Geography
and Politics:
Fuerteventura is one of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean,
about 100 kilometers west of the Moroccan coast. The island covers
an area of about 1700 square kilometers and has about 85,000
inhabitants (as of 2005).
Fuerteventura's capital is Puerto del Rosario (24,000 inhabitants),
and the national language is Spanish. Fuerteventura constitutes
(along with the island of Lanzarote to the north) the Eastern
border of the Canary Islands and is the archipelago's second
largest island after Teneriffe.
Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria altogether form the
Spanish province of Las Palmas. The Canaries are part of Spain's
sovereign territory, but possess the outstanding privilege of a
special status as a self-governing community with their own
parliament and president.
Climate:
Fuerteventura's climate is perennially very agreeable due to the
island's proximity to the Tropic of Cancer in between the 27th and
29th degree of latitude (their geographical position being along
the sobriquet "Islands of Eternal Spring"). The ocean regulates the
temperatures during the day and during the night, and the trade
winds keep hot air masses from the nearby Sahara away.
Consequently, desert sandstorms seldom drag along hot air and
desert sand off the African continent. The climate is also affected
by the trade winds' clouding as well as the direction (north-east
trade wind), the winds blow from. The daytime temperatures
perennially range in between 20°C and 30°C . The northern part of
Fuerteventura is, for the most part cooler and soggier than its
drier and warmer southern counterpart.
Tourism:
Fuerteventura's most prominent attraction is the vast beaches along
the eastern coast. The constantly-blowing winds make the island's
beaches a water sports paradise. Surfers get their money's worth
outstandingly on the western coast, whereas wind-surfers will be
quite at home at Playa de Sotavento to the south or at the northern
part of the island close to Corralejo. At Playa de Sotavento,
kite-boarding has been established throughout the last years. The
beach there is partially separated in wind-surfing and
kite-boarding recreation areas.
The western part of the island mostly consists of a scenic bluffs.
Due to life-threatening offshore currents, swimming is strongly
discouraged there.
Interestingly, there has never been a shark attack on the shores of
Fuerteventura. This is due to a cold, aberrant Atlantic ocean
current, which passes the Canaries on its way to Brazil.
To top it off, there are no dangerous animals on the whole island;
solely reef divers may experience fish whose bites leave them with
light toxic reactions.
If you embark on a roundtrip, you would do well not to avoid the
picturesque mountain ranges. This harsh and bare landscape of
volcanic origin features a charme of its very own. But if you
prefer to go upcountry anyway, you will encounter a scenery
suggestive of the island's closeness to Africa with its green oases
and dispersed villages (with sacral and profane architecture of the
17th and 18th century).
In the beginning of 1994, the American cruise ship SS American Star
ran aground at the remote beach of Playa de Garcey on the western
coast and broke apart shortly thereafter. It is strongly
recommended that visitors avoid swimming to the well-attended
derelict, as unpredictable currents, wide-spread wreckage and
severe waves may make this shot a life-threatening
endeavour.