Swimming with dolphins was never on my bucket list. But that’s probably because I don’t really have a bucket list – except skydiving, maybe bungee jumping or cliff diving – anyway…
Lots of people say swimming with dolphins is “a once in a lifetime experience.” Why? Did they die immediately following it? If it was so great, why don’t they do it again? Since it is apparently the thing to do, I did it. After all, I’ve basically been living in the Caribbean for over three years now. How have I not done this yet?
As I mentioned in my last post, my sister was cruising with me for a week. We climbed Dunn’s River Falls and tubed down a river in Jamaica. She had been to Cozumel before and I have been going there for the past couple years so it was more difficult for us to find something we would both enjoy and hadn’t done. Difficult, but not impossible. Neither of us had ever been swimming with dolphins.
We chose a resort called Chankanaab for our adventure. The name of the tour we were doing was called “Dolphin Push, Pull, and Swim with Manatee Interaction.” Sadly I don’t have any photos of us with the dolphins as cameras weren’t allowed and we didn’t buy any of the photos they took of us.
We were in a group of about 10 people and we climbed down the stairs and onto a metal platform that had us chest deep in the cold ocean. Then we got to meet our dolphin, Mauricio. I was so excited. I was in the water with a dolphin! He swam by multiple times and we got to touch him. I have touched dolphins at Sea World before, but this was the first time I was in the water with one (they frown on that at Sea World).
Our first activity was the push. We were given a boogie board to lay on and were told to keep our feet together and our legs straight. The dolphin circled around me, put his nose on my foot, and pushed me across the enclosure. I was interacting with a dolphin! Hire me Sea World, I’m ready! For some reason I was surprised that the dolphin only put his nose on my one foot. I don’t know why that surprised me, it’s not like he has two noses, but it did. Also, the only semi-scary part of the whole thing is that I was going so fast I was concerned that Mauricio was trying to make a break for it by pushing me through the end of the enclosure. But he wasn’t and we stopped with plenty of room to spare.
Then it was time for the pull. I was told to float upright in the water, raise my right hand above my head, and put my left hand on my chest. Mauricio swam behind me and flipped over on his back. As he swam under my raised arm, I grabbed his pectoral fins and we glided through the water. So much fun.
We did a few other activities like giving the dolphin a kiss and getting a dolphin kiss. We had a water fight too- we splashed Mauricio and he “splashed” us back. They may call it “splashing” but I call it “spitting” and wasn’t very excited when the dolphin spit went in my mouth. However, a lot of sea water has been in my mouth over the years and I know there must be dolphin spit and much worse in there, so I’m sure I’ll be okay.
After the dolphin portion, we walked to another enclosure to visit the manatee. My sister described the manatee perfectly when she said, “It feels like a potato.” They really do! Manatees feel like hairy potatoes.
After our interaction portion, we got to go watch a sea lion show – again, something I hadn’t seen since my childhood trips to Sea World. Sea Lions are such neat creatures and I loved watching all of their tricks.
After the show we had time to enjoy the other amenities of Chunkanaab. My sister did the tequila tour and I went snorkeling. The snorkeling wasn’t as good as a mile down the road (I’ll post about that soon), but I still saw lots of fish.
I hope this wasn’t a once in a lifetime experience for me. Dolphins are beautiful, incredible creatures and I want to swim with them again. I had a great day interacting with various forms of sea life. Plus, I now have a few more things I don’t have to put on my bucket list. If I ever make one…
What’s on your Bucket List? What should be on mine?
