Tenerife - Day 4 - Swimming with the fishes

Unlike the day before, the boat tour is only considered a half-day trip that starts at 12:15 at the same bus station as the day before.

That meant sleeping in, having a lazy but reduced breakfast that was meant to keep space fore the promised lunch and it being a boat, you should always be wary of sea-sickness.

With a packed back, we wandered along the beach promenade until 12:10 when we arrived at the bus stop where the bus was already waiting for us. The bus was organized by Mustcat tours AND was on time. Usually the bus drivers have a list and will wait a bit for their customers but don't expect them to throw their schedule totally overboard should you arrive too late.

We booked the 4 and a half hour tour that promised a complete lunch instead of sandwiches and two swim stops instead of one for the 3-hour tour. In the end we had a tasty if a bit cool paella and only a single snorkle stop but they offered a short introduction to scuba-diving that made more than up for it.

Additionally you'll find an openly advertised Open-bar at the catamaran. That means you can drink all your sorrows away with Sangria and beer as long "as you can still walk off the boat by yourself and remember that there is only a single toilet." ;)

First stop was the deep ocean in the middle between the Tenerife and La Gomera. It was described to us as a highway for migrating whales. This makes this a perfect place to spot whales.

So we set sail or rather turned up the twin engines and drove for almost an hour out to the sea.

Finally we arrived and saw not only a number of short-fin whales but also a Bryde's Whale. This huge whale is an unusual sight and we were lucky enough to run into one; well not literally.

Then we got closer to the coast of Tenerife again and saw some dolphins. They were swimming from left to right, or what the captain called: "Dolphin ping pong".

After a yummy paella we drove to a shallow bay where people could snorkle and some of us tried scuba diving with Mike they professional diving instructor. He was guiding us all the way regulating the vest but still it was an amazing first experience.

They also had a guy and girl from the Atlantic Whale Foundation that were there to gather data for whale research and were collecting signatures for a petition to change nets to save the Vaquita whale which gets trapped in those nets and is about to die out.

I am sitting at our hotel-room-desk and feel like I am still on the cat. Neither my wife nor me felt any nausea despite some rough moments but now in the quiet of the room and probably later in bed, I can feel the waves splashing against the double hull.

A well deserved chocolate fountain at the end of the day.