Fuerteventura

Canary Island Legends: San Borondón

All peoples have their legends, stories surrounded by mystery and magic; the archipelago of the Canary Islands, so special, has its own legends,  including that of the “island that appears and disappears,” the legend of St. Borondón, “the other Island “. It would be located west of El Hierro; that’s why we, in our trips to  Lobos Island from Corralejo, have never seen it; yet, we’ll tell you the legend. Difficult to build accurately due to the number of stories that have survived to date, we’ll approach the most common version of the mysterious island.

FuerteCharter Excursiones Fuerteventura | Fuerteventura: leyendas
Fuente: abc. La silueta de la isla de San Borondón, en el horizonte, fotografiada en 1958 por M. Rodríguez Quintero

If you have spent some time in the Canary Islands you’ll have  heard of the “eighth island” on some occasion, the island that appears and disappears in a sea of ​​clouds and even, in the past, its coordinates were given, at the western end of the Canary Islands near El Hierro, and it could be observed from the highest spot inTenerife, El Teide. It was drawn on several maps of the time that give us its location, in fact there are several versions but all of them place it near El Hierro. Even in official investigations in the eighteenth century by the authorities of the island of Hierro, dozens of witnesses claimed to have seen the phantom island from the summits of El Hierro. As a result an expedition departed from Santa Cruz de Tenerife in search of this island. So yes,  they were many the Canary Islands’, Portuguese and Spanish sailors who ventured to the search of this phantom island,  the covert, lost or not found island.

FuerteCharter Excursiones Fuerteventura | Fuerteventura: leyendas
www.maestroviejodespierta.com

The origin of St. Borondón’s legend

The island was named after the Irish monk St. Brendan of Clonfert, who in 516 starts a sea voyage with the aim of ​​bringing its faith to all corners of the world. So, together with other monks, he embarked on a small ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean in search of  The Earthly Paradise. Several legends say that he and his crew faced incredible dangers, storms, sea monsters never seen. Amid this complicated voyage, across an unknown ocean considered as dark, they spotted an island where they decided to search for food and step ashore to rest.
According to those stories it seems that while celebrating mass they began to notice that the ground was shaking. Gripped by fear, they ran back to the boat and sailed away from that misterious island they considered as a huge whale or a great sea monster that started moving and disappeared. No one else has ever stepped back on that island although there are many who claimed to have seen it in the distance.

 

FuerteCharter Excursiones Fuerteventura | Fuerteventura: leyendas
www.dixkover.com1580 × 770

From the XVI C. this phantom island has been the protagonist of romances, stories, poetry and songs that have fed the legend and made it reach our days well alive. Even the historian Abreu Galindo ventured to give its coordinates: northwest of the island of El Hierro (10º 10 “length and 29º and 30′ latitude).

The mysterious island of San Borondon’s is one of the most living and rooted legends in the Canary Islands, especially on El Hierro due to the proximity of its possible existence.
We, who every day sail the waters of Fuerteventura in our trips from Corralejo to Lobos Island, still haven’t seen it, possibly because we are on the other side of that island and it’s many the kilometers that keep us apart. Still, as intrepid sailors, we never forget that the “other island” may come and go at any time, a day like today.

 

FuerteCharter Team

Fuerteventura

A four-day tour around Fuerteventura


DAY 1

You wake up early in the morning, at around 8am, startled because the alarm clock hasn’t gone off,  and suddenly you realise you don’t have to go to work. “Uff,” a sigh of  relax. You are in Fuerteventura!

Your holidays have started, the sun smiles at you  when opening the curtains, the sea calls you from the promenade of Corralejo, you have a thousand things you want to do in four days, because you come  stressed from the city and are eager to discover this paradise.

You get hold of plans, flyers, magazines that suggest different activities and places to visit in Fuerteventura, and everything seems wonderful: the day is missing hours to have enough time to see everything.

So here we organize a four-day tour, so you don’t miss the exceptional corners of Fuerteventura.

To start with, a good breakfast,  that you’ll need if you want to gather the necessary strength to withstand so many emotions.

One of the main attractions in this island are the water sports you can practice in it, so what better than surfing lessons to  become familiar with this wonderful ocean and look after yourself by doing some sport? Surf schools on the island will take you to the spots matching your level of requirements, and in all of them you’ll fully enjoy the benefits of this healthy sport: especially in beginners, it encourages laughter and good relations.

Excursiones Fuertecharter | Vacaciones en Fuerteventura
©www.protestsurfcenter.com

After your morning sport session, and after a copious lunch, we suggest, if you are an active person, to visit one of the volcanoes in the north of Fuerteventura. For us, the most spectacular one is the Calderon Hondo Volcano, in the village of Lajares, with its perfect round cone and views of the north of the island; but if you don’t want to leave Corralejo, another good option is  Morro Francisco, from which you can observe Corralejo, Lobos Island and Lanzarote.

Excursiones Fuertecharter | Vacaciones en Fuerteventura
© Carlos Antolin Carruesco
Excursiones Fuertecharter | Vacaciones en Fuerteventura
© www.fuerteventura-infos.de

If  on the contrary you are one of those who enjoy relaxing in the sun, you can let your friends go and see the volcanoes and you take the opportunity to swim and lie in the sun on Grandes Playas, Corralejo, one of the most spectacular beaches on the island, where turquoise and crystalline waters bathe the golden sand at the pace of rest you need.

Excursiones Fuertecharter | Vacaciones en Fuerteventura
© www.queweb.info

To end the day, when your friends come back from the volcano, you can go and watch the sunset on the impressive dunes of Corralejo, right opposite Grandes Playas. The landscape of this Natural Park, with the evening light, is something highly recommended, it seems as if you were in the desert, at that time when the sun no longer glares, and the shadows of the small clouds and bushes draw whimsical silhouettes on the sand.

Excursiones Fuertecharter | Vacaciones en Fuerteventura
© www.playas-fuerteventura.com

And to celebrate your first day off, go and savour a delicious dinner in some of the hundreds of restaurants in Corralejo, where you’ll find offers for all tastes and budgets; and after dinner, at most one drink and go to bed because the following day is again another adventure of emotions in paradise and you must be prepared.
As a preview of your second day of holiday we can advise a trip to the island of Lobos, with our FuerteCharter tours, but  we won’t anticipate anything else; we’ll tell you about the second day in our next post.

Excursiones Fuertecharter | Vacaciones en Fuerteventura

FuerteCharter Team.

FuerteCharter

SUP practical guide for our FuerteCharter boat trips

For some years Stand Up Paddle (SUP) has become a sport of great importance, having more and more followers every day. One of the attractions we offer in our Fuertecharter boat trips to the island of Lobos is making contact with this sport, as we have SUP boards, among other “toys”, to make your visit to the nearby island truly unforgettable.

SUP is a sport whose bases are very easy to learn and it’s suitable for all ages and for family practice. Yes, it is true that, when trying to catch waves in SUP, knowledge of the environment and much more practice is required, but learning how to manage the board and paddle on flat waters is a challenge at almost everybody’s reach.
The boards we have in FuerteCharter are high volume initiation boards, which makes learning faster.

SUP Fuertecharter

SUP, apart from being fun, is a very healthy sport, because it makes us get into shape without even realising. Thanks to SUP we strengthen the upper part of our body, our arms, back and abs with each oar stroke. Moreover we also excecise our legs, whose muscles are always active to keep balance on the board. Improving our balance we’ll favour the control over our own body, which will help us in our daily life and also to practise other sports.

Excursiones Fuertecharter | Guía de SUP

First steps when learning SUP
In FuerteCharter you approach this sport making a first contact with the material on flat and calm waters. It’s not a SUP lesson as such, but something more casual. If you want to learn more about this sport, we recommend attending a school where you get the basic notions, but if you decide to learn on your own, here we leave you a few basic tips:

  • To learn, rent before buying equipment: the type of board and paddles will depend on your size, weight, constitution … so it is better to try several equipments to see which one works best for you.
  • Protect your body from the sun and the board with a wetsuit, in case the water is cold, or with a lycra, if it’s hot.
  • We must be careful not to have obtacles around or other people we can hurt. Keep in mind that SUP boards are very bulky and can do much harm, as well as the paddle, which we can move uncontrollably and cause an accident.
  • To go on the SUP board we will do it from the rear part, leaning over our chest and trying to reach the middle part. Once there we will try to kneel down on the table, and in this position will perform our first paddle strokes thus trying to get used to the feeling.
  • When we feel confident enough , we’ll try to stand on the middle of the board, bending our knees to lower the centre of gravity.
  • With soft and slow movements we’ll begin to perform the first paddle strokes. With practice we’ll realise that the paddle is our foothold in the water.
    We must always grab the paddle by its handle and not by the blade, and try to never let it go in the water, not even when we fall.Excursiones Fuertecharter | Guía de SUP
    If once you have tried this sport you want to keep progressing we suggest resorting to professionals, such as the ones in Redshark, to advise you. Remember that SUP, in modalities such as waves, is a quite more complex sport than just practising in flat water, so if you have not mastered the equipment very well you may have problems with other athletes in the water. Most of all have fun, but be sensible too.

Fuertecharter Team

 

 

Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura: “La Casa Winter”

It’s several the spectacular landscapes in Fuerteventura; one of them is Cofete, an amazing beach in the southwest of the island, away from everything, still unspoilt despite the tourist development and where we only find cement in a village, an old abandoned cemetery on the beach and  Winter’s House. It is this palace which amazes visitors when they get to this spot and realise, at a glance, the majesty of this house, located  in such a special place.

To reach Cofete you must invest at least 30-minute drive along a track going from Morro Jable to Punta de Jandia, and halfway you will find a detour to the right that is the only path. In this place, away from everything,  this mansion was built between 1940 and 1950 at the foot of the Pico de la Zarza, which, because of the spot where it is located and also because of its weird construction, it is today one of the most famous mysteries in Fuerteventura.


Gustav Winter
The protagonist of these stories is a German engineer, Gustav Winter, who arrived in Spain in 1915. Coinciding with the outbreak of World War I Gustav returned from South America, but he was captured by a British ship and imprisoned for a year for being a potential German spy . He manages to get away and get on board of a ship that will allow him to disembark in Spain. In our country he works as an engineer building thermoelectric plants in various cities until in 1925 he moved to the Canary Islands, first to Gran Canaria, where he got involved in initiating La CICER. In his spare time he enjoyed his sailboat sailing around the Canary Islands and that’s how he got to Fuerteventura.

Gustav “the German” leaves Gran Canaria and moves to Fuerteventura, where he acquires the Jandía peninsula, in the south of Fuerteventura, the largest rural property in the Canary Islands, with 180 km2 in an almost desert place.

During World War II he was recruited as an engineer for the German Navy in Bordeaux and when the Germans withdrew from France, he had to take refuge in Spain for the second time.

In 1947 he returns to Fuerteventura with enough money to complete his work and he devotes to exploiting the land by growing tomatoes, alfalfa and raising cattle to market cheese and wool.
Years later, already nationalized as Spanish and after the improvements that had been introduced in the area, Gustav tries to develop tourism, attracting German entrepreneurs to the coast of his island. In 1966 he built the first hotel in the south in the middle of a desert and, little by little for nearly 40 years, speculation and support by the government have turned what was once a desert paradise into a hotel area, favorite destination of Germans; but thanks to the Law of Natural Spaces of the Canary Islands, in 1987, places like Cofete remain intact, sidelining the destructive hand of cement.
As a curiosity we must point out that Winter’s name appeared in an English list of  resident German spies  in Spain under Franco’s regime, where he is described as a “German agent in the Canary Islands, in charge of observation posts, equipped with wireless telephony, and also in charge of  the supply of German submarines.”

“
The legend!

The famous Winter’s villa has been depicted in several novels because of the mysteries surrounding it. It is said that it was built to provide shelter and to supply the Nazi submarine fleet during World War II, which would access the palace through tunnels that have never been found.
It is also said that this house was a refuge for Nazi officers during the war to celebrate ostentatious parties; and it was even said that it could have been a shelter and residence of some German high officer, hidden by the Spanish soldiers, who supported the totalitarian regimes of the time.
All these mysteries grow when visiting the house: the floors seem hollow and there are walled-in doors;  there is also a turret looking like a lighthouse.
It must be said that the Winter family never inhabited this house, as their usual residence was ” El Caserio del alemán”, a estate in the upper area of ​​ Morro Jable.
The descendants of Gustav Winter deny all these rumors, especially because the house was not built until 1947, but the historical memory of the area recalls that in 1940 its construction had already begun.

Winter’s  villa, located on such a virgin and desert area of Fuerteventura, still brings more magic and mystery to this spectacular place: the beach of Cofete, we insist, worth to admire and enjoy, like so many other wonderful places on this island.

FuerteCharter Team

Fuerteventura

3 products gourmet Fuerteventura

Goat cheese, Foam salt and goat ham

Foto: ©mamacontracorriente.com

Little by little the jewels of Fuerteventura’s gastronomy are being discovered and more and more people praise the quality of its raw material.

Fuerteventura’s landscape has the usual presence of its famous goat and its shores are lapped by clear waters of great purity. Goats and saltwater are its most representative elements and, as it couldn’t be otherwise, those which make Fuerteventura excel in the gourmet world.

“Majorero”Goat Cheese

Excursiones Fuertecharter | 3 productos gourmet de Fuerteventura
©rtvc.es

The dense, fat and aromatic milk got from the healthy and happy “majorera” goats is the basis for the tasty and varied “Majorero” goat cheese, a fatty cheese which has an intense aroma, with different tastes for the palate depending on ripening and on what ingredients it has been cured in (oil, gofio, paprika …).
One of the secrets of the quality of this product is its naturalness, since most of the goats bred on the island are free of impurities, drugs and other harmful substances.
The “Majorero” Goat Cheese has had denomination of origin since February 16th , 1996, and it has won countless awards since; the last ones, three gold medals, in mid-April 2015, in “El Salón del Gourmet” in Madrid, which has chosen three “majorero” cheeses among the best in Spain: The brand Tofio (semi-cured with paprika) Selectum ( mixed cow-goat milk) and Maxorata (cured with paprika).

We recommend visiting the “majorero” Museum of Cheese, in the Visitor Center in “El Molino de Antigua”, which you can visit Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 18pm. Information: Tel. 928 878 041.

Foam salt

Excursiones FuerteCharter | Sal de espuma de Fuerteventura
© pellagofio.es

As we have already told in a previous article of this blog, the “majorera” Foam Salt has also been recognized as a “majorero” gourmet product that, for some years, has been internationally well known because of its properties.
What is special about this foam salt is its fine grain and smooth taste on the palate, and its crystallization in the form of flakes.
“Majorera” Foam Salt is obtained from the surface of the sea, not from water brought from the seabed through pipelines, but the sea foam that breaks on salteries and goes directly into the cookers (where the water evaporates), hence its highest quality.
If you have not yet visited the Interpretation Center in Las Salinas del Carmen, we recommend you to get the opportunity to witness, first-hand, the artisan craft of obtaining foam salt, Tuesday to Saturday, 10 to 18h. Information: Tel. 928 174 926.

“Majorero” goat ham

Excursiones Fuertecharter | 3 productos gourmet de Fuerteventura
© Consejo regulador de denominación de origen queso majorero

To savor this majorero gourmet product we must go to Casa Marcos restaurant in Villaverde, where Marcos Gutierrez, well-known majorero chef, has been experimenting on “majorera” goat legs for over 10 years.
Marcos calls it “cecineta” (dried beef-bacon) and he has managed to work this product thanks to popular lore handed down from generation to generation, since in ancient times goat meat was cured with salt to preserve it.
The freedom of “Majorera” goats and their feeding on dry grass makes its taste softer than that of goats elsewhere, so the taste of “majorera” goat ham is a delicacy for the palate.
At the moment, Marcos isn’t considering export, but who knows in the future. Many say it would be a great product in the Muslim world, where they can’t eat pork.

Excursiones Fuertecharter | 3 productos gourmet de Fuerteventura
©laprovincia.es

Fuertecharter Team

Fuerteventura

Five landscape jewels you must visit in Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura is a paradise that has endless attractions for tourists and residents. When one arrives in the island thinks of sun and beach tourism, but these Islands really have nature spots that are really worth visiting. We propose five natural jewels in Fuerteventura that you really can’t miss.

Natural park of dunes in Corralejo

As the name implies, it starts 8 kms from Corralejo, and finishes just at the village entrance. They who stay in Corralejo are lucky to find out these dunes, of impressive natural wealth, in their way from the airport to this village. One is amazed at the beauty of these dunes, the yellowish colour of their fine sand, the views to the islands of Lobos and Lanzarote. They aso stand out because of their scenic value, as they are a shelter for birds and endemic vegetable species in the Canary Islands, reason why they have been declared, together with the islet of Lobos, Special area for bird protection. Visiting these dunes is a true experience for the senses, not just because of their fine yellowish sand but also because of the water at their borders, the beaches of the eastern coast, with crystal clear blue water, so attractive that you’ll feel in paradise.

FuerteCharter excursiones | 5 joyas paisajísticas Fuerteventura

Lobos Island

It’s many the articles we have about this little paradise in The Canary Islands, a natural wild island capriciously shaped by the waters of the Atlantic, about 3,5 kms from Corralejo. It’s, no doubt, a must visit spot. It has a little port and fishing village, a volcano and a lighthouse. We recommend to devote at least one morning or afternoon to it, and the best way to enjoy its crystal clear waters is on our boat trips from Corralejo, where apart from enjoying the sea you’ll be able to go down to the island bay on a semi-rigid boat, stroll around this little islet and bathe in the cleanest and most placid waters in The Canary Islands. You can’t leave Fuerteventura without enjoying this island.

FuerteCharter excursiones | 5 joyas paisajísticas Fuerteventura

“Cofete” Beach

At the other side of the Island, in the western coast and in the south of Fuerteventura, you’ll find the longest beach in Europe and, probably, the least visited, which makes it even more natural and attractive. This beach takes up part of the Jandia peninsula, it’s about 12kms long and 50ms wide. It’s worthwhile to devote one day of your holiday to visit the most virgin of the beaches in The Canary Islands, an impressive place not just because of its dimensions but because of its wild appearance. Careful with the sea at that beach, there are usually strong currents. Apart from enjoying this magnificent beach you’ll be able to visit the Winter house and the little village of Cofete, whiich overlooks El Pico de la Zarza, the highest in Fuerteventura. If you are staying in the north of the island, investing a whole day on this spot is most recommendable.

FuerteCharter excursiones | 5 joyas paisajísticas Fuerteventura

“Las Peñitas” Ravine

This is the natural monument least well known by tourists, and for many it is one of the most interesting natural areas in Fuerteventura. This is a spectacular ravine, made up by huge granite blocks, holding one of the few dams in the island. It’s also the most important place to climb in Fuerteventura. If you like hiking we recommend to go to this ravine along a track connecting Vega del Rio Palmas with the town of Ajuy. In this ravine, apart from its great landscape value you’ll find a little hermitage, La Virgen de la Peña, where every year the most important pilgrimage in Fuerteventura is held. If you drive there you’ll have to go from Pájara to Ajuy and then you’ll find a diversion leading to the ravine, one of the most popular settings in the film Exodus.

FuerteCharter excursiones | 5 joyas paisajísticas Fuerteventura

Ajuy

In the western coast of Fuerteventura, in the rural park of Betancuria, we find the village of Ajuy, a little fishing village where you’ll find good restaurants with fresh fish. Its black sand beach reminds us of the volcanic past of this island. But the most popular spot in Ajuy are, no doubt, its caves, to which you can access through a path which starts at the very beach, easy to walk and wonderful because of the beautiful views of the western coast. Besides, this area is made up by the oldest stones in the whole Canary Islands. Another interesting fact t is that in these caves pirates and corsairs used to trade with all kinds of goods.

FuerteCharter excursiones | 5 joyas paisajísticas Fuerteventura
© visitfuerteventura.es

It’s many the natural monuments in Fuerteventura which turn it into a true paradise for visitors, but today we wanted to highlight these five ones. We’ll keep working to bring out the wonders of this little corner of La Macaronesia, which offers so many attractions.

FuerteCharter Team

Fuerteventura, Beaches

Beaches sheltered from the wind at Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura, the quiet and apparently unchangeable island, has the characteristic stillness of the dry lands. A space of silent where time seems to stop to capture a landscape which is like a picture that one would like to scan.

Its heavenly beaches invite to relax and observe, to long days of sand and sun bathed in turquoise waters.

Fuertecharter | The wind in Fuerteventura
Los Canarios Beach, Fuerteventura. ©pepecar.com

But so that our sunbathing days are completely satisfactory we have to know and have one of the elements that best define the island on our side: the wind.

Few are the travellers who have visited Fuerteventura without knowing it, who haven’t had their cap blown away on the beach, that haven’t been beaten by the sand on their calves or haven’t looked for shelter from the wind in the “corralitos” of majorera beaches.

Many of their visitors come just looking for those air blasts so as to practise their favourite sports, like windsurf or kitesurf, or just to fly their kites and dye the sky with colours (in ancient times the wind provided a way of earning a living for many families, as it activated the windmills that ground grain); However, for those looking for peace and quiet we’ll suggest some beaches and advice so that their experience in Fuerteventura be unforgettable, even with wind.

Fuertecharter Fuerteventura | Wind and beaches in Fuerteventura
©blog.canariasviaja.com

The first thing to bear in mind is the wind direction. When the wind comes from the East it is more advisable to visit beaches on the West, and the other way around.

Wind barriers are also important, that is, looking for beaches which are sheltered from the wind direction by some barriers, either natural or built. So, for example in the Western coast we find impressive beaches at the mouths of ravines, which are usually beaches sheltered by high cliffs which stop the winds when they aren’t west winds.

Fuertecharter Fuerteventura | Wind and beaches in Fuerteventura
Squinzo’s Beach ©visitfuerteventura.es

They are usually beaches which are difficult to access, which require a bit of skill to reach them (we recommend lots of caution when going down), but once you get there they promise heavenly beach days. You can find this kind of beaches in the North (near El Cotillo) as well as in the South, like “Playa de los Ojos” in Jandia.

Fuertecharter Fuerteventura | Wind and beaches in Fuerteventura
Los Ojos beach: ©visitfuerteventura.es

In the Western coastline, for example Corralejo area, the beaches are protected from West winds thanks to the barrier that the town itself provides. The same happens in the South with the beaches at “avenida marítima” in Morro Jable.

A very recommended area in the island is the one oriented towards the south, in Península de Jandia, where we find quiet water coves sheltered from North winds going in a Westerly or Easterly direction, and also sheltered from heavy swells. Among these coves we find Playa Juan Gómez, known by most of its visitors as one of the best beaches in Spain.

Fuertecharter Fuerteventura | Wind and beaches in Fuerteventura

And in the rest of the beaches in our wonderful coastline, although without barriers that protect them from the winds, we always find these “corralitos”, so characteristic of Fuerteventura’s landscape. They are circular stone constructions, approximately one metre high, which can have different sizes: for a single person, couples or even for whole families. If you get to a beach beaten by the wind and you find one of these constructions don’t hesitate to settle in it. You’ll be able to watch this paradise from the peace and quiet, no matter how strongly the wind outside the walls in your shelter may blow.

Fuertecharter Fuerteventura | Wind and beaches in Fuerteventura
©ifuerteventura facebook

Fuertecharter Team

Fuerteventura, History

Tindaya Mountain, natural monument in Fuerteventura

They are several the natural monuments in Fuerteventura —Isla de Lobos is one of them, this is why we enjoy taking tourists to such a setting in our daily excursions— ; one of them, and which we consider a place where memory and magic find shelter is Tindaya Mountain. To the ancient inhabitants of the island (Los Mahos) this is a Sacred Mountain, one of the most important natural monuments in The Canary Islands.

Located 4 kms from the coast, in the ravine of Esquinzo, in the village of Tindaya (municipality of La Oliva), this mountain, 400m above sea level, is a spectacular trachyta python that erosion, over time, has exposed as the volcano that wrapped it wore down and showed it.

Fuertecharter Excursiones Fuerteventura| Montaña de Tindaya

The trachyte is a hard and rough volcanic rock that once was used to make millstones and is now a highly valued ornamental stone used for building and once polished it recalls marble. Geomorphologically, its study is essential to understand the formation of The Canary Islands.
Tindaya has very important cultural, historical and ecological values. Popularly known as the Witches’ mountain, it contains nearly 300 “podomorfos” footprints (foot-shaped engravings), which turn the mountain into one of the largest engraving sites in the planet, similar to those found in North Africa.

“Los podomorfos” in Tindaya Mountain
These foot-shaped engravings were made by different hands at different times, as there are several kinds, in size, execution and distribution. They are spread over more than fifty panels grouped in its upper section and almost thirty loose figures, missing today. We do not know much about these “podomorfos”, all of them oriented towards the sunset, the west; some believe this is because from the top of this mountain, on clear days, you can see Teide Mountain, which ancient inhabitants considered to be Satan’s residence and it might be the target of their rituals, although there are other more plausible theories which relate these footprints with astrological phenomena and Summer and Winter solstices. Other theories speak of nuptial rites … What is undeniable is that this mountain was a ritual site for ancient inhabitants and, therefore, a sacred mountain.

Aboriginal villages
At the foot of this mountain 3 permanent settlements with aboriginal remains have been found, research issues still open, remains of cabins or homes, polished shells and carefully crafted pottery, which seems to belong to rituals rather than to household goods. The oral history or Tindaya tells that games, dances and magical-religious rituals, linked to the stars and supernatural forces, were held there.

Plant and animal species shelter.
The sacred mountain of Tindaya is also shelter for endemic species, many of them unique to Fuerteventura and some, endangered. We’ll highlight “La Chumberilla de Lobos” or “Cernúa” (Caralluma Burchardii). It also serves as a shelter for animals, many of them species in clear decline, classified as rare and uncommon now, as it is the case of the Canary Island Stonechat and the Trumpeter Finch.

Natural Area of ​​National Interest.
For all these values, this area was declared, by 12/1987 Law, of June 19th , on Declaration of Canary Island Natural Areas, as “Paraje Natural de Interés Nacional de Montaña Tindaya” and reclassified as natural monument by 12/1994 Law, of December 19th, on Natural Areas of the Canary Islands.

One of the most beautiful living monuments in the Canary Islands
Tindaya is culture, history, magic and nature; it is a natural monument worthy of respect and research to clarify the past of this land, that of the ancient inhabitants of this corner of La Macaronesian who, like us, felt the magnetism that turns it into the Witches’ Mountain, one of the most beautiful living monuments in the Canary Islands.

Climbing this mountain is now banned but you can stroll around to feel its majesty, also visible from different areas in northern Fuerteventura and recognizable for its special rock, different from other mountains or volcanoes on the island.
They are already several the recommendations of must spots to visit and discover in this island; our favourite one will always be the tour around Isla de Lobos in one of our daily excursions from Corralejo; it is so recommendable that we are number one on TripAdvisor so, will you miss it?

FuerteCharter Team

FAUNA AND FLORA, Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura, stopping place for the Sandwich Tern

The Sandwich Tern (Sterna sandivecensis) is a migrant seabird that nests on the European coast of Sweden, British Isles, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Brittany and Baltic countries; Also on the shores of the Black sea and the Caspian Sea and in North and Central America.

Those living in Europe fly over the coastal area each year from northern Europe to West and Southern Africa, in search of warmth in winter. In this journey, coasts and wetlands of the Canary Islands, are a must stop for these birds, although compared to the migration that exists in the African coast, in the Canary Islands we can say that this phenomenon is less relevant.

Description
The Sandwich Tern belongs to the order of Charadriiformes, family Laridae, and it has an average size (41cm long and 94cm wingspan).
Its feathers are black, white and gray. Its round head has a kind of black bun (pileus), which in the mating season can cover almost its entire head. Its beak is long and black with yellow tip and its tail is forked.

Excursiones Fuertecharter | Charran Patinegro en Fuerteventura

Flying habits
The Sandwich Tern’s flight is similar to the gulls’, very agile and light, featuring longer and narrower wings though, which makes them more graceful.

Feeding
They eat fish on the beaches and in coastal waters; also molluscs and marine worms. They don’t usually move beyond the continental shelf to forage, and once they have located their prey they pounce on it, plunging into the water.

Reproduction
The Sandwich Tern is a very sociable bird that usually creates dense colonies of thousands of individuals. Within the colony, each specimen with its partner lay their eggs (1 or 2) by the end of April or early May. They don’t build elaborate nests, they just use a hole in the gravel, sand or between two stones, and they usually cover it with vegetation.
Their eggs have a creamy colour with lots of black speckles, and they incubate them, both father and mother, for 22 to 26 days. 15 days after hatching chicks gather in groups that are watched by an adult, and 30 days later they fly the nest for the first time.

Excursiones Fuertecharter | Charran Patinegro en Fuerteventura
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Habitat
In Fuerteventura we find the Sandwich Tern in ponds, lagoons or lowlands, especially in the area of ​​the beaches of Sotavento (Jandía), El Cotillo, Corralejo, Majanicho, and inland areas, like in Rosa Catalina Garcia, in Los Molinos Dam and in some ravines with permanent water.

Migration and presence on the islands
This bird is regular in this land, so we can find specimens on the islands in almost every month of the year, there are even some that spend the winter on our shores, but when we find the most of them is in autumn (August and September) when they come down to Africa searching winter warmth, and in spring (March and April), when they go back to northern Europe.

What determines how long these birds spend on our shores is the peace and quiet they find here and the availability of food to refuel and continue their journey. The manipulation of the environment by man, such as road building or construction, can modify the habitats of these species, by seeking best places to rest.

Fuertecharter Team

History

La cueva del Llano, a book about the history of Fuerteventura

Just at a glance at Fuerteventura or Isla de Lobos, at their strange shapes, majestic cliffs eroded by the strength of the Atlantic, volcanoes that despite the passage of time still show us their craters, the wonderful “malpaís” that covers a great part of this land, … you can perceive the volcanic past of these islands. A history of strong eruptions that have reached our days offering us a different and spectacular landscape worthy of admiration.

La cueva del LLano

Fuerteventura island is the oldest one in the Canary Islands. In order to know many secrets of the past of this island we can visit “La Cueva del Llano”, a centre that allows us to delve into the depths of the earth, letting us know which animals inhabited the island  thousands of years ago.


What is “La Cueva del  Llano”?

It is a paleontological site located in the town of Villaverde, municipality of La Oliva, about 8 kilometres from Corralejo (headquarters for our excursions to Isla de Lobos) that was formed by the eruption of the mountain of Escanfraga 800.000 years ago.
The eruption of this volcano caused a river of lava flows that solidified at the top by contact with air, while the bottom remained smooth, descending to the sea. Once this eruption was complete the result was an empty tunnel which forms a volcanic pipe which is up to 12 meters wide and up to 5 metres high at the highest parts, it even reaches 7 metres at some point. The surveyed length so far is 648 meters though the last 200 are difficult to scan.

Cueva del Llano

An open book on the past

This lava tube is an open book on the past of this land as “La Cueva” has worked as a drain of water in the area; due to the collapse of part of its roof, “El Jameo” was formed,  which gives access to it and through which streams of water and mud have slipped for centuries, sweeping sediments of the different stages and remains of fossilized animals which still remain there. Its walls, despite the passage of time, still retain the traces of this mud; as a result, the scientific community has bioclimatic samples to investigate the past of this island.

“La Cueva del Llano” is today an interpretation centre whose visit allows us to dive deeper into this lava tube tunnel walking a few meters, a guided tour on the soils of this island, where you will discover its richness. Before diving into the depths of the cave, visitors can discover the geological variety of Fuerteventura in the interpretation centre.

Cueva del Llano


An exceptional inhabitant

This tube has an inhabitant of exception: the harvestman arachnid (Maiorerus randoi), similar to the spider, but yellowish, and unique to “La Cueva del Llano”, being the only cavity in Fuerteventura with appropriate environmental conditions; this is one of the most extraordinary species of invertebrate in the fauna of The Canary Islands. It is a small arachnid adapted to living in the darkness of the cave, so it is almost transparent as it has lost pigmentation and sight due to the darkness; therefore it uses two front legs as sticks to feel its way. It is believed that the ancestors of this arachnid arrived in the Canary Islands in wetter times, millions of years ago, living on the surface, and due to climate change it sought refuge in the cave where it found an ideal habitat.
This Interpretation Centre is a monument of nature. An exceptional place to know and understand the evolution of the climate in Fuerteventura. It is also the oldest lava tube in the Canary Islands and probably one of the best preserved. Today it reopens Wednesday and Thursday, 10-15 hours. Saturdays from 15-18 hours to delight those who want to know more about the majestic volcanic past of these islands.


Therefore besides recommending the visit to Isla de Lobos on one of our trips from Corralejo, to enjoy the beauty of this volcanic landscape that  Lobos preserves even dramatically wild and natural, we recommend visiting the depths of Fuerteventura to understand and learn first hand the history of these islands.


FuerteCharter Team

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