Caleta de Fuste is host to a variety of tourists and has numerous hotels, shops, boutiques, bars, cafes, and restaurants on or near the beaches. The area is centered on a castle in the main harbour. The military engineer Claudio de Lisne built the castle as a martello tower in 1743.
Primary tourist areas are around the existing towns of Corralejo in the north and Morro Jable in Jandia, plus the purely tourist development at Caleta de Fuste south of Puerto del Rosario.
Majorero cheese is locally made from the milk of the indigenous majorera goat.
The first tourist hotel was built here in 1965 followed by the construction of the airport at El Mattoral, heralding the dawn of a new era for the island. Fuerteventura, with its 3,000 sunshine hours a year, was placed firmly on the world stage as a major European holiday destination.
The summer Trade Winds and winter swells of the Atlantic make this a year-round surfers' paradise. Sailors, scuba divers and big game fishermen are all drawn to these clear blue Atlantic waters where whales, dolphins, marlin and turtles are all common sights.
Geographical features include Istmo de la Pared, which is 5 km wide and is the narrowest part of Fuerteventura. The island is divided into two parts, the northern portion which is Maxorata and the south-western part called the Jandía peninsula. The island is the least settled in the Canary Islands.
The sites of interest include Corralejo and El Jable to the north, which is made up of fine sand dunes, the south is filled with long beaches and remote bays. The constant winds blowing the beaches make the paradise for windsurfing. Surfing is common in the west and north coast where there are large waves. Windsurfing is common around Corralejo or Playas de Sotavento, wave sailing (windsurfing in waves) at the coast along the northern half of the island.
At Cofete on the western side of Jandía a remote and imposing house - Villa Winter - looks out to sea across wide and generally empty beaches. It was reputedly built by a Herr Winter on land given by Generalissimo Franco.
In January 18, 1994, the luxury liner SS America (once was USS Westpoint) was beached in Playa de Garcey during a storm.
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