I swam with the dolphins!

      I could finally use my birthday present on our honeymoon on Curacao . My birthday was almost three weeks earlier, and all the other gifts I enjoyed before, but this one was special. I was supposed to swim with the dolphins!

Who among us, sea life enthusiasts, didn’t at least one time dream about swimming with these friendly, intelligent, mild sea mammals – dolphins? It all took place at Curacao’s Dolphin Academy which is a part of Curacao Sea Aquarium – a place where you can easily spend at least half of your day – especially for the kids. How would they not like being able to (in complete safety!) pet a  star fish, sea cucumber, or even a ray! or get a kiss from a sea lion. For adults and competent divers you also have the possibility of hand feeding sharks under water!

      We were scheduled for swimming with the dolphins at 11. The Dolphins Academy is quite big part of Curacao Sea Aquarium, very easy to find, once you enter. You’re going to speak with friendly people at the desk first and they will give you a form to fill and sign. Don’t get too scared of the word “death” being used there frequently, it’s only for the insurance. I guess. I hope. Afterwards you’ll be send to change into your swimming suit in changing rooms and back to waiting room/photo room. Waiting for our trainers we watched photos of people swimming, diving with dolphins, and we couldn’t wait any longer!

      When the time came, one of the trainers took as to apart room, showed us some presentation and informed us about few rules, that you should follow while swimming with dolphins. No catching fins, no agitated swimming, only gentle moves, hands close to your body as often as possible. Easy to follow. Then we got divided into smaller groups (around 5-6 people in a group) and moved on to our bay. We got lucky, there were three dolphins for us, which meant one dolphin for couple. We all jumped into water, very excited and the dolphins surrounded us. They were so soft to touch, and being around them was an amazing experience! We got to dance with them, make them sing or spin around, we all got a kiss on a cheek from a dolphin, swam along them, snorkel with them. They followed our orders, that the trainer taught us, and they seemed to have fun! While diving with them, they would check up on you if you follow, you felt like they take care of you at some moments. All of it was photographed by one of the Dolphins Academy photographer. We were in the water with those clever animals for about 30 minutes, maybe more. It was simply magical! The best we’ve done in the whole honeymoon, hands down.

      After our swim we went to the photo room and bought the photos that were made of us. It’s an expensive business, the photos, I believe we paid around 80-90 $ for a USB-stick with around 30 photos…  but we are happy we bought it.

There is also possibility of buying some dolphins souvenirs, but after what we already paid we just went further to see what the Curacao Sea Aquarium has to offer.

      We caught some dolphins training show, we saw flamingos, sharks, different kinds of fishes, we touched the sea stars, met sea lions. There is a possibility of feeding some of those animals, surely baby sharks and flamingos. With extra payment you can go diving and hand feeding adult sharks, if you’re brave enough.

      We left the Curacao Sea Aquarium happy about our experience, promising to ourselves that we’ll find possibility to swim with dolphins more often. My husband even said something about doing course for dolphin trainer! That must be very interesting.

      Swimming with dolphins in Curacao cost us  174$ per person. Doesn’t matter if you’re a child or an adult, the price is the same. For not good swimmers there is also a program called Dolphins Encounter, that costs 50$ for kids up to 4 years, and 99$ for older people. You stand on the platform with water up until your waist and get to touch the animals, play with them, get a kiss from them. You could also choose snorkeling or diving program, and they are even more expensive. More info you can find on the official website: https://dolphin-academy.com