Gran Canaria to FuerteventuraJul 16, 2004
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Early morning, heading into Port Rosario... Is this what the Canary Islands...
Port Rosario, capital of Fuerteventura... in all its glory.
Riding on the old bus to Correljo... where the waves are.
| I woke up to the sound of the ferry intercom notifying us that we were approaching Port Rosario. I had slept across 3 seats which was actually quite confortable. When I had a look around on the top deck it was grey skies, the land looked desolate, and the town of Port Rosario ... bleak. Not what I expected what the Canaries would be like. At any rate, I got off the boat and wandered into town, guided solely by my trusty Lonely Planet guidebook. I made my way to the state-run tourist office and they advised me that the best way to get around the island was by rent-a-car and that the best place to find one would be the airport. So I hopped onto a guahguah (pronounced ´wah wah´) which is just their name for a autobus and headed over to the airport. When I got there, most all the cars were already reserved or already gone... the only ones left being to expensive. I made some calls and figured out that I could get a reasonably priced car only tomorrow on the island of Lanzarote... the Island that I was going to go to tomorrow. So I reserved a car to be picked up at Puerto del Carmen over there and hopped on the bus to Correljo where there was to be good surfing. Well I got to Correljo and the best surfspots in Fuerteventura weren´t rideable. While this seemed bad, the sun had begun to come out and I was much more optomistic. I ran into a surfer who confirmed what I suspected about the wave situation... So I decided I would go diving instead. As luck would have it, I ran into a diveshop that was closed, but a lady who worked there had saw me looking in the window. It turns out that they were going out for a dive today at 2:30 which was perfect since it would allow me enough time to get back to catch the hydrofoil 12 minute ride to Lanzarote, (my main destination). So I told her to put me down and I headed into town to check out a surfshop and grab a bite of pizza to eat. The pizza was great, but I told myself I wouldn´t try asking for powdered garlic because they just don´t use it in restaurants in Spain. My waiter brought out garlic spread... like the kind you put on garlic bread before you put it in the oven... and some kind of garlic oil which was actually good. I felt bad and left him a good tip for all his troubles. I was making my way back to the dive center when I ran into some kids out on the bay pier (which was more of a jetty than a pier) jumping into the water. They looked kinda cold getting out, which made me wonder if I was going to be able to dive for over an hour in it. Well I got to the dive shop and I met up with Kristoff, some German diver who hooked me up with the gear I was going to need. Glad I remembered to bring my diver card! Anyways we rode out to the site where we were going to do a shore entry. I met a cute girl and her boyfriend from London down on holiday which was good talking to them. The boyfriend looked much like this kid I used to know a long time ago named Josh Smith... wierd. Anyways we put on our wetsuits, our tank, bouyancy control device, regulators and gauges, fins and finally our mask in the water and went for a little swim. The water felt great after baking for a little bit with our wetsuit half on during the dive briefing. Although it had been well over a year since I dove everything came back to me as if I was riding a bike. We went down to about 20 meters or 60 feet and checked things out. It wasn´t like Florida with coral... just rocks and stuff growing on them. Lots of Sea Urchins, fish, and squid like- cuttlefish. I pointed out this seaslug to the dive guide and he picked it up and it started to spray out ink... fun stuff. After diving for awhile we headed back to shore and took off our gear... I snapped some pictures of the surrounding area but regretted not having an underwater housing for my new digital camera like I had for my old one that broke. We had a good time but when I took off my wetsuit all the heat that had been going to my head to keep it warm (it was the only part of me besides my hands exposed) kept going through my head and after about an hour I had a head ache. I took it easy on the beach waiting for the hydrofoil ferry to leave and ran into a cool sand sculpture. After all that I got on the high speed ferry and headed over to Lanzarote at 35 knots. |
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