Our journey continues on Fuerteventura. After we have traveled some stations across the island from the south to the north, we slowly close the circle on the island towards the south. We have recorded the sights so far in the blog posts Fuerteventura – Part 1 and Fuerteventura – Part 2. Now we continue; from Calderón Hondo we make a detour to the surfer mecca of Fuerteventura.

El Cotillo – Surfer Mecca

In El Cotillo probably the most surfers on the whole island meet at one place. No wonder, there are again long beaches in the north as well as in the south of the village and the waves break differently at each beach which therefore offers versatile surfing conditions for beginners to professionals alike. The town itself doesn’t have quite as much character as Corralejo, but it’s still a very cozy little place right by the sea. It also offers some good cafes and restaurants, especially because the waves are a real tourist magnet.
In addition, we find a really typical red and white lighthouse in the north of El Cotillo, the Faro del Toston. This is a beautiful scenery but is a rather short stop. The beaches are again tiptop, there are good swimming beaches away from the surf sections and there are loads and loads of fine sand. What more do we want on such a trip!
We treat ourselves in the town after a short dry spell to have once again a “Café con Leche” before we go to our sleeping place above the southern beaches of El Cotillo. And here there are many campers. It is over with sleeping alone on the deserted beach. It also makes perfect sense with so many surfers who are probably waiting a few days over and over again for the perfect wave. But at the moment we are here in the low season, we don’t want to imagine how it looks like in the high season.

Barranco de los Enamorados

Only a few kilometers in the interior of the island there is another dried-up river like already near Ajuy. However, here the individual river arms are more filigree and at the same time higher.
There are two entrances to get into the Barranco de los Enamorados. We have decided, after previous information from the internet, for the way from the big traffic circle of Lajares at the FV-10. From here we can drive through sandy roads and a part through the dried-up, flat riverbed in the direction of the Barranco de los Enamorados. It is not recommended to drive further than the last information board, because after that the picturesque, narrow and winding riverbeds begin, which are not passable at least with our Mercedes Sprinter.
The individual small, dried-up river branches are impressive and we can almost get lost in them. But we always find a way to go back to the main river course or to the higher levels next to the river to get an overview again. Baffled we realize that probably one of the first river arms was at the same time the most impressive one.
For us this excursion is absolutely new territory, we have never driven with Ben through a dry, sandy riverbed and also the small hike through the Barranco de los Enamorados is unique. If you are looking for a little offroad adventure which is still within the limits of a Mercedes Sprinter without special offroad equipment, you will get your money’s worth here – like we did.

Piscina Natural near Aguas Verdes

The next stop we make is located at natural pools on the coast of Aguas Verdes. Up to this point we have only seen small, not very spectacular examples of natural pools. This changes in Aguas Verdes. There are several pools that are filled with water by the waves at high tide. They are estimated to be 20m x 5m and therefore quite large. But beware, for us the weather on the one hand but also the swell was decisive not to go down to the pools. We don’t want to imagine being caught by the waves and then being smashed several times against the rugged lava rocks. But in better conditions a swim in such a pool is surely a nice experience.

After the stop at the natural pools, we continue on gravel roads along the coast towards the south. We want to experience another impressive stretch of beach. The journey took us a bit longer than expected, because we do not make very fast progress on the uneven road. After a good 20 minutes of bumpy road, we find a really deserted beach. From here we walk again for about half an hour until we reach the coastal section we are looking for. It is a beautiful walk along the unpaved, very rough coast. This excursion is really worth it. And even more, because we decide to spend the night on this lonely beach. Wonderful! We are completely to ourselves and only around noon the next day when we are already leaving again the next tourists arrive, who are on their way to this natural part of the coast.

Pico de la Zarza

The highest point on Fuerteventura calls and we decide to take the hike on a beautiful day. It is not an extreme hike but still about 800 meters of altitude from sea level. The hiking trail is nothing special for us, but it has to be mastered in order to enjoy the breathtaking panorama of the summit. From the top of Pico de la Zarza, you can overlook the least developed area of Fuerteventura. The whole coastline of Cofete and the adjacent mountain peaks are in view – uniquely beautiful. For this sight the ascent was worthwhile. And we are glad to have done a right hike again – otherwise we drive rather often very directly to the sights with our Ben.
As already mentioned, the hike is not very demanding, however, there are no trees and therefore no shade, sunscreen, sun hat and plenty of water is a must.

With this third part of our series about Fuerteventura we conclude our visit to Fuerteventura. We liked it very much and it is really a new experience for us to be on such a scarce island.

Oh yes, a little insider tip: Since Fuerteventura is quite hilly in the middle part and developed with good roads but has a very thin settlement it is perfect to plan a night for stargazing on this island. There are several viewpoints along the road between La Pared and Valle de Santa Inés. The best one from our point of view is the Mirador de Sicasumbre.

The only shortcoming of Fuerteventura is, after a longer time – we were now 3.5 weeks on this island – the missing green, we really miss the trees.

Now we go on to Tenerife. We are just as excited about this Canary Island as we were on Fuerteventura, it should again have a completely different character than the barren island of Fuerteventura.