I had another invitation to join my scuba diving friend on his university spring break and spent an amazing 8 days on Tenerife this April. The invitation came late, and I had already committed to a two week break to my part time Arizona home just south of Tucson. I solved that by spending a few days at the start and again at the end in Tucson, with the adventure trip slipped in the middle.
The main airport on Tenerife is at the very north end of the island. Thus we had to take about an hours van ride to the southeast end of the island to the Playa de Las Americas, where the hotel resort was. The lst day was just beach and pool time to relax and rest up from the trip. Then the next day we spent nearby at the wonderful Jungle Park. It was an extremely well done zoo park with the jungle planting and a great variety of animals, including albino tigers and a sea lion show.
Then another day of leisure, followed by our lst scuba diving day. Unfortunately, the wind and seas prevented us from going out or beach diving. So the following day we did get to beach dive since the dive boat was then down. It was a real struggle to get from the parking lot down to the beach and into the water with full wet suits, the extra heavy weight belt and tanks etc. Then we had a quarter mile surface swim out into the middle of the bay where with the rains and wind the previous week had reduced the visibility. We went down to about 30 to 35 feet onto a sandy bottom and were in luck. The turtles were there and we got some great photos, even feeding them. The interaction and experience made it all well worthwhile
The very next day we took an all day bus and hiking tour up the tallest mountain in Spain, Mt Teide, a towering 12,200 foot high volcano on Tenerife. We got to hike in the vast caldera between 8 and 9 thousand feet. The cable car to near the summit was closed on our day, so we did not get to ride the approximate 3000 ft vertical to near the summit. I did get some great photos and the day was sunny and bright.
I think the most fun day was when I was talked into a day at the biggest water park in Europe. Siam Water Park is fantastic and I even took the nearly 90 vertical foot drop at the Tower of Power. It was a thrill to say the least , and I had never done anything like that before. l ended up going along and doing every water ride in the park.
Then we went for the last night back to the north end of the island to a hotel very near the airport for our 7 am flight back to Madrid the next morning. After checking in, we took a tram down into Santa Cruz to browse the waterfront and shops, our last afternoon on Tenerife. The next morning we were back in Madrid. After checking in early to the Airport Hilton, we jumped on the airport train into downtown Madrid, where I really enjoyed the warm sunny day. Madrid is one of my very favorite cities in Europe, and a sidewalk dinner in the warm evening was the perfect end to the 8 days trip. The next morning, I flew back to Dallas and Tucson and my friend went the opposite direction across Europe. So, I experienced yet another new destination with many new experiences.
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| Stunningly beautiful sunset the 1st night on Tenerife |
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| Me surveying the ocean in front of the hotel resort |
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| The lovely broad beach in the downtown area |
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| One of the white Siberian tigers in the Jungle Park |
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| A beautiful leopard in the Jungle Park |
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| Yours truly parked on a Komodo Dragon |
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| A colorful baboon in the Jungle Park |
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| Yours truly enjoying the outing and another adventure day |
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| A small boy feeding an emu |
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| The majestic male lion there |
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| And the mother lion nearby |
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| Affectionate moment for the pair of lions |
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| Me looking out into the still rough bay that we would shore dive into for turtles |
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| Success and I am feeding one of the turtles at about 30 feet down |
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| A close up of the feeding turtle |
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| waving good by to one of the turtles |
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| Another photo I took of a graceful turtle |
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| The park sign of Mt Teide National Park where we hiked |
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| Bright, stark landscape in the caldera, with the summit and some snow in background |
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| vast caldera and a more recent lava flow, which was black |
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| view from a pinnacle I hiked up |
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| The not too distant over 12,200 foot summit of Mt Teide |
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| Yours truly enjoying the view during a hike in the caldera at about 9000 ft elevation |
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| The most recent lava eruption on Mt Teide |
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| Enjoying the warm sun and the great scenic outing |
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| The exit from the wild Dragon water ride we took |
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| About to wade into the Siam Parks huge ocean and beach in front of the far wave wall |
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| A view that shows the size of the park's ocean and beach |
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| Again looking over towards the wave wall |
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| My friend walking toward the main building for lunch |
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| The ove 90 foot nearly vertical drop in the frightening Tower of Power water slide |
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| Big sharks in the exit pool of the Tower of Power, which one does not see during ones high speed shot to the exit pool |
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| Shark pool again with the Dragon ride tube, which is slower and one can see the sharks |
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| Dragon ride top, one starts the drop from about the eye of the Dragon |
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| Meandering river float that wanders through the amazing Siam Park |
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| Splashing down in exit of another of the fantastic wild water rides |
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| A 4 person party about to exit another of the big water rides |
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| exit of the Speed Racer water slide |
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| one of the newest rides and one of the best and most scary |
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| another view of our favorite new ride |
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| Back in Madrid, nearing downtown |
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| Walking along the attractive downtown main shopping area in Madrid |
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| Here I am at noon, enjoying tapas, a cold beer and the ambience of a sidewalk cafe with the Royal Palace behind |
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| A view of our dinner time stop at another of Madrid's wonderful, many sidewalk cafes behind the Opera House |
