Where paradise is zero degrees!
Snow falls every day in Tenerife – up to 12 tons of it on to a bleak, rocky landscape where the temperature never rises above zero degrees.
Impossible you might think in this island of eternal spring, where the sun shines all year round and the climate is reckoned by many to be the best on the planet.
While the sun worshippers spend lazy days on the beaches of Puerto de la Cruz in the north of the island, just a few yards away conditions are very different for the residents of Planet Penguin at Tenerife’s most popular visitor attraction, Loro Parque
This penguin paradise replicates in minute detail the habitat of their native Antarctica, where the world’s largest fridge maintains a constant temperature of air and water, and where snow falls throughout the day to ensure that the King, Rockhopper, Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins feel perfectly at home.
Their well-being was confirmed recently by the hatching of seven chicks, with another 20 eggs continuing to be incubated by parent birds in the comfort of specially-built nests.
The 4,000-square metres penguin quarters are a constant amazement to the thousands of visitors who flock to Loro Parque every day to be escorted through the spectacle on a conveyor-belt walkway for a close-up of the penguins as they swim, play and chatter, just as they would in their natural environment.
Cheers! Sandra. R.