Fuerteventura Kite Festival 2025

This year there was a lot of rays in the air, and not only *

From our arrival to the Canary Islands and up to the terrible 2020, I’ve been photographing the Fuerteventura Kite Fest every single year. After 2020 many of my pleasurable routines were broken, same as for many. I was there in 2021 and then there was a gap of three years.

This year, 2025, we all decided to go.

Those are new, at least for me. There was a couple of old ones, bigger but a bit faded after years and years of flying

The festival is held in November, this year’s program could be found here — https://corralejokitefest.com/ There is no guarantee that the site stays the same further on, but generally there never was a problem confirming the dates and sites. The helpfullness of AI tends to confuse things somewhat, so make sure you check out actual webs pages and not the AI summary.

Sardina del Norte — Puerto de Las Nieves

Cave house at the end of the promenade, Sardina del Norte

I did this easy hike several times already, sometimes alone, sometimes in a small group. It is not very long, less than 11 kilometres, and doesn’t have that much ascent and descent, below 500 metres of both. Both villages are reasonably well connected by public transport, so you can do the hike in either direction. Just keep in mind that Sardina has a nice sandy beach, but fewer places to eat versus the pebble beach, rocky natural pools and disproportionate number of restaurants per square head of population of Puerto de Las Nieves. 

La Palma, Volcano Route, Ruta de Los Volcanes

Absolutely spectacular and very, very black ashes on Cráter del Duraznero, formed in 1949

The Volcano Route, Ruta de los Volcanes, on beautiful La Palma, is one of the most famous hiking routes of the Canary Islands, the other equally famous one being the ascent of Teide. The latter can be done in various ways (1, 2) though, whereas the Volcano Route is singular, running along the crest of the island north to south. The path forks a little sometimes, but the signs always and unambiguously point to the main path.

I was planning to do it for a while, and decided to go now-now, while the weather is not too hot. Let it be said right away that it is very beautiful, very worth going, but needs reasonable physical form and some preparation.

Spectacular Caldera de Taburiente, the morning clouds are still floating inside

South of Gran Canaria, Andén del Zurrado in Barranco de Arguineguin ravine, circular route

If this pic gives you vertigo, don’t go

Well, I would like to start by expanding on the caption above. The main point of this hike, at least for me, was to see and walk a spectacular “Andén del Zurrado”, andén* being a pass or a path in a precipitous place, in this case with a strong emphasis on precipitous. There is no real danger, of which later, but if you have a fear of heights, it can get really tricky for you.

OK, warning done, back to the walk. A pic of Andén del Zurrado came up in Facebook and we started planning the walk immediately. The main problem of this walk is logistics, not the difficulty, once you are sure that everybody in your group can handle heights.

So, first problem, the transport. There is no public transport that come close to the start of the walk, at least I can’t find any. The nearest stop of Global is about 7 km out, so not a viable option.

Faneque, the first attempt

Faneque, as seen from Tamadaba campsite viewpoints. Teide floating serenely on his cushion of clouds

Faneque, the tallest above-sea cliff in Europe, is always very prominent when you are in the northwest of Gran Canaria. It looks infinitely majestic and quite, quite forbidding. The side view gives you an impression of a series of three plateaus, separated by sharp V-shaped drops. Plus, people always talk about “the last platform” or “the last point”, which contributes to the same impression. It’s not really true, of which later.

Double dose of spring, Gran Canaria

Almonds of Tejeda

This year, since we are allowed to go out and look at the beautiful spring of Gran Canaria, we try to do it as much as possible. Last spring, as I am sure everyone remembers, all or nearly all of Europe was in quarantine. What not everybody knows, perhaps, is how unnecessarily draconian the quarantine was in Spain. We were not allowed to go out of the house except for necessities. Said necessities didn’t include walking or any other form of outdoor physical exercise. Only dog owners were allowed to walk their pets, which give raise to infinite number of memes showing dogs being walked to exhaustion.

Even after we were finally allowed to get out a bit, the requirement of not getting too far from the house was imposed, thus preventing us from seeing the last flowers of spring. So, this year we try to compensate for that. I already did a number of hikes which I haven’t attempted before, and maybe I will write about some of them in details, but this post is here just to show the spring flowers and give very brief indicators as to where and when they could be seen.

Barranco Hondo, the Deep Ravine, and Salinas de Tenefe

Impressive cliffs

The second walk we’ve done in a very short stretch of time — we are all worried that our long awaited freedom will be suddenly taken from us again — is another one that was new for me. The south of the island is full of deep and steep ravines, and one of them has a double arch, called Arco del Coronadero. Of course, we had to go, because, as the famous saying goes, “it’s there”.

Euphorbias large enough for all the King’s horses and all the King’s men to get lost in

Ventana del Bentayga stone arch, interspecies kiss

Do you see a camel on the left and an elephant on the right?

The amusingly-shaped stone arch above is called Ventana del Bentayga, Window of Bentayga. If you are on the right level, Roque Bentayga formation can be seen through it. If you are slightly above the arch, as in one of the photos below, behind and above Bentayga and to its right small white houses of Artenara village are visible, and directly above it — the top of Tamadaba massif. On a good day, Teide is seen on the horizon, too. The height of the opening is about 4.5—5 metres.

Aserrador massif. Road GC-60 circling it, branch to Juncal goes to the left

La Graciosa in summer — 2, Yellow Mountain and walking (a bit)

Amazing color of the Yellow Mountain, Montaña Amarilla

The last time me and Timur went to La Graciosa, the smallest of the inhabited Canary Islands, we only went as far as Playa Francesa, sheltered cove beach where many leaisure vessels anchor for an hour or so. We were not impressed: it was crowded, and there was a pink floating inflatable slide in the water, great way of spoiling beautiful landscape.

This time we wanted to walk a bit more, to get away from the masked crowds, and to try to see the other islands of Chinijo Archipelago from the north shore of La Graciosa. As mentioned in the first post, walking on La Graciosa is not a problem if you don’t mind sand and heat. Distances are ridiculously small and there is no vegetation, so you basically always see where you are and where to go.

Cruz de Tejeda — Pico de Las Nieves

Million euro view

Pico de Las Nieves is the highest point of Gran Canaria, some 1,949 metres above sea level.
Except it's not really the highest point, because its neighbor rocky outcrop with a hole in it, Morro de la Agujereada, i.e. Holey Mountain, is a few meters taller. But you can't get on the top of Agujereada safely and easily, so Pico de Las Nieves is sold as The Summit.*  It's where you get the classic, the most postcardy view, with Roque Nublo, Roque Bentayga and Teide on Tenerife all in front of you.
I have been to it a few times, even watched the sun setting from there, but somehow failed to write it up.

Third time’s the charm

Finally! A decent pic from the top. Shadow of Papa Teide on the morning mist and anticrepuscular rays

I know it probably sounds ridiculous, but I went up to the top of Teide twice this year. And my stupid persistence finally paid off. Although I am still to see all the other islands from the top, we had a beautiful and not very common view during our ascent at down — anticrepuscular rays. On the first ascent we saw very little because of the calima, on the second the wind was so strong that all we cared about was not to be blown away, and now, finally, a few good pictures, yay.

Honestly, I feel so ridiculously proud of the pic above, as if I have gone and painted the rays in the sky myself.

La Graciosa in summer

Shallow lagoon Bahia de Salino filling with water in high tide

Ok, with all the excitement of the wildfire over, the academic year has started for real, and I feasted my (and, hopefully, your) eyes on the rare sight of freshwater stream on Gran Canaria, I would like to return to our short stay on Lanzarote.

Barranco de los Cernícalos — water!

A small waterfall a bit off the path

Finally, I’ve seen all three places where water always runs on Gran Canaria. Well, actually, there are just two left, poor Barranco de La Mina having been killed off by the owner of the water*. So, now on Gran Canaria you have just two places where freshwater runs all year round — Barranco de Azuaje and Barranco de los Cernícalos, Kestrels’ ravine.

Lanzarote in summer, Playa de Papagayo

Beautiful water. Playa Mujeres

This year’s summer holidays were a bit scrambled for us, due to this and that. To punctuate the month of August we decided to go to Lanzarote, just for three days. We’ve already been to Lanzarote a few times of course. This time, the aim was to check out Playa de Papagayo, Parrot’s Beach, a small cove beach not far from Playa Blanca, and La Graciosa, the smallest inhabited Canary Island, “the eighth one”.

Controlled burn, silver tansy, and heat of May

An eruption? A wildfire? Nah...

After years living on Gran Canaria I have identified for myself the three main "hanami" events. I try to go and see all three of them each year, but sometimes it proves impossible.
One of them is the blooming of almonds. Another - the blooming of tajinaste azul, blue bugloss of Gran Canaria. And the third one is the blooming of silver tansy, much less obvious event. I guess my attachment to these rare plants is mostly due to the fact that I found and identified them myself, while both almonds and tajinaste are well known seasonal attractions.

Up we go

Alien tentacles! Cthulhu raising to the surface! Tremble, you feeble humans... etc

When I went up the Mount Teide two years ago I didn’t really have a plan. Well, I had the most basic of all plans — to go up and survive. People told me two things at once — first “it’s kinda easy, you just need to pace yourself” and the second “but the altitude sickness can strike even the most fit people”. With this mixed message in mind, I can tell you I was going up listening to myself and asking all the time “am I ok?”, “am I still ok?”. I was perfectly fine, but this type of self-monitoring is not conductive to enjoyment.

This time I knew it was doable, and my first concern was the weather. What if the (blasted) calima turns up again? We won’t be able to see anything!

I can say straight away that we were much luckier this time — there was almost no dust in the air and the visibility was a lot better. First day, we saw Gran Canaria, La Palma and La Gomera above the sea of clouds while still on the bus. Next day, only La Gomera was visible from the top of the mountain at dawn, but that was also fine — I personally didn’t even get the camera out of the backpack, see the explanation later.

Tajinaste azul and other delights

Busy busy bees

When the year is just starting and everything goes green, it is time to check on some of our favourite plants on Gran Canaria.

First plants to start flowering are almonds, no question about that. Weather was fluctuating wildly from the norm (if there is such a thing) this winter: they started already in December, coming to the crescendo in mid-January and leaving practically no flowers for the Almonds in Bloom celebration in Tejeda, which was scheduled, as always, on the first weekend of February.

Second lot is the tajinaste (or taginaste) azul, blue bugloss of Gran Canaria.*

Again, the timing varies significantly. The first time I went to see them was in the beginning of May 2015, they were almost finished, but not quite; the second time, in 2016, it was in the first half of March and they were in bloom. Last year, we went in on a scheduled hike with Arawak in April and saw only two plants already in bloom, others still firmly in bud. This year, we went on the 14 March and found the whole Barranco de la Pasadera in bloom — and not just tajinaste plants. So. If you want to go, you might want to start checking social networks in the first half of March. Somebody from Gran Canaria is bound to publish some pics as soon as the first flowers appear.

There is very little to write really — just enjoy the pics :)

Winter Solstice Sunrise on Mesa de Acusa

I liked this stage of the sunrise the most — the cone of shadow under Roque Bentayga was spectacular

An excursion to greet the first rays of the sun on the day of winter solstice is organized by the Cabildo of Gran Canaria every year. Well, this year there were two, on two consecutive days, coz, let’s face it, the difference in the position of the sun and timing is non-perceivable and we are no druids anyway.
We already tried to attend one of those three years ago. The bus picked us up later than it was promised, the driver took a long way to Acusa plus he seemed to be afraid of the dark or something. All these combined, we arrived to the Mesa de Acusa, a plateau in the upper part of the Acusa village, when the sun had already risen, to the general embarrassment of all.
This time was different. We started on time; the bus was small, so it could take a faster route via the smaller roads, and the driver was excellent. We arrived well before the sunrise and had a lot of time to freeze our bits off and to listen to a very good explanation from the Cabildo guide .
Of course, to observe the beautiful sunrise over the rock formations Roque Bentayga and iconic Roque Nublo you don’t need to be there on the day of solstice, but on that day and around it it’s well known where the Roques project their shadows (see map below). Plus, of course, I like a bit of ritual now and then.
Not overmuch, though.

Fuerteventura, traditional post of November

So far, this is probably my favorite kite ever. It was there all these years, I think. I even have it on the cover screen of my laptop. Looks alive, doesn’t it? Like a sandworm, except harmless and beautiful

This November, as every November over the last few years, I flew to Fuerteventura to see the kites flying. I am not sure if the magic of the event works on everybody, but is certainly works on me — the white sand of the dunes, the volcanoes, the proximity of the ocean, and huge colorful objects suspended in the air, casting their shadows — it is all very Dalí-esque, surreal and beautiful.

Lomo de San Pedro - Cuevas de Berbique - Puerto de Las Nieves

Impressive cliffs of Tamadaba.

After I went to see Cenobio de Valeron I've shown pics of it to my walking companions. One of them said that it looked similar to Cuevas de Berbique, a toponym which I had never heard before. Of course I had to find out where it was (close to Agaete) and how to get there. To my pleasure I discovered that it is possible to do a linear walk past the caves using the public transport. You have to start from San Pedro (there is more than one San Pedro, so careful, San Pedro of Agaete). Currently, there is a bus from Galdar to "Valle" (which is valley of Agaete). The end of the walk is in Puerto de las Nieves, and there are buses to Las Palmas every hour.