The occasion was Sis's birthday the destination Los Cristianos, Tenerife. 28C on arrival and it stayed there all week :) We rented an apartment in Cristamar which had an amazing pool
Los Cristianos has a wonderful promenade with a wide array of eateries. One of it's most striking features is its accessibility, not just a token gesture but incorporated in its built environment. Even the complex pool had an access chair lift built in and like Feurta it is very laid back and inclusive.
Trip 1 Botanic Gardens @ Puerto de la Cruz
Soon got the hang of the local bus service, modern coaches at reasonable prices, the 343 took us round the coast road, south to north, and into Puerto. Whilst developed for tourism it maintains an amount of its original small port tradition.
It also has an interesting line in street art:
The Botanic Garden is compact but well worth a visit.
Its centre piece is an enormous tree with a peculiar growth technique, its branches drop down roots that then become additional trunks to help support the tree in the shallow earth surface of the volcanic rock:
Trip 2 Whale Tail
A visit to this part of the Canaries is not complete without a whale watch boat trip. We had intended to sail with the Lady Shelley catamaran but it seemed to be out of commission so we went with the smaller Travelin Lady and can well recommend it - great crew, great trip, great price!
Also ran along part of the impressive volcanic coastline.
Trip 3 Loro Park
This has to be an absolute must for anyone visiting Tenerife. A little pricey but well worth it. It's large, has amazing shows, is a conservation centre, spotlessly clean and the relationship between handlers and animals is one of real respect - they talk of the animals being ambassadors for their species and are treat accordingly.
The orca's were truly magnificent a spectacular sight:
Weren't sure why regular visitors were wearing plastic capes but it soon became obvious as the orcas had a habit of swimming close to the edge and whacking bucket loads of water at the audience with their tails !!
The dolphins were just magic:
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| they made this little girls day with a trip round the pool |
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| but this was the most spectacular, tossing a handler high in the air and over a high wire |
Closely followed by the sea lions:
Perhaps the most unusual, and the hardest to photograph, was the unique wild bird show. All manor and colour of exotic bird flew around the auditorium, amongst the crowd, fed from bowls, performed memory games with amazing accuracy - stunning:
Amongst many others were:
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| tubes of jellyfish inc Portuguese Men o War! |
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| many and varied aquaria |
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| breeding programme for mountain gorillas |
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| orchid house |
Penguins on real icebergs in the snow
The only way to end a perfect holiday break was back on the beach
and a bonus finale firework display over the complex
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