Las Playitas

Lochmarin
Fri 28 Dec 2012 20:19
In Fuertventura we got out and about on our Bromptons again, not far, just up the coast to the next village. However to go along the coast here one has to first go inland along the valley between the volcanos into the plain in the middle of the Island, then come back out along the valley between the volcanos that are where you want to go.

It was very beautiful and quite different from Lanzarote. As you get to the edge of Gran Tarajal you can see the volcanos on the West of Fuerteventura, here's the view looking above the football stadium:


And as you cycle out of town - it's a mixture of paved roads and dirt tracks, it's a much greener land, date palm everywhere:


As we climbed we could see further over the plain, there are small holdings scattered everywhere, with wind pumps and solar panels on the roofs of the houses:


Conveniently, once we were out of town there was a cycle path for most of the way. We started to feel that Fuerteventurians were super fit; we were being whizzed past by cool dudes on flash road bikes, and adventurous types on million-geared mountain bikes came tumbling down the mountains towards us, followed by a line of runners cresting the volcanoes and snaking their way down the valley. It turns out that Las Playitas is a village of two halves. On one side of the bay is a beautiful little traditional Canarian village,


which spills down the hillside to the sea -


to where a few small fishing boats have their moorings and the locals clean their fish on the shore line.


But sit at the cafe on the sea front for a pineapple and mango juice and look towards the other side of the bay and you see sprawling buildings.


It's a holiday resort, one with a difference though - it's a sports holiday resort, complete with gyms, 50m swimming pool for training, tennis courts, sailing dinghies and kayaks to rent, top of the range road bikes for hire...  So at least they're not all laying around a pleasure pool like beached whales, and all the keen cyclists and runners meant there was the cycle track for us to use, complete with built in exercise pit stops, should the need to do a few pull-ups and sit-ups over come you when you are halfway through cycling or running to the next town...


Finally - good news! We have discovered, thanks to our new Irish friends on a boat on the same pontoon, the names of some of our mysterious fish! Cian and Ellen, aged 8 and 4, went on a yellow submarine (yes, really!) and were given a crib sheet with pictures and names of the local fish, so they were able to teach us.

Parrot fish - yep, we got it right, they are parrot fish.
Tartan fish  - actually ornate wrasse, but I prefer tartan fish.
Black with electric blue fins top and bottom - damsel fish
Yellow stripes from head to tail - gold lined bream
The little chaps that seem to hover, fliffing their fins instead of swimming properly, the ones with eyes on top of their heads and the shape of your fingers and thumbs pushed together... they're band tailed puffers!

We've also seen zebra bream and white bream, bogues, blennies and and gobies. I've eaten the parrot fish - absolutely superb!