I’ve always
wanted to swim with dolphins and thought the word “encounter” meant I’d be
swimming with dolphins…plural. Well, that wasn’t the case, but it was a
wonderful experience nonetheless.
The ship disgorged its inhabitants
after having all those going ashore show photo ID and the ship keycard. The
folks going to Ocean World at Puerta Plata gathered in a group and were escorted
onto a bus. The bus then took us outside the city to Ocean World. If you look
up Ocean World, it states day activities which include, water slides, sea
lions, sharks and the main attraction—swimming with dolphins…that must be where
I got my original idea.
The tour guide, Robin, gave us lots of
information during the bus ride which included the fact you could rent an apartment
just outside the park for $300 a month. He also said not to come in November…too
rainy or August…too hot. Maybe a month in the Dominican Republic would work
just as well as a month in Costa Rica to get away from Seattle rain. I’ll have
to check into that.
Off the bus, we were led out into the
park to a series of docks and eventually to a square dock that enclosed water.
The trainer (whose name I never did learn) introduced us to Luna, a seven-year-old
dolphin that had been born at the park. He provided instructions on the dos and
don’ts with regard to the Luna encounter. The main don’t seemed to be, “…don’t
touch her peepee.” This was repeated over and over. I don’t know if it was for
the humor or if it was a real fact. At one point I did ask him what would
happen if I touched her peepee and he said, “You would make her very happy.”
Later on, I tried to talk to him away from the encounter space and came to the
conclusion he had just enough English to do his spiel.
He divided us into two groups and the
other group went first. My group watched from the other side as Luna was
instructed to perform. She was rewarded each time on completion with a small
fish. All those small fishes apparently add up to about 300 pounds at the end
of the day.
Then it was my group’s turn. We got
down in the water on a ledge and Luna swam back and forth in front of us, back
up, belly up…”Don’t touch her peepee.”…. Then, Luna kissed each of us on the
cheek. She followed this by putting her head on our shoulders and allowing us
to hug her. Luna then raised herself out of the water in front of each one of
us so the photographer could get a photo. Finally, Luna’s trainer had her float
in front of me with her tail in my face. I held her tail and apparently my
excitement got the best of me because suddenly I was floating and my toes were
sticking out of the water on either side of Luna. The trainer wanted to know what
I was doing and I was quick to reassure him that, “I didn’t touch her peepee.”
Finally, we were each given a fish to
feed Luna…surprised to find out it was frozen…and then she swam back and forth
again so we could touch her as she passed. The trainer also had Luna float on her back so he could show us her peepee and the mammary glands that are on either side. That seemed a bit strange. And, that was the my swim with a dolphin.
I was surprised to find that Luna did
not feel wet even though she was in the water. She didn’t feel cold or warm.
She felt firm and kind of silky. I don’t think I’ve ever touched anything else
that would approximate how Luna felt. I was also left feeling a bit sad about
the experience. Yes, I retired from a zoo. Yes, I’ve had encounters with
grizzlies, elephants, gorillas, penguins, hippos, giraffe, zebra, orangutans
and other zoo inhabitants, but I’ve also always felt a bit sad about all these
animals being in captivity. Not that I would have forgone a single one of those
experiences you understand.
Following
the encounter, I was fortunate enough to speak with the Director of the Animal
Collection. He was out welcoming guests and helping his staff. We had a nice
chat although he’d never heard of Woodland Park Zoo, he did say they had an
employee who came from San Diego. He also said that in 2018, Ocean World passed
a rigorous third-party audit to become the first institution in the Caribbean to
earn the prestigious Humane Certified Seal of Approval. The American Humane
Conservation program is the first-ever certification program solely devoted to
helping verify the humane treatment of animals living in zoos, aquariums, and
conservation centers across the globe. (I stole the actual verbiage off the internet.)
This gentleman also said the majority of the dolphins at Ocean World had been
born there. This information helped with my sad feelings.
Then,
I had a Dominican Republic style buffet lunch followed by the Shark show
(boring) and the bird show (amazing) and wandered around the park. Very nice
attendants took photos of me with the parrot, toucan and love birds (parakeets).
Rather than intersperse additional photos in the text, I decided to post these at
the end. Here you go. Enjoy...I certainly did in case you couldn't tell.
