Pink Dolphins, Trees and “The Quicker Picker-Upper”

 February 17, 2012:  I stood at a bus stop at 6am this morning so that I could make the 1 hour journey it was going to take to join 3 grown kids wanting to climb trees and swim with pink dolphins.  Just because I was writing it up for an internet travel site, didn’t mean I too didn’t want to do it.

I learned when living in Washington State that when you are at a bus stop, you must raise your hand in order to get the attention of the bus driver for them to stop.  This morning, this basic rule was ignored so I reverted to running in the middle of the street trying to get him to stop.  He looked right into my eyes even…and kept going.  I have never heard of bus rage but I think I got a little case of it this morning.  If I had a bazooka I might have just used it on the bus…the innocent would have just been collateral damage.

While on a bus that decided to pick me up, we passed someone freshly hit by a car.  A pool of blood was leaving his oval capsule forming a river, pooling about 3 feet away.  Someone placed a newspaper in the pool of blood so that it didn’t look as awful, as he was motionless with his eyes closed as he laid in front of a car.  Where is Bounty, “the quicker picker-upper” when you need it, I so inappropriately thought.  After seeing this, I had no concerns on being late…there are more important things in life than climbing trees or swimming with dolphins.

I was told a few days ago that feeding pink dolphins has become illegal due to it not being good for them interacting with humans.  But, I must admit that feeding these mutated looking dolphins can be so much fun!  Well, I didn’t actually feed them…someone else did and I just watched – next to him.  I was told backpacker lost her finger doing this sort of trip from the woman at my hostel.  This is why it was important for me when they got a little aggressive going for the food to have one hand in front of my personal “goods” just in case it wanted a miniature toothless sardine to snack on.

The tree climbing today was a nice different, yet more expensive way to climb a tree.  After climbing to a branch about 70 feet (just a guess) above the forest floor I stood on it and enjoyed the first time I “safely” climbed a tree.  I must say that when I was little…tree climbing was never so complicated with all of the ropes and metal pieces connected to my body. 

When I was getting organized on the branch, preparing for my decent…I noticed that the man who descended before me had some complications once on the ground.  Then it happened…to help pull him up he used my rope almost pulling me off the branch.  Fortunately I was locked in, though nothing would have happened except for me getting pulled off and causing me to hang there.  This made me think that if this company was not so completely entrenched into the safety of their customers, there could one day a need for Bounty, “the quicker picker-upper.”

The sounds and actions of a madman

January 9, 2012:  I am now in Pipa - amazing Pipa. I traveled to this town because I read that the dolphins swim near the coast here during low tide making it possible to swim with these grey wonders.  I was so excited when I arrived at my hostel last evening, knowing that today I was going to possibly swim with some wild dolphins.  At night, I even dreamt of not just touching a dolphin, but holding one in my arms like a baby, petting its belly as I stood in the water - what a dream that was.

After a 15 minute walk along the beach, I turned the corner after a rocky cliff to the area that they are commonly seen and I saw…nothing.  I was ready to spend as many days it was necessary to swim with the dolphins.  Seeing a fin rise and fall I dropped my gear, as I ran into the cold water hoping that the dolphin was going to swim near me.  

The dolphins sometimes would catch a wave darting forward as it would attempt to catch a fish or just ride the tube to just show off a bit I suppose.  After missing every photo when the dolphin would raise its head, I eventually just put my camera away giving up on my futile attempts for a Kodak moment. 

Being so close to the dolphins was great but I wanted them closer to me.  I remembered when swimming with dolphins in New Zealand many years ago, the company I was with told us that dolphins are curious animals and if we made these funny noises in the water you might be able to draw their attention to you.  So there I was, making these noises in the water and splashing around as the other 16 people near me stood silent, looking in my direction and probably thinking I was a madman.