Me-Travel Guide

There are many fascinating facts to learn about dolphins while you’re out on a dolphin watching tour. But often, people find that knowing some basic information before they venture out to see these beautiful animals in the wild allows them to enjoy their experience all the more. We’ve found a few interesting ideas, theories and details about dolphins that might help you look at them in a new light.

Dolphins at Play

When you’re watching dolphins leaping above the surface of the water, it’s an incredibly thrilling sight – and it can be pretty humbling to realise that the dolphins are capable of having just as much fun as you are. It’s possible that dolphins are locating schools of fish, with signs such as birds above the water, or dislodging parasites from their skin, but it’s also theorised to be an important mode of communication. Dolphins have also been observed playing with seaweed and amiably harassing other local creatures, like seabirds or turtles. While you’re dolphin watching, it can be tremendously gratifying to realize the dolphins you are observing are more than likely having the time of their lives!

Dolphin Society

Dolphins are highly social creatures, living together in groups called pods. It’s likely you’ll see a pod swimming and leaping together while you’re enjoying your dolphin watching experience. On rare occasion, when food is plentiful, the different pods can merge together into a temporary superpod. That’s the actual term! Superpods have been known to include over a thousand dolphins at a time, which makes for an incredible sight. While membership of pods isn’t rigid, dolphins are highly attuned to one another and have been known to display signs of altruism and concern for injured pod-mates, helping them to breathe by bringing them to the surface.

The Senses of a Dolphin

Dolphin watching becomes even more fascinating when you imagine how they must experience life. Can you imagine hearing through your jawbone? Dolphins don’t have to imagine it – it’s how they actually hear! Although they have small openings for ears on the sides of their head, while they’re underwater, Dolphins can receive the vibrations of sounds through their lower jaw, conducting sound to their ‘middle ear’ via a fat-filled cavity in the jaw bone. Their hearing is also used for their keen echolocation. While dolphins have acute senses of sight and taste (they’ve shown preferences for different types of fish), they aren’t believed to have any sense of smell at all.

Best Travel Resources

Offsetting your carbon footprint while traveling can be a difficult feat to manage. But nowadays, as companies and the general public become more and more informed, green travel can become a reality. Here’s a quick guide to small things you can do to make your trip less harsh on the environment.

First, utilize public transportation. That big smelly bus that is motoring down Fifth Avenue may look like an awful polluter. But it’s actually better to ride on that thing than your very own personal taxi. Until cities like New York and Chicago pass laws to require all taxi cab companies use hybrid vehicles, traveling on buses and trains will leave the least carbon footprint. It’s also a great way to meet and watch the locals in action. Buses are fantastic modes of transport for tourists, especially in foreign countries. It is also a great way to get around safely and economically. You also won’t get lost as easily as when you rent a rental car!

Second, reuse your sheets and towels. Nearly every hotel on the planet has installed those information cards that inform you of this. Reusing the same linens for your entire stay greatly reduces the effect on the environment. And why is it that 90 percent of us at home will sleep on our sheets for weeks at a time, but then can’t go two nights in a hotel?

When most people think of picnic blankets, they picture a plaid blanket spread over the green grass of a peaceful field. They also picture the blanket having to be carried folded into quarters, with the edges snagging on every branch they must walk past to reach their site. After the picnic, they also have images of the blanket being full of grass, leaves and twigs and being wadded up to be tossed into the trunk of the car.

Older picnic blankets have always been known to soak up water and to be hard to clean. They have to be washed and will start to smell if left in the car for too long. With the newer blankets on the market, this is not always the case. New blankets have a back lining of plastic that prevents moisture from soaking into the blanket from the ground. They also have a built-in carrying case that allows the users to quickly and efficiently roll or fold the blanket for storage and transportation.

The picture of the old plaid blanket is also an item from the past. You can still get plaid blankets if you are feeling nostalgic, but there is also a wide variety of colors and patterns available. Many of the new picnic blankets even come in colors that will help them appear clean if exposed to the harshest conditions. Blankets in browns will not show the dirt and blankets with patterns can help cover marks that may be made while using them on rocky surfaces.