Thursday morning began with another trip to a different local bakery for Brian, Emmie, and Eilidh. Sandwiches didn’t seem to be on the menu, so they brought back an assortment of sweets including croissants and donuts.
The colorful storefront was sadly more exciting than the selection of baked goods.
When we had finished breakfast, we made the 30-minute drive to Museo del Queso Majorero. Our museum visit started with a restored historic windmill as an ode to Fuerteventura’s significant grain industry in centuries past, though the interior was a little underwhelming. Following the windmill were three exhibit rooms detailing the volcanic origin of the island, a deep dive into the island’s varieties of goats, and how goats are milked and the local Majorero cheeses are made.
Eilidh enjoyed the museum for the most part, but she was not at all interested in capturing the experience with a photo.
The exhibit rooms provided just enough information to give a broad overview of the topics listed without being overwhelming, and the kids enjoyed a handful of the modest interactive displays. Once the exhibits were complete, we rounded out our visit to the museum campus with stops in the cafe, cactus garden, and small gift shop. The cafe unsurprisingly sold a cheese sampler plate, which we unsurprisingly purchased.
The kids answered trivia questions about Fuerteventura history on their own individual monitors.
Eilidh and Noah took turns at “milking” the goat in the Majorero cheese exhibit room.
The sampler plate included five slices of young, middle, and old goat cheeses (known formally as “fresh,” “semi-cured,” and “cured”) along with blueberry jam, tomato jam, walnuts, and crackers. Eilidh ate 2 of the young slices, Noah nibbled on a piece of the older cheese, Emmie had at least a bite of each flavor, and Brian and I tried to fill in the gaps and eat what the kids left on the plate.
The older kids got the most enjoyment of the cactus garden, especially Noah who was disappointed the labels for each cactus plant were not translated to English. While not the most thrilling museum in the world, we found the place to be clean and uncrowded with friendly staff and solid exhibits. It was also reasonably priced at just 13 Euros for the whole family.
The seaside town of Ajuy was just a short drive away. After a few trips through the town’s small parking lot to find a spot that met Brian’s limited parking abilities, we began our visit to the town by perusing the souvenirs for sale at Trecepeces, a small shop featuring all local and handmade items. We found a few goodies to purchase and headed towards the Atlantic Ocean.
Our lunch place was adjacent to the long black sand cove and yielded some awesome views of the waves breaking on the shore. While intending to order what he thought was fried fish (filets) and chips, Brian inadvertently ordered fried bone-in, skin-on, eyeballs-in fried fish. Our normally adventurous children basically refused to even try “fish with eyeballs” and stuck to small portions of onion rings, bread, and wrinkly potatoes. Brian ate most of his fish while I only ate about half of mine.
Downtime waiting for our food meant an opportunity for us all to put on sunscreen!
By the end of our meal, the kids were literally jumping with excitement to hit the water. Though the black sand beach is impressive, it’s not recommended as a place to swim and our lunchtime views of the tumultuous waves left no doubt as to why. Despite understanding this, Brian and I still managed to put ourselves right in the path of a gigantic wave and we both got soaked in the process!
After our time at the beach, we began a hike that took us along some cliffs and then down a cliffside to some caves. The walk was long and rocky, and would have been easier with real shoes, but it wasn’t overly strenuous, and the vast caves located at the end of the trail made it worth the trek. The kids were happy to clamor over rocks on the way back to the black sand beach, while Eilidh decided the repeating scenery provided an opportunity to sneak a quick nap in the Tula carrier.
This modest sign kicked off our hike to the impressive Ajuy caves.
The cliffside path offered numerous views of the cliffs, caves, and the Atlantic Ocean.
Eilidh insisted on getting out of the Tula to walk around inside the cave.
We took the opportunity on the way back to snap a few photos overlooking the town of Ajuy and its picturesque black sand beach.
Ever a slave to his itinerary, Brian attempted to drag us to a couple of goat farms and the town of Betencuria, which was the island’s historic capital city. Both goat farms were met with lackluster enthusiasm by the kids and me, and both farms ended up being a bit of a bust. We couldn’t find any humans at the first farm, and the second farm was more of a small shop retailing goat cheese.
Emmie did bond briefly with the dog at the second goat farm.
Betancuria might have been more compelling were we not tired from a long day of beach-going and hiking, but as it was, after two uninspiring gift shops and a quick bathroom break, we were all ready to be on the road again to return to our La Oliva home.
We were happy to be back in our Fuerteventura home.
Our arrival home was a relief, and everyone enjoyed their showers before throwing on clothes for a second stop at our new favorite pizza and pasta joint, Kamala Kafe. The food was as good the second time as the first, and the staff was just as friendly and accommodating. Everyone in Spain eats late, so our 6:45 p.m. arrival meant we were there 15 minutes before the restaurant technically opened, but they took pity on us and served drinks and allowed us to sit at a table while they finished prepping for service for the night.
Eilidh was exhausted and spent a good deal of the meal whining, while Emmie ended up falling asleep on my shoulder approximately 60 seconds after reporting to us that she was not at all tired. A final return to our home for the night was a welcome break for all 5 of the McMillin clan.
