Day 16 - Sunday July 19

Sunday the 19th of July was my last full day in Jamaica *cries hysterically*. We got ready early in the morning and waited for the taxi driver from the day before to pick us up. We made a quick stop at Juici Patties where we bought a Patty for lunch later. We then drove about 3 hours all the way to the North of Jamaica, to Ocho Rios to visit Dolphin Cove. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains, small towns and along the sea. It was such a comfortable drive. It was the first (and the last) taxi with air-condition and we did not have to share the taxi with anyone else, so we had plenty of space. Besides that, the guy had a really good cd full of pop music (with a reggae twist) that Unika and I sang along to very loudly hahaha. And for some reason, Unika's finger got dragged to the replay button every time a good song had ended. It was a really fun drive, it did not even seem like 3 hours. I was so glad that I just received my pay check from work, otherwise I would not even have been able to pay for visiting Dolphin Cove. We were also lucky that Unika had 1+1 free coupons which we could use to enter Dolphin Cove. However, since we were with the three of us, we would be one person too short to get the discount, so we asked the taxi driver if he would like to come along with us, and luckily he did hahaha (you don't see that in the Netherlands do you?) Robyn and I both wanted to do the Ultimate Swim with the dolphins, which meant that we could swim with two dolphins instead of only one. As we entered the park, we got changed and decided to get on the speedboat first. We raced over the water with the wind in our hair and every now and then, the boat driver stopped the boat and told us what we could see. We would then make our way back, which meant that we would be sailing back against the flow of the waves. This was really cool and so much fun as we bounced up and down the waves. Lastly, we made a little donut before we sailed back ashore. Unika enjoyed it so much that she definitely wanted to go back later, but unfortunately we never got to it. We then walked to the parrots. These animals were so beautiful and so tame, they were absolutely adorable! We then went to the lovebirds. We got a little bit of food in our hand and the birds flew right onto it. They ate the seeds out of our hands and made a little nest in my hair hahaha. We left the lovebirds and got to snakes and some sort of (pretty huge) reptile. However, Unika did not like them at all and did not want to get too close. We soon continued our walk and got to the sea urchins. We were told that we could hold the sea urchin, which I would have never expected, but I did not want to let this change go by, so I hold it and it felt quite funny. After that, we went to the Stingrays, which we could touch and hold as they took pictures of us. I had never touched a stingray before, but it felt so nice! The stingray was a little slippery, but also very, very soft. After this small, but maybe once in a life time experience, we went to the kayaks. Robyn and I got in a boat together and Unika and the driver got into another one. Robyn and I did pretty well, but I am not sure what Unika was trying to do hahaha. The kayaks were pretty cool; the bottom of the kayak was clear so that you could look into the water and see the fish swim underneath you. However, Unika thought it was a good idea to make us wet with her oar, so Robyn and I took revenge, but did it twice as bad. Unfortunately for the taxi driver (who was just wearing his shorts as he did not expect he would be coming along with us in the park) he got soaked as well. After we got out of the kayaks, we slid down the waterslide and then rushed ourselves to the dolphin pool for our Ultimate swim. Before we entered the water we got a lifejacket and some instructions. With six other people, we entered the water where we met Alex and Mitch (the dolphins). At first we got kissed by the two dolphins. We were told to hold our jackets, which is a sign for the dolphins to kiss us, and we could then kiss them back. They then showed us how they shake hands with people and we got to dance with them in the water. Our instructors told us that the dolphins could speak a little bit of Spanish. As soon as we all said "Hola", they would wave at us (so adorable!). We could then touch their backs as they swam by. Just like the stingray they were really soft, but less slippery than I thought. We were then told to shake our hands, which was a sign for the dolphins to sing to us! (they sang us something by Beyoncé, I believe it was "All the single ladies" hahaha). After the serenade, we could ride on the belly of the dolphin. I got to go first, which I found a little scary, but as I rode his belly, I enjoyed it so much that I almost forget to let go (woops). After that we got to the coolest part of the Ultimate swim.... We got to do the nose ride. We had to lay flat in the water and then the dolphins would swim over to us and place their noses under our feet. They would then push us through the water and lift us up which was like we were flying. Unfortunately, that was also the end of our Ultimate Swim, so the dolphins did some last synchronous jumps and waved us goodbye. It was such an amazing experience, I still can't believe I got to do all of that. After the swim with the dolphins, we went diving and Unika got a little swimming lesson as she wanted to swim with the dolphins too, but she couldn't swim. She really couldn't swim, so it was not a good idea for her to swim with the dolphins, but instead she could interact with a dolphin. This meant that she could touch and kiss a dolphin and play with him from a knee-deep platform. It was lovely to see how much she enjoyed interacting with the dolphin, and she was so happy when she was done. We also got to watch the shark show, which they put together really well and we saw how some people swam with the sharks as well. By then, the park was about to close, so we quickly bought the DVD and CD with our videos and pictures of that day and went to the shop where we got our Dolphin Cove T-shirts. We then headed back home to Mandeville, which we reached after about 2,5 hours. We ate some Ackee & Saltfish, which was still left from the day before and some rice and pink salmon. After dinner, we watched the DVD of Dolphin Cove which was really nice to see. By then it was somewhere around ten or eleven already and I was so tired, so I decided to go to bed since the next day I would be heading back home to the Netherlands...

#Weekendtrips #DolphinCove #Unika #Taxi #OchoRios #Jamie #LastJamaicandinner