Swimming with the Dolphins

"They're over there!"

Josh pointed astern at a white-hulled boat about a mile away. "We just got a call from that boat over there," he said, his voice betraying his obvious excitement. "They said the dolphins are all around them!"

Josh was our captain for the day, a transplanted Washingtonian who'd married a Costa Rican woman, had a son and built his own house on the edge of the rainforest just a few miles out of Puerto Jimenez. He'd traded in his software engineering hat for one that was equally farmer, boat captain and tour guide.

"What kind of dolphins are they?" someone asked.

Josh smiled knowingly. "These will be the Spotted Dolphins. There is a pod of about 300 of them that lives in the Golfo Dulce. There are no predators for them, so the pod just gets bigger and bigger."

Tino, our boat helm, turned the rudder toward the other boat and gunned the motor. The hull lurched out of the water and sped toward the dolphin pod, spraying water from both sides and creating a large wake behind it.

Jacob and Hannah were in the air chairs, two belted seats at the front of the boat that hung out over the water. Buckling yourself into the seat and leaning into the oncoming breeze gave you a definite sense of flying across the water. There was nothing between you and the gulf but a couple feet of speeding air.

Everyone on our boat saw the dolphins when we were still several hundred feet away from the other. They were jumping and swimming all around it, frolicking playfully with each other and showing off for the eco-tourists who had paid their way into the observation seats.

"You should all go to the front of the boat," cried Josh. "They'll swim right in front of us and all around us!"

None of us had ever seen anything like what we saw next. What seemed like hundreds of Spotted Dolphins had converged on our vessel and were jumping and swimming on every side. Taking turns, they swam, some with babies no longer than Hannah is tall, directly in front of our speeding boat. Others would jump out of the water and then disappear beneath the glistening gulf.

"They always jump twice," said Josh. "They like to be on camera, so they give you a warning and then they jump again."

Scanning the water I saw one jump only about 20 feet from the boat. Focusing my camera on the general area, I quickly snapped a picture when he flew through the air again.

After watching the dolphins play for nearly 20 minutes, Josh said it was time to go. "We have an appointment with the preserve for 9 o'clock," he said, "so we've got to get going."

After spending a couple of hours at the preserve (which is another story all its own), we got back onto the boat with Josh and Tino. "This is going to be the most fun you will have on this tour," he said. "Does anyone want to swim with the dolphins?"

Looking around I saw that everyone in the boat had raised his hand. I raised mine, too.

"Tino and I invented this sport a couple of years ago," Josh continued. "It's called wake-boarding and it's really, really fun."

Wake-boarding consists of a long rope attached to the boat on one end, and on the other, a large piece of wood with two hand-holds sawed into it. There was one rope and board combination on each back corner of the boat. Two "swimmers" jumped into the water at a time and held onto the boards. Once secured, the "swimmers" are towed behind the boat at about 1300 rpms. If the "swimmer" points the front of the board into the water he will dive down as far as 15 feet.
Bryan and Heather went first and then it was my turn. Jacob and I both jumped into the water, I grabbed one rope and he grabbed the other. Once we had a good grip on the boards and had assured that our masks were good and tight, Tino gave her some gas and we started speeding through the water.

I wanted to go down immediately, so, pointing the front of the board into the water, I took a deep breath and dived until my ears started to hurt. The first thing I noticed was that it was eerily quiet and peaceful beneath the surface. I felt like I was flying through the water, but I saw no dolphins on my first dive.

Angling the front of the board toward the surface, I felt like one of the dolphins for which I was searching. I crested the top of the water and came out up to my waist.

I looked over at Jacob and laughed. He was doing great and had even dived down a time or two in the time it took me to go down once.

I had readjusted and tightened my swim trunks before jumping in the water, but they were still starting to sag dangerously. I let go of the board with my left hand and tugged at them gingerly. They were all right. It just felt like they were falling down. Just in case, however, I bent my knees so in case they did come off I wouldn't lose them in the 800 feet of water below me.

Another gulp of air and a big smile later, I was again diving down into the big, deep dark. There still were no dolphins around me that I could see, although when I came up Josh was pointing all around me. Another gulp and down I went.

I probably dived down about ten times, all with no results. Every time I came up I saw Jacob coming up, too, a big smile on his face. I learned later that he never saw any dolphins. He just thought it was fun to swim almost effortlessly.

One last time I dived into the darkness, when, almost immediately after going beneath the surface, I heard the high-pitched voice of a Bottlenose dolphin. Scanning beneath me, I finally saw it off to my right side. Marveling at the ease with which it glided through the water, I held my breath until it swam in another direction.

My turn was over, but as they pulled the rope toward the boat, I kept my mask in the water, just in case. I'm glad I did. I saw the most poisonous snake in the world only about 30 feet below me, wiggling and snaking its way toward the inky blackness. It was a yellow sea snake, and found that I was happy it was that far away.

I also saw a moray eel just before I got back into the boat. It, too, was about 30 feet below me, wending its way into the deep.

Kelly and Hannah both took their turns and then it was back to port. Shaking Josh's hand while disembarking from his boat, I said, "This has been the best, Josh. Thank you."

He smiled and shook his head. "Yup. It is the best, isn't it? That's why I came down here and never left. I love it."