I’m still calling it a whale watching tour even though it turned into something completely different. This post will provide you with a couple of anecdotes, but mostly with a few (awesome) photos, just so that I can share my experience with you.

Whale watching is something I’ve been meaning to do for years. I never visited the countries where you can go on a whaling tour at the right time though, so I never bothered to book. I visited countries like Iceland, South Africa and Australia which have very good options when it comes to whale watching, in the right season…. Then came my trip to the Azores last year in July.

No Whales

It was the perfect time to see whales in this area. However, our spirits were dampened the moment we arrived at the tour company. We received a lengthy briefing about all the animals that live here and the side note that no whales seemed to be near that day.

There are whale watchers on different locations on the island. These people are on lookout every day to see if the water movement is consistent with the movement a whale would make. We were asked the big question if we would still like to go on the water. Some people said they would like to join the next day. My group & I didn’t have that luxury so we decided to still go even though we knew chances would be slim to spot anything.

There were two options in terms of boats. One small yacht and one rubber dinghy. I opted for the dinghy so I could at least say that I tried something new.

After around half an hour we suddenly spotted a dolphin. I was ecstatic. I’m completely OK with spotting dolphins as well. I like to see any kind of animal in the wild (OK, I do go on bird watching tours but they don’t have my heart beating in excitement like other mammals). The girl guiding us was content with our find and I thought we would be ready to head back. Instead the captain and guide decided to really go for it and to go in search of a whale or so we thought. We zoomed around the sea. I was getting close to sea sick by our bumping along the small waves.

A Photo Diary of Dolphins

Then, we saw it. Tons and tons of dolphins. It was such a beautiful sight even our guide cooed in excitement. What we saw before was nothing like what we witnessed then. Our little boat was surrounded by them. The yacht was as well. We saw different kinds as well, namely the spotted dolphin and bottle-nose dolphin. I couldn’t contain my excitement.

The fact that our boat broke down and left us stranded in the sea for 15 minutes until the yacht could pick us up, didn’t even bother me at all. I was so happy with all the pictures I took which I will share with you here.

One day I will go on another whale watching tour, and I’m hoping I’ll see some then. For now, this experience was more than enough to satiate my need.

Have you even seen whales? Tell me all about it in the comments! This will give me an idea on where to go next! 🙂