All posts by Fuertecharter Team

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MIRADOS DE LOBOS GOLF RESORT, CORRALEJO

The tourist accommodation offer in Corralejo is wide and varied. On this occasion we’re going to find out Lobos golf lookout point, located in Corralejo and offering another accommodation alternative, with the hallmark of being detached, at the outskirts of the town. Of course you don’t need to be a golf player to go to this resort, on the contrary, the offer is so good that many tourists chose this accommodation option in our little paradise. On this occasion we talked to one of the receptionists, Carolina, who let us get into these beautiful villas.

  • Name and position: Carolina, receptionist.
    Start date: November 2012.
    
Kind of accommodation: Detached villas, framed within a golf course.
    Number of beds: 60 villas with 3 rooms (6 beds).
    Average age of tourists: it’s difficult to establish an average as the tourism coming here is very diverse, families as well as groups of friends of diverse age.
    Offer: Two different kinds of villas, with a single floor or duplex. All of them have a garden, private swimming pool, parking, barbecue… they also offer bed and breakfast.
    Average price: 70-90 € per night/villa in low season, and between 110-140€ in high season.
    
Nationality of most customers: depending on the season, but from every country. Those days we are having lots of Canarian tourists (Spanish), as well as Italian and German… a bit of everything.

Your opinion about the quality of the tourism getting to the island:

It’s a tourism that appreciates our island very much, and often enjoys our leisure offers.
Of course, in the high season they usually come from a higher social status and they can afford investing more money in leisure and holidays.

How could the island improve so as to bind tourism?  

By completing unfinished works, mainly in Corralejo. It would also be important to look for environmental improvements, focused on renewable energies; from the tourist point of view this would create a concept that fits Fuerteventura perfectly.

What turns this island into a privileged place to spend your holidays?
We are in the middle of the ocean, but protected by the African continent and the islands surrounding us. Our sea, the sun…. that is, weather conditions are unbeatable. This turns us into the perfect place to practise outdoor activities and sports, water sports of all sorts. Besides, our fine sandy beaches… we are a perfect destination for the tourism looking for sun, beach and activities.
Main strong points of your hotel offer
Our villas, apart from being very beautiful, are located within a golf course, so they are surrounded by vegetation, a gorgeous landscape. The most important thing is that they are big, private, intimate and quiet. Being just 15 minutes away from downtown Corralejo, you can enjoy the comforts of the town without losing the quietness and privacy we have in our villas.

Do you offer your customers leisure offers not linked to the hotel?
 Yes, we offer surf lessons, boat trips…. we like to offer all kind of options to our customers.

Do they usually request boat tours around Fuerteventura?

Yes, they do. And they are usually delighted when they come back.

Fuerteventura

Expansion of Corralejo’s Harbour

Last April 5th the project for the expansion of Corralejo’s Harbour was presented in the Municipal Auditorium. According to the statistics of the Canary Island Government, this harbour gets the largest number of visitors in all the islands, even outnumbering those in Playa Blanca, Morro Jable and Agaete.
The figures in the year 2013 record 912.174 passengers (853.886 through regular line and 58.288 on day trips) and 212.227 vehicles (167.078 cars and 45.149 industrial vehicles)
The conditions of this harbour at present do not fulfill the present demand, as there isn’t enough room for all the boats that need it —there is a long waiting list of boats looking for berth—, it lacks appropriate lighting and a petrol station where boats can refuel, with all the risks that transporting jerry cans with fuel entails.
Moreover, it doesn’t count on a dry-dock to clean and repair the boats.
It seems that all these deficiencies will be sorted out by the implementation of this project by the “Plan de puertos de la Comunidad Autónoma”, which represents a running cost of 40 million Euros and that the Canary Island Government has declared as of exceptional public interest.
The aim is to provide Corralejo with a large berth marina living up to expectations, so that water and leisure activities can be enhanced, such as boat trips to Lanzarote or to the islet of Lobos, while modernizing the facilities for traditional fisheries. All this will mean a new attraction to some visitors looking for a different tourism —such as water tourism— instead of the mass sun and beach tourism.
Among the reforms to be implemented at Corralejo’s Harbour we must highlight the restoration of berths for the ships that communicate our island to the neighbour Lanzarote (Playa Blanca) and also very important to highlight the creation of a new additional marina, which will be located to the North of the present harbour.
The environmental impact assessment has taken particular care of the design of the new dock so as not to interfere with the wonderful views of the islet of Lobos and Lanzarote, paying maximum respect for the surrounding landscape.
The expansion, in figures, will mean 38.900m2 of earth surface, that added to the existing ones will become 68.900m2, and the expansion in the surface of sheltered water will reach 68.900m2, 14.000m2 of which will be developed as commercial harbour, 55.700m2 as marina (with 767 berths) and 125.000m2 as outer dock.
The license of the petrol station has been awarded, for 15 years, to Domofuture Green Alliance, which will need an estimated capital outlay of 750.000€ and will have to supply fuel to fishermen at subsidised prices plus one cent, and to recreational boats at the stipulated price by the “Ley de Tasas del Gobierno de Canarias” plus two cents of Euro.

This project was registered by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment  on 12th August 2013, after being approved in the environmental impact statement on the 27th May by the Commission on Land management and Environment in the Canary Islands— a long process whose study considered 15 different alternatives and institutional environmental queries—and it was drawn up by the consulting company Viatrio Ingenieros S.L.
Right now it’s awaiting to be passed and assigned in the Matitine-Terrestrial public Domain.

 FuerteCharter Team.

Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura, leading position in tourism

Fuerteventura has been nominated by TripAdvisor, the largest internet portal specialised in tourism, as the best island in Spain, followed by Lanzarote, for the “Travellers Choice 2014” awards.
Also, the same internet portal awarded Cofete Beach, in the south of the island, the fifth position among the best Spanish beaches; El Cotillo beach, in the municipality of La Oliva, was awarded the 10th position.
If we bear in mind that a few months ago the prizes awarded by this portal have placed Corralejo as the leading emergent tourist destination in Europe, and that El Cotillo has reached the fourth position in Spain we don’t have but to congratulate ourselves, the majorero land and its residents, who make these realities possible by treating tourists well.
These awards are the result of the tourists’ opinions and the comments and ratings they leave about their experiences.
In Fuertecharter we try to contribute in so far as we are actually able so that our visitors are satisfied, and our boat trips from Corralejo always get excellent comments and ratings in TripAdvisor.
These ratings that our island is getting place us in a very good position we must keep and improve if possible.
The studies reflect in their data a leading position of Spain as far as tourism is concerned, whose activity accounts for over 10% GDP, creates the 11% of job positions and offsets to a great extent our trade deficit. In The Canary Islands those percentages are much larger, as tourism is the main industry.
The “Ley de Renovación y Modernización turística de Canarias”, passed in May 2013, attempts to improve competitiveness in the Canary Islands as a tourist destination, to refurbish tourist areas, facilities and services in decline due to the passage of time, so as to match the tourist offer to the present demand. Straight from the BOE, here you find the main guidelines of this law:
a) Order and regulate, within sustainable parameters, the increase of the tourist demand, linked to the improvement of the existing tourist centres and the introduction of new additional facilities.
b) Improve the quality and standard of the tourist accommodation and additional facilities.
c) Avoid and, where appropriate, redirect the building in tourist areas.
d) To provide the administration with effective legal tools to encourage and, where appropriate, ensure compliance with conservation and restoration measures, and the effective use of tourist establishments.
e) To improve the image of consolidated tourist centres, and achieve satisfactory public services.
f) To encourage coordinated management of public administrations and to speed up the processing of tourist redevelopment projects.

With these measures and keeping treating visitors with kid gloves no doubt Fuerteventura will keep and even improve these data launched by TripAdvisor. We’ll keep doing our bit with our wonderful trips from Corralejo.

FuerteCharter Team.

Events

II Photographic contest Fuertecharter; take part in it with your photos of the ANIMALS in our island and win trips in Corralejo.

In this second FuerteCharter APRIL photographic contest we keep wanting to give our fans trips in Corralejo; for this reason, the most voted photograph in Facebook this month, out of all the ones we get, will be the winner of one of our sea trips (a ticket for two people).

With the aim of spreading the beauty of our island and creating a photo gallery that everybody can enjoy, we are organizing this second contest, and you can send us photos of animals taken in Fuerteventura via Facebook or e-mail to marketing@fuertecharter.com. We will create a Facebook page with all the pictures you send so that our fans can vote their favourite ones, and at the end of the month the photo getting the most “I like it” will be the winner of one of our wonderful trips for two people in Corralejo. An unforgettable boat trip.
At the end of the month we will upload the photos in our blog, as a photo gallery, so that everybody can know the beauty of the animals in our island.
Then we will also contact the winner so he/she can enjoy their present whenever it suits them better, taking our availability into account.

We are looking forward to getting your view of our sea paradise.
Thanks for taking part in it and good luck!

FAUNA AND FLORA

We keep gathering as much information as possible about the Grey Pilot Whale that was found at Lobos coast last Monday.

With this purpose we talked to Marisa Tejedor, from SECAC (society for the study of cetaceans in the Canarian archipelago), who offered us a beautiful and reassuring speech about this topic.

Marisa says that although they are all wild guesses, as it’s very difficult to foretell why the whale is alone, we mustn’t panic as the whale is in a deep enough area to move (5mts) and even can leave whenever it chooses to; it is also in an octopus area, its favourite food, so it can feed and the conditions seem to be al-right.

DCIM107GOPRO

The whale has chosen to be there, maybe because it feels ill and it wants to reach the coast to spend its last days; maybe because it went astray and is trying to communicate, as the only anomalous datum is that it repeats very often the facing down movement, surfacing the tail, a characteristic movement of this species when trying to communicate. As she says, it is anomalous to an extent, but it’s difficult to foretell, and the rest of information they get daily about the evolution of the whale is reassuring up to now, they have even seen videos where the whale is playing with a bag.
It is clear that it is an adult specimen, and the target is to determine if this grey pilot whale belongs to this area; this can be found out thanks to some pictures they have taken of its dorsal fins, which in this species and in not young specimens dorsal fins are like finger prints, there aren’t two of them which look the same. With this they’ll be able to determine if this whale is living in the Canarian archipelago or in this area.

It’s difficult to foretell what will become of it; besides, these days the sea is not in good conditions to make further studies. Even so, the grey pilot whale is visited daily by the captains of the trip boats and by Environment, which get enough information to be reassured that the whale is al-right up to now.
Marisa Tejedor thanks the captains sailing in this area for safeguarding the distances stipulated by the law and for trying to protect the whale by warning all those who don’t keep them, which is very positive and a reason to be thankful for, as the most important of all is not to disturb the whale.
In conclusion, don’t panic, it could leave any time,  the daily news are reassuring, the grey pilot whale is in its habitat and home. They’ll keep researching and looking up information that will allow them to get to know better this specimen and its species.
There is a certain social concern lately, due to several news informing about dead cetaceans found  at different spots in the Canary Islands, many of them attributed to prospecting and military practices. Marisa tells us that these deaths are nothing to worry about, they are within the average rate, it happens every year, mainly at this time,  when the fish that emigrate are the food of these huge cetaceans: “Up to now everything is going its normal course, and these deaths are due to natural causes”; on the contrary, this means environmental diversity, as there are 30 different species out of the 86 cetacean species that exist, that is, a 40% ( a high presence of big predators, not usual in many areas), a very important datum and representative of the quality of our waters, which provide nutrients, meaning of life.
Another heartening datum regarding petroleum is that they are trying to have this area between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura recognised by Europe, once and for all,  as Community Interest Area, a hallmark which would grant us full protection.
Thanks, Marisa Tejedor, for making time for us in your busy schedule and for giving us this interesting speech. We’ll follow up the evolution of this representative of our sea, wishing it to find its pod soon because dreaming is a right that we all have…

From Fuertecharter we also thank and ask the captains of trip boats and the public in general to respect this whale, which is at home. We can enjoy its presence and beauty without disturbing it: we are living in its paradise.

 

 FuerteCharter team.

Events

III La Entallada “Lighthouse Triathlon”

Next Monday, March 24th, the third “Lighthouse Triathlon”,as it is already known by the regulars of this event, will take place, organized by the hotel complex Playitas Resort.

La swimming trial will consist of 1,5km that triathletes will have to swim in Las Playitas, and this trial will be the starting point of this event at 8h in the morning.

Then they will have to face 40km cycling, a harder trial this year as compared to the 35 kms in previous events. The itinerary of this trial will take place around areas in the municipality of Tuineje, such as Las Casitas, Juan Gopar… and this will be followed by the 13km running, which will culminate climbing  “La Entallada” Lighthouse, a beautiful enclave in the South of our island with breathtaking sea views, the best place to close this event.

Among the event’s updates, we must highlight the introduction of this event in “Series Canarias de Triathlon”  which makes up “La Copa de la Federación Canaria”. International athletes, such as Anja Beranek and Konstantin Bachor, champions in the female trial in 2012 and male trial in 2013 respectively, or such as Víctor del Corral, champion in the male category in 2012 will take part in this event too, trying to ratify their awards in an event that this year foresees an increase in the number of participants.

On the other hand, the team category is also pushing hard, and up to now the Calima Triathlon and the Triscan Clubs will take part in this event with a high number of participants.

The target of “La Entallada” Lighthouse Triathlon is to attract as many triathletes as possible to this event, residents and visitors alike, in our island’s attempt to go on with the tourist and sporting promotion that has been carried out up to now.

Fuerteventura is an unbeatable place for the practice of several sports and disciplines, either water or land activities, but we also applaud this kind of initiatives promoting healthy tourism, in harmony with the environment in our dear Fuerteventura.

For further information, www.lighthousetriathlon.com

Fuertecharter’s Team.

 

Hosting

Surf Riders, a way of living rather than an experience

More and more surf tourism is getting to our island and one of the accommodations they request most is the surfcamp, which is cheap and offers the possibility to meet people, an excellent way of travelling.
We interviewed Carlos Pérez Gil, Surfriders’ owner, a surfcamp located in a beautiful house just 10 minutes away from Corralejo; it has 3 terraces, a swimming-pool, views to Lobos, barbecue area and really good vibes.

Name and charge: Carlos Pérez Gil; owner.

Start date: May 2012.

Kind of accommodation: surfcamp.

Working with touropeartors: no.

Number of beds: 18 beds, 4 rooms (2 rooms to share, one with 10 beds and another one with 4, and two double rooms, one of them with private bathroom).

Average age of customers: 25.

Offer: accommodation with kitchen to share, and a barbecue a week to foster good relations among the guests. Fully equipped kitchen (microwaves, fridge, oven…) ; washing machine, swimming-pool; internet (Wifi) with computers to share; plasma TV; storage room for boards and equipment; transportation to the airport (30€ return fare).

Average price: 15€ shared room with ten beds, and 18€ shared room with four beds. 36€ double room with shared bathroom and 42€ double room with private bathroom. 
              Nationality of most customers: German and Italian.
Opinion about the quality of the tourism getting to the island: 
 The tourist who comes here is usually young, looking for cheap accommodation but also a kind of accommodation that allows them to meet people and make friends. Many of them often come alone.
How could the island improve so as to bind tourism?
People usually find what they are looking for, water sports, surf, piece and quiet. Fuerteventura is a quiet island which enjoys good conditions for sports. There are things that can be done to make it improve, but usually people find what the are looking for.
What turns this island into a privileged place to spend your holidays? 
A stable weather all the year through, the quality of water and wind conditions, great for water sports….
Main strong points of your hotel offer:
Affordable prices and a quiet environment where you can meet other people. The feed back we have received from our customers has been really good as they end up getting on really well, making friends and having a whale of a time.
Do you offer your customers leisure activities outside of the hotel?
Boards rental, bikes, surf courses at Protest SurfSchool, kite at Redshark, and we are also looking for other kind of trips for more quiet customers who prefer trekking or have different plans.
Do they usually request boat tours around Fuerteventura?
Not to a great extent, but yes, they do. There are many experienced surfers who want to go to Lobos. There are also groups of friends who would like to visit the islet.
I know  FuerteCharter because I have practised Kite with them at some time. It was really funny and I really felt at ease.

FAUNA AND FLORA

The Canary Islands, Marlin’s paradise

Marlins, also known in The Canary Islands as billfish, are the indisputable kings of big game fishing we were taking about in our previous article. These species reach our coasts while migrating, foraging, searching for breeding areas (they spawn in Summer and Autumn) and warm waters.
But they aren’t just fishers’ dreams, but many tourists, in their boat tours, have had the chance to enjoy the majesty of watching them jump on our waters surface.
As we promised, here is some information about the two Marlin species that, with the elegance that characterises them, visit our island.

The White Marlin
Tetrapturus Albidus, or Spikefish as many call them,  belong to the Istiophoridae family (tetrapturus genus).

boat tours
They are greenish-blue or greyish on their back, and their belly is white. Their body is striped.
Their average weight is 30kgs, and you can find up to 100kgs specimens although nowadays it’s becoming harder and harder to find huge specimens due to illegal and devastating fishing habits (catching young fish, not letting them grow up). Their average length is 200 cms, although you can find up to 300cms long specimens, and they reach maturity when they are around 130cms long.
They live in warm seas, deep waters, although they also approach the coast up to 20 mts deep. They don’t usually travel in school, but just in couple or alone. They are characterised by their nose bones on their upper jaw, which stretch in the shape of a long round sword, which favours their hydrodynamics.
They have a rigid tail in the shape of C, and a high rear fin, characteristic of this species.
They feed on squids and small fish, and they spawn in the high seas.
The White Marlin is one of the most popular fishes in big game fishing in the Atlantic Ocean. In the Canary Islands we usually have them in Summer.

The Blue Marlin
Makaira nigricans or Atlantic Blue Marlin, also belongs to the Istiophoridae family (makaira genus).
boat tours
It’s known as one of the most elegant and beautiful in the Ocean, and also one of the biggest fishes.
In this species, the females are the biggest, reaching 4,5mts long and more than 800kg, although the average is about 3,5m and among 90 and 180kg the males. There are different opinions regarding the years they may come to live, but they are believed to live around 20 years. Their characteristics are similar to the white Marlin’s, with a high rear fin and a long and lethal upper jaw they attack their prey with, leaving them injured and shocked, moving backwards and then eating them.
Their back is cobalt blue,  and their belly is silvery white. They spend most of their time off-shore (pelagic species) and this is why they are known as blue water fish, following the ocean currents while migrating for hundreds and even thousands of miles, after tuna fish schools (tuna, dorado, mackerel…), on what they feed in warm and shallow waters, although they also plunge into the depths foraging cephalopods.
They are quick swimmers (up to 110km/h), swimming 50m in two seconds, a distance that men couldn’t swim in less than 29 seconds and one of the noblest species in the fisheries world as they are remarkably resilient to be caught and you can see them jump and swim swiftly trying to get ride of hooks, and they are often successful. Their meat is delicious and it is marketed in a professional way, mainly in Japan, where they live in the shape of sashimi, although in big game fishing it is usual to catch them and then let them go. However their preservation is in danger due to non sustainable fishing practices mainly in the Atlantic.

From Fuertecharter we recommend making boat tours around our coasts, mainly in the South, to everyone who may have the chance to do it and see if they are lucky to catch sight of one of this marvellous specimens living in our waters.

 FuerteCharter’s Team

Events

I PHOTOGRAPHIC CONTEST FUERTECHARTER (MARCH): WIN A BOAT TRIP FOR TWO PEOPLE WITH YOUR SEA PICTURES OF FUERTEVENTURA

FuerteCharter gives, to the most voted picture by our fans on facebook, a ticket for two people for one of our exciting Fuerteventura boat tours.

With the aim of spreading the beauty of our island and creating a photo gallery for all of us to enjoy we organize this contest, where you can send, through Facebook or mail to marketing@fuertecharter.com, pictures of Fuerteventura related to the sea. We’ll make an album on our Facebook page with all the pictures you send so our fans can vote their favourite ones, and every month, the picture with the most “I like it” will win one of our exciting Fuerteventura boat tours for two people.

At the end of each month we will upload the received pictures on our web, as a photo gallery so that everybody can get to know the beauty of our island.

Then we will contact the winner so they can enjoy their present whenever it suits them best according to the availability of our boat tours.

We’ll be looking forward to your vision of our marine paradise.

Thanks for taking part in this contest and good luck!

CONTEST RULES
Remember to send your pictures via Facebook message to www.facebook.com/Fuertecharter or via mail to marketing@fuertecharter.com; you must be a fan in our facebook in order to take part in the contest. Remember to write the author’s name and the title of the picture. We have a limit of pictures per person so as to make you choose your best pictures: each person will only be allowed to send 3 pictures each month. We will upload on our album the pictures we receive by the 20th of March (included); The pictures we receive after this date will take part in the next month contest; it will be the last day of the month that we will close the polls and publish who the winner of the boat tour for two people is.

Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura’s trips: big game fishing

Fuerteventura is a paradise for the practice of water sports; one of these sports, which is getting more and more relevance, is big game fishing, one of several kinds of trips you  can make in Fuerteventura.

Big game fishing can be defined as the one which is performed on the high seas, with proper vessels and fishing gear.
In this article we are trying to focus on big game fishing, which is gaining ground in our island, as we have incomparable natural landscape for the practise of this activity, among many other kinds of trips in Fuerteventura.
Big game fishing is either a leisure or sport activity and the quantity and size of the catch has been legislated, depending on the species. The main fishing gear comprises the rod and the reel.
With Fuertecharter, you can take advantage of our trips from Fuerteventura to the islet of Lobos or to Lanzarote to practise trolling (fishing while towing the fishing gear).

Big game fishing can be either trolling or chumming: when trolling you tow the fishing gear (that is, the boat is moving ahead). Chumming is performed on the high seas and at very great depths (the boat is still and adrift) and its main characteristic is that the lure consists of small and medium-size fish. The fishing gear must be highly resistant, as huge catch is expected. 
For all big game fishing amateurs we suggest the Open Internacional de Pesca de Altura, Marcaje y Suelta, which takes place every year in Gran Tarajal, South of Fuerteventura.
This activity is turning more and more attractive to the tourists, and year after year it manages to gather amateur and professional fishermen in the capture of the blue and the white marlin among other big species.

The objective of this competition is to catch as many species and as big as possible, take a picture of them, label them and then return them to the sea.

In the last event, the XIX one, 70 vessels signed up for the competition, which enjoyed three intensive fishing days, combined with night activities and also children activities where children can enjoy their own fishing championship to start getting familiar with this art of fishing. The results from last year meant a record, as compared to previous events. A total of 103 White marlins where caught, which was the king and protagonist of this event. Only 8 blue marlins were caught, and the prize for the largest specimen wasn’t even awarded.

This event is considered as the best in Europe in its category, which is the reason why it contributes to the island’s tourism promotion as a paradise for water sports, highlighting Fuerteventura’s values of excellence.

However we must also mention other competitions is this area, also carried out in this Island, such as “El Memorial de Silvestre de León”, in Puerto del Rosario, which takes place every year in October and which has already celebrated its XII event, apart from the tournament that takes place in the Castle.

In a future article we’ll talk about the White and the Blue marlin as essential species in the big game fishing on our majorera coast.

El Equipo de FuerteCharter