Let me tell you, there is nothing better then a 6 km walk at 9 am after having 4 hours of sleep! Needless to say we were late for our ride. We waited for another hour and then we went out with a different group. The ride started off with a little walk through a forest where we were able to trot a little bit. I was lucky enough to get the horse that always wanted to eat. Where it was a weed, a leaf, some grass or even a rock my horse was willing to eat it. I was constantly pulling him back up so that he wouldn't start eating and he was not to pleased about that. His way to get revenge was that any time we would go near a tree or a fence he would run right into it. I had to duck under so many trees and steer him away from the barbed wire fence every 2 minutes. Katherine's horse started off really good as he was following the other horse at a safe distance and seemed to be happy. About half way through the trip though he started to get a little angry (I understand, she does that to me too). At one point her horse went after my poor little horse who was just trying to grab a bite of some fresh grass. That made my horse jump and we both just held on for dear life. Eventually I got my horse under control but Katherine's horse refused to move. Our leader made her way back and grabbed the horse to pull him back in line. Katherine's horse then proceeded to bite the leader's horse right in the butt and then began freaking out. I thought Katherine was a goner. She did manage to hold on and the horse did calm down a little bit to the point that we were able to finish the ride.
The day that had started out foggy had actually turned into an absolutely gorgeous day with very little wind and no clouds. We walked back to Tarifa and waited to go out onto the whale watching boats again. This time we were able to leave from Tarifa since the weather was so nice and the wind was quiet. The guy at the front desk told us that they had seen three types of dolphins and a Sperm Whale when they went in the morning. We were hoping for the same fate however it does not always work that way. We made our way out into the Sea and for the first 30 minutes we saw nothing. Then all of a sudden we saw this 'blow' from a Sperm Whale off in the distance. The problem is that they only come up for about 10-15 minutes to get air and then they dive down and stay down for 30 minutes or so. Unfortunately the boat did not get there on time to see the whale up close but we did see some dolphins on the way. We started making our way back and found tons of dolphins (stripped, pilot whale and regular). They loved to follow the boat and swim right in front of the boat. Katherine and I had a great seat to see all of the dolphins. We even got to see one jump. There were also really cute baby dolphins swimming beside their mothers. We were able to enjoy the dolphins for an hour or so and then we started heading back towards Tarifa. We were enjoying the dolphins as they were swimming alongside the boat when all of a sudden we saw another Sperm Whale off in the distance. This one was a little bit closer so we were able to get the boat up quite close. We watched as it did many more 'blows' and then eventually dove back down- which made for a pretty good picture I think. We then took off back to Tarifa with a dolphin escort. What a great way to end our stay in Tarifa. It was a pretty spectacular day and a great week living like no collars (survivor fans?).
Sorry Dev, I just couldn't make that post any shorter. I know you won't read it but enjoy the pictures!