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Fuerteventura: Diary and Club Life

Sunday 27^th January 2008

Smooth ride into the hols. Left the house at 5:30PM to just avoid the traffic jam on the A12 caused by an accident, hopped onto the train to London which left me the just the moment needed to say farewell to Detlef and off I went.

The taxi driver between Liverpool Street and Paddington was a chatterbox – what I always like. Time flies by and I know all about his new car now. £20 less in my pocket, I reached the Heathrow Express to find that it was about to leave, and that I was bang on time again.

If that goes on that way this will be the best hols ever.

Another 5 minutes ride with a taxi and now I’m sitting at the window of Renaissance Hotel watching the airplanes starting right in front of me… And I don’t hear a thing.

Didn’t know that there is such sort of insulation of windows possible in England. However, going to have another Decaff – love English hotels and their coffee corners – and then will see what else I can do. Much too excited to sleep and thanks to smooth journey it’s only a quarter past nine.

Monday 28^th January

If things keep going so smoothly, the trip will be so boring that I won’t have anything to write about. Well, let’s not jinx it!

This morning, quarter to four my mobile woke me and 15 minutes later the backup call from the hotel came. By then I had my coffee and found the Express Checkout bill/receipt under my door. Brilliant!

Although… they have a detection system for the Mini Bar – they knew abut the chocolates I had nicked (not that I wanted to nick them for real). It’s ‘that thing’ I have about Mini Bars… I’m never allowed stuff from the Mini Bar – too bloody expensive. Well, yesterday there was nobody around to keep me at check. The chocolates didn’t even taste good – however: ‘Mischief achieved!’

Thus prepared I could leave instantly, grabbed my stuff, found my way through the maze of corridors, dropped my door key into the checkout box, and in stepping out of the door a taxi came dashing around the corner: What a timing!

Now I’m sitting here in Madrid Airport already with another spare half hour to go until boarding. Had a chat with Detlef: Apparently the fog I’ve seen this morning from my hotel window had thickened later on, and they are having quite a bit of a delay at Heathrow now. I just got out ahead of it. Am I a lucky girl, or what?

Wednesday 30^th January

Life is good. I’m indulging myself in the lovely food, particularly the cakes and deserts – it’s a German club after all – however, going to the gym as well.

Luckily my mum and I are on the same wave length and we do all the things our husbands wouldn’t necessarily join in, or if they would then with a bit of a grumpy face and thus spoiling it for us. From previous experience we know each other well, knowing when to go separate ways and what to do together.

Yesterday we had a walkabout along the beach with stopover in one of these lovely beach restaurants enjoying some Cuba Libre while today we split up with her playing tennis and me going to the gym to meet later for lunch.

Now I’m sitting tucked away in a shady corner – the sun is much too strong for me despite the sun block – while she is having a nap. Well, I might have one too.

The noise of the waves, the sunshine, the talking in order to catch up with everything and all that food…that’s tough to cope with… ah, poor me

Watersport

For Saturday we booked Jet Ski. Me as pilot, and mum getting a lift. I’m not sure who is more scared…

We were told that there were only two incidents where people tilted over…we may become story No. 3 :’Remember these two silly cows? Believe it was mother and daughter, almost drowned…’

Oh well, if you can read this now you will know that at least I survived. Actually mum is still not decided whether or not to chicken out. Lucky for her the price stays the same whether two or one are sitting on this thing and she has the option to get into the boat of the tour leader if she can’t bear it. Thus she should be safe anyway while I will have pretty much trapped myself.

Well, last year we made a tour on the Katamaran and survived.

One needs to take chances if the resources are easily available.

The Club

Although Fuerteventura offers any kind of accommodation suitable for any size of purse I just love club life at Robinson Club Esquinzo Playa. It is a bit unfortunate for many of you that it is a German operated club, as the South of the island is mainly in German hands while the North is occupied by the English. Due to my mum being German – she pays the bills here, lucky me – my main language here is German. Most of the staff is German, except of the gardeners and maids who are Spanish. However, most of them speak some English as well and when we made the Jet Ski trip our tour guide spoke English as well.

Nevertheless I’m sure that this sort of all inclusive club resorts can be found under English management as well. It is rather pricy, but it is worthwhile saving up for it if a real break is needed.

At Robinson Esquinzo all inclusive means that you don’t need a purse at all. There are additional cost for certain activities like sailing courses, or if you wanted to buy something in the little shop on site. But this gets booked on the room. Only if you leave the resort you have to care for yourself. Within you find something to eat or drink wherever you go and even the drinks at the bar at night are included – despite me usually not drinking alcohol I discovered a liking for Tequila Sunrise.

Food and Drink

And the food! There is food everywhere, worse than on a cruise ship. A huge hall has all the buffets for pasta, pizza fresh to your taste, meat, fish, salad bar with everything you can think of, fruits freshly cut and served, veg, breads and cheeses, special of the night and well fit – plus a tremendous desert bar bang in the middle.

So while gathering my main dish I already was planning for the space needed for the desert. Once at the table other guests joined us and usually we found that the others had something on the plate we desperately needed to have, but somehow didn’t find in this abundance of food. This way the first helping always came to be a brainstorming session, while the second one was the real thing and the third one had to top up on what was best of it all. By then I usually had forgotten to leave space for the desert.

However, if one is a real sportswoman one doesn’t give up that easily! So again: First helping had to be a bit of every ice cream, cake, praline, Florentine and cream, the second one a top up of the best stuff. They had yoghurts and milk rice dishes as well, but who needs that? Taken into account that there was only about 2 hours of recovery time from the afternoon coffee with cakes on the pool bar this is a real achievement.

And I haven’t talked about the breakfast, the late breakfast - for people who had a late night at the bar and didn’t get filled enough by the midnight snack, the lunch and the late lunch - for people coming from the beach for example.

Well, after that one needs something to digest. The most difficult bit was to get down the stairs to fall straight onto a barstool while thinking about which drink would be appropriate. That got too difficult after two days so we developed a ritual. My mum always started with Fernet-Branca while for me it became a Martini Bianco accompanied by an espresso for her and a cappuccino for me. Then moving on to either Pina Colada or Tequila Sunrise and finishing off with a Baileys. So we usually didn’t make it to the night show in the theatre (which usually is a fantastic performance of the club staff – they are all really talented) and went to bed rather stuffed and a bit tipsy.

Kids

It is a family club, and although that means loads of kids around it is perfect for people searching for calm as well. They have brilliant nurseries for toddlers, activities for school children and baby weeks with nannies to take care exclusively of the very little ones. This gives a real timeout for mums and dads while keeping the kids occupied in areas away from the non-family people.

Tennis

View from the top level tennis course

It is a club for tennis crazes with 10 courts 5 of which have flood lights and 5 have a roof. The main terrace next to the bar is with music and more family oriented with a relax pool next to it. However, there is a spa area with sauna, pool and sun loungers for nude and non-nude. There it is absolutely calm. The area is so big that everybody finds a favourite place.

The club sits on a cliff with stairs for beach access. Thus it is not suitable for disabled people who would be better off in the resorts and hotels in Jandia which have huge beaches with easy access.

Whatever kind of accommodation you would chose or which part of the island you would travel to: It is definitely worthwhile a visit.

Well, you might love it or hate it; but before you have seen it with your own eyes you won’t know. I usually love plants and thick vegetation and these bare mountains would have scared me away. But since I was here the first time this island has a weird grip on me, and I just know that I want to come back to this rough beauty to get to know it better.

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