When you arrive at the Playa of Abades it’s like walking onto your own private beach – there’s no one to be seen. Local men are sipping coffee at the beach cafeteria and greeting us with a smile. The wind is still a little bit chilly but luckily the sun starts warming us up. It’s a perfect day for some snorkeling and scuba diving!
We start our beach day with some swimming and getting to know the beach and environment. Abades is a picturesque small village on the southeast coast of Tenerife. It has a nice and calm natural beach and bay, therefore it offers great diving and snorkeling conditions with reefs, caves, pools and underwater volcanic rock formations at different depths. It’s a considerably easy beach to enter for everyone since you can just walk from the beach to the water.
After swimming we rehearse how to snorkel. The guide shows you how to wear a mask, how to breathe through the snorkel and how to kick with the fins. After this we get into the water together, hand in hand walking backwards, like a little penguin family. We can see that the wind is getting a bit stronger but the small waves aren’t bothering our snorkeling. We spot straight away some canary damsels and sea breams.
It’s time for a lunch break with a little picnic by the ocean. While enjoying our snacks we admire the historical atmosphere around us and we can see in the hills abandoned buildings and a church of a old leprosarium. After the civil war there were 197 cases of lepra and in 1941 started the project to build a leprosarium, which in the end was never finished as the medical treatment changed and the ill didn’t have to be isolated anymore. Today you can see the empty impressive buildings from the beach.
We can feel how the sand is getting hotter. Also some other sunbathers have found their way to the beach but this doesn’t make it crowded. You can feel the excitement in the air when the guide tells it’s time to go diving. After instructions and finding the right equipment we are ready to enter the ocean. The first time is all about getting comfortable under the surface and with the equipment. Breathing is the most important thing – you need to learn how to breathe underwater in order to relax and enjoy.
After the short break at the beach we try again. This time diving feels much easier and we can relax and explore the underwater life. Excitement fills up our bodies since we know we could have a chance to even see rays, angel sharks, moray eels, shrimps, nudibranchs and even sea horses that are present in the area, but you do need to have some luck to see some of these more shy species.
The day has already reached evening time when we start heading back to the hotel but that doesn’t matter – we have had an amazing day by the ocean full of new experiences and memories to look back at. We all are feeling a little bit tired after the long day but wearing the biggest smiles on our faces. One adventure has just ended – what’s coming next?