Loro Parque

I cannot believe that we managed to persuade my better half to accompany us to this marvellous park. In reality though, I think it was the chap we met at the Laguna who persuaded him that it was well worth a visit and the extortionate entry fee - something like 30 Euros each !! a small fortune. Usually if we have to pay much entry fee at all we don't do it and forgo that pleasure -whatever it would have been !

We trot off nice and early, the three of us, and wended our way over to the park down the hill and along the sea front. This was at least a mile, if not more. Luckily we are trooper walkers.

We queue, we pay and we enter.

 
Walking admiringly past the carp ponds we immediately find ourselves by the Gorilla enclosure.
 A patient wait and wow - what magnificent creatures.

Huge, powerful yet docile; they seemed amused by our attentions.
We could hardly drag ourselves away but ...

.....next was the Sea Lions, and again, wow..... what a show. They are performers.

How they train these wild creatures is a mystery - continuous rewards were noticed though. Fish by the bucketfull was devoured, and each trick had its prize.

Then it was the dolphin show - what can I say - man and fish in unison?
These creatures can practically read your mind it seems. Spectacular.

We wandered around, admired all the parrots, parakeets, orchids, flamingoes, turtles and the meerkats. Then we stopped and sat down for lunch.

The chimps, well to be quite honest, I found these creatures to be quite gloomy.









Then the quite spectacular penguin house which had snow falling inside the dome and also a moving walkway to keep spectators on the go ! This I really loved - the largest colony of penguins outside the poles. On land they seem almost comical as they strutt around, but wow, watch them underwater as we could and they absolutely came to life as they dived and ducked about and reminded me totally of teenage boys just enjoying the fun of being alive and whooping it up !

One penguin in particular was a star - zipping around and leaping out of the water at top speed. He was having a great time, a performer indeed.

Next, was the Killer Whale display.

This was both sad and incredible at the same time. These huge creatures were performing for us mere humans - it felt quite wrong. Astounded, I sat there along with all the others, but in my heart I was weeping - these animals ought to be out there in the wilds roaming the oceans not doing tricks to amuse us !!?? At the end of the show, the youngest whale perched on the central platform hugging the wall and would not move away. He seemed like a distressed teenager but who knows ? We were asked to move on.

The white tigers were waiting for us !!

beautiful, beautiful creatures. They were quite playful and chased each other around the compound.

There were many other animals but the scariest for me was the shark house !! We actually had to walk through tunnels built into the tanks and the sharks and fish were all around us. I actually had to duck to walk under the basking sharks(?) which were sort of draped over the tunnels and seemed asleep but you never knew !! and the sheer size of them - phew.

Funnily enough, back in Wiltshire, I met a lady whose son was the shark tank 'cleaner'. He'd done a diving course and spent a few years working in the Loro Park diving in amongst the various sharks, sort of tidying up. Brave chap.

In all, I definitely felt it was worth the 30 Euro entry fee. All day long we were amazed by these splendid creatures which we would never normally get to see. But, a zoo is still a zoo and creatures should be free and wild. The saving grace was that breeding programmes were in place and of course 'research' ? does that make me feel any better, I'm not sure.