Dolphin & Whale Watching In Tenerife

Several weeks ago I spent some time in Tenerife on a family holiday. I'd been itching to visit Tenerife ever since I wrote this post for Thomson and couldn't wait to make the most of everything this island has to offer. On our first day we booked most of our excursions, pouring over leaflets we'd collected from the hotels booking office. One in particular caught my eye, whale watching. After excitedly sticking it under my parents nose and waving it around, they agreed that it would be an amazing trip and soon enough we were booked in for that Friday.

We arrived in Puerto Colon a little after lunchtime and were pleased to find that the sun had come out. For most of the week we'd been sat under a cover of cloud which despite being warm, hadn't really afforded us many tanning opportunities. 

Climbing onto the boat, I made a beeline for my favourite spot before anyone else could nab it. Sitting at the front looking out over the blue ocean is the best feeling in the world and whilst gazing out at the horizon, I found myself daydreaming of buying a boat and sailing round the world. Wouldn't that be incredible! Perhaps a little far-fetched though as I can't even sail and boats are pretty expensive. 

We set off and I peered out, squinting in the sunshine and hoping to see a fin breaking the surface of the water. Wildlife watcher I am not as it was actually my mum who squealed and pointed in the exact direction I'd been looking, highlighting two fins dipping in and out of the water. We moved a little closer and watched as the female pilot whale and her calf swam together. They kept their distance from the boat and eventually disappeared under the water. 

I couldn't believe that we had barely sailed away from the coast and we had already seen marine life. The trip before us apparently saw absolutely nothing! Our luck only began to increase as we moved on and came across more pilot whales. There were around four this time, a little braver than the mother and baby, they swam pretty close to the boat. One even dived and swum under the front of the boat! After letting us watch them for a good twenty minutes, they also disappeared into the blue.

At this point our captain drove us closer to the coast so we could stop for lunch and even take a swim. Again, we were pretty lucky as no-one chose to get in the water at first. Lucky because as we were eating our sandwiches the waves began to build higher and higher, crashing into the side of our boat and causing it to rock like crazy. The captain began to realise we were in potential danger as one big wave could easily capsize us and smash us against the rocks we had anchored near. His problem was that as he was the only crew member, he somehow had to lift the anchor and steer us into safety. With the wheel and the anchor being at opposite ends of the boat this was pretty tricky and for some reason he thought my dad would be the best person to help?!? Dad steered as the captain pulled up the anchor and thankfully we made it out of the situation without anything too bad happening. 

We began making our way back to port and my hope of seeing dolphins had begun to fade when we saw several people on jet skis floating near some wooden platforms, watching as a tail slapped the surface of the water. There were dolphins and they were waving at them! We followed them for a little while and they began to swim alongside our boat. It was probably the best moment of the entire holiday year for me!