Ever wanted to ride a camel? I sure do! One thing on my to-do list was ride the camels at Oasis Park while in Fuerteventura. Oasis Park is a great place to spend the day with family and friends. It functions as a large zoo but also has some interactive parts which make it livelier and well worth the visit.
Upon arriving at the entrance, there are large signs indicating what visitors can do at the park. Among these choices include riding camels, feeding some of the animals, tasting local goat cheese, playing with lemurs, swimming with dolphins, and watching a water show with seals. The park is also HUGE and boasts many exotic animals that I had never seen in my life. There are several species of exotic monkeys, porcupines, giraffes, elephants, camels, donkeys, crocodiles, and many more.
We chose to ride camels and feed the animals. Now the interesting thing about feeding the animals is that throughout the park there are giant wooden wagons filled with fruits, veggies, and grasses in paper bags. Visitors can purchase these to feed the animals throughout the park. The more interesting thing is the sign attached to the bag telling you what you can and cannot feed. It was disappointing that crocodiles, monkeys, birds, and hippos were on that list of feed-able animals. I mean, who doesn’t want to feed the crocodiles?!? However I was able to feed a porcupine, donkey, horse, goat, camel, llama, and alpaca!
In order to ride the camels at the park or do some number of the more fun attractions, visitors need to purchase tickets for these activities. Camel riding was one of them. Tickets can be purchased at the front when paying for the park entrance. There are 2 different camel rides, a short 15 minute one and a longer 30 minute one. We opted for the half hour since the other option seemed too short.
After spending some time wandering around the zoo, we found our way over to the camels where an employee ushered me over to a seat that was on the side of the camel instead of on top of it. They attached a giant stone under my seat to balance out the weight of Ben sitting on the other side of the same camel. I guess that’s one way to ride a camel, sitting in seats along the side of it. I had honestly imagined sitting in between the humps or on top of the hump of the camel like in the movies, but woe is me.
The most surprising part of riding the camel is right when the camel stands up. Camels are huge animals to start with. Now imagine a camel sitting down and then getting up the next second with you helplessly strapped to it. They also tend to walk using the right feet (both front and back) all at once, and then the left, making the entire ride bumpy and awkward. I honestly have no idea how people rode camels through the desert for ages. The last word I would use to describe it is comfortable. There were several times when I thought I would accidentally fall off the camel since the ride was so shaky. Despite the ride being half an hour long, it was still quite short. The guide walked the camels in a train up a hill where we had views of the ocean, Oasis Park, and mountains that surround the island. It was a beautiful but fleeting moment before the guide walked the camels back. We were not allowed to hop off of the camels and take some photos unfortunately but the camel ride was still a fun experience.
And now I can finally say I have ridden a camel and you should do it too!
