Tuesday 31 January 2012

Tenerife, Canary Islands - Part 3 - Loro Parque

Loro Parque. That was our goal for the second day of our "island exploration mission". We ordered an early breakfast at the hotel and headed off to Puerto de la Cruz. It took us about 1.5 h. It’s quite easy to get to as you take the southern highway first, then the northern highway and just look for the logo of Loro Parque on the road signs. Not possible to miss it. It’s good to be there as early in the morning as possible (it opens at 8.30). First of all, there aren’t that many people at the entrance yet. Secondly, it’s a bit colder then. And finally, you have more time to enjoy your visit to Loro Parque ;)

What is Loro Parque? It’s a place where you can see various kinds of wild animals, especially hundreds of parrots. There are some shows organized as well – performed by sea lions, orcas, dolphins, parrots… Very spectacular, really nice. I enjoyed the sea lions show. Or, even more, what happened before it. There was one tiny sea lion that was yet too small (too young?) to take part in the show itself. But before the show started he (or she? Let me refer to it as he) started climbing up the stairs, sliding down and swimming around. Then, during the show, he was sitting behind the scene all the time watching his mates carefully. We saw this show twice that day. The second one was a bit different. Well, there were two main differences – one intentional and one not ;) The first one was that they took one of the sea lions to the public so that people could sit next to it and touch it. The other one was that the little cutie one was messing the show. He was stealing the balls and ringos and trying to join in ;) That was sooo sweet to watch.

What we really enjoyed in Loro Parque was the Katandra Treetops. That was a place where birds were flying freely all over you. Of course, not totally freely. Somewhere high above us was a net protecting them from escaping, but that was really really high above us, lots of trees inside.

There were, of course, places to eat inside. Both restaurants-bars and picnic areas.

We had a chance to observe a baby two-toed sloth when we were there.

It was definitely a day that we enjoyed a lot!








Sea lions show




Parrots show
Dolphins show

Orcas show


The Katandra Treetops





Every car in the parking spot got a Loro Parque sticker

The baby sloth



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