Day 2

Hola mis amigos! Buenos noches. Day two has been great! This morning we woke up and headed down for breakfast. The variety of food was almost overwhelming and it tasted great too. One thing I found particularly interesting was the variety of fruit juices. So far the pineapple mixture that Eric referenced above is still my favorite, but we sampled some unique blends. We tried a coconut juice with milk (it reminded us of bananas actually), orange juice mixed with melon (cantaloupe maybe?), watermelon, orange juice mixed with celery (perhaps the strangest), and at least one other without a name, only a picture (it looked like grape juice by tasted like nondescript watered-down juice). They make the best fruity drinks here. In the pools they have swim-up bars that offer drinks of all kinds – even slushy drinks for kids. My favorite so far is the San Francisco, a sin alcohol cocktail (without alcohol). It is a blend of pineapple, orange, cranberry, papaya and grenadine. After breakfast (in between all that juice sampling we ate, I promise) we decided to walk around a bit and explore, take photos and then head down to the beach. While exploring we saw two huge iguanas on the grounds! They were neat to see so close and I was quick to snap a few pictures. Next we checked out our towels (you have to turn in a card to check out your towel and then you must return a towel or card or get charged $30 USD – yikes!) and found a place on the beach. The beach here is gorgeous. After being there for a few minutes we had to come back to our room for a quick shoe change. The beaches here have rocks, so before wave jumping we changed into our sandals. While rougher beaches with rocks scattered around can prove to be a bit dangerous with crashing waves, it adds a great deal of beauty and character. We jumped in the waves for about 20 minutes and escaped with a minor scratch on my leg and a small but deep cut on Eric’s finger. We rinsed off and hit one of the many pools for the first time. The water was refreshing and the pools weren’t crowded at all. Eric and I were talking today about the level of occupancy. Our guess would be that the hotel is operating at 50-55%, so we haven’t encountered crowds or lines for anything really. 

Next we came back to our room and showered, put on fresh clothes (and new swim wear) and headed down for lunch. We did the buffet again (the other restaurants are only available for dinner). I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t have the spread of fruit they had for breakfast (you name it they had it – starfruit, papaya, grapefruit, apples – both green and red, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, etc.), but they had a great salad bar, a grill for steak, fish or chicken, plenty of bread and sides. When we left for lunch we headed over to put in our reservation for dinner tonight. Unfortunately the restaurants we either full or closed when we spoke with the lady for reservations. We didn’t have too much time to be disappointed as we had to hit the road for our dolphin adventure. 

Eric did a fantastic job finding a great deal for swimming with dolphins. We went through Dolphin Discovery and they ran a special on their website for half-off a certain number of tickets. At first I was a bit hesitant about the experience when I read a few negative reviews about the place nickel and diming tourists at every turn and one person was bit by a sea lion on a different tour (they’ve since stopped offering sea lions encounters). I was also concerned about the way the dolphins were treated. I was really impressed with our experience today though. We walked the half-mile over to Dolphin Discovery’s center. It was a bit hard to find from the street, but we happened upon it and a staff member pointed us in the right direction. We checked in, were shown to our lockers where we deposited our belongings, put on our life-jackets and then waited. We waited almost long enough to get fussy, but were able to watch some of the trainers swim with the dolphins in the meantime to pass the time. Then Marlon introduced himself and sorted us all out by the experience we had chosen. The bracelets assigned at check-in were marked with stars, stripes or squares which correlated to each experience. We signed up for the Royal Swim, which is the longest and most in depth of the experiences they offer. We were taken to a small center where we watched a video about the positions and gestures we would need to make for the tricks and rides. It also covered general information about the dolphins. During our walk into the center the guide told us that the two babies (calves) with their Moms in one area were 5 days and 2 weeks and 3 days old. We were also told that they had 35 dolphins total. The calves were adorable and never left their Mom’s sides. 

Our trainer (I’m not sure of his name) went over the positions with us one more time before asking us to join him in the water. The short staircase led to a platform where you could comfortably stand while experiencing most of the tricks. Eric and I were at the end which meant we were the first to swim out for the rides. We did two rides each – a dorsal ride and a toe-push. For the dorsal ride you float (you have your life jacket on) with your arms out to your side (like a capital “T”). The dolphins come from behind and slide under your hands and you gently, but firmly grab ahold of their dorsal fin. Then they pull you across the pool area. The toe-push requires that you float on your stomach with your legs spread shoulders width apart and locked out, making sure your toes are pointed down. The dolphins come up behind you and nose around until they plant their nose firmly into the center of your foot. You have to be careful not to bend your knees or move your legs or feet. They’ll push you across the pool, causing the top half of your body to rise up out of the water, so you look like you are gliding across the water in a standing position. Eric did the toe-push first and I did the dorsal ride and then later we switched. The entire time they are video-taping and taking photos. My first thought was that the force of the dolphins pushing me had caused my bathing suit bottoms to come down to a point where I was going to be exposed on film. I didn’t dare put my hands down because they told us not to, but I was really worried. After the next girl went (there was one other couple from Wisconsin and then four family members from Colorado) she said the same thing. The last girl that went actually grabbed herself and then bailed off the dolphin’s noses because she said hers came way down. Afterwards they have you watch the video and we were all making jokes and laughing about what it might show. Fortunately for all of us it didn’t expose anything at all. In fact my toe-push turned out to be one of the best. I credit the success to my experiences with cheerleading (locking out my legs and staying stiff)… and maybe just following directions. In addition to the rides we did the dolphin kiss (where you kiss the dolphin and guide his mouth to your cheek, so that it looks like he is kissing you); the smile pose (where the dolphin lays in one arm and then you place your other hand on his belly and you both “smile” for the camera; the hug (where the dolphin swims across both of your arms, to lay for a minute sideways for your “hug”; and then the free time. For our free time they had us swim out in a line and we did gestures or signs to the dolphin for what we wanted them to do. For instance, we floated on our backs and kicked our legs and they splashed us with their tail fins. When we held our hands up in the air and wiggled our fingers they made noises through their blow-hole. Then at the end they gave each of us a fish to throw to our dolphin. It was a really neat experience. The dolphins seemed happy and well cared for. The trainers and staff were all very helpful and courteous. After coming out of the water we went back to watch our video. It was dramatic; with slow-motion dolphin jumps and the opening read “Starring” and had each of our names. They charge $50 USD for each DVD and it wasn’t that well-made. We went back and looked at our photos and while they all turned out good we chose one each (they were $15 USD apiece). We had taken a disposable waterproof camera with us but were told early on that we couldn’t take photos. Afterward I used the camera to take a few pictures of the dolphins swimming in the area before we headed back to our hotel. 

When we came back we swam for about 45 minutes and just relaxed. Then we returned to our room to rinse off again since we smelled like fish and stinky water. We decided to dress up a bit for dinner (well as dressed up as you really get for vacation). Before dinner we decided to walk along the beach for a bit. We discovered a beautiful area just north of our hotel area. There is was a protected lagoon area for kayaking and a small rocky island with rock steps jutting out from the beach. I really wanted to get out to the island, but there was a gap where one or two steps would have been to reach the island. We decided instead of returning for our sandals tonight that we would wake up and try to experience the sunrise from the island tomorrow morning. It is such a beautiful area!

After leaving the beach we walked around the grounds again (there is so much to explore!). We found a few of the restaurants, the suites, the tennis courts (on top of the resort), and the theater. During our exploration we found several more beautiful flowering plants/bushes and a couple of speedy lizards. After our walking (it was after 8:00pm) we had worked up quite an appetite. Time to return to the trusty buffet! We tried several new things again and had dessert for the first time (we’ve always been too full before). During dinner we noticed out away from the hotel that in the same area we had walked before that was a lit up path with a tent. We thought there might be a wedding and decided to walk out and investigate from an appropriate distance. Turns out it was a romantic dinner. We proceeded to walk along the beach with the tide a bit higher. We stood in the waves for a while and enjoyed the sound of the waves and the moon reflecting off the water. It is sad that we will be leaving here tomorrow… but I know we’ll stay at some other beautiful places. 

Once we returned to our room we discovered that we couldn’t get in. For some reason our key wasn’t working, which meant a trek back to the front desk to retrieve a new key or figure out the situation. The clerk ran our key again and we successfully gained entrance to our room this time. 

Now we are off to bed so we can wake up early for that sunrise. We’ll let you know next time how it all turned out! Love you all! Buenos noches!