Today i was a dolphin.

Today was incredible. and when i say incredible i mean absolutely mindblowingly awesomely amazing.

i set sail on our little hu'ul kiin early in the morning to do some coral monitoring, did a successful transect (during which a spotted moray bit my monitoring pole). i thought i was going crazy because i kept hearing dolpin noises all around me, but i looked up and there weren't any dolphins. I figured it was wishful thinking because yesterday i got to snorkel with about 25 dolphins. it was pretty awesome.
but when we surfaced, captain Gen told us that we weren't hearing things, that they had been playing with dolpins on the surface the entire dive and they were still there! so we hopped on, drove a little south and flung ourselves off into the most incredible experience of my entire life.

i hopped in and immediatley saw three dolphins, so i swam over and they were just playing with us! Tristan dove down and i watched him spiral up with dolphins swirling all around him. they swam between us and with us and it was sooo cool. at one point i was swiming and there were about 5 dolphins within 3 feet of me, swimming with me and brushing against me! i felt like i had been accepted into thier pod! they were so curious and interested in us, they kept swimming up and looking at us and swimming alongside us. we petted them and they not only let us but were basically asking us to continue! i had a full 2 minutes of fun with one dolphin who decided i was a good friend. he kept swimming around me in circles, staying about a foot away and i would place a hand on him and when i took it away he would whistle and bob and so i pet him again and swam alongside him and it was just incredible. we dove down and swam like dolphins and watched as they jumped several feet into the air!!
we spent 45 minutes playing with them. and for most of the time i was within 4 feet of a dolphin, if not much closer. there were probably 15 in all, both bottlenose and atlantic spotted.

the most awesome thing ever.

then i spent this afternoon paper macheing turtle fins for the carnival in Mahahual this weekend. so we will be in town friday and saturday evenings doing a parade and participating in the festival. should be a blast. i will definitely ppost pictures.

until then, adios.
i have a pretty spectacular life. i won't be returning to michigan any time soon.