Portugal Coastline with Jamie, Marguerite & Rachel

 Portugal Coastline 

We had arrived in a sunny Portugal and we couldn't wait to make a splash in the pool! 

Our first adventure of the day was on the tourist train that took us all the way into the new town area, down to the coast and then into the old town. Here we jumped off and wandered around the scenic square where we sat and enjoyed a much-needed drink to cool off. We ambled through the typically windy streets and browsed the shops for a few souvenirs. 

Wow! What a brilliant day was had at Zoomarine. On arrival we made our way straight to the dolphin show and it was incredible. First, we were introduced to mummy and her baby Neo, who was so cute. We then were wowed as we watched all 8 of the dolphins perform for us. They leapt out of the water, played with balls, swam up to the glass wall of their pool and waved at us. Best of all was watching their trainers interact with them in the water and get given a ride! We gave them a huge cheer for a brilliant show. After this we took our seats for the Seal and Sea Lion adventure and again, we were wowed by these clever animals doing tricks and responding to their trainers’ commands. 

It was then our turn to cool off in the water and we enjoyed splashing around, jumping the waves as they crashed towards us. Some of us dare devils enjoyed the waterslides and we all relaxed in an inflatable rubber ring as we floated down the lazy river. We even got to enjoy some of the great fun fair rides here.  

Every evening we ate out in some wonderful restaurants before enjoying a dance or a spot of karaoke in one of the lively bars. 

Everyone was giddy with excitement as we boarded out very impressive speedboat. Once we were out in the open water the horsepower kicked in and it felt like we were flying across the Atlantic waves at a rate of knots. The boat came to a stop as we heard the crew say a pod of dolphins had been sighted and slowly, we drifted alongside them. There were 8 bottle nose dolphins in total and these beautiful mammals held us captivated watching as they jumped out of the water, swimming next to us; we could almost touch them. We felt so lucky to have witnessed this. The boat them sped up again along the coastline to the Bengali sea cave. The water was bright turquoise against the terracotta rocks. It was simply breathtaking as we slowly coasted through the caves, learning about a rock formation they call The Yellow Submarine.

Beach days are some of our favourite days, splashing around, building sandcastles and shell hunting. 

Every morning the music started blasting out of the speakers and we all knew what was coming- a water aerobics class! We all took part and with big smiles on our faces we were following the instructors every move!