Tenerife - between dragons, butterflies and camels

        Icod de los Vinos is a beautiful little town located in the northwestern part of the island. We parked the car at “Parking del drago” which costs 1,8€/h.

        This place is known for hosting what has become the symbol of Tenerife island – the dragon tree🐉. What is so special about this dragon tree (species Dracaena draco) is that its age is estimated to be around 700-800 years. That’s where it got its name of Drago Milenario. It was declared a National Monument being the largest and longest known in the world of its kind.

        The prices to see this dragon tree up close inside Drago park are: adult 5€, child 2.5€, seniors 3€. But you can also admire it from outside of the garden for free 😊. There is a beautiful view of the whole garden from the Plaza Andres de Lorenzo Caceres.

        Another unique experience that can be lived here is a walk inside Mariposario del Drago. This is a butterfly park offering the wonderful experience to be surrounded by beautiful exotic butterflies flying all around you. It is a greenhouse so it is very hot and high humidity in here. You can read on the panels about their life cycle and about each specie. The butterflies are all so colorful and fills your heart with joy just by watching them flying around, eating or pollinating 🦋.

        The entrance price is 8,5€/person.

        At a 15-minutes drive distance there is a place called Camello Center🐪. Since it was so close, we decided to go here too and tick another experience: our first camel ride. Well that is a little bit bold to say “ride”. The camels have 2 chairs attached on a side and the other, which are occupied by 2 people. If someone stands alone on a camel, the staff members attach weights on the other side to equilibrate. This made me feel bad for the camels for the most of the ride.... Later on I read on the internet that they can carry up to 170kg so I really hope we did not torture the animals…😓

        The ride took about 20-25 minutes along their animal park where you could also see other camells, donkeys and goats. At the end of the tour, I noticed they had bags with food to feed the animals in the park that could have been purchased for 1€,  and I also saw a poster saying that we can take a photo with the camels for the price of 5€. Unfortunately, nobody guided us to these "extra expenses", but I would have wanted to 😅.

        The entrance price is 10€/adult and 7€/child. 

        There is also a restaurant where you can eat traditional local food.