It’s silent as we glide through the water. Algae settling beneath us, fish swimming between us. Suddenly I feel a sharp tapping on my shoulder. My diving instructor David is pointing up towards the surface.
And then we see her, just a shadow at first until she swims deeper into the water. El Puertito, a sandy bay in Tenerife is home to four green turtles, a rare thing to see in the wild in Europe. We just met one of them.
The southern tip of Tenerife is traditionally known for parties and sunbathing, rather than getting up close with wild marine life.
So it was a pleasant surprise to find a group of scuba divers entirely dedicated to conserving the ocean at the heart of a tourist holiday resort.
“The turtle you met has swum all the way from America,” David tells me afterwards. “Turtles aren’t pack animals, so she will have travelled all that distance on her own.”
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