This morning was beautiful, with the sun shining full and thunder rumbling far off to the south. Tim and I got out of bed and into our bathing suits and headed down to the beach. We found old foamy boogie boards in the bodega and took them with us. We had a great time playing in the waves and riding waves into the beach on boards that didn’t seem like they would hold us. Zac chased Tim into the ocean and would try to make it out to Tim, but would get turned around when the waves crashed over his head. Pretty funny for a dog who hates to get a bath. We came back to the house, read in bed for a while, then made breakfast. After an early afternoon nap (hey, the days start early here), Tim and Zac went back to the beach to check the surf conditions. I followed a few minutes later and when I got to the beach Tim asked if I wanted to go check out the estuary; the house next door to us is at the absolute end of the road, and beyond that is one of the largest rivers in Guanacaste, which opens into the ocean. We walked along the beach for a minute or two, and Tim yelled, “A beached dolphin!” and took off running with me after. We got to the dolphin, which was lying on its side just beyond the reach of the waves, flipping and flopping in the sand. Tim grabbed it and started trying to turn it over the right way and yelled at me to help push. We both grabbed its tail and struggled to push it back into the ocean. The tide was coming in and the waves kept rolling the dolphin back onto its side; we kept rolling it back over and pushing until we finally pushed it far enough into the water that we saw it jump and swim away. Tim looked like he was about to fall over from the effort and I felt like I was going to throw up. We sat down on the sand, and when we looked at each other Tim said, “You’ve got dolphin blood on your face.” (The dolphin’s fin was bleeding.) After a couple of minutes we got up to walk back to the house, looked toward the estuary, and saw another dolphin in the sand. At first I thought there was some sort of dolphin beaching epidemic going on, until I realized it was the same one we had just pushed out. We ran back and repeated the whole thing, once again watching the dolphin jump and swim away; this time we watched long enough to see it turn back toward the beach, and with the next wave it was in the sand again. It seemed like the thing was trying to beach itself, but maybe it was just freaked out by all that was happening (like the two humans grabbing it and yelling at each other and pushing it and the dog swarming around). Who knows? By this time we were exhausted, and the dolphin was too close to the river mouth for us to be able to push it back into the ocean again. Was there something big in the water forcing the dolphin onto the sand, and we just couldn’t see it? Knowing that crocs are in the river was enough to make us leave the dolphin alone. If it couldn’t make it far enough into the ocean to save itself, we didn’t stand a chance of saving it. We walked back to the house without looking back to see the dolphin again. I hope the tide came up fast enough to take the dolphin back home.
I’ve never even touched a dolphin before, let alone wrestled one back into the ocean. This is already an adventure very different from any I’ve ever experienced.
I’ve never even touched a dolphin before, let alone wrestled one back into the ocean. This is already an adventure very different from any I’ve ever experienced.
