Lovina::: swimming with the dolphins & other funny animals

Lovina is town on the northern coast of Bali. It's main claim to fame are it's dolphins- while it is not often guaranteed to see any if you wake up for a 6 am boat ride- you will find giant statues, hear sales pitches for every dolphin souvenir imaginable, and see them plastered on every sign, wall, and menu.

you can, however, get a good deal swimming with dolphins (only $15 bucks!!) with a room reservation at the Melka hotel--which was a very nice resort that also happened to have a small zoo?!?

large dolphin statue at main beach

one of our little bungalows we stayed at in lovina

there were four dolphins at the hotel, 3 males & 1 female. the saltwater pool was huge and very well kept (along with full time dolphin pooper-scoopers!)
i only swam with the female as the males had been trying to rape some of the female dolphin trainers lately (scary!) and they also play quite a bit rougher
they dont mind if you hold their fin for a ride- but they move very fast!
the dolphin was very sweet and very playful!!



joe with the dolphins


joe getting an elephant shower in the "people pool"
there were a lot of miniature reindeer who lived with miniature kangaroos-- very cute!

Blanco, the hotels orangutan, was very playful- he played tug of war
with our pool towel (almost beat joe!); he was also very gentle and kind of sad, and often offered his strange foot-with-fingers like hand for holding

joe with a big & scary looking snake (picture blurry because i was about a few
hundred feet away when i took the picture!)

an asian sun bear performing tricks.. he also rode a bike and played the guitar!!!
very fun...and odd