Thursday, March 27, 2008

Open ocean swim with dolphins...

The alternate title for this blog is "Leslie, this one's for you!" It's guest blog time here at Marks Musings...Julie is here to let you know about an absolutely incredible experience I had today down here in Lucaya. It was an open water swim with dolphins through UNEXSO (Underwater Explorer Society). We went from Port Lucaya a short distance to the "dolphin lagoon" where we picked up a trainer and two dolphins and headed back out the channel to about 1/4 mile offshore. Once there, our group (there were six of us, me and a family of five from the Chicago area...two parents and three daughters ranging in age from 11-17). We hopped in the water and for about 10 minutes swam with the dolphins, just playing around. One dolphin stayed with me the entire time we were just playing. I would dive underwater, the dolphin stayed right by my side and we would come up together. Both of my contacts floated out of my eyes because I wanted to watch the dolphin by my side!
The first picture is the dolphins and I just swimming around. Then the trainer taught us how to ask the dolphins to do little tricks (waving at us, spinning, splashing, and "talking"). After that we got a hug from the dolphins (picture 3) and a kiss (I spared you the sight of me puckering up to the dolphin!). We were in the water for about 30 minutes with the dolphins. The last two pictures are of the dolphins leaping out of the water and getting their fish. What an experience! The most amazing part was just swimming with the dolphins and playing around with them.
The trainer told us that last week a group of wild dolphins joined the two trained dolphins and the swimmers for some fun. The wild dolphins even let the swimmers stroke them! The whole experience this morning was just delightful. Leslie, I told the dolphins you didn't believe in them. They laughed...






1 comment:

Leslie said...

OK...just so we are clear...it is not that I don't believe in dolphins. I have seen them in my lifetime. It used to be frequently. It has only been the last 10 years or so that they seem to be avoiding me. I think it is that THEY don't believe in ME, not the other way around. Or, I have cosmically offended them somehow and they avoid me now. Really, what does it say about my karma that I might have offended dolphins? Nothing good, I am sure.

And, now that you have told them I don't believe I need to come up with some serious damage control. Maybe I need to fly down to the bahamas to go swimming with them too and see what I can do to bring out relationship back to the proper place.