Aqua Liques Trail, Costa Calma, Fuerteventura Running Route

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Length 10.2 km (6.3 mi), terrain: fairly flat, gain 121 meters

NOTE: This is sandy, rocky desert country: make sure you bring water on hot days, avoid the afternoon heat, and watch your step!

When vacationing in the tourist hotel-town of Costa Calma, there are a few simple getaways waiting right at your doorstep. One of these is this 10K coast-to-coast run across the narrow El Jable sand desert that connects the southern Jandia peninsula to the rest of Fuerteventura.

The desert sands of El Jable

The island is only 5 kilometers wide at Costa Calma, with a whole different desert experience waiting for you just west of town. And on the other side waits the wild west coast, with its cliffs, peaks and booming surf.

NOTE: Other great Costa Calma runs include the two obvious beach runs: north of town along Playa Matas Blancas, or south of town along Playa de Sotavento.

In the park: nice jungle!

So if you're ready to try something different, and run across the desert, get yourself to the start of this route. Follow the long, jungly palm-park that lines Avenida Jahn Reisen through the whole town, and get to the El Palmeral Shopping Center. Now head behind the shopping center, northwest along Calle Playa de la Jaquerta, going through a local neighborhood towards the new bypass freeway.

El Palmeral Shopping Center: head out back to get onto the route!

At the end of the road, at the dusty lot next to the freeway, turn right to run along the dirt path. We need to head north for a block to find the tunnel that takes us under the freeway so we can get back to the same spot again on the other side.

The dirt trail takes you to the tunnel, where you run through it and then turn left to run the dusty road parallel to the freeway again until you are opposite Calle Playa de la Jaquerta, at almost the 2-kilometer mark. We're now across from where we were just a couple of minutes earlier.

The start of the cross-island trail

This is where the real trail across the desert begins. There's a big trail map on the wooden signboard for the Jandia nature preserve. You can take a look: basically, we just follow the jeep trail straight across the isthmus. We'll run parallel to that line of wind generators on the ridge to the left.

So now, just head northwest along the rocky, sandy trail. The beige, sandy soil is unique on Fuerteventura, joining the other dark-sand, volcanic areas to either side of El Jable.

Trail marker

Keep your eyes open for the light-blue-colored wooden posts marking the way. There will be occasional cross-trails, but we'll just ignore them until we reach the other coast.

If you look closely across the dune-like landscape, you might spy small herds of goats roaming the area. The desert vegetation is also worth taking a close look at: it's amazing how the plants have adapted to such a dry place. But don't forget: we're in a nature preserve, and we need to stay on the trails.

Goats roam the landscape

When we get to the highest spot, at about the 4-kilometer mark, we cross the island's north-south hiking trail, GR131, where there's a waymark. It's trail markers are painted red-white.

Crossing the north-south trail, GR 131

We keep running straight, there's just one more kilometer until we reach the west coast.

We'll soon come to a spot where several cross-trails split off, and the trail starts going downhill. We're almost there. Just keep running down the slope until the panorama of the ocean opens up and you find yourself standing above the cliffs of Aqua Liques, with amazing views in both directions. The powerful breakers stream-in from the northwest in a never-ending onslaught.

View north from Aqua Liques

You can go down to the water, but I'd stay out of it: there are a lot of rocks and riptides. In the week that I was there, two tourists drowned at this spot.  

And looking south

NOTE: If you want to extend the run, you could run north along the shoreline down on the ledge below the cliffs, near the water. It heads towards Los Boquetes. That's the next little promontory, which you can see, standing there at Aqua Liques.

So, once you've taken-in this impressive scene, it's time to turn around and follow the same trail back to town. Luckily, there are enough lounge-chairs and pool bars back in Costa Calma to quickly recover!

A little recovery time at the hotel!