Tenerife Day 5 - The Beach & Parrot Show

Day 5 in Tenerife. Waking later and later. A real struggle to get Brandon out if bed today. Joshua walked in his sleep last night and half way through the night I found him spread out across the sofa in the living room last night. I decided to leave him there and then by the morning he was magically back in his own bed!!!

After breakfast me and Joshua finally got our way in having a beach day and we took a walk down to the beach and found a lovely sandy bay. Me and Joshua did some snorkeling whilst the others played on the sand and we saw plenty of fish life plus a few star fish As usual we picked up a sea cucumber to take ashore. As we picked it up it squirted us with sticky white stuff and turned its skin all prickly, but we still got it to shore!. 

We made an aeroplane and turtle sand castle whilst the boys tried to model mount Tiede. As usual I was quite proud of my sand castles until later in the holiday when I saw some absolutely unbelievable sand castles (more to follow on that). Anyway as usual the kids all had more fun destroying my sand castles rather than building their own!!! 

We then went out on a pedal boat for an hour and Josh was continually diving in and out of the sea. Holly enjoyed being dipped in the sea but then got very tired and cranky. So while Brandon and Tina steered / pedalled, I sat with Holly and she fell asleep in my arms. 

We had lunch back at the hotel and then jumped in the pool for an hour or so. By then a load of cloud had come over and it actually got cold!!! So me and the kids went off to play beach volleyball whilst Tina relaxed in the hotel as she was having pains in her side. Holly ate well in the evening meal and then we went out for a walk around town where we booked up some karting for the boys. 

Finally wee then went back to the hotel for the evening show which was a parrot show. The parrots did all the usual tricks riding a scooter, dunking a basketball, counting numbers on a bell, picking up shapes and even driving a mini monster truck. The show was short and sharp, but the two boys loved it. After the show me and the boys sat up quite late listening to a singer in a bar and playing Uno and Connect 4 whilst whilst Holly and Tina slept back in the room.

We found a lovely sandy bay to spend our first beach day. The boys were fascinated with the dark coloured sand and learning that it got its colour from the volcanic ash.

The rock wave breaker keeping the waters of the bay nice and calm for swimmers and water sports.

Holly playing around on the beach.

Getting her feet wet and scooping some water for sand castles.

A rare picture of Brandon playing in the sea, he hates the salty water.

Brandon, Holly and Tina playing on the beach whilst me and Joshua go off snorkeling.

One of the many star fish we saw whilst out snorkeling.

My effort at an aeroplane sand castle which was soon to be shamed by some very impressive locals!!

Holly planning how to destroy my effort.

Brandon and Joshua's mount Teide sand castle.

My attempt at a turtle, not one of my better sand sculptures!!!

Joshua proudly showing our sea cucumber which we brought back from our morning snorkel.

The spikes retracted but the cucumber was a lively little bugger wiggling around.

Bye, bye to my turtle as Brandon launches himself two footed into it.

Joshua gets himself comfortable to steer us out of the bay on the pedal boat.

We went quite away off shore and could look back at the beach and mountains.

Holly seemed to enjoy the pedal boat for a while but was soon showing signs of being tired.

Brandon having his turn at pedaling as he didn't want to jump in the sea.

Holly getting her sea legs and moving up to the front of the boat.

Joshua playing around on the ladder at the back of the pedal boat.

Me about to dip Holly into the sea before she finally gives in and has a nap on the boat.

Joshua in and out of the water like a yo-yo.

Holding his nose as he launches himself off the pedal boat and into the depths. Fearless.

This was about as close as Brandon got to getting in the sea from off the pedal boat!

Finally its all too much for Holly and she decides its time for a Daddy cuddle and a nap.

We decide to pedal off and leave Joshua in the sea.

All ashore and our pedal boat trip is over. 1 hour of hard work in that heat!!!

Joshua serving up a ball with some beach volleyball.

In the end we gave up on volleyball and were playing beach football!

Brandon trying to punch a ball over the net.

Action shot of Joshua and Brandon taking me on at beach volleyball.

Joshua out for an evening walk after our dinner.

We found the promotional yellow car which was advertising the karting. It was enough to lure is in and book tickets for later in the holiday.

The woman selling tickets was kind enough to let the boys sit in the yellow car for a picture.

The evening parrot show and a parrot rides a bike across the stage.

Parrots driving a monster truck.

Nice picture that I sneaked of Brandon and Joshua with the parrots (saved me paying Eur 10 for their official picture!).