A few photographs from the Azores. 

Azores archipelago is a very interesting destination, not very wellknown, but it's wothwhile a visit : lakes, volcanoes, hot springs, flowers everywhere, ... and very few tourists ! But Azores is one of these rare places on earth where you can meet over 20 species of cetaceans.

We went there with a specific goal : watching and swimming with dolphins.

Five species of dolphins live there : delphinus delphis, stenella frontalis, stenella coeruleoalba, tursiops truncatus and grampus griseus .

We could actually watch all five species and could swim with three of them.

So we saw dolphins allright, hundreds of dolphins (no joke), but taking photographs of them underwater is another story ...

Here, we're talking of wild animals and approaching them is quite tricky (Azores islands are not some kind of amusement park like "Sea World").

However, dolphins are really curious, so when you slip into the water (no splashing !) they come to see what's going on, but, unfortunately, they come and go very swiftly, dive deep, and it's very difficult to aim, focus and shoot ...

It probably needs more practice ... or maybe we were just not lucky and the animals were not in the mood for playing with us this week, who knows ? 

We also met two groups of sperm whales, but could not come closer than 30-40 yards, and we were not allowed to swim with sperm whales (too bad !).

So, most photographs were taken from the boat or on land ... (I added a few underwater photographs, but only one single dive in Pico, so not many pictures are available). I hope you appreciate the natural beauties of these islands... 

Dolphins and whale watching was organised by Serge VIALELLE and his staff in Lajes de Pico : Espaço Talassa

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