Las Coloradas Castle

From the top of the steps, Fuerteventura fills the horizon across the Bocaina Strait on a clear day. That view is why the tower stands here. In 1741 the engineer Claudio de L'Isle chose Punta del Águila because the headland watches almost the whole coast of the strait, at a time when Berber, English and French pirates were raiding Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. The tower was up by 1742. Seven years later Algerian pirates set it alight, and burned the village of Femés inland on the same raid.

The building is a round stone drum with a floor area of 280 m², about the size of a tennis court. A stone staircase climbs to a drawbridge of resinous Canary pine. Behind it, closed to visitors, lie the dungeon, the powder magazine and the troops' dormitory, and a small belfry topped with a cross rises from the wall. Nearby stood the first Rubicón tower, built by Jean de Béthencourt at the start of the conquest of the islands.

• The interior is closed to the public; you can climb the stone steps outside and walk around the tower.
• There is no drinking water nearby. Bring your own, especially in the heat of the day.
• Toilets are about 220 m away; a nearer block, about 180 m off, is for customers only.
• Fuerteventura shows only when the air is clear. On a hazy day the view across the strait is mostly sea.

The approach from Playa Blanca is a walk along the waterfront, and an easy one from the shops; the boulevard runs close to the headland. A signpost marked Castillo de las Coloradas stands about 100 m from the tower, with an information map a little further back.

Drivers have two car parks, about 180 m and 290 m from the tower in a straight line. The nearest bus stops, Ciudad Jardín and Ciudad Jardín II, are about 700 m away.

From the headland the walk can carry on along the coast to Papagayo beach. Bring water for that stretch in the middle of the day.

Best: a clear morning or late afternoon.

Avoid: the middle of the day in hot weather.

Fuerteventura only shows across the strait when the air is clear, and the bare headland gives no shade from the midday sun. In the late afternoon the light comes from behind you over the town and falls on the tower and on the island across the water.