Dolphin Day!

The second thing I crossed off my list was to swim with a dolphin. My friend Kristin came with me. When we got to Cozumel we took a taxi to Chankanaab Park for our Dolphin Swim Adventure. The park was actually really beautiful and we ended up getting there early and spending almost the whole day there (but I will post more about that in my cruise review later this week!).

Our dolphin’s name was Malinche (she had a boyfriend Chuck and they were hoping to get pregnant soon- how cute is that?!). They were so excited they kept jumping up out of the water and smiling at us while we were still on the dock. Our trainer guide told us Malinche was a princess and we had to do our hand motions exactly perfect or she would not do what you were asking her. She took us through the hand motions for each trick: a kiss, a hug, a belly ride, and the boogie board push. Each one was really cool but my favorite was the belly ride. She comes up behind you and flips over to her belly while you grab her dorsal fins and she pulls you through the water. The boogie board push was cool too. You lay on a boogie board and she swims up behind you and pushes your feet (they are strong, so you go pretty fast!). Malinche talked to us (we even got to hear what they sound like when they talk to each other underwater!) and she did lots of tricks for us…it was so cool! I don’t have the pictures from my water camera developed yet, but as soon as I do I will post some.

We also got to see the kindergarten area. This is where they have the baby dolphins (mostly still with their mothers). They even had one that was only 5 months old (and he was still pretty big!). Overall I think they have about 10-15 dolphins there.

After it was over they had us watch this really cheesy video of the whole thing that you could buy (for $435- pesos not dollars we learned) and they also had some cute pictures you could purchase as well. But since we had our own pictures on the water camera and it was so crazy in the store, we decided against it.

On a side note, if you ever do this while in Cozumel , I highly recommend booking through their website and NOT the cruise ship. The cruise ship excursion was right before ours and it looked like they had 100-200 people as opposed to our group of about 20 that was broken down into 2 groups of about 10 or so each. Plus it was cheaper than doing it through the cruise ship!

Also I will say it made me sad to see the small enclosures the dolphins have to live in. They were areas of the ocean blocked off to be about the size of a double car garage. They also had a big area in the middle that was about the size of a football field (not quite as long though). But they seemed really happy there so I tried not to think about how much it reminded me of a really hospitable dolphin jailhouse.

Oh and did you hear about the baby whale whose mother abondonded him and he is now nuzzling up to a boat? So sad. I heard about it on the Today show this morning and it made me want to adopt a whale. But really, where would I put him? I barely have room for myself, a crazy dog, and a fat cat in my house!

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the third and final thing I crossed off my list on this cruise adventure!