Dolphin delight

Author: By Vera Vida, Globe Correspondent

Date: SUNDAY, November 1, 1998

Page: N13

Section: Travel

But McDowell hadn't attracted a curious dolphin or two.

``There's a melon-headed whale swimming in your direction!'' Jason Cressey, the dolphin expert with the tour group, called out from the boat. He announced it with excitement rather than alarm, but McDowell returned to the boat in a hurry, with a facial expression of sheer terror.

``There was this big melon chasing me,'' he joked, a bit sheepish after Cressey informed him that a melon-headed whale is a small whale, generally not much bigger than a bottlenose dolphin.

McDowell, an engineer from Los Gatos, Calif., was one of 18 people -- 12 adults and six children ages 4 to 15 -- on a ``Destination: Dolphins'' tour organized by Jackie Jones Cohen of Duxbury. Since this was a ``family-friendly'' tour, Cohen was accompanied on the July trip to Pico island by her husband, Dr. Richard H. Cohen, who has a medical practice in Hanover, and their two children, Eirann, 6, and Ethan, 4.

Jackie Cohen is the founder and director of World Discovery Tours, eco-trips that take vacationers to off-the-beaten-path places such as the lush and unspoiled Azores in the middle of the Atlantic, between the Old World and the New. Portuguese but with a flavor all its own, the nine-island archipelago is 800 miles west of Portugal and 4 1/2 hours by air from Boston.

Because of their stunning, volcanic scenery, miles of wild hydrangeas and beguiling villages with few tourists, the islands would be a real travel find even without dolphins. But, as Cohen said, ``There are more dolphins found in the waters here than any other place in the world.''

Her expedition, the first organized from the United States to the archipelago expressly to observe and swim with dolphins, originated in Boston, although participants came from all over the country. The next ``Destination: Dolphins'' trips will be offered July 8-15 and July 15-22.

Cressey, who gave daily seminars during the trip, said the widest variety of dolphin species can be seen in the waters of the Azores: ``There are 21 different species of cetaceans [whales and dolphin] here. The Azores are like a big restaurant for them; there's a lot to eat.'' The British-born cetacean expert has a doctorate from Oxford University, where he taught for eight years, and has swum with wild dolphins around the world.

``Also, there is a lot of sheltered water here,'' Cressey said. ``Dolphins can raise their young in relative safety.'' Cressey is also founder of The Pod (People, Oceans and Dolphins) in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he now makes his home.

About 10 minutes after boarding our motorboat, on our first excursion to meet the free Flippers of the open sea, a pod of perhaps 50 Atlantic white-sided dolphins discovered our boat. In large groups, the frolicking animals leaped into our wake to enjoy a free ride, jumping exuberantly in the air in smooth, graceful arcs. ``They're having a blast,'' said Rick Cohen.

Later, on the motorboat, we all had a blast as we watched hundreds of dolphins and seagulls, joined by three short-finned pilot whales, converge on a school of tuna, attacking it in a feeding frenzy. Cressey told the tour group that you don't come across a feeding frenzy every day.

We were able to swim with the dolphins on two days; on the third, the sea was too rough for the boat to stay out, so the captain headed for a sheltered harbor. From there, we returned to our hotel by taxi. The island was more beautiful than ever that day. We watched clouds play hide and seek with the summit of Pico, the majestic volcano that, at 7,800 feet, is the tallest mountain in Portugal and gives the island its name. (Pico means ``peak'' in Portuguese.) A rainbow arched over the green farm fields, their boundaries marked by black lava walls.

``Pico is amazing, gorgeous, picturesque,'' said Sharon Ing of Huntsville, Ala., who was on the dolphin trip with her husband, Randy; their two children, Austin, 13, and Samantha, 10, and five other members of their extended family. ``We feel we're in the middle of a travel magazine,'' said Ing, a computer scientist.

The hotel where the group stayed, Aldeia da Fonte, near the village of Lajes, is perched on cliffs above the Atlantic, at the foot of Pico mountain, surrounded by flowers, rocks, and vineyards. Aldeia da Fonte has an excellent kitchen; our group was served such dishes, family-style, as baked fresh tuna with potatoes, linguica with yams, octopus stewed in homemade red wine, and Azorean lobster, which even the New Englanders raved about.

``Here you travel back in time to an era when life still had something to do with nature, the environment and peace,'' said Antonio Simas, who owns the hotel with his wife, Sonia. Antonio is a medical doctor who divides his days between medicine and being a hotelier. He learned his perfect English in Great Britain, where he worked in a hospital.

Simas loves Pico, which was home to his father, who was a doctor as well. The island is in large part a testimonial to the Azoreans' Herculean efforts. Over the centuries, they transformed the dark lava fields into walls, farms, vineyards, and charming houses, which were either left lava-black or were whitewashed. Either way, most have exuberant trim and nearly all are topped with orange-tile roofs.

Farming was the mainstay of the island until the 18th century, when New England whalers first came to hunt Pico's plentiful sperm whales and recruit harpooners and rowers from among the local population. But soon the resourceful islanders were whale hunting on their own. Today, Portugal, like most nations, has banned the killing of whales, but visitors can learn about the hunting there, often in rowboats, by visiting a small whaling museum in Lajes.

One day, we traveled by ferry to visit the neighboring island of Faial, which just a week before we got there, on July 9, had suffered an earthquake. We saw tents everywhere, the makeshift homes of people whose houses had been destroyed. Our cab driver, Fernando Pinheiro, told us eight people -- including his uncle -- were killed. In addition, 110 were injured and 1,000 left homeless.

Faial, whose Capelinhos volcano erupted 40 years ago destroying farmlands and homes and causing thousands to immigrate to the United States, is a gorgeous island, despite its misfortunes. Wild hydrangeas in subtle gradations of blue are so plentiful that the island is known as Ilha Azul or Blue Island. And its cosmopolitan harbor at Horta is a favorite of yachtspeople from all over the world.

But for all of us, the two days that we swam with dolphins were the highlights of the trip. In my case, I didn't actually swim with dolphins; I swam above them. I could see through my mask, about eight feet below me, perhaps 10 spotted dolphins, slender animals named for their beautiful, Dalmatian-like coloring.

Sure, I would have liked to have had more interaction with the dolphins, but how could anyone complain after seeing, as we did in two days, 10 species of cetaceans, many of them (the smaller ones) in the water with us? We saw four whale species: sperm whales, the largest of the toothed whales; pilot whales; false killer whales and melon-headed whales; and six species of dolphins: the white-sided, bottlenose, common, striped, spotted, and Risso's dolphins.

Everyone knew the bottlenose variety, and several of us from the Boston area had seen white-sided dolphins at Stellwagen Bank. We were less familiar with common dolphins, which have a yellow patch on the side; the Risso's, with their large, blunt heads, no beaks and much scarring on their bodies, and the striped dolphins, with their elegantly ``painted'' faces and body markings. Appreciated for their beauty by the ancient Greeks, the striped dolphins appear on classical frescoes looking much as they do today swimming in Pico waters.

It didn't do much for my ego to realize that I proved less interesting to the dolphins than several other people in our group. As he snorkeled, Rick Cohen, for example, had four spotted dolphins swim toward him and then underneath him. ``They were observing me,'' said the physician, who had never swum with dolphins before. ``Our eyes met. This was very special -- you could sense a knowing, intelligent being.''

Dana Durrence, 11, who was on the trip with his mother, Leigh Ann Durrence of Glenville, Ga., saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins swimming away from where he was snorkeling. ``Two came back to check me out,'' he said. ``We saw each other eye-to-eye.''

At the seminars, both Jackie Cohen and Cressey said they strongly oppose keeping cetaceans in captivity.

``For me, the captivity issue is clear: Every dolphin and whale should be allowed to exercise its right to swim in a straight line for as long as it wants,'' Cressey said. ``I don't feel there is any justification in keeping these beautiful animals in captivity. It's like a hellish hall of mirrors to imprison them in a concrete pool -- all their sonar clicks and whistles just bounce right back at them. They go crazy . . . or catch some human infection and die ridiculously young. A female orca can expect to live up to 80 years in the wild, but she would be lucky to make it even to eight in captivity. A dolphin can expect to live no more than three years in captivity after capture, and often much less.''

The way to see dolphins -- and to interact with them if you're lucky -- is in the wild, Cohen and Cressey agreed.

Cressey told the group that the dolphins ``must first extend an invitation to swim with them.'' He urged everyone taking part not to be surprised or disappointed if that invitation wasn't forthcoming. But there were things the people could do to help get the dolphins' attention, such as hitting the water and singing in a high pitch, Cressey advised.

``The dolphins like Mozart, most classical music,'' he said, explaining that this was found when music was played on hydrophones from boats. They like high-frequency sounds like those produced by violins and flutes, he said. ``They don't like heavy bass; heavy rock music is out.''

The next day, as I jumped off the boat, Cressey called out, ``Go ahead and sing!'' I did, and maybe that was why the spotted dolphins stayed eight feet below me.

The direct flight between Boston and Terceira is about 4 1/2 hours long. There's an extra charge for connecting flights to and from Boston.

The package also includes the flights between Terceira and Pico, the base for the dolphin trips, on SATA airline, about a half-hour each way. Although the trips originate and end in Boston, tour participants come from all over the country.

For more information, write to World Discovery Tours at 210 Bianca Road, Duxbury, MA 02332, call 888-876-4055, or visit www.worlddiscoverytours.com.

The tours generally include visiting a couple of other Azorean islands, such as neighboring Faial, but most of the time is spent on Pico, at the Hotel Aldeia da Fonte, known for its fine cuisine, friendly service, and authentic Azorean flavor.

The hotel's rates, if accommodations are not part of a package tour, range from $141 for a master suite for four to $73 for a single room, from June through September; from $116 for the master suite for four to $58 for a single room in October, April, and May, and from $103 for the master suite to $53 for the single room, from November through March. Meals are not included in the rates.

For more information, write to Hotel Aldeia da Fonte, Silveira, 9930 Lajes do Pico, Azores, Portugal; telephone 351 92 672777; fax 351 92 672700; or e-mail aldeiafonte(at sign)mail. telepac.pt.