It was always on my life list to swim with dolphins. I really wasn’t sure why, I just knew that I wanted to check the experience out. While in Playa del Carmen Mexico the opportunity arose to spend an hour in a pool with dolphins. I was not disappointed.
Swimming with dolphins was on my life list. I had visions of being boated out into the middle of the ocean, where a posse of friendly dolphins were hanging out, waiting for people to jump overboard to hang out with. This couldn’t be further from the truth. We had our swimming with dolphin experience at Delphinius, a highly organized and controlled environment. The dolphins at Delphinius are trained to the point they act like a more intelligent version of a dog. Anything “wild” that occurred was merely a well-orchestrated trained maneuver. This did not diminish the experience, but it was worth noting that we were in a dolphin zoo of some kind.
My first interaction occurred with 2 dolphins. I laid out in the pool while they swam up under my feet and propped me up in the air. I was then pushed along the water’s surface across the length of the pool. Their noses felt like the ends of a hockey sticks with a lot of tape on them that was then smoothed down, if that makes any sense. Near the end of the pool the dolphins simply dove down and I belly-flopped into the water. Each person in our group of four received the dolphin push across the water, and then we moved to a different part of the pool for the rest of our activities.
The four of us spread out in the water and our dolphin kept roaming around between us. Female dolphins appear to share a characteristic with their fellow female humans – they like a LOT of attention. The dolphin would continually swim around us so we could pet it. The skin of the dolphin felt like an inner tube. The flexibility and control the dolphin had over its body was impressive. She would pass by all of us, contort her body and suddenly be headed right back towards us on her back so she could get a belly rub…like most dogs would prefer. The dolphin was also very talkative. Their voices will not win any awards however, the dolphin voice is a shrill muted scream. It sounds like a cross between a seagull getting a rock thrown at it with the cadence and irritating factor of squeaky bed rails thrown in for good measure. The dolphin liked to chatter in this sound, and then splash us repeatedly, she was having a lot of fun at our expense.
There were a few other tricks with multiple dolphins jumping over us. The dolphins were smart enough to not only jump out and over us by fifteen to twenty feet, but they all held different poses for the camera at the height of their jump. I can’t imagine how the trainers figured out to teach them to arch their backs differently based on their position in the jump.
If you like affectionate dogs and the ocean water, you will love swimming with dolphins. The playful nature and great sense of humor that our dolphin had made it a memorable experience.
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