Dolphin Cove!

I forgot to mention, to top off the day yesterday, we had a great supper, too! One of the restaurant guide books we had picked up recommended places the locals eat, so we found this small shack called "Seymour's Jerk Centre", supposedly some of the best jerk chicken and jerk pork in town! It was really delicious. They had a few outdoor picnic tables, so we tried to sit there and eat, but unfortunately, Alex was being eaten up by mosquitos, so we wound up just taking it home and eating in.

So, this morning, we walked along our beach for a while, just messing in the rocks and water. Just less than a mile up the beach is a famous beach called cemetery beach (it's adjacent to a cemetery), where there is good snorkeling and diving, so we came back with all the snorkel gear and hung out for a while in the water and in the shade of the cool trees. Ben and Daryl saw squid, and barracuda, and we all saw lots of sergeant majors and more.

brain coral is washed up everywhere

the cemetery

sea grape trees

Ben floating!

Ben had a great time snorkeling today!

In the afternoon we had booked reservations for the "Ultimate Swim Program" at Dolphin Cove, swimming with the dolphins! Everything revolves around the  cruise ships here, so whenever the cruise ship crowds are not around, business is slow. Our condo owner offered us a 2 for 1 deal if we went in the afternoon. Sure enough when we got there, a huge crowd of cruise passengers were just finishing up in the gift shop and leaving ... we were so glad we were not there at the  same time. We got so much more personal attention during our tour!

First, a guy took us to a low open tank in which he had starfish, jellyfish, lobster, conch, anemones, jellyfish, urchins, and more. He gave us a very informative lecture, lesson about each of the creatures, and then he let us hold them! He even let Daryl hold the lobster when he asked, which he does not usually let people do!

Next, a tour guide took us to the open air bird aviary. There were parrots, macaw, peach-faced lovebirds, and cockatoo. We got to interact with and hold several of them, very cool!

Ben feeding a lovebird!

Alex feeding lovebirds from his hands!

a cockatoo

 

 Then we were given lifejackets and instructions on how to interact with the dolphins! It was a small group, just us and 3 other couples! It takes place in a salt water lagoon, and we each in turn got to touch, be kissed and kiss the dolphins, then we got to take 2 different "rides", one being pushed by the feet by 2 dolphins (like superman!), and the other being pulled by holding on to the dorsal fins of 2 dolphins! Sadly, they did not allow our own photography :-( They have a professional photographer and try to sell you expensive photos at the end. Well, we still have the awesome memories and after the experience I took these few shots of the dolphins just roaming around the lagoon!

Our 2 dolphins were Lucy and Sally!

This was the lagoon we swam in with the dolphins!

It was most definitely the experience of a lifetime!! Really amazing to be so up close and personal with those beautiful animals!
Then, on our way back, we stopped in the town called Hell. It is famous for buying a postcard saying "I've been to Hell and back", and sending it to someone with the postmark of "Hell", so we sent one to ourselves as a souvenir!

I'm glad they had this message painted on 2 sides of the building! Much better!

 

Overall another wonderful day!