Day 5

Note: I just found out I can add location tags to my posts so I'm going to do that from now on instead of manually finding each gps coordinate.

We signed up to do a day cruise today, so we woke up early and gobbled down some breakfast and grabbed a few sandwiches for the trip before wandering down to the wharf.  We started the morning chasing phantom sightings of dolphins (it was a dolphin day cruise).  All of a sudden the captain starts yelling to get changed (did I mention that it was a swim with the dolphins cruise?).  So we all start stripping as fast as we can and I start coating myself in sunscreen (there is a hole in the ozone after all).

We jump in and holy hell is it cold.  I start to panic for a second because it is so cold I can't breathe but then not 3 feet under me are these enormous dolphins.  They really don't look that big until you are right above them but when you do notice you realize in a massive hurry why sharks are afraid of them.  Also, it turns out they can swim way faster than I can.

From a helicopter I'm assuming it looked like the dolphins were herding this haphazardly moving pile of dimwitted swimmers; but we chased them anyway.  The encounter was a little spooky at times because the visibility in the water was so low.  You'd stop and wonder where they all went when suddenly  there are a dozen dolphins dancing immediately beneath you.  They really are remarkably playful creatures.  The brilliant thing about this trip is while that was the most awe inspiring part of the day it wasn't the most fun.

While I didn't snag a picture while I was attempting to swim with them here are a few of the ones I made friends with:

I know, I know, you are thinking, "you are crazy what could be more fun than freezing your ass off as dolphins make fun of your inability to swim".  Two words: Boom Netting.  The dolphin boat uses a net that they hang off the side of the boat for putting people in the water and pulling them out.  Turns out that if you are sitting in that while the captain is punching it, you have an instant water park attraction.  Really you just need to look at some of the pictures because that was spectacular.

This is, this is boom netting

 I'm not sure exactly which gang sign Mike is trying to make here

 This is what it looks like when the captain stops for a moment

 And this is what it looks like when he punches it and I got knocked off my perch

The "Ahh this is the life" face

 And this is Mikes "Haha, I have survived" face

We eventually headed home after boating through a hole in a rock and going a little ways out into the open Pacific.  Snagged some dinner at a local Italian place, turns out I've been missing out because that was the first time I'd had cannelloni and it is my new favorite Italian dish.  We followed that meal with some of the best ice cream I've ever had, Green Tea on top of Luscious Lime.  Before heading to bed I spent some time hanging out with some of the other backpackers at the hostel.  Turns out instead of calling it King's Cup they call it The Ring of Fire.  That led to an interesting evening at a bar.  Met a bunch of people from all over the place.  A very cool Swedish guy who had been at the site of the earthquake a few weeks ago, a kid from Vancouver, a couple of other people from across Europe (France, Germany, and Holland).  If this is what my next year is going to look like, I'm more excited than I have ever been.

Oh yeah and this is Mike and Kayla right before we go through the Hole in the Rock, yes we drove through that.