The Dolphin Encounter is offered by UNEXSO (an acronym for UNderwater EXplorer’s SOciety) and you’ll find them on the dock in Port Lucaya, just a few yards from the Pelican Bay Hotel, and just across the street from the Westin and Sheraton Our Lucaya Beach & Golf Resort.
The encounter is unique, and one you’ll never forget. It’s a fascinating and often soul-stirring experience where you’ll meet, close-up, one of nature’s most lovable and intelligent creatures: the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. Be sure to wear clothes that you don’t mind getting wet.
Your experience - actually, there are a couple of different programs - starts at the UNEXSO’s headquarters on the dock in Port Lucaya. You’ll board a boat for a 20-minute ride out to Sanctuary Bay where the dolphins live.
The first things you’ll see when you arrive at the facility are the tops of the huge pens that keep the dolphins separated from each other and safe from marauding sharks. Then you take the boardwalk over the water and the dolphin pens to the observation platform where you’ll actually meet the animals.
The “Close Encounter” program allows you to meet the dolphins face-to-face; well, bottlenose-to-face. Before you do, however, you’ll listen to a 15-minute talk that dispels many of the myths and legends that have built up around this finny creature. While the talk is proceeding, a couple of your soon-to-be playmates are carousing about the pool near where you’re sitting.
Dolphins are not quite the close cousin you’ve been led to believe, and they don’t have supernatural healing powers either. It’s true they are extremely intelligent and love to play, as you’ll soon find out.
When the talk is ended, your instructor will call you into the water - it’s not deep - where you’ll stand in pairs facing each other. The two dolphins then swim into the gap between you and your partner and you’ll be allowed to stroke, pet and rub them down; they love it. You’ll be surprised, too, at the size of the creatures. They are some eight to 12-feet long and can weigh in at 500 to 700 pounds and, big as they are, you’ll never get bumped or pushed.
The program is fun, educational and the kids will love it. For more information call 242 373-1244, or simply walk on down to the dock and visit. UNEXSO is an experience all its own.
Check Golf in the Bahamas for more activities.