dolphins!!!!!

March 13, 2014: Cozumel
This contract is definitely an excellent one for getting fun stuff done!
So, I had work this morning, port day until 12:15. That wasn’t too bad, but there were a lot of kids there. Daniella came to take over while we were at lunch, and I ran downstairs to change and grab all my stuff. I’d talked to Cassandra last week, and she ended up getting both me and Michelle on a tour… to go swim with dolphins!!!!!

I was a bit worried that the tour might be cancelled because it was raining and foggy. But when we arrived at the pier to meet the tour, we were both ecastic to hear that they were still going to do it. We got our wristbands and met our tour guide, and then loaded up in taxis to head to the place, which was only a 5 minute ride down the road. It was cool, we had to wait a bit once we got there to get our lifejackets and stuff, but the area we could wait in overlooked the whole area with the dolphins. Some people were in the water with the dolphins, others were following trainers instructions and ‘training’ the dolphins to splash, high five, jump, etc, and others were sitting on the sidelines watching. I took my camera, so I got it a bit wet (from the rain) as I took pictures of all that.

Then, it was our turn, we got our lifejackets, and those of us that were swimming got goggles, then we followed our trainer to our section of the area and got in the water. It was still raining, but that just made the sea water feel so much better! Our group included 8 people, and we had two dolphins named Alaina and Vina to hang out with for the hour or so. Our trainer was really cool, he told us a little bit about the dolphins, and we swam out to the middle, where one of the dolphins swam in front of our row and we got to pet it for a bit, they both seemed to enjoy that, they came back by at least one more time after the trainer signaled to return to him. Then, we took turns holding, dancing with and kissing one of them (the two dolphins took turns) for photos. I was kind of the guinea pig for that for our group because I was first in line closest to the trainer. It was cool, but the trainer didn’t really tell me what was going on at first, so I was trying to figure that out as it was happening. After everyone got their pictures, we moved on to something else. I was told to swim out almost to the other side of the pool, then to put one arm straight out and the other on my lifejacket, so I did. Then the trainer said something and all I got from that was the word “bike.” He said okay, and next thing I know, one of the dolphins comes up behind and next to me, I grab one of its flippers with my outstretched hand and suddenly I’m FLYING back to the group! Apparently when the dolphin came by, I was supposed to us both hands and hold onto both sides, but by the time I understood that, I was back at the group! The dolphin didn’t really seem to mind though, kind of funny because anytime anyone else in the group let go one hand, she just stopped and waited until they were ready again. That was really cool! Water flying everywhere, being pulled by a dolphin!
After we all had a chance to be pulled across the area by one of the dolphins, every group around the area finished as well, and the trainers got our dolphins to put on a show for us. 5 dolphins sped around the pool, spraying water at us, jumping in the air, etc. SO COOL!!

And that was the end, sadly. We got out of the water, back into the rain, went and looked at our pictures, gathered our stuff, dried off, bought pictures (I bought a package that included all the individual shots of my-19 of them- on a CD with one printed copy), then sat and watched other groups experience what we just did as we waited for our ride back to the pier. Such a good experience.

On our way back to the ship- walking through the mall that you must to get from the street to the pier, we met Jeremy at Starbucks, so stopped and got some food and a hot chocolate for a bit, before all three of us decided to go to the Mega store (Target-like store) down the street since they all needed stuff. I just tagged along because I wasn’t quite ready to go back to the ship yet. Michelle went back to the ship to go work out before dinner and work, but Jeremy and I walked across the street to the crew bar and got wifi before we decided it was time to head back.
I had a quick shower, and an even quicker dinner before movie night at work.