[they jump. we grin.]
When we landed in Mexico, a woman on the plane told us about swimming with dolphins and I was instantly obsessed. Granted, it also made me think of
this New Yorker cartoon, wherein two dolphins are swimming around and one says to the other, "If I could do only one thing before I died, it would be to swim with a middle-aged couple from Connecticut." I find that endlessly amusing, and thus felt a little silly about wanting to have a swim, but, seriously, look at them. And look at those enormous smiles on our faces. We'll be the couple from New England any day if we get to hang out with these guys.
[we pet a dolphin belly. i think this one's name was habana, since she was cuban. (they spelled it with a b, yes.]
This was one of those things that was exactly as cool and exhilirating as I dreamed it would be. Okay, it was probably cooler. I have to say that at first I was frightened. We weren't in the open ocean, we were in a salt water pool, but I couldn't see all the way down and there were these mysterious creatures swimming around, and I worried that maybe they wouldn't be as nice/smart as we're told they are. We got paired with this baby dolphin named Gallo (rooster) first, and we loved him, but he was very very interested in a girl baby dolphin on the other side of the tank, so basically he kept ditching us, and when he wasn't with the girl baby dolphin, he was circling us and circling us, so much so that I was getting a bit dizzy. So we got new dolphins. And I relaxed and realized they weren't going to eat us. And then we played.
[I was suprised by how much we actually got to play. They let us ride across the pool, holding their flippers tight. I was giggling and giggling.]
[Here's Sam's turn. Was he giggling? He was doing the Sam-equivalent of the giggling.]
[can you see that look on my face? that's about as happy as i get. there's a dolphin pushing each of my feet across the pool. if i would have kept my legs straighter, i could have been even more out of the water. dang, that was a cool feeling.]
[sam looks like he's surfing. he is also being pushed by two dolphin noses.]
[then sam got a kiss.]
[sam calls this one "signing the peace treaty"]
[here i get a kiss.]
[and here i give one.]
[and here she gets a fish for the kiss.]
[one last shot of the four of us. thanks to sam's parents for sponsoring our swim. we had ever so much fun.]
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