Mexico was new territory. I have been to many countries in my limited lifetime (my family jokingly says we have visited the airports of a lot of countries, but never been "in" the the actual country). Okay, I get that it is a tourist island and is only a romanticized version of the real thing. But for the first time, it was definitely a taste; a little piece of the whole picture.
I take first impressions seriously (not too seriously, I hope), and in that respect Cozumel did not disappoint. The water was what I first noticed. We arrived in the morning, but we were so busy grabbing all of our necessities that I never took time to really look at it. It was the clearest, cleanest, bluest, most water-like looking water I have ever seen. If only our bottled water looked like that!
Even though a cruise ship had just unleashed on the little island, it was not too crowded (after we made it out of a little tunnel they herded us all through). Because of the number of people, I didn't take many pictures of our first surroundings, but once we had found our guide who would help us to find the dolphin training center, I managed to grab a couple of shots.
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| Caitlin |
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| Christianna |
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| Evelyn |
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| Me, Christianna, Caitlin, and Dad in the background |
After a short hop in a car, we reached the Dolphin Discovery. It took my breath away. The place was beautiful. There was a large section of the ocean that was fenced off underwater with some of the wire above as well. At first I didn't know what it was, but then I realized that this was the dolphins' home. There were board walks with little thatched huts on the far corners, and the sun beat down mercilessly on us all.
After a quick explanation and speech from our guide, we all lined up, put our life jackets on, and began to walk down the practically sizzling wood planks (thank God for flip-flops). I don't think anyone in our family had seen a live dolphin before (besides Dad at a marine park when he was young). It was definitely a sight to see when we first watched Diego swim up to us and jump out of the water. He was younger than most of the other dolphins, smaller and slicker.
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| Mom :) |
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| Christianna |
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| Aidan |
Diego would come up behind us while we held onto a boogie board and would push us along with his nose? mouth? pressed on the sole of our foot (I'm sure there is a technical word for a dolphin's mouth).
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| Franklin |
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| You can see your pretty nail, Caitlin! |
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| Evelyn |
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| Me |
We would also swim out to the middle of the fenced in area, grab Diego's fins, and enjoy a ride back to the little platform where everyone else was waiting. The water wasn't hot, but it wasn't freezing either, just pleasantly cool. And it was really blue!
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| Brianna |
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| Hosanna <3 |
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| GranAnnie and Christianna |
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| Dad... :) |
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| Aidan |
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| Daniel the Giant |
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| Tristan |
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| Aunt Terri |
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| Uncle Wally |
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| Hello Retirement! |
GranAnnie, I hope that you feel loved and that we truly made the most out of your party. Thank you so much for the amazing gift that you gave us, the gift of your time. I can only speak for myself, though I am sure this sums it up only half way, but I enjoyed every splash, every meal, every sun beam, and every moment in all. We love you!
Happy Retirement.
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