Archive for the 'Work Samples' Category
Santa Cruz, Siam Park, San Juan and Tenerife Sun

There’s always plenty going on in Tenerife, and lots of new attractions. A good 2-1 home win for CD Tenerife on Sunday in Santa Cruz rekindled outside chances of promotion to the Primera, the promised land of Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The win of course was marked by a few cheeky Dorada’s. Fast forward to Monday morning and there I was at the top of The Tower of Power in Siam Park, the Adeje water kingdom, that opens on May 1st. The 28 metre slide to a pool below wasn’t quite what the morning after tummy wanted but I stood my ground, took my photos and edged warrily back down the 256 stone stairs, at this unfinished stage, very open to the breeze.

The DragonÂ

I had arranged the sneak preview for The Tenerife Sun, and it included meeting Christoph Kiessling, the boss, and creative genius behind the new park. The lovely Romy, from the sales office was also on hand and together they gave me a full tour of the impressive and slightly daunting attractions. The Dragon looked and sounded suitably scary with the promise of a rotor like spin in both directions and zero gravity, and the expanse of white sandy beach stood out although the wave tower was turned off, so no 3 metre waves on that day.

Just a few days earlier, I was looking at a very different new beach (corny link no 157) this time in Playa San Juan, where the 3 million euros project was coming to completion. I know work can be slow here but it is nice to see such a pleasing end result. Workmen were still swarming over the beach, raking and grading it, as old Canarian men made early claims on the seating areas by the path, and looked on approvingly.

Playa San JuanÂ

Nice place Playa San Juan, it deserves the new beach, Guia de Isora council are pretty go ahead and have made a lot of effort to improve their municipality. The walkway behind the new beach extends round the headland past a cave worn into the rock, on to a more rural beach. After my visit, I walked off to the west along the other shoreline path that links to Alcala and realised that my memory had over estimated how easy it was to climb, crawl and balance past the tricky half way point that can be avoided with a detour through Fonsalia. There’s more on the Alcala stretch further back on this blog, just enter exploring in the search and it will be closer to hand.

Anyway, like Siam Park, the San Juan visit was for The Tenerife Sun, now under new ownership. Follow the links to the first re born issue to find the 2 location reports (Siam-property page12, San Juan-property page 15) plus my news on 2 concerts in Scene Around and a match report on CD Tenerife (sport), among all the other goodies.

“Fish? Did someone mention fish?”

 Loro Parque WhaleThere’s no mistaking that aah feeling. The whale is a majestic figure and recently I was lucky enough to go behind the scenes at Loro Parque to meet the whales and two of their trainers at the Orcarium.

Steve is an experiened trainer but Lia from Puerto de la Cruz has just started. Find out what their day involves and find out more about them and the four star turns. You can see the two page story under features in The Tenerife Sun, pick up a free copy from one of 300 points around the island or see the online version above. If you haven’t experienced Loro Parque yet, get up there soon.

Are you a basket case?

Even if you are not, you could soon be converted at the 22nd annual Pinolere arts and crafts fair in the La Orotava valley on the weekend of August 31 and September 1st and 2nd. Basket weaving might sound a bit Womens Institute but this is one of the great traditions of the Canary Islands and is only a small part of the huge fair.

If you want to see and sample food, drink, crafts and traditions and get a real feel of what the Canary Islands is all about, this is for you.

To read my full preview, with photos from last year, look at the website of The Tenerife Sun, or pick up a free copy of the islands top paper from one of the 300 outlets.