Exploring the Coasts of Portugal

This morning we headed out to Albufeira (al·buh·feuh·ruh) where we took a rib boat called Ocean Legacy (rib stands for rigid inflatable boat). We went out onto the ocean in hopes of finding dolphins and if the water was calm, go into beautiful caves. We saw lots of boats stopped in the same area and then we went closer to see that the reason they had stopped. There were lots of bottlenose dolphins!

Some interesting bottlenose dolphin facts:

• Can swim up to 35km an hour
• Are the smartest marine animal
• The longest living dolphin that was ever recorded named Nicklo lived for 67 years
• Females often outlive males

The dolphins were in a very playful mood they were jumping and getting extremely close to the boat and there was even a juvenile! On the boat there was a marine biologist who was telling us about how the bottlenose dolphins we saw were coming from the south because there skin was darker gray than typical bottlenose dolphins he guessed that they were coming from Madeira which is an island off the coast of Morocco.

We passed amazing rock formations, one was even naturally formed like an arc way they called it the Portuguese Arc de Triomphe. We stopped at a cave called bird cave, it was called that because the birds were making nests in all the little holes in the rock. What was really interesting is that the guide pointed out lots of white spots all over the rock formation that turned out to be fossilized animals. Lastly we stopped at Benagil Sea Cave known as a cathedral due to its domed shape and a large hole at the top letting in the light, it was formed by erosion which means that water ate away at the limestone.