We are now moving relentlessly through autumn into winter, with the weather deteriorating rapidly. Time spent outdoors in the garden or on the allotment feels like a distant memory. Plus, we are now in what is effectively another lockdown with restrictions likely to continue for some time. Not that it bothers me too much since I am a bit of an anti-social hermit type anyway and it gives me a great opportunity to revisit and re-publish a few of my travelblogs which got lost in the big website move. As I re-publish each one I will add a post to my blog with a bit of background to the story. Here is the first out of the archives.
Back in 2010 we were looking for something cheap and cheerful for my annual birthday holiday. Paul found and booked an apartment from a bloke on some dodgy online rental site. Here is our story.
After a long and tiring journey we arrived at the apartment complex late-ish on; the taxi driver from the airport must have brought us the scenic route so he could charge us more; so we had to find our way across the complex in the dark. The lighting was poor, but not so poor that we didn’t notice the pool was empty as we tried not to fall over the sun loungers scattered around it’s edge. We eventually found the apartment, tucked away in the farthest corner of the complex and let ourselves in. We switched on the lights and my heart sank. It reminded me of mother, with little notes taped to all possible surfaces full of rules and instructions. It was a bit Aunty Gwen too, with typically English trying to be Spanish decor. But at least it was clean. We dumped our bags, picked our way back round the pool and walked in the direction we hoped would take us into town to find somewhere to eat. After much wandering around bleak and deserted streets we plumped on a dingy looking restaurant called The Great Wall which did at least have people inside. It was OK but not the best Chinese we’ve ever had but we were starving, plus the service was good and it wasn’t over-pricey.
The next morning we finally got to see where we were staying. The apartment was small and basic but the biggest disappointments were the balcony, which was tiny and shared with the three waiters living next door, and the pool being empty, which meant sunbathing wasn’t going to be easy. After a simple breakfast of coffee, toast and jam from the welcome hamper we went into Calleta to have a look round and see what there was to do. Not much. I suppose it would be nice if you liked to spend all day on the beach, which was man made and perfect, or in a bar. It was that good we decided to hire a car for the week. We spent most of the day wandering round the town comparing prices, which Paul seemed to think was important. About lunchtime, well all the shops had closed, we found an English run greasy spoon cafe, complete with Union Jacks painted on the walls, for a coffee – it was instant! We finally found a car hire place Paul was happy with; so was I, the car rental bloke was cute. And he had a real nice ass!! We drove back to the apartment complex where we had to find the car park which was around the back. At least, that evening we did find a really good restaurant for dinner. The Fado Rock Steakhouse was a bit on the pricey side but the food was so good it turned out to be excellent value for money. I had the Kangaroo steak, which appeared to be at least half the kangaroo sizzling on a hot platter and perfectly cooked.
We had managed to pick up a leaflet with a route round the island, and places of interest to visit whilst on our wanderings yesterday. So for our first day out in the car we decided to visit a grain museum, which took us about an hour to find and 10 minutes to look round. From there we drove to a lava tube cave, which turned out to be quite interesting; I looked closely at a spider!! Willingly!!! It was a whopping 2mm big!!!!
The Spider
Moving on with our tour we stopped for lunch in Correlejo where we had a lukewarm cheeseburger ’n’ hard, overdone chips in a tacky greasy spoon; a bit like Hamron’s but with sunshine; which appeared to be run by a large tattooed bint, her partner, a couple of friends and a gay!! The whole town felt like we had dropped through a wormhole into Ingoldmells in an alternate universe! It even rained for us!! After lunch we continued our tour, finding what was supposed to be a giant sand dune but, with the stiff sea breeze blowing sand and tumbleweed across the road, it felt more like a desert from an old spaghetti western. A little further on we found a bit of beach where I had a paddle before heading home.
We went into Calleta again that evening and, once again, the town appeared to be deserted. We ended up eating in an Indian/Spanish fusion place. It was one of those sad little restaurants trying desperately to be chic and contemporary, with it’s bright orange and lime green decor, but failing miserably. We decided on the Indian. It was expensive and the service was not the best and I do have to say, it’s the first time I’ve ever been served luminous green lamb pasanda! After this disappointing meal we wandered down towards the beach area where we had spotted a few bars. We found one professing to be a Blues Bar, where we spent the rest of the night listening to some bloke murdering good music, a has been who never was telling anyone who’d listen how good he was in his day, all topped off with some boring fart with a pissed wife, telling us how he’d done so well that he could retire early and spend half the year on a barren rock boring the pants of everyone else telling them how……….
The next day was a good day. I was being very pleasantly surprised as the week progressed. We visited a windmill and cactus garden; which was so peaceful we just wandered around aimlessly in the warm sun. There were some amazing cacti, some round, some with flowers, some as big as trees, and some looking quite rude!! Feeling warm and relaxed we continued our day with a scenic drive up to a viewpoint at the top of the mountain, yes the road did go all the way to the top. Well Paul wouldn’t have gone if he’d had to walk UPHILL. There was a cafe with a veranda wrapped around three sides from which you stare out over the fantastic views across the island. Until the atmosphere was spoiled by a busload of noisy tourists! From there to the very picturesque old town of Betancuria where we found a lovely little taverna serving real tapas. Once we had eaten we followed the tourist route to the beach at Ajuy, which is not much to look at and there’s not much there, but it is a surfers paradise, with the most amazing black sand and and great waves. It was a very informal beach and I felt comfortable enough to strip off and have a swim and sunbathe. I wish we’d known about this place earlier so we could have spent longer.
It was late when we got back to the apartment so we dined in, drank wine and watched bad TV that evening.
On my birthday we awoke to mixed weather so we decided to go to zoo. It’s not a bad little zoo either. Mostly small animals, reptiles, monkeys, birds and a mother and baby hippo. Oh, and a fine family of meerkats who were very entertaining. As were the pair of otters, who on seeing us stood watching became proper little showoffs! We had a pleasant and, surprisingly, not too expensive lunch in the jungle hut restaurant before watching the sea lion show. We took the mini-train (a truck really) to another cactus garden with more huge, rude cacti; I wouldn’t like to fall into those babies, they look like fluffy balls from a distance but up close and personal they have spines like nails! Back in the zoo we finished our day with a look at the camels; it looked like a camel audition for Lawrence of Arabia, there were hundreds of ‘em; and one elephant.
That evening we went to a really cool fish restaurant I had found on the internet – La Frascata. It didn’t look too inspiring as we walked over to it along the seashore, little more than a shack on the beach with a few old, plastic garden tables and chairs. Neither did it have a menu, they just brought a tray with the whole of the days catch to our table, we picked which fish we wanted and they cooked it to perfection. For me it was easily the best meal I’d had all week. Unfortunately I followed this up by returning to the blues bar where I got incredibly drunk and turned into the pissed wife of the boring fart; not that Paul is a boring fart! He did tell me I behaved badly on the way home. Apparently I had called in at the Spanish/Indian fusion restaurant and told all the customers about their toxic curries. Well it was my birthday!
Another day of mixed and windy weather so we went to look at one of the islands main attractions, the lighthouse. We followed the signposts which took us onto a narrow road which soon became an even narrower, winding track; with a cliff to the right and a sheer drop to the left; rising steeply towards the cliff top, with no apparent safe passing places and no indication of anything coming the other way. We had already passed a tour bus at the bottom of the track so we hoped to goodness there weren’t anymore on the way down. We were lucky and few minutes later we arrived at our destination. What a disappointment! It was pretty but not worth the hair-raising, knuckle-whitening drive up to it.
We gritted our teeth and headed back down and on to Atalayita, a village dating back to the aboriginal Majo population from before the Spanish conquest of the island. We spent quite a while there as it was really quite interesting and we spent a very peaceful half hour or so wandering around amongst the stones. Paul even climbed halfway up the hill. I made it to the top, where it was very windy but there were some lovely views, only spoiled, once again, by a group of yammering “serious” walkers, all dressed in their correct summer hiking gear, complete with walking poles……they had come in a car and had only walked a few hundred metres from the car park for heavens sake!!! On our return to the apartment I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to sunbathe on the tiny balcony. At least the waiters were out.
On our last day we only had the car until teatime so we drove the short distance up the coast to visit the final “attraction” on the island, the salt museum. Once again it turned out to be it quite interesting taking us through the process of how we get our sea salt, but didn’t take very long.
Back at the apartment I managed to get some final sunbathing in whilst Paul returned the car. That evening we cleaned the apartment, ready for leaving in the morning and Paul insisted we did some washing so we didn’t have to do it when we got home. In the end it wasn’t such a bad week. And Fuerteventura might be a barren rock but does have the best roads in Europe!!