River Dolphins and Giant Leatherback Turtles

We hired a boat to take our family and a few friends on a river tour. I'm mad that I forgot to take a picture of the boat. We went out on the river and found these amazing river dolphins. They were diving and surfacing all around the boat. 

You can see the pink tinting on the underside if you look closely.

Charlie thought the boat ride was great.

Millie wasn't too happy until she had an Oreo in hand.

There were lots of dolphins all around the boat but they moved around so much it was hard to get a good picture. Very cool.

We saw this boat and decided it looks like a pirate ship. Our guide told us it's a Brazilian boat.

Then we went on to another area where we found a giant leatherback turtle. They can be hard to find and usually don't come out of the water until around midnight so we were pretty lucky to find one just after dark. The turtle was so big! We were able to gently touch it and I was surprised that it was smooth and soft. Despite their size they are delicate creatures and if treated roughly they will die. You can't ride on them and if you kicked it would get a blood clot and die. The leatherbacks come ashore and lay around 100 eggs and only 85% are viable. A lot of animals try to eat the eggs and even if they hatch many of the baby turtles will be eaten as well. Our guide told us that maybe three out of a hundred have a chance of surviving. The other really frustrating thing is that there are people who will come and poach the eggs. If they're touched or moved at all they will not hatch. It's so messed up that people will harm this awesome and endangered species.

Giant Leatherback. Amazing.

Isn't it unbelievable how huge they are?

Back to the sea.

These two have just started holding hands while walking. I love it!!

Charlie found a dead crab and just had to pick it up. :)