Fuerteventura
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Wed 22 Oct 2008 16:43
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Well, having checked in and found the price was 16
euros per night, I decided to stay until saturday. Yesterday I spent doing
vaguely boaty things, namely replacing a couple of lost length-markings on the
anchor chain and removing the outboard from the dingy. Today (22nd) I took a bus
ride to the tourist 'paradise' of Corralejo and found [whisper this, now] it
wasn't too too awful. To be sure the island is full of half-finished [probably
never-to-be-finished] apartment blocks, shops and hotels and Corralejo itself is
full of 'full English Breakfast bars, Leprachaun bars, buy incredibly cheap tat
shops, lots and lots and lots of apartment blocks/villa developements [of which
more in a moment], estate agents, car hire, jeep hire, Baja-type buggy hire for
that essential , not to be missed, 'volcanic trail /offroad safari' [actually
that looked like it might have been fun, but 3 hours for 50 euros was outside
the budget] discount booze stores and places flogging a TV system which would
allow you to 'watch all the soaps back home'. I think why the place didn't seem
too bad was because there weren't actually that many people about.
However, having strayed a little off the beaten
track, and pausing to stock-up at an indian supermarket [ Steve & Rich, we
won't be running out of mango chutney or Tandoori curry paste, 2.2 litres of
both goes a long way. Probably as far as New Zealand, so if you read this Helen,
I hope you don't object to the occasional curry!] I found a small bar slightly
away from the main tourist drag, run by an English couple who'd been out here
for just over two years. There was an English family also having lunch who
seemed to be regulars and a smattering of locals who popped in and
out.
It turns out the English family were regulars,
having brought an apartment in Corralejo about three years ago and coming out
fout times a year. There was an interesting discussion about business, which
according to the bar owner [with his wife in agreement] has been getting
steadily worse for the last eighteen months. Last year the local fishermen were
selling their entire catch to restaurants and cafes before they'd even landed
it, this year they are having to go round to the restaurants trying to sell it
and sometimes literally hawking it in the streets. The local 'Dell-Boys' who
used to sell cheap booze which had unacountably fallen off the back of a lorry
are now trying to sell steaks in particular and food-stuffs in general. One
would have thought the local hauliers would have learnt to tie down their loads!
According to 'mine host' an American bank [unnamed] which had been financing
most of the construction in the south of the island has just pulled the
credit-plug and cancelling all contracts. He said he knew this because a Swiss
chap had come in for lunch a few weeks before and during a similar conversation
to the one we were having let slip that he worked for an American bank and
things were actually worse than was generally supposed. Beer flowed and
information followed. The apartment owners said that only 30% of their
developement had been sold or rented-out and prices were heading for the floor.
As this discussion was taking place it was announced on the English-language pop
station that Ryanair were not going to fly to Fuerteventura as from January.
Wait a couple more months and it might be time to think about buying. At the
moment a new [presumably finished?] two bedroom/two bathroom apartment in
central Corralejo goes for 96000 euros. Fuel seems cheapish, I saw diesel on
sale for 88cents a litre, not sure what petrol is, a bit more
probably.
Tomorrow I may take the bus south to Morro Jable,
but I expect I'll see more of the same. Impressions so far? Well, it depends
what facilities survive the recession which is obviously in full swing, but the
place has a bit more character than Lanzarote - not everything is a uniform
white colour - but the island has a stark quality that I like and of course
quite a few sandy beaches [which I'm not bothered
about].
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