Whalewatching

The internet connection at the villa has gone on the bleep again, so we could not post. It is frustrating as we were trying to book trips and also some walks where access is limited per day. The ascent to the very rim of Teide is already booked up till the day we leave.

After a frustrating morning of losing signal we decided to drive down to Los Cristianos to try and book a boat trip. Getting there was easy and we managed to get a parking space on the main street down to the beach. It was quite busy, with not a spanish voice to be heard.

At the beach there was a small bay with sand with lots of sun beds and umbrellas. WE also noticed quite a number of people in disabled scooters. In fact you could hire one for 70 Euros a week. Immediately we saw kiosks selling boat trips for fishing, snorkelling and whalewatching. The first one we went to was cheaper than the trips we had seen on the internet and was in a boat that was fitted with sailing masts, though there were no sails on it. The boat sailed in under an hour so we bought tickets and spent the remaining time eating cornets.

The capacity on the boat was 136 but there were only a handful on board, so our trip was uncrowded. We were surprised that we were not given buoyency aids. The boat trips we went on in Chile insisted on a jacket being worn. Still it was a big boat. We set off for sea, towards La Gomera. Kevin kept thinking he saw whales so took a lot of pictures of waves!

Eventually a crew member came to the fore and whistled. Soon there were a few short fin pilot whales around the boat, one with a calf in tow. Sadly thet stayed with us only a few minutues but it was wonderful to see them nevertheless. The boat then headed towards fish farms nearer the coat in the hope of finding dolphins, but there were none to be seen. There were however a lot of seabirds nesting on the cliffs nearby. All to soon the 2 hour trip was over, and we drove home to a mexican meal of fajitas.