TENERIFE: Visit to Loro Parque on TENERIFE.

Thursday 26 March.

The weather was looking cloudy again and it wasn't very warm. We were heading over to the other side of the island to the zoo, Loro Parque, in Puerto de la Cruz. As the weather there tends to be wetter and cooler than where we are, we wore trousers and our fleeces and had the rain jackets in the daypack. We left after breakfast and caught the usual bus at 8:20 am up to Santiago del Teide and down the other side to Puerto de la Cruz. It was very warm on the bus, the driver didn't have the air-con on and it made feel a bit sick. I recovered in the fresh air when we got off and walked to the zoo.

There was a little 'troll train' that we could have taken to the park that was free but it was only about a 20 minute walk and it was pleasant strolling along the coast enjoying the huge waves breaking on the beach. It was quite expensive to get in, €34 each, but this was all inclusive and it got us into all the shows. There was a dolphin show on at 11am and we had about 45 minutes to get there. We strolled along in that direction and saw cages of colourful tropical birds, an enclosure with gorillas, another with chimps, there was a rocky place with a waterfall and a white tiger wandering about, next a cage with marmosets then a pool with otters before we reached the large arena with the dolphins.

The place was full but there were still plenty of seats. We made our way to the back away from where we could get showered in water with the dolphins splashing. It was a good show and lasted about 30 minutes with the dolphins doing all the usual tricks of jumping out the water, towing the instructors through the water. A small boat with a little girl in it was pulled round the pool and when it finished the dolphin poked its head over the side of the boat to be patted on the nose and kissed.

Next we were in time for the Loro Show which was birds, mainly cockatoos, doing tricks and flying about the hall over our heads. When that was over the sea lion show was about to begin so we made for that. It was similar to the dolphins but with sea lions but they swam about balancing balls on their noses. When that finished it was lunch time and we made for the picnic area for out lunch. It was full with a party of school children but we found a bench nearby where we had our coffee and sandwiches.

After lunch it was the orca whales. It was again similar to the other displays with the fish doing leaps through the air and splashing into the pool. Here is was important to get well back from the front as these fish caused a huge spray. Some people got soaked while others sat under waterproof sheets that were available. These orcas were enormous and this was quite a remarkable show to experience.

It was now 2:30 pm so we were not going to make our usual bus at 3pm so we made our way first to the penguin house then the aquarium. The first part had little Humboult penguins that you get in South Africa and they were waddling about all over the simulated Antarctic setting but the next larger part had big penguins who just stood about unmoving except when they decided to have a swim and then were very fast through the water. The aquarium was very good with a large variety of fish in various tanks. The last section was through a tunnel in the tank with the fish swimming all around and above. Here there were some very large fish and a few sharks.

We had about 30 minutes before making for the bus and were heading to see the meerkat enclosure but took a wrong turn and ended up on a tree top walk. This was probably better as we were up with all the colourful birds who were feeding from bowls of food attached to the branches of the trees. When we got down to the ground again it was time to head for the bus station.

It took the same 20 minutes to get there and we had about 30 minutes to wait for the bus. I had the iPad with me and we made sure every time we went into the pack to take things out that it was still there afterwards and not lose this one. I sat and worked on my diary while waiting. I read my book on the bus but couldn't concentrate after a while as I was feeling sick again. It was either stuffy and hot, no air-con again, or the twists and bends were making me car sick. It had been cloudy and cool when we were at the zoo but at least there hadn't been any rain. As soon as we crossed the Passa del Erjos the sky cleared and it warmed up, it had obviously been a beautiful day at Peurto Santiago. We now got a beautiful view of El Teide that had a lot more snow around the top probably from the cold wet weather recently.

It was 6:30 pm when we got in and I had a cup of coffee while Moira made dinner. I transferred the photographs I had taken today to Picasa. After dinner we went through them and I cropped and touched up some of them before connecting to the Internet and uploading them to Google+. I had taken a few videos of the shows and some came out not bad. Later on TV there was the diet and health programme that was on about sugar last week. This time it was the 'Truth about Calories'. It was another nonsense programme with a lot of dumbed down science that was also highly suspect. We got to bed at 10 pm as usual, tired after a long and enjoyable day.

Pond of Koi.

LORO PARQUE ANIMALS IN PHOTO

Pond of Koi.