Sea Lion Snorkeling

Alex and her new whiskered friend

(Alex) When you think of the Galapagos, you think of: warm, Equatorial, Darwin, giant tortoises, blue footed boobies and blue water. Like a perfect dream land. Well, it’s not. At least not the month that we were here.

Mornings are cloudy, windy and overcast. Luckily it clears in the afternoon to blue skies, sun and a cool breeze. Unfortunately, the water decided not to warm up like the sky did. No, instead it was nice and COLD.

Our zodiac arrived at the cove where we would be snorkeling. I dipped my feet into the 66 degree water and immediately pulled them out. After multiple attempts at jumping in, I finally tossed myself into the water. “OH MY GOD!!”, I screamed, which obviously didn’t help my brother, who was in the process that I had just completed. I swam around for some time, playing with a young adult sea lion who seemed to love playing with humans — zipping around like a mini torpedo. He came up to me and nuzzled my arm, his whiskers touching my face; then sped back off again. Swimming full speed into people’s faces, then just before hitting them, flipping back over and zipping to the next person.

The fun quickly came to a halt, when I suddenly noticed that everyone was quickly swimming over to the rocky cliff. I looked up and our guide Fausto told me keep my face in the water with my eyes on him at all times. Ok, WHO IS HIM?? I put my face back into the water and looking at me (pretty close — or at least too close for my liking) was a huge alpha male sea lion. I, who has never felt very comfortable in the water, decided to be brave. Screaming, I swam away as fast as possible. Luckily, I had a mask and wet suit on, so no one could really recognize that it was me who had screamed.

Playing with the sea lions, fish, turtles and penguins in the Galapagos was well worth the pain of getting into the water. Because once we got back onto the boat, I just jumped right into the nice hot shower, or the sauna.