Dolphins!!!

We went swimming with dolphins today! Yay!!

I acted like I was about 7 years old when we were waiting for our "briefing." We were sitting on some wooden benches facing forward -- but behind us was the pool with the dolphins in it. They were jumping and practicing tricks and generally doing everything the trainers wanted in order to get some yummy fish. Right there. In the pool. Where we were going to be. Bouncy! Bouncy! Bouncy!

We were with Vallarta Adventures. Said company has a great big pool (filled with ocean water) and a bunch of dolphins that were pretty much born in captivity. Very friendly, socialized dolphins. (Dolphins who had grown quite accustomed to getting fish several times a day and not having to hunt for it. Dolphins who were more than happy to play with humans for a half hour.)

They run two dolphin programs. Actually, we took the cheaper one, which turned out to be the best. See, the more expensive program is "limited to groups of 10." The cheaper one, as it happened, had only four people signed up for it. So there were four of us and four dolphins. Seriously. We pretty much each had our own dolphin. (Well, until one of our dolphins decided she´d rather eat fish, so we were left with three.)

We pet dolphins. We kissed and hugged dolphins. We had a "belly swim" -- and there were so few of us, we each had TWO belly swims. And dancing with dolphins. And feeding dolphins. And massaging dolphins. And tickling them under their flippers, which they love, just like my cat does.

Then, of course, we purchased the photos of all of the aforementioned dolphin activities. The dolphin swim was actually quite reasonably priced -- which they make up for with the cost of the photos. I shit you not -- I paid MORE for dolphin photos than I did for actually doing the stuff that got photographed. (You will see all my nice, pretty dolphin pix as soon as I get back. My uploading options here are quite limited.)

YAY! Huge smile! Dolphins rock!