Dates, Cost, Location

Cost: The trip fee is approximately $3,000 depending on cabin type chosen. If you are interested in coming on the trip, please email (info@swimandcommunicatewithwhales.com) us for details and registration information.

The trip fee also includes individual mentoring (for those who desire it) throughout the week on telepathic communication to help people connect with the whales, sacred sharing and meditation circles, informal evening gatherings where we talk with the whales, and rituals of gift giving and healing for the whales.  In addition, pre trip webinars of two hours each are available for a fee to help participants better understand both the physcal bodies of these whales and their messages for humans:

• Natural History of Humpback Whales
• Wisdom From the Whales: Messages from the whales based on conversations with whales
  since 1988 (Click here for webinar description).
• Introduction to Telepathic Communication (with the whales and other animals)

Upon completion of registration a 60 plus page Orientation Booklet with detailed information on travel details and tips, what to bring, and how to best prepare yourself physically, emotionally and spiritually for your time with the whales and with the group will be sent to you.

Location: Silver Bank, Dominican Republic

We meet in Puerto Plata, on the north coast of the Dominican Republic, where we board a luxury dive boat. From there we cruise 70 miles to Silver Bank, an area within the Sanctuary for the Marine Mammals of the Dominican Republic which is the mating and nursery ground of North Atlantic humpback whales--the largest congregation of humpback whales in the world. For a week we live at sea, spending several hours a day in small tenders looking for whales. When they approach our boats, stay close to us and remain still, we quietly slip into the water to join them. Silver Bank is a 75 square mile shallow coral reef area which derives its name from large amount of Spanish gold and silver lost in ship wrecks in the 1600's. The "bank" is not a pile of silver, however, but rather an underwater plateau of limestone. It is believed that the whales choose this area for birthing and nursing because numerous coral heads which break the shallow water’s surface provide protection from ocean swells. It is estimated that approximately 5,000 humpbacks pass through Silver Bank between December and mid-April each year, making it the largest breeding and calving grounds, often called a nursery, in the world.

In 1986 the Dominican Republic declared Silver Banks a whale sanctuary. In 1996 the sanctuary boundaries were enlarged to include Samana Bay and the north and east coastline of the Dominican Republic and was renamed "Sanctuary for Marine Mammals of Dominican Republic." The vessel for this trip holds a special permit issued by the Dominican Republic Whale Commission. Only three companies hold this permit which allows travel and mooring in the waters of this sanctuary.

These vessels must adhere to strict guidelines of non invasive travel near the whales--and they do! These guidelines were created by the office of the Sub-Secretariat of Protected Areas & Biodiversity of the Dominican Republic, and overseen by the on-site Coordinator of the Silver Bank.