Istmo de la Pared, Fuerteventura, February 8, 2019

The narrowest pat of Fuerteventura is called "Istmo de La Pared", is just about 4 km broad and covered by flat sand dunes. It is situated in the north of the Jandía peninsula. From our starting point in Costa Calma, we hiked over the Istmo de la Pared. The tour offered us wide views over sandy fields and interesting sand formations on the steep west coast. In the later history of Fuerteventura, the island was divided into two kingdoms. Jandia was in the south of the island, and Maxorata was in the north. Two of the kings were Ayoze, who ruled the south, and Guize, who ruled the north. A wall separated the two kingdoms, close to La Pared, and which actually means wall. Fuerteventura is the oldest of the Canary islands, first created between 30 and 70 million years ago when huge volcanic eruptions spewed lava through a hot spot between the tectonic plates of South America and Africa. The last active volcano fell silent 4 million years ago on Fuerteventura and the high mountains have long eroded away, the ancient volcanic plugs and craters still standing as jagged hills of black rock amongst wide sweeping landscapes of dry steppe. The highest point at Mt Jandia is barely 800 metres (2,600 feet) above sea level and so the moisture-laden north easterly trades pass unimpeded, creating an arid climate as on the rest of the island. http://www.petra-und-peter.de/petrasblog/2017/04/04/istmo-de-la-pared/ https://www.outdooractive.com/de/wanderung/fuerteventura/fuerteventura-istmo-de-la-pared-quer-ueber-die-insel/103478661/ https://diversionsinnaturalhistory.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/a-long-walk-to-the-cliffs/

Whereever you go on Fuerteventura you have a reasonable chance to encounter free-walking goats, in herds or alone, searching for the scarce vegetation that represents their daily meal. During archaeological excavations on Fuerteventura, goat bones with an age of about 3.000 years have been discovered. Gadifer de la Salle, one of the conquerors of Fuerteventura, wrote in 1403 that Fuerteventura was infested by goats. According to him, you could easily slaughter 30.000 goats without substantially affecting the livestock. On the other hand, he stated that the island was covered with trees and bushes, which is a surprising contradiction. However, climatic conditions were - then and far before - significantly different than from today: more rain and permanent rivers, as one can see from the signs of erosion and learn from historic documents. Every year, in Autumn, most of the free-running goats will be collected by the shepherds and their dogs in what is called "Apañada". Once collected, the goats will be marked, selected for farming, eventually castrated or slaughtered.

Just west of Costa Calma there is a park of wind turbines, build with EU support. Only half of them seems to be functioning at the moment.

A lot of flowers was blooming in the arid landscape, here the endemic species Lotus lancerottensis

View towards Costa Calma.

View towards the north, towards the region of Fuerteventura called the Malpais, meaning the unusable and barren region.

A path crosses the Istmo de la Pared. This path transverses the whole island of Fuerteventura, from the north to the south (http://visitfuerteventura.es/wp/wp-content/uploads/topoguia-fv-red-de-senderos-Gr131.pdf)

Reichardia tingitana

A typical plant of the Malpais (badlands) on Fuerteventura

A piper collecting nice larvae to feed its offspring.

For centuries the island of Fuerteventura was attacked by the pirates, and along the coast defensive towers were built but they were not able to stop the attacks.