By bus around the island of Fuerteventura

On Wednesday we went for our first excursion.  It will be our one and only due to the fact that the excursion prices in the euro currency are pretty steep for our limited budget.  Not sure if any of you reading this have been following the news but it's not great for the Canadian economy.  Thanks Mr. Harper for putting all our eggs into the same leaky oil basket.  With the price of oil at its lowest since years the Canadian dollar has taken a precipitous nose dive.  Last time I checked it was 83 cents to the American dollar which regardless of how well their economy is doing (not great) is always the one investors go to in times of "manufactured crisis".  I say manufactured because it's another instance of "the market" let's call it by its real name of grubby, shameless,greedy,manipulative bastards, the market is once again playing with pretend money but making real money.  I don't get it but it doesn't matter whether I get it or not what I do get is that I'm being screwed again and so are most of you reading this unless you're part of the 1%.

OOPS I forgot this was a travel/film blog which has now turned into a political blog, sorry I do get carried away.  One final note found out today in one of those ticker tapes which endlessly runs on the bottom of CNN and BBC news that all Target stores will close in Canada, yes TARGET.  They booted out Zellers and  soon Target will be history too.  Apparently Canadians don't like Target I know I didn't.  Another dismal failure but with an over saturation of retailers already littering the field it's not all that surprising and let's not forget the phenomenal staying and growing power of Wal Mart and Costco those two are here and they're not going anywhere.

So Wednesday boarded the bus at 8:30 with a whole bunch of other Frenchmen eager for the experience.  Strangely our guide turned out to be a transplanted Brit who spoke French quite well but with one of those funny accents I myself use when I want to make kids laugh when I'm reading in French.  His knowledge of the island lore was superb and he kept us entertained.  Apparently French tourists in the Canaries are a relatively recent phenomena.  In the past they traveled  to Morocco or Tunisia but with "the problems" brewing they've decided to give those two nations a pass and try their weather luck here.  This explains the lack of fluent French guides also the fact that most of the information is written first in Spanish then in German followed by English.  Sometimes there's a smattering of Italian there too plus we also noticed a fair number of Polish tourists not sure how they're doing with their zwote currency maybe they work in Europe, possibly England where there is a large expat. community of Poles.

Fuerteventura is a sly one, it's a bit shy about revealing it's beauty keeping it well hidden under masses of volcanic rock.  It takes a certain light, a special angle of a sun's ray to suddenly reveal its radiance.  It never overwhelms but there is beauty to be had in bends around the road ready to seduce the unsuspecting traveler.  What is fascinating to me is the fact that all the Canaries emerged as volcanoes from the bottom of the Atlantic ocean.  This process can be explained in geological terms but it doesn't take away the magic or the mystery.  How bottomless and huge are the world's oceans to have given rise to such wonders!

The road we were on was a very sinuous one and in excellent condition.  Due to the dry virtually almost rain free climate there is very little damage to the roads and they are all in great shape.  Our first stop was to a very famous cheese "factory" a fairly small, family run affair.  They had three types of goat cheese on offer one of which was recently judged best in the world in its category.  We bought a sample to bring back to Canada, it's a little spicy, very tasty indeed and the pride of Fuerteventura.  Goats are the animals which thrive the best here because they'll eat just about anything.  There are sheep too but not as many hence the cheese is mostly all from goats' milk.

Continuing on we stopped at a village where the church is known to have distant Aztec motifs, the guide was not too clear on why that was.  We were free to roam around a bit to visit at our own pace although in fairness there wasn't all that much to see.  Village was pleasant enough especially since it had spots of green with the planted palms and bougainvillea which normally one finds everywhere in Mexico but is quite a rare sight here requiring, I suppose, too much water.  We stopped for lunch at a little roadside restaurant where we were able to do a little more "bonding" with our French companions.  They can be a friendly bunch once you get to know them a little.  In the afternoon we visited an aloe vera "fabrique".  Fuerteventura is quite famous for its aloe vera one of the sturdiest plants around since it can survive without a drop of water for five years, that's phenomenal and hard to believe.  We did a little sampling of the various creams and lotions.  In its purest form, as a gel, aloe vera is transparent and smells like onion, not an overly attractive characteristic for a cream but that's how it works best.  We passed on buying a cream there since the prices were too high for our budget.  Lastly we stopped at an old windmill one Don Quijote might have liked and sampled a cookie made out of flour which has been roasted and requires no further baking.  All it requires is a little oil, water,pinch of salt and sugar.  It's a little pasty and definitely an acquired taste, on an extended camping trip it might come in handy minus the oil.

Fuerteventura is not the most interesting islands culturally, don't believe the other Canary islands are much different in that respect.  One comes more for the scenery and the pleasantly mild weather.  We learned that only 30% of islanders are involved in the tourism industry which is not as high as I thought with all the resorts around.  Nevertheless this percentage exerts a snowball effect on the rest of the island in terms of the jobs it gives rise to, such as doctors, mechanics, teachers, nurses etc….  The employers are loathe to hand out permanent contracts.  The most one can hope for is a one year renewed to a second year never more.  It sounds typical of most employers nowadays who don't want to have to pay for benefits, sad situation worldwide and growing.  The guide did say that usually it's not too hard to find another employer since there are so many tourist outfits here, it still negates the opportunity of full, regular employment.  The population of Fuerteventura has now grown to about 110,000 it used to be only 8, 000 not so very long ago and there have been growing pains in terms of infrastructure needs particularly water.

I'll have final thoughts on the island and our trip here before we leave which is this Sunday, sorry for the political rant at the top, had to get it off my chest, now I'm over it.  Have fun reading…..or not.