Thursday 14 August 2008

Swimming with Dolphins - Mediterraneo Marine Park, Malta - 14th August 2008

Place: Mediterraneo Malta
Date: 14th August 2008
Species: Bottlenose Dolphin
Main Cetacean Name: Lucas
Other Cetacean Name: Estella
Trainer:
Time in pool: 30 minutes?

Eee, GolfiƱos swimming!
Me and mom had to wake up kinda early, and were then driven on a crazy death ride to Mediterraneo.
Anyways so we got there and I was scheduled for the 10am session. At 10am we had to be at the meeting point, to watch the presentation talk.
Once that was one, the 12 of us were given wet suit jackets and had to take showers.
Everyone was taken over to the dolphin lagoon, where we were split into 2 groups of 6. There was a french/italian group and I was in the younger group.
We got into the pool, and the first dolphin we had I think was named Estella? We were allowed to pet her. Then the make dolphin, Lucas, came over and we ended up having him =]. We were allowed to kiss him. He camr to me first, and I kissed him on the beak and went 'Mwah!' lmao. We were allowed to pet him, and did waving tricks.
Everyone then took turns to have an individual photo and give Lucas a command. My command was to make Lucas wave his tail. I think I kinda did it wrong, because the trainer made me do it with her lol.
We also lifted Lucas up, which I was waey about because I was beacause I was near his back end, and i think i may have touched his genitalia =S. We then had to swim out to a platform where we all leaned against, and Lucas came around to rest his head on our shoulder, and kiss him for a photo. Apparently I didn't kiss him long enough, so I got to kiss him at least another 2 times =].
I can't remember the entire order of the swim, but I think next was when both groups were given masks and we were allowed to swim out into the pool, and the dolphins swam around us. Because everyone had their heads in the water, watching the dolphins, there was a bit of bumping into each other lol. I even tried diving down to see them better. I was able to hear their clicks =]. That was quite a nice experience.
We then re-grouped and out group went to the other side of the pool. We had Estella. I noticed she had a longer beak than Lucas. Our group had to swim out into the middle of the pool, and make a circle with spaces for Estella to swim in between and past us. She swam past me, and I touched her =].
But during this task, we were given back Lucas. We then swam back, and were sent out in two's to spin around with our right arm in the air, so that Lucas would raise up and spin around too =]. Me and the little girl got to do that twice for some reason.
When we swam back we got to give Lucas a fish. Then I think that was about it, and the last thing was to make him wave.

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