I recently went on a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Besides sitting on the beach drinking Pina Coladas & eating chilaquiles (my new favorite Mexican dish), swimming with dolphins was the only other activity on the agenda. Lucky enough, my girlfriend & her 1-month-old boyfriend sat through the torture of a 3-hour time-share seminar (God bless new boyfriends trying to impress the girlfriends best friend!).

They were able to score 4 tickets to the Dolphin Experience at Vallarta Adventures for $130! The usual cost is about $120 per person.

The dolphins were kept in large pools (similar to swimming pools). I was worried that it would make me feel sad that they were contained, but they seemed to be having fun. A few were just playing ball with each other with no trainers around.

We stood on a platform in the pool and, for all you wimps (myself included), the water was cold! I sucked it up, still continuosly jittering, because this was an experience I couldn’t pass up! We were able to ride the dolphin, get a kiss, dance and feed it a slimy fish. For more money there were more intimate (not that intimate… gross… get your mind out of the gutter!) experiences available, but I was pleased with the interaction we had. This could be due to the fact that my teeth were chattering and I needed to get the heck out of that pool. Everyone with me agreed that we don’t need to do it again, but it was totally worth the check on my bucket list!