Tenerife Wednesday 8 July
We decide to hire a car today as our plans for the rest of our stay in Tenerife can't be covered by bus. Small problem, though as I have had my wallet (and drivers licence) stolen so Fiona has to do all the driving. In some ways not a bad things as she gets car sick and the roads are VERY windy.
We take a drive West towards Masca. Its a beautiful drive along endless winding roads. We make a couple of stops on the way to find suitable beaches, stopping in the historic cobbled town of Garachico where the beach is black and stony, but the town is ancient with narrow streets trying to make way for modern vehicles. Although the drive there is impressive Masca is a small village with a reasonable mix of old an new, but not much to offer. We take the high road back to Puerto de la Cruz via Icod de Los Vinos. I am a little optimistic with my directions and we hit a dead end at the top of a hill and have t re-trace our steps a bit. Icod is a larger town famous for a 1000 year old tree (El Drago, a dragon tree) next to an old monastry. There is someone advertising wine tasting - keep that knowledge for later in the trip.
Tired children and mom head back to the flat to freshen up and then and evening in town exploring the older area of Puerto de la Cruz and find a (mediocre) restaurant for a night out.
Lauren's entry for the day : "Today we got a car (rented) and crazily drove around the mountains by a place called Masca - that's one I remember and yeah, there were tons of places. There were crazy, windy roads - worse than any! But it was beautiful and the scenery was graeat. On our way back, we went 2 see the 'made-famous coz there's not much to see in this city tree (El Drago) an one thousand year old dragon tree. Wasn't particularly amazing but its fine. Then we drove back and, nearly had a car accident and slept."
Tenerife Tuesday 7 July - Loro Parque
So this is a a big tourist day - we go to Loro Parque which is the famous park in Tenerife housing all sorts of sea, land and air animals. Actually a large zoo - but I hate to admit to visiting a Zoo!
First things first, though and I have to head back to Puerto De La Cruz first to book for the Volcano (earmarked for Thursday). The trip goes uneventfully and we are formally 'booked in'.
I return by around noon and we walk down to the town and take a tourist train from the sea front to the park.
The visit is not cheap - 30E for adults and 20 for kids 11 and under (fortunately Guy still qualifies). Loro Parque is undoubtedly a zoo geared for tourism but its origins and presumably some of the money raised are geared towards the preservations of endangered species of parrots (to be honest not a cause that I would necessarily support but that's what they do -their web site is http://www.loroparque-fundacion.org/.
The park is large and well laid out and includes parrots (of course), various large animals such as gorillas, chimpanzees, tigers, jaguars as well as sea animals such as arctic penguins, sharks as well as a dolphin show, a whale show and a sea lion show. In addition there is a large section on bird life from puffins to lories and emus, as well as smaller animals such sloths (we love those and one of them had a baby) and, meercats (sorry Hilary) and giant tortoises.
It is a long day and we see almost everything the park has to offer. We return to our base tired and happy after an enjoyable day.
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