However, I do love dolphins! On a sunny Saturday morning, we rented a new pedal style kayak and took it out to the water near Las Conchas
in Puerto Peñasco. The ocean was peaceful
and clear; we could see deep under the calm water. My son and I took the first
ride. Before we knew it, we were kayaking
amidst about a dozen dolphins. Wildly
waving my arms, I made crazy gestures to Russ, who jumped in another
smaller kayak with his camera and paddled like mad to meet us.
The pedal
kayak is very stable even with two people and we followed the dolphins back and forth around for about a
half an hour. I pedaled until I thought
my legs would fall off!
The
dolphins jumped as many as six wide in unison.
They are sleek creatures, barely gliding out of the water and then quietly
diving back under water. We continued to
watch in silence. Experiencing the moment! After quite a few minutes, one dolphin started to slap his tail on the
water each time he came to the surface. Braden said, “Mom, I think we’re making him nervous or something!”
Later, some online research showed that he
was probably right. Dolphins will slap
the water with their tails for a number of reasons. Repeated tail-slaps directed at a boat may indicate
that the dolphin is "telling" the boat to "back off". Other studies show that tail-slapping could be
linked to feeding or social behaviors; perhaps the dolphin is “calling” other
dolphins to come close because food is near.
In the
silence of the pedal kayak, we could hear each dolphin as it emerged from the
water making a loud “pooff” sound as it expelled air. Words simply cannot describe what it was like
to be so close to these grand animals in such a quiet atmosphere. Finally, the dolphins made their exit,
swimming away much faster than we could follow.
Talk about making our day… Wow!
