Wild west in the Canary Islands!? (Rancho Texas Park (Lanzarote, Spain))

Member Name: karalouk

Product:	Rancho Texas Park (Lanzarote, Spain)
Date:	18/05/09 (107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good few hours out, recommended if you have children, nice selection of animals

Disadvantages: Lack of shade, a bit expensive, bird shows good but need some work, white tigers?

Rancho Texas is a themed park which can be located on the most easterly Canary Island, Lanzarote.

You'll probably notice Rancho Texas advertised around the island - in leaflets and even on the luggage trollies at the airport! It is situated on the outskirts of Puerto Del Carmen and can be reached easily by car or bus.

As the name suggests the park is based around the state of Texas and has a wild west theme. This paragraph is taken from the Rancho Texas website "In 1731, Canarian emigrants established the city of San Antonio in Texas. 40 of these emigrants were from Lanzarote. They were the first ascendents of the actual State of Texas, USA. The first mayor was a man from Lanzarote. Many Canarian descendants fought and died in the historic Battle of Alamo, together with Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. Rancho Texas Park, Lanzarote, captures this time with all the adventure and excitement of the old wild west". A fact I didn't know prior to visiting the park and which some also gave some significance to the park.

If I didn't have my daughter with me then I probably wouldn't have visited Rancho Texas but I knew she would enjoy it so decided to spend half a day there (it's not a whole day thing). The park has no rides as such and is actually more of a zoo.

On arrival there is a big carpark. At the entrance there is an owl enclosure, pond with turtles in and booth to pay at. Tickets were around 18 euros for adults and 10 euros for children over 2 years of age. As the park isn't that big I thought this was a little steep. I also felt slightly cheated that I had to pay 10 euros for my 2 year old who is too young to fully appreciate everything in the park and probably won't remember it in the long run. You are given a free map, which also has a schedule of shows in.

We visited on a weekday, in term time, between 2.30 and 5pm. The park was pretty much empty, only around 40 other people in total.

Also when we visited it was really hot (like seriously hot) and one of the biggest problems we faced was finding shade around the park. Lanzarote is a year round hot, sunny island so you would have expected that there would be more shelter. Luckilly this didn't ruin our day but could easily put a downer on somebody elses. On the upside there were lots of drink and ice cream vending machines around the park.

The first thing we did was make our way to the sealion enclosure to watch the sealion show. We missed the first few minutes but I think there were 3 different sealions. Everybody really enjoyed the show and the best part was that you could tell the sealions enjoyed doing the show rather than being forced to do it. The sealion trainer had obviously worked long and hard to train the sealions and prepare the show and looked as though he had built a strong bond with the animals. An english woman done some humerous commentary over a microphone. The sealions went down a slide, off a diving board, fetched rings, blew raspberries, done flips, sang and danced. I didn't see an underwater viewing area though. After the show you are given the opportunity to have your photo taken with one of the sealions which you can view and purchase at the exit of the park.

Next to the sealion enclosure is the crocodile enclosure which was good to see as they're quite rare in UK zoo's. The enclosure was nice and spacious and was home to around 5 crocodiles. If you go round the back of the enclosure you can stand on a balcony which overlooks it. They had sandy beaches, a big pool of water and waterfalls.

The next things to see were a couple of owl enclosures. One of the owl enclosures had small bird houses outside and above it and had loads of little wild birds coming back and foward. There were also donkeys, goats and rabbits. Enclosures were okay but could have been bigger and better.

There is a big indoor restuarant at the top of the park. Outside were two big teepee tents which you could go inside (they were cool but had nothing inside). We didn't eat in the restaurant but had drinks. There was a bucking bronco, a couple of little childrens rides and a seating area where people could eat their food and watch the parrot show. The parrot show was entertaining and again what I enjoyed the most was that the animals seemed to enjoy the fuss. There were 6 different parrots and all took part in different activities such as bike riding, skating and basketball! It was quite impressive but nothing that I haven't seen before in a parrot show. The person in charge of the show was a young boy who was very good and had obviously built up a bond with the birds - I felt a little sorry for him as the crowd wasn't being too responsive and neither were the birds for that matter, they kept flying off and eating chips off the floor that kids were dropping! Before the show started everybody was given the opportunity to have their photo taken with the birds - one was placed in your hands on its back (like cradling a baby) and one on your shoulder - again these can be viewed and purchased at the exit.

We watched a birds of prey show. The birds consisted of eurasian griffin, bald eagle, white tailed hawk, harris hawk, ferruginous hawk, red tailed hawk, American black vulture, peregrine falcon and black kite. They all took their turn at doing their bit but whilst not in action they were tied to posts on the floor which was heart breaking to watch - these big, beautiful, powerful creatures just wanting to fly away and being held back. The show basically consisted of the birds swooping over the audiences heads (they actually touched my head a couple of times!) and catching food and chasing decoys. The birds responded to whistles which the trainers had. I'm not sure if they were just having a bad day but the birds just weren't having any of it and didn't want to perform - I felt a little sorry all round (for the trainers and the birds). On the brighter side the selection of birds was very impressive and I particualrly enjoyed seeing a bald eagle.

In the middle of the park they had canoes, pony rides and panning for gold which you had to pay extra for.

The animal I was most looking foward to seeing was the white tigers so we went to their enclosure but they weren't there, so we looked for a window to their indoor area but there wasn't one! So that was a proper disappointment. We did get to watch two cougars close up in their sleeping quarters eating a big chunk of meat though, which was good, they were about a foot away behind glass.

I also enjoyed the armadillos - there were two of them just running around and digging in the sand. Around this part of the park is a couple of little play areas too.

Near the exit were a row of tanks with different snakes and lizards in. There was also an oudoor, quite impressive enclosure full of iguanas. The parrots that were used in the parrot show were housed next door, aswell as a beautiful looking toucan and some other birds.

At the exit is a souvenier shop which sold all different things. You could also view photos here and purchase them for 5 euros each. This isn't really cheap but is to be expected.

The park is open everyday from 9.30am to 5.30pm.

Overall this was a well spent few hours, my daughter really enjoyed it and I thought it was quite good. However I wont be re-visitng unless my daughter requests it as there are many other good things to be doing and seeing in Lanzarote that are cheaper and more to my taste. I particularly enjoyed the sealion show and seeing the different animals. I recommend if you are in Lanzarote, have a few spare hours and have kids.

Summary: Recommended if you're in Lanzarote, have children and have a spare few hours.