Spirit Journey & Manatees - Part 5

“Sue come out and see the manatees!!!”

At least that’s what I think Sean said. It was kind of hard to tell, since I had just had this vivid spirit journey dream thing. I looked at the clock; I had slept a couple of hours. Already wearing shorts and a tee shirt, I clambered out of bed and found my sandals and shakily made my way down to the pier. I was still a bit dizzy from the codeine.

A small crowd of tourists were gathered to see the manatees and there was somewhat of a commotion at the hotel pier adjacent to ours. Hotel employees there were arriving with cut up apples to feed to the manatees but, no one was taking them. They were all too shy, I guess. Before I could even see the huge aquatic mammals, I took a handful of the apples and approached the water.

I could not believe my eyes. There they were. They were huge! They were not shy at all, as they came right up to the steps of the dock to be petted, rub themselves on the wood, and be fed. I placed my hand in the water with an apple piece and a manatee gently took it with its lips and ate it. They ate all of the apples in no time.
Then I petted them, by standing in the water on the steps up to my thighs and putting my arms in the water all the way until my tee shirt sleeves got wet. Their bodies brushed against my legs and felt so rough but soft at the same time, and the hairs or whiskers were stiff. They could have easily knocked me off the steps, but did not. They really liked to be scratched hard on their backs like you would on a dog. Did I mention that they were large? There was a baby one and two adults.

Sean had run off to get his snorkel gear so he could take photos and he was already in the water with them. After the feeding they moved to the Hungry Pelican’s dock to feed on the sea grass there.
I watched nervously as Sean swam in between them. He looked so tiny. It was like a manatee, Sean, manatee sandwich. Sean later said that they could have squeezed him like a grape, but did not. When they had eaten all of the grass, they swam westward, towards the canals. Sean got out of the water. Everyone was excited and talking about it.

I suddenly wanted to go back to bed. I staggered back to the room and fell back into my bed. I slept until nightfall. When I awoke, it was dark outside and I wondered, “Was it all a narcotic induced dream? A dream of spirit journey and manatees?”