Dolphin Swim

I know that there are animal activists in the world that feel it is abusive to keep dolphins captive for entertainment.  But I have had pets all of my life; mostly dogs and cats.  I watched the dolphins interact with their trainers and there is a respect and love between them.  As the dolphins interacted with us, it looked like they enjoyed the attention and interaction.




Happy Dolphin

I had a dream the night before that while I was in the water with the dolphin that more than one dolphin swam up to me.  What actually happened was that while I was in the water a second dolphin swam up to me and only me.  It swam close enough for me to reach out and stroke her back.  There were seven dolphins in the area and only five were interacting with people.  The alpha male and a female were swimming off to the side.  She decided that he was bothering her and she'd rather be by me.



Petting a Dolphin

In my group were three young people from Chili.  They separated us by languages for everything except petting the dolphin.  That meant that I was alone and the other three were together.  That was fine with me as it made for better photos.  These animals were absolutely amazing, so lovingly playful!


Singing together

Dolphins are very vocal animals.  When we held our hands up, he came up in front of us and sang with us.  In the photos below when I was swimming with the dolphin, it looks like I'm not smiling.  But as he came up saltwater splashed into my eyes and there was no time to wipe it out.



Swimming with Dolphins



Swimming with a dolphin

We lined up in a row and the dolphin came up in front of us and presented his fins.  We carefully put our hands onto the fins and when we were holding on he began to swim.

Dolphin Kisses

When we put our hands around the top of our life vest, the dolphin came up and rested the end of his bottle-nose onto our cheeks.  It was a dolphin kiss.  Below, we clapped to keep beat as he danced a safe distance away from us so that his tail would not accidentally hit us. It was an amazing thing.  Dale was in a lot of pain that day, so he stayed on shore. Next time, he will need to join us in the water.



Dancing with the Dolphin