spikes, more than 10 per centimetre, with 3 to 5 white flowers, small conical calyx and a jazzy blue leaf blade.

When it grows it forms big grass-like prairies. It is hermaphroditic and it seems to be apomictic, that is, asexual, it reproduces from unfertilised seeds spread by the calyx itself, causing a parachute effect. It blooms in April and September, and it reproduces in May and October. It’s a halophila species (living in environments with a high presence of salts), growing on a clay layer facing East. It’s spread along the whole salt marsh (sand bank and lagoon areas) in the east coast of the islet, and it’s abundant in the wettest areas. Every four weeks approximately it stays flooded for some hours, sometimes even for days.

There are records that this species also existed in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, but at present, as we were saying, it only exists in the islet of Lobos, after having become extinct in these two islands. They take up approximately 18.000 m2, and they are estimated at around 103.512 specimens.

This endemic species is at risk of extinction. As its habitat is so reduced, any natural disaster or man intervention could bring it to an end immediately. For this reason, in the Natural Park of Lobos —known as ZEPA (special bird protection area), IBA (important area for birds) and LIC (common interest area)— there is surveillance and also restricted areas, as the simple fact of walking outside the paths could bring this species to an end. So, if you are one of our visitors, please, take special care with the instructions in the Natural Park.

-Fuertecharter-Corralejo trips 1

So as to avoid its becoming extinct, in “El Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo” the experts cultivate this taxon in a controlled way, they keep the seeds and study their reproductive biology and genetic diversity so as to stop their extinction.

FuerteCharter‘s Team

Events, Fuerteventura

Taifas dances: Canary Islands’ tradition

It’s one of our objectives in FuerteCharter to show the tourists who visit us the culture and traditions of our island, Fuerteventura, as apart from the wonderful boat trips we offer from Corralejo this island has many other things to be discovered.

And this time we’ll talk about the Taifas dances, which in ancient times were danced in the whole archipelago and that, at present, has remained as a tradition linked to the Canary Islands’ culture. For example, the big Taifas dances were celebrated on the night of the 29th May, the eve of the Canary Islands’ day, a date that commemorates the constitution of the first autonomic Canary Islands’ Parliament in 1983.

According to the “Academia Canaria de la Lengua”:
TAIFA:
1. In some traditional dances celebrated in small venues, a series of couples who danced in turns and times, following the directions of a person in charge of complaying with the rules, such as the order of participation. After a “taifa” danced an “isa”, a “folia” and a “malagueña” it was the turn of another “taifa”.
2. Admission paid to take part in such dance.

Taifas dances weren’t a concrete dance, but a musical event that used to take place on special occasions to celebrate a birth (then they were called new mothers’ dances), when shucking and grinding corn (in order to make “gofio”) and also in special dates such as carnivals. They were, most of all, an act of social integration, mainly in an island such as Fuerteventura, where long distances often made it hard for people living in different towns to relate to one another.

Taifas dances were not held in large spaces but they used to be held in private houses where hardly 5 couples could dance in the hall, from where furniture had been previously removed. Generally, women were waiting on chairs in the hall, while men met outside the house, where the host offered “pizcos” (which today would be known as “shots”) to the attendees. They used to be parties where the attendees where looking for a partner, and men had to persuade the family of the woman they wanted to win.

The way to ask for a woman’s hand was to give the desired woman and her mother a little bag of cumin or any other spices, or a little candle. As they were courtship dances it wasn’t unusual of them to finish with any kind of quarrels, either caused by alcohol consumption or just fighting for a woman.

Sometimes, as read in the definition, a “taifa” was also charged as an admission to the participants, and if admission was free then the participants used to bring a gift for the host family, so the taifas dances were positive for the family economy.

In other islands, such as La Palma or Lanzarote, these musical events were known as oil lamp dances because they were lit up by oil lamps, and in Tenerife and El Hierro they were called string dances, as string instruments were played to accompany the dances. The instruments they used in these dances were the guitar, the “timple” and the “bandurria” (lute-type instrument), rarely the violin. And the music pieces that were danced were “isas”, “folías”, “seguidillas”, and “malagueñas”. Little by little a range of options opened and in the XIX century “polcas” and “mazurcas” were introduced. At the beginning of the XX century, “pasodobles”, fox-trot, “valses” and even “rumbas” were also danced, which is why the participant instruments were also changing.

Nowadays, in Fuerteventura we are ready for the XIV event of the Big Taifas Dance on the 29th May. From the 22nd April and up to the 16th May table bookings for this great event are open, one more year to be celebrated in Avenida Marítima in Puerto del Rosario.

To attend this event it’s necessary to wear the traditional Canary Island clothes, as a way to pay homage to the Islands’ ethnography and history.

FuerteCharter’s Team