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 Loro Parque's poisoned gift -
The Egyptian Bat by Janet_Frey
The latest menace to Tenerife's unique fauna is the Egyptian Bat (Roussettus aegyptiacus). How, I hear you ask, did Egyptian bats fly all the way to Tenerife? The simple answer is that they didn't - they escaped from Loro Parque. Native bats and insects are directly threatened as a result. Tenerife's unique flora may also suffer because insects and plants often have unique symbiotic relationships.
Just to add insult to injury, the Tenerife government is going to pour 120,000 Euros down the drain in an attempt to ẃpe out the Egyptian beastie. If Tenerife's miserable and expensive failure to control Fountain Grass is anything to go by, the Island government stands a bat in hell's chance of succeeding.
Maybe it is time the Tenerife authorities began thinking of the local environment seriously instead of condoning tourist traps like Loro Parque.
The news about the bats got me interested in Loro Parque, not least because the place tries to sell itself as a real zoo interested in conservation. Unfortunately, many tourists swallow the story hook, line and sinker.
Even so, I was surprised to discover that Tony Silva, former Director at Loro Parque, was subsequently jailed in the United States for 82 months and fined $100,000 for smuggling endangered birds (his mother was put behind bars too). He was shopped by a drugs dealer (currently serving a 100-year sentence) who said Silva was one of the US' biggest wildlife smugglers. Evidence taken by the US Wildlife Service included unproven allegations that Loro Parque had been involved in the illegal trade in birds in a fairly big way. Whether they were true or not, we can probably all agree with the judge's summing up: "The real victims of these crimes were the birds themselves, and our children and future generations who may never have the opportunity to see any of these rare birds".
Check out the information on:
http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/crime_and_punishment.pdf
Cancel the trip to Loro Parque, and send a cheque matching the ticket price to the WWF (The World Wildlife Fund).
This is priceless - taken from one of those web sites offering high-powered experts in this and that:
"Tony Silva - Director, International Communications
English & Spanish spoken & written. Brazilian Portuguese managed. Prolific nature author and conservationist. Former director of Loro Parque, S.A. in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Loro Parque, with nearly one million visitors per year, is one of the most profitable ventures in the Canary Islands. Tony's responsibilities included managing the park, supervising all construction & acquisitions. He directed 130 employees & supervised all promotion campaigns for the park. He was responsible for all press releases and contact with the press. Tony helped design a nature park for the autonomous government of Andalucia, Spain."
http://www.abasicservice.com/staff.htm
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 by agarciaLeave a Comment
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 by BerniShand
Instead stand at the west wall of the Plaza de la Inglesia facing west, you will see the Dragon Tree over the wall and get the best viewpoint to photograph it Leave a Comment
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Nearly all of Tenerifes beaches are not the usual golden sands you would expect elsewhere in the world . Because Tenerife is a volcanic island, the sand tends to be black in colour. The beach at Los Cristianos however has sand imported from the sahara desert! So if your used to golden sands head for Los Cristianos beach. Leave a Comment
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You will be walking down the street quite happily, when all of a sudden a nice friendly person will ask you to look at a scratchcard - every one wins the main prize - but they do tell you that it is not Time-Share. If you want to be whisked away in a taxi ( paid for ) and spend 4 - 5 hours of your holiday looking and listening to a couple of people informing you of the benefits of parting with 3 - 4 k then this is for you ! If not then politely but firmly as the song goes " walk on by ". Leave a Comment
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Although cigarettes are so cheap it is easy to fall into the trap of taking too many home. The duty free limit for the UK is only 200 even though Spain is in the EU. The Canary Islands are not .
The limits are:
200 cigarettes; or 100 cigarillos; or 50 cigars; or 250g of tobacco;
60cc of perfume;
2 litres of still table wine;
250cc of eau de toilette;
1 litre of spirits or strong liqueurs over 22% volume; or 2 litres of fortified wine*, sparkling wine or other liqueurs *such as port or sherry; and
ư145 worth of all other goods including gifts and souvenirs. Leave a Comment
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If your in the neighbourhood of Playa de las Americas and are visiting Veronicas ( a well known nightclubbing spot along the sea front ) then always make sure YOU are holding your own belongings.
I went with a friend a we had between us two cameras, money, films, photos and a bum-bag stolen.
The money, bum-bag and cameras were taken whilst we were in one of the nightclubs on that particular stretch, we were talking to some people and I happpened to look down and found my bum-bag was open, I knew this was odd as I always had it closed, my friends was gone so that ended our night. We were Very upset and angry and having something like a bum-bag tied around your waist we thought we would be ok, how wrong we were!
We told our holiday rep the following morning who just told us to go to the police, we had to trek for about an hour in the heat looking for a police station only to find there was a queue a mile long, then when we were finally seen to we were told they could'nt do anything because we had to bring our insurance documents. We did not know this at the time but obviously now whenever you have to report anything always take your holiday documents with you. I always take the whole lot because you never know what they may ask for and it just saves trekking backwards and forwards.
Keep together if you are in a group, don't stray into places you are unsure of or are dubious about.
Always keep your belongings
in pockets and not hanging in loose outer clothing
IF IN DOUBT STAY OUT
We all get caught sometime in our lives with something missing, so I would not put off going there just have your wits about you, and use your common sense, casuse at the end of the day thats the only thing that can really help you. Leave a Comment
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It is a well-decorated place with unique location on the top of volcano. And it has a great view to the Tede but it also has an absolutely dreadful food and the most horrible service I have ever met in Spain. New tourists will come tomorrow, so they do not care about being good. The potato was cold, old and not chewable, rabbit stew was tough and consisted mostly of bones, not meat. Hamburger looked like a peace of yesterday’s boiled sausage, my daughter did not even risked to try it. We had to hunt for some salt ourselves since our waitress left immediately after bringing food and we have not seen her until she brought our bill. Should I mention that this bill was more than 40 euros for two-person meal with no wine?
Just bring some sandwiches with you and do not waist your time and money in the restaurant
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Once over in Tenerife YOU will see loads of electronic shops selling every possible electronic gadget. HOWEVER, in most shops (not all see below) you will find prices in the window that are too good to be true, THEY ARE!!
What will happen is you go in asking about a great buy, but once inside the assistant will tell you that the price is either not the same product you think it is or they will say this is a heap of junk ie. a 350k pixel camera Then they will try to sell you something else.
The best con I have seen was a few years back... a Sony Waterproof cassette Walkman (I did say a few years back), the price was really cheap, but once in side the sales man said this is rubbish, hear listen, the sound was really bad, he tried to sell me a different make (a real heap), on closer inspection there was a piece of sticky tape over the head of the Sony Walkman, I said I'll take this one, after pointing out the sticky tape, the sales man refused saying they had none is stock.
A similar one on a camcorder, is that they will adjust the brightness and contrast to make a good name look crap.
OR they will say a low price and then say you need X, Y, & Z. (usch as power pack, battery, leads etc) all pushing up the original price and they will not sell it too you at the low price OR else they say I dont have one in stock come back tomorrow, you go back, they say come back tonight.
YOU CAN GET BETTER PRICES BACK HOME OR SIMILAR PRICES.
Go to a good shop ask your hotel rep or receptionist.
Buy back home it is safer and if anything goes wrong you can take the item back to the shop you bought it from. Leave a Comment
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If one would like to travel from Los Cristianos (Playa de la Americas) to the northern part of the island (Where Puerto Cruz and Loro Parque are located) consider that if you would like to go there faster then please do not go over the mountains (road TF 28) but go to Santa Cruz and then to Loro Parque. It seems that it is longer road to take (it is if you see the miles/km passed), but believe me you will arrive in Puerto much faster that way . The roads over the mounatain are so narrow and thin ,it is impossible to drive more than 40km/h .
But if you want to see real Tenerife take this road and make lots of breaks to enjoy in the beautiful landscaapes over the north part of the island.
Take the freeway from Los Cristianos to Santa Cruz (TF1) and then go to Loro Parque and Puerto Cruz. Leave a Comment
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