JANDÍA NATURAL PARK: LIGHTHOUSES & VOLCANOES

Claire Fontaine visits Morro Jable lighthouse

Today, Claire Fontaine and her friends have visited Jandía Natural Park in the south of Fuerteventura. This place is well-known for its wonderful landscapes, its ancient volcanoes and its beautiful lighthouses.

Claire loves lighthouses and today is a good opportunity to learn more things about them. Moreover, The Grandma is a great fan of sea turtles and Jandía Natural Park is a paradise for Laud turtles.

During the trip to Jandía, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 33).

More information: Countable and Uncountable Nouns I & II

Jandía is a peninsula in the southwestern part of the island of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. The peninsula is entirely in the municipality of Pájara. Within the peninsula is Fuerteventura's tallest mountain, Pico de Jandía or Pico de la Zarza, that rises to an elevation of 807 m. Jandía is connected with the rest of Fuerteventura through the isthmus Istmo de la Pared. Most of the peninsula has been a nature reserve, Parque Natural de Jandía, since 1987.

On the south and east coasts of Jandía there are the beach resorts Jandía Playa and Morro Jable. The western coast has some of the most beautiful and sandiest beaches in Fuerteventura and these are also used by surfers. The small fishing village of Cofete and the Villa Winter are situated on the north side of the peninsula.

Joseph de Ca'th Lon visits Punta Jandía lighthouse

The Punta Jandía lighthouse is an active lighthouse on the Canary island of Fuerteventura. The name derives from its location on the Punta de Jandía -Point of Jandía-, at the end of the much larger Jandía peninsula, which forms the south west part of the island.

It is sometimes confused with the more recent Morro Jable lighthouse, which is also on the Jandía peninsula, but lies 22 km to the east, near to the town of Morro Jable.

Completed in 1864, it is one of the oldest lighthouses in the Canaries; Punta de Anaga Lighthouse on Tenerife was also opened in the same year.

Built in a similar style to other Canarian 19th century lights, it consists of a whitewashed single storey house, with dark volcanic rock used for the masonry detailing. A 19m masonry tower is attached to the side of the house facing the Atlantic Ocean.

More information: Visit Fuerteventura

With a focal height of 33m above the sea, its light can be seen for 22 nautical miles, and consists of a flash of white light every four seconds.

The interior of the keeper's house has been converted into an interpretation centre for the Jandía nature reserve. There are five different coloured rooms, each one displaying information about a particular aspect of the reserve, such as its volcanic geology, vegetation, animals and maritime life, which also includes information about the lighthouse.

The lighthouse is maintained by the Las Palmas Port authority. It is registered under the international Admiralty number D2790 and has the NGA identifier of 113-24024.

The Morro Jable lighthouse is an active lighthouse on the Canary island of Fuerteventura. The lighthouse is situated at the edge of the beach near the town and resort of Morro Jable.

Visiting Villa Winter, Fuerteventura

Completed in 1991 this is the tallest lighthouse in the Canaries with a 59m tower, which is higher than that of the Maspalomas Lighthouse on Gran Canaria at 56m, and that of Pechiguera on Lanzarote at 50m. With a focal height of 62m above the sea, its light can be seen for 17 nautical miles, and consists of two flashes of white light every 10 seconds. It is sometimes confused with the older 19th century Punta Jandía lighthouse which lies 22 km away by road at the extreme western end of the Jandía peninsula.

Villa Winter is a villa situated near the village Cofete, on the peninsula Jandía in the southwestern part of the island of Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. The villa was realised by Gustav Winter, a German engineer born in 1893 in the Black Forest. It was built in 1937 and has two floors, a tower in the northwestern part of the villa and a balcony in the front.

Gustav Winter worked since 1915 and was active in different projects in Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria. The villa is built in a remote part of the island with only a dust track leading to it. The history of the villa is the subject of several conspiracy theories, often involving Nazis. The main conspiracy theories surround the fact that the villa had a tower turret with an electric lantern installed, similar to a lighthouse and that they were using the villas makeshift lighthouse to signal German U-boats.

More information: Villa Winter

Many countries are significantly slowing the rate of loss 

by shoring up protected natural areas and the services they provide, and in expanding national park systems

with tighter management and more secure funding.

Helen Clark