On the trip to and from Costa Rica we have seen a lot of sea life. Coming into Costa Rica, I went to the bow of the boat to watch for what I thought were crab traps. Hundreds of crab traps. I knew that seemed like a lot of crab traps in the same spot, but after all, it could be a crab breeding ground. As one came near, I saw that they were actually turtles! My mom and I started to yell at the turtles to swim out of the way. They were really slow and some came about an inch away from our boat before they swam away.

We stayed in Playa del Coco, Costa Rica for 3 days trying to check in, but the port and customs offices were closed. We told the guy in the port captain's office that we were leaving in the morning of the 4th day. He called the officials on his cell phone and reported that they would not be available, so we should just leave without checking into the country. We'd just have to make an "emergency" stop at the one other anchorage in Costa Rica, which was not a port of entry.

As we came out of the large bay, I ran to the bow because thousands of dolphins were swimming next to our boat. It was the coolest thing, I've never seen so many! They would swim up to the bow and race the boat. Then some of them would swim faster until they were about six feet away then wait for the boat to catch up.

A diver boat seemed to appear out of no where to watch the dolphins. It carried what looked like twenty divers, all in black wet suits. They were trying to get in the middle of the pod of the dolphins to the left of us. Every time they got in the middle of the pod and a couple of divers jumped in, the dolphins would swim away. So they would get everyone back into the boat and then drive to the middle of the dolphin pod again. They did this about three times before finally leaving.

At about three o'clock I saw some dolphins going to the front of our boat again. I yelled for my mom and sister to come look. They were studying for one of Tara's quizzes, so this was quit an interruption. I ran to the bow to see a mixture of kinds of dolphins. There were only about seven though. Some went away for about ten minutes and then came back to swim in the wake of the boat. One, that I named Phil, Would swim a little further than the boat, and then do flips and stuff, he looked like a torpedo. Tara mentioned that they were helping the boat go faster because we were riding in their wake. Phil did multiple torpedo turns then his buddy, who I named Sheldon, started to jump out of the water. They were putting on a show for us. Tara had lack of faith, that I couldn't remember their names. I gave her the stink eye and then told her I had a good memory and that I could remember their names.

Sheldon and Phil left after a great show and then we were once again riding the waves without escorts.