Oh My Gosh! I swam with a manatee today!!

Today was a big day. We saw a manta ray do this:

I didn't take that picture and it happened so fast we saw the manta ray flapping above the water about 3 times - it was pretty awesome!






Then, I swam with a mantatee (not to be confused with a manta ray that can kill you) and this was a true honour as these creatures are endangered and rare to see in the wild, let alone swim with.

Again, I did not take these pictures because I don't have an underwater camera but it's good to see what a manatee looks like.




This is what they eat - kind of like a sea rhino?

Pretty cool all round.

Parasailing!!!

On the beach, ready to go for a crazy banana-boat ride! Hold onto your horses!!

And we have lift off! Yes that is really me and H! Very high in the air looking at the dozens of sting rays and a manta ray beneath us and hoping that when they dip us for a second time we won't land near any!

Awesome!!!!!


Sea lesson of the day: when you are casually swimming in the sea you are unaware of the dangers around you. From up in the air you can see the sting rays and sharks and all things a bit freaky and beautiful. You never know what is lurking around the corner!

Latest Dolphin Stills

This guy came right up to our boat because he wanted the fish that we had just pulled out! He stuck around for a good 5 minutes and repeatedly came up with his mouth open wide asking very nicely for the fish. We do not encourage feeding any wild dolphins, but nonetheless it was great to have this interaction with him even though we probably got a lot more out of it than him and he had to go and find his own fish!

Now this is an awesome video!!!

Driving on the wrong side of the road

Pumping gas for the first time in my life!


OK so the car is stationary but I drove it to the gas station on my own without any road wavers!

Yippee!!

So the pictures aren't great but you can see me and the dolphins swimming in harmony. And you can what I looked like pre-burnt back. sigh. after-sun here we come. Thanks Ali for the goggles!! Click on the image to enlarge.

Proof!!

Here is proof that I have swum with dolphins!

French-speaking Froggies ALL around

This is my life for the month - in Florida?! Who knew...!

Ice Ice Baby

Some of you may know that I HATE cold water - I am a real sissy when it comes to this! Anyway, in the vein of doing things that I usually do not do, I managed to swim and actually enjoy a frikkin' freezing natural spring in north-west Florida in the Ponce de Leon Spring State Park. Check out the clear blue water fueled by the natural limestone deposits that filter in icy water each day. After swimming in the sea for two weeks, this fresh water was most welcome! I also experimented with the different colour options on my camera.. I must say sometimes a supposedly 'normal' image looks quite sassy in Sepia. It takes us back many generations when the Native American Indians first discovered the springs and believed them to have regeneration powers. As H would say, Yo Man - I need that anti-wrinkle, premature aging stuff! Gimme more.

'Il-Billys

We live in a Hill-Billy neighbourhood- an endless source of entertainment for us. If I was a 'il-billy, this is what I would look like:

The search for the perfect video/picture

Silly dolphins! So slippery and quick - they never just bob up and down and look at my camera! Videoing on a boat is pretty challenging so for this month my mission is to get:

1. a cool video close-up of a dolphin doing something awesome - like a flip or a mouth open up-close scenario

2. a close-up still of a cute lil dolphin face - they always look like they are smiling - maybe they are just eternally happy with life? we can learn a lot from them..

3. proof that I have swum 'with' a dolphin - i.e. me + sea + dolphin nearby = proof!

Fooling Around!

In this post I have included some cool pics of the other intern and coordinator for the programme and some silly photos of us getting to know the local wares!

So from top clockwise: H and I were waiting for E to try on some clothes at a surf shop. Little did we know how fun this could be - Flamingo heads all round! It was hilarious!! As you can see we saw our first sharks in Panama City too! Then bottom centre.. me, super sexy in my goggles - nasal and all - but a true lifesaver because getting salt water and sunscreen mix in your eyes is paralysing! Bottom right: trying on our wetsuits for the first dive as we were warned that the water would be pretty chilly. Now we have ditched the wetsuits (we're pros now - haha) because they were too big and making us float like big black bags in the ocean!

Meet the Girls of Panama City

So I have been stationed in Panama City Beach (I was warned by some notable Texans that it's real name is Panama Shitty Beach..) and I was anxious to check it out and see who I would be living with for the next month. I actually packed a Spanish textbook thinking that I would have time to go over some vocab and that I would be using my limited Spanish at some point. Ah, mais non! Both girls that I am living with are French speaking! And as the manager of the dolphin programme is also French speaking, many of the guests (95%) are native French speakers too. So now I know first hand that the Swiss speak French, as do the Canadian and people from Gaudelope! Go figure! I truly hope by the end of this month 'je pourrai parler du francias mieux que maintenant' (I will be able to speak French better than at the moment) because otherwise the multiple times of feeling very lost and not laughing at jokes will have been a bit of waste.

Swimming with Sting Rays, Conquering Ocean Fears and New Orleans

Holy Moly I swam with about forty rays today! I didn't know that they were sting rays.. This is probably a good thing as I would never have had the guts to swim with them if I had known that there long spinous tails could actually hurt me. Still it was a good experience.

And for the first time, I actually felt free in the sea. I decided to ditch the snorkel and flippers and just focus on my goggles and not gobbling salt water. This new found freedom actually me to jump in the water when the dolphins approached and enjoy swimming with them. The dolphins chose the shallower, clearer waters and so we could see them so well. It was awesome! Wow! Now that I have done it properly, it's kind of addictive and I just want to swim in the sea a whole lot more. Maybe I won't burn as much. Maybe I can actually enjoy the beach and the cold water and the salt up my nose! Let's see what tomorrow holds!

And.. we finally booked our room for New Orleans!! We leave in two days and for the first time in my life, I am staying in a hostel and sleeping in a dorm for 8 people! wow... big comfort zone out of the boxness for me. Golly. Wish me luck. This is a once in a life time thing!!

Dolphins Here We Come!

So I have been in Panama City for a little over a week now. It feels like so much longer – not sure if that is a good thing or not. The idea of swimming with wild dolphins has many layers of altered comfort zone-ness for me. As most of you know, I am self-labelled pigmentally-challenged. This means that I do not have a lot of pigment in my skin and therefore do not go a crispy shade of brown as most of you do. I am not completely destitute of melatonin and I can up my tan shade under pressure. However, this is not what I normally like to do and I am terrified of the creeping wrinkles around my eyes at the tender age of 26. Oh well: genetics, the harsh South African sun for 2 decades, and the general condition of being human and needing sunlight have all contributed to this. Guess I will have to live with it as I have a long way to go.

So back to the dolphins. I have done many things in the past 10 days that I didn’t think I would be able to do.

1. gone a boat exposed to the elements for several hours at a time every day of the week

2. swum in the sea on numerous occasions with snorkel gear and salt water up my nose and in my eyes

3. swum with dolphins!!!!!!! holy moly!

4. flung myself (ok gingerly lowered myself) into ice-cold natural spring water and actually enjoyed exploring the limestone caves that supply the refreshing supposedly youth-inducing crystal springs!

So I think it’s much more interesting for most people to see pictures and videos rather than seeing mountains of text so I am going to try my darndest to take good pics of the dolphins. Those are slippery creatures and it’s really tough to take good photos of them but I will try my best whilst I am here!! Enjoy the pics and I hope you laugh a lot