Sweet dolphin tour

February 1: 92 degrees

We're behind on the daily blogs, so Kasia is kindly letting me take a shot at our first full day in Puerto Jimenez.  

Golfo Dulce at high tide

This day came complete with one of the coolest experiences we've had on our trip, a dolphin tour of Golfo Dulce.   After a delay in our trip due to an unexpectedly low tide, eight tourists, a tour guide and a boat captain set out into the gulf.

Golfo Dulce means "sweet gulf", and it got this name because fresh water flows into it from numerous rivers.  The fresh water rises to the top of the salty sea water and it makes the water look like glass.  It's gorgeous!

Plus, we're on a boat! A small one.  And I'm able to sit on the front of it and dip my feet in the water as we speed away from shore.  After about 20 minutes, we've located the gigantic pod of spotted dolphins.  They are jumping and playing and swimming all around us.  It. Was. Awesome.  And because of my seat at the front of the boat, I had a prime view of the few dolphins who wanted to watch us, swimming right in front if the boat, just below my dangling feet.  If I saw it on tv, I would swear it was all done with a computer...it was so clear and detailed that it seemed fake.   

We have some awesome dolphin videos, but only this sad little pic. 

Also on the boat with us was a couple from Virginia and 4 guys from Czech Republic.  The guy from Virginia, Bob, was about 60 and we got to talking about our trip, our jobs (that we quit them to travel), and traveling in general.   He said to me, "Sounds to me like you have made a very wise decision" and he proceeds to tell me that he's done that about 5 times.  The dude has been everywhere! He traveled In the 1970s through Mexico and South America.  He's lived in Thailand.  In India. In Mexico.  Hell, he was in Costa Rica doing architectural work for a national park and they bring him to Costa Rica a few times a year.  He was such an interesting guy.

Our tour guide, Josh, was from Seattle and had been doing tours in Puerto Jimenez for about 10 years.   He told us there was a band playing at a bar just outside of town that night, so we went.  We were early to the show, and we couldn't tell if the bar was open, if food was available, or whether we wanted to be there.   But since we'd taken a taxi to get there, we decided to give it a try.   And they did indeed have beer, which helped.  We sat at the bar and listened to music and met some other folks who were mostly from the USA and fans of the band.  One guy told us we must go see Cabo Matapaolo, and invited us to his house for a beer if we made it down there.

After a few beers and a couple of skewers of grilled meat on a stick, we headed out.  We walked instead of taking a taxi.  It was a pleasant walk, but about halfway back a drunk Tico teenager decided he could probably get some love and kisses from any girl who walked by.  He was harmless, but tried hard. His friend, who was on a bike, was not drunk and kept the situation cooly under control.  It wasn't unsafe or scary, but the drunken bravado of a 17-year-old boy is the same in many cultures.

Surprise! Some boats got caught in the unexpectedly low tide.   No fishing for you today.