This article first appears in Vol. 34:
Revival.

A

A
jagged shard of rock sitting o the north coast of Africa,
Fuerteventura’s volcanic terrain and sun-baked, windswept beaches
have more in common with its nearby continental neighbours than
metropolitan Madrid.
Culturally Spanish – in its laissez-faire attitude and love of
tapas – but geographically Saharan, this is the barefoot, bohemian
sister to tamer
Tenerife.

The island has a raw, primordial energy. The first of its
volcanic siblings to erupt from the Atlantic Ocean some 20 million
years ago, it’s all powder-soft beaches, bleached, ochre mountains
and emerald waves, with an indigenous culture deeply rooted in
these landscapes.

The dramatic topography has served the isle well, saving it from
the free-for-all development of sunshine tourism. While the Club
Tropicana crowds flooded Lanzarote,
Fuerteventura remained one of Europe’s last corners of wilderness;
a sparsely populated splinter, anchored in powerful currents that
lured only the most intrepid, adrenaline-hunting surfers.

Now, however, the winds are changing. Enticed by year- round
surfing, growing numbers of nomadic drifters are nabbing desks at
new co-working joints. Artists, afloat from the oversubscribed
Balearics, have been enticed by the low-fi infrastructure and
otherworldly views. Blessed with 3,000 hours of sunshine a year and
a characteristically fresh breeze, the “Hawaii of Europe” really
should be explored now, before your sur oard runs the risk of
getting bu eted by wave-chasing crowds.

Days on the island can be split into compass directions: head
north to clamber Parque Natural de Corralejo’s precipitous sand
dunes and lap up surf vibes in El Cotillo and Corralejo. Wind
through the serrated, volcanic cones and brooding black mountains
down south to find kiteboard-friendly sandy isthmus on the
Peninsula de Jandía. In the west, it’s all deserted coastal
stretches and barren, cocoa-coloured plains. Hikers should keep
their eyes open for the spellbinding sapphire-blue rock pools that
are big enough to swim in.

When night falls, Fuerteventura flirts with its elemental
origins. One of Europe’s few Unesco-designated Starlight Reserves,
its celestial offering is hypnotic and up-close encounters with the
Milky Way are common. Pocket our #ThisIsLivingGuide, in
partnership with Corona, light a beach campfire, kick back and sip
your cold Corona beneath the stars before everyone else catches
on.