Fuerteventura

This island is the second largest of the Canaries (behind Tenerife), and is only 100 km from the coast of Africa. It is much drier than Gran Canaria, as we quickly noticed when driving down to the SW end of the island -

On the way to Punta Jandia, the blue of the ocean was captivating -

The contrast was gorgeous…

… and I don’t think I’d seen waves coming in from so many different directions. Enjoy the next video of this wild point out in the “middle” of the Atlantic by being sure to open this email in your browser -

As we headed back up the island…

… we passed numerous secluded beaches…

… and beautiful colors in the hills -

Our accommodations on the NE end of the island, in Corralejo, were right on the water, and granted us beautiful views of Isla de Lobos (named for the monk seals that were found there)…

… as well as our next destination, Lanzarote -

We drove up into the interior…

… and did only one hike, but boy was it a doozy! It started out innocently enough, with a variety of plant life…

… then skirted a ravine…

… with a few little buddies…

… before culminating in a rocky scramble trying to follow a trail -

Around the large rock in the picture above, we found…

… Arco las Pinitas!

As we headed back “home”, we visited Betancuria…

… which, as you can see from the plaque on the building, was founded in 1404 -

The next day we took it easier and had a beach day.

However, the first beach, La Escalera (“the staircase”) took a bit of work to get to (135 steps, to be exact) -

But to have a beach this gorgeous with only a few other people was fantastic.

The other beach we checked out was Playa La Concha, and it was full of Brits and Germans…

… with sugar-fine sand and clear blue water that was freezing! Needless to say, I just waded for a short while.

On our last night on the island, we had a waterside table at a great fresh fish restaurant, and thoroughly enjoyed the sunset -

Adios!