dolphins and turtles, cab fares, oh my!

(written regarding april 2nd, 2010)

busy last day!  we made plans to head out bright and early so that we could then hop on a small fishing boat for some dolphin sighting.  thankfully we were not let down!  we saw many dolphins, as well as two sea turtles, a manta ray jumping out of the water, and a number of dragonfly fish (that flew through the air for awhile before dipping back below the surface).

we were dropped off on the beach.  literally.  the cab in which we were driving meandered out onto what seemed to be a rather remote beach, dropped us off, and left.  it was a little weird, but given that there was a boat floating in the water on shore gave us some confidence that we may just have been dropped off where we were supposed to be (see picture below).

we were sort of waved on, and off we went!  it was a beautiful ride past some small islands out to sea.

it took us about 90 minutes before we encountered our first family of dolphins, but it was worth the wait.  seeing the dolphins out in the wild (as opposed to in a zoo) was glorious for me.  its just how i prefer it.  i hate zoos.  knowing the dolphins were in their own domain makes the experience so much more enjoyable and mysterious.  see the video below of some of the dolphin action we took in:



we were going to go snorkeling, but water clarity prevented us from doing so.  the waves were such that the water was too full of sand being whipped up from the bottom and so we didn't bother putting on the gear.  we did however swim for 20 minutes or so before heading to shore.

once to shore, the cab that dropped us off appeared out of nowhere in just the same way that we had originally arrived, and scooped us up right on time.  we then headed back to the hotel and hung out by the pool in the afternoon before getting dressed for another night out in "downtown" samara.  i put quotes around it, because "downtown" meant one long street where people hung out, vendors took the streets, and flocks of people meandered, whether grabbing food or taking a stroll on the adjacent beach at sundown to watch surfers grab their boards and ride the methodically generated waves that are ubiquitous here in samara.

we ended our last night with one of our best howler monkey sightings yet.  luckily we had enough sunlight to catch it on video too (see below).  this howler monkey just seemed pissed that everyone was watching him.  it was sort of entertaining watching him seemingly frustrated by the myriad of people gathering around.  he eventually wandered off when he was convinced he couldn't communicate with anyone standing there.





we decided upon street food for the night, trying out a number of different items from the vendors and even got to enjoy some salvadoran papusas which was an unexpected treat.

it was a very nice ending to an absolutely fantastic trip.