We skipped breakfast and started at about 7 a.m., drove across the whole island and arrived at the town of Morro Jable at about 9 a.m. The place is quite touristy, but our main interest was the beach.
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The beach is enormous. First you have to cross a wide belt of marshes to get to the sand and the lighthouse.
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An elevated path leads from the town's main avenue to the beach.
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The impressive white lighthouse towers above the beach.
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To help you cross a wide belt of sand to get to the sea, there's a wooden path, but it's wobbly. Very wobbly. :)
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City beaches are not really our thing, so we headed to the wilder variety. The road there leads through some spectacularly arid landscape.
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I took a hundred photos of this hill. :)
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Nothing but rock and sand and small resilient bushes.
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The sun kept hiding behind one single cloud, which produced a nice play of shadows.
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Road.
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Our Opel Corsa.
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The beaches of Sotavento are a windsurfer's paradise.
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And they are really scenic.
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Many people come here to windsurf.
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Looooong beach ...
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... perfect for long walks ...
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... with the waves gently lapping at your feet.
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There is a dune looming behind the beach.
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Climbing the dune.
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From the dune with a fisheye lens.
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The wind was quite strong but it didn't make big waves.
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I was standing ankle-deep in the sea to make this picture.
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Many people spend days just walking along several kilometers of the beach.
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There is so much space the beach is never crowded. Well, maybe only when the World Windsurfing Championship is held here. ;)
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The tide creates an interesting pattern of beach and inlets.
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This guy was really good - he sped along the beach and made a perfect turn.
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Enjoying the wind.
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In the afternoon we continued past Morro Jable to the south. From this lokout the city beaches can be seen.
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The city beach.
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A grid of beach umbrellas? No, thank you.
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The southern tip of the island is very desolate. The road isn't paved and only few people make it this far. This is the view from the lighthouse at the very end of the peninsula back towards the island.
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The village of Puerto de la Cruz with a single giant wind turbine.
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The lighthouse at Puerto de la Cruz.
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There's another lighthouse at a second tip of the peninsula, an even more desolate and windy one with views of the Cofete beach in the distance.
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The wind was so strong here I could harldy keep my camera still.
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Beaches of Cofete.
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Patterns of the ground.
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From the road along the peninsula.
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The road is not paved but it's quite easily negotiable.
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We took a different turn and climbed to the pass that leads to the other side of the mountains, to the isolated beaches of Cofete.
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A long stretch of sand.
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The road the descends from the lookout at the pass is winding and narrow.
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A wide angle view of the beach.
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The traffic is sparse to say the least. ;)
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The village of Cofete. We didn't see one single inhabitant, just a few goats.
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A Cofete house.
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Villa Winter at the foot of the mountains.
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There were only a handful of swimmers at the beach.
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The peaks were shrouded in clouds.
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The beach itself was idyllic.
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Blue skies and white clouds and green waters.
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We just sat for a while and enjoyed the sound of the wind.
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Are you taking a photo of me?
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A rock in the sand.
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A girl was about to place a tripod in the waves. I think her camera got wet. :)
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Desolate, but beautiful.
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Cofete.
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I even had a photo taken of me.
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Seagulls.
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An unusual species of cacti. I have no idea what it's called.
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One more look from the pass and off we were to the long drive back to Corralejo.
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