Loro Parque
LORO PARQUE
The impressive entrance is a replica of a Thai temple. It was brought from Thailand to Tenerife and assembled here by Thai craftsmen. To complete the oriental picture, just inside the park, there is a huge pond filled with hundreds of beautiful white, orange and black Koi carp.
Following the neat narrow path slightly uphill, we arrived at the gorilla enclosure. Through huge plate-glass windows we could watch the group, among them two youngsters and a silverback who sat right in front of the window watching his family.
Following the neat narrow path slightly uphill, we arrived at the gorilla enclosure. Through huge plate-glass windows we could watch the group, among them two youngsters and a silverback who sat right in front of the window watching his family.
We continued our walk through well maintained gardens, passing wonderful lawns where South African Crowned Cranes stroll gracefully along. Walking up a slope we finally arrived at the world’s largest and most modern “Penguinarium” called “Planet Penguin”. Moving along the travelator we passed a large enclosure of the endangered Humboldt Penguins that usually live in small colonies along the coast of Chile and Peru. We then came to a real colony of King Penguins, Macaroni Penguins and Chinstrap Penguins. They live on a little island surrounded by water with several tons of snow being showered down on them each day. The whole room was dimly lit since it was winter time in the Antarctic at that time there is almost no daylight. This enables the animals to live in a natural environment and live their lives according to their natural rhythm. 
In our way out of this breathtaking penguinarium we passed a 9 meters high circular glass aquarium filled with a shoal of thousands of Canarian sardines. This spectacular sight leaves an unforgettable impression on the visitor.
Our small group continued on to see the park's latest and greatest attraction: Orca Ocean. We were entertained in spectacular fashion by four orcas that were bred in the Sea World Park in California and had just recently been brought to Tenerife. With spectacular jumps and other tricks performed with their trainers, the group gave us a wet and wonderful show. If you want to keep dry stay away from the front row!
We continued our journey through the spacious park and saw leopards, chimpanzees, a white tiger and countless parrots. This is the largest collection of parrots anywhere in the world, including 300 of the existing 800 species. Some of them are on the endangered species list and cannot be found in the wild anymore. The Loro Parque Foundation devotes itself to the conservation of these beautiful birds; they are caged in spacious aviaries with plenty of vegetation. The breeding programme is one of the most successful to be found anywhere in the world.
Continuing our walk through this wonderful park we also stopped at the Dolphin Show, the Parrot Show and the hilarious Sea Lion Show. Of course we could not miss out on the aquarium with its magnificent underwater tunnel where sharks swim overhead and you can see a fantastic collection of exotic fish swimming through a coral reef.
We were totally worn out after almost 7 hours at this popular park. We went home with not only many fantastic memories but we had also learnt a lot about animal conservation.