Fuerteventura: dunes and inland villages

North of the island, the Natural Park of the Dunes of Corralejo protects over ten kilometers of golden sand sculpted by wind, with a landscape often compared to the Sahara desert.

Moving inland, one reaches Betancuria, founded in 1404 and the capital of the island until 1834: it was deliberately built among the mountains to protect it from the attacks of pirates who struck the coast instead.

Not far away, in La Oliva, the Casa de los Coroneles, a military mansion from the seventeenth century, remains one of the most imposing historic buildings in the interior.

Toward evening, it is worthwhile to reach El Cotillo, a fishing village on the western coast with natural lagoons sheltered from the waves, ideal for a sunset swim.

The lagoons of El Cotillo remain calm even when the rest of the island's Atlantic coast is battered by high waves, thanks to a natural rock barrier that shields them from the open sea.

Betancuria, today a village of just a few hundred inhabitants, was for four centuries the seat of power on an island far more exposed and vulnerable than its current tourist coast suggests.