The Canary Islands, Where There Are No Small Yellow Birds Who Like to Sing

They should have named this the Goat Islands, but really the Canary Islands weren’t named after the bird either.   A fact about the signs in Fuerteventura:  they don’t make goat crossing signs, so the resourceful islanders use deer crossing ones instead.  So I spent the first day driving past the sand dunes on one side and the beach on the other, wondering what kind of deer (!) I should expect to see bounding my way.

This was the view from my apartment.  At the end of the day, I would just watch the windsurfers and kite surfers battle the waves for an hour, and occasionally pull off some amazing jumps.

This was taken at about 11 AM.  The beach was practically deserted.  I was told that when the surf is good, you’ll see 40-50 kite-surfers on the beach.  Today all you can see is the neighboring island of Lanzarote.

The interior of the island is a mixture of mountains, desert and dunes, and often it feels more like a moonscape than an island paradise.

And your moment of zen:  the cliffs at El Cotillo.