DAY 10 – WOW WHAT AN EXPERIENCE

Today was what I had envisaged would be one of the main reasons to come to the Galapagos Islands, to swim with Sea Lions. The day started with having breakfast at our homestay. The people we were staying with didn’t speak any English so conversation was limited to a few hand gestures and simple phrases. We met our guide Fernando for the day, who spoke really good English and we got into his speed boat and headed for Los Lobos.

Along the way, we stopped at a floating platform where there were about 20 female sea lions relaxing and the platform was being guarded by the dominant male who barked at us if the boat got too close. When we got to the island, we climbed off the boat onto the main land.

The trail was made of volcanic uneven rocks so you had to watch your step. After about 40m we came across a Blue Footed Boobie. These birds are only found in the Galapagos and have distinctive blue feet. They get this colour from the algae they eat combined with a reflection of the blue skies. They are also very territorial and defecate on a circle around their nest and then stand guard from the swooping frigate birds that roam the islands. The parents then take it in turns to go and get food for the babies. We were able to get quite close to a mother Boobie that had the baby hidden under its legs. We were told by Fernando that it was probably less than a month old and it was so cute.

We then walked along the rocks some more and saw some marine iguanas basking on the rocks with the sea crashing over them. We then proceeded to an area of the island where the sea lions were resting. There were several mothers and babies snoozing together on the beach and in the rocks and was a perfect opportunity to get some excellent photos. We then re-boarded the boat and got on our snorkel gear before getting into the sea. The temperature was quite cold initially at about 18 degrees but as soon as I started swimming I quickly warmed up.

We swam along the shore next to where we had taken photos of the sea lions moments ago for about 10 minutes and saw nothing besides a few schools of different sized fish and a parrot fish and then just as I was beginning to think we wouldn’t see any sea lions a young one appeared next to us in the water.

OMG! It was so cute and incredibly playful. It would do leaps and somersaults around each of us on the tour, swim away and come back. It seemed really curious into what we were and what we were doing there and even move interested in my underwater camera. You could not help but have a smile on your face. Fernando told us this was a baby at about 1 years old. It continued to play with us for about 20 minutes before we swam on but it felt like we were there for an hour.

Whilst swimming on, we observed plenty more fish and even saw some marine iguanas feeding on kelp at the bottom of the sea. We stopped at a local beach for lunch, curried tuna and rice with nachos before heading on to Mann Beach. This was an isolated beach with rocks either side, the waves were breaking on an upward rising beach. Along the rocks to the right there were some female sea lions with their pups snoozing. It is kind of what sea lions seem to do all the time, snooze and eat. I wish I was a sea lion, what a perfect life. Swimming in the sea was the male sea lion and I walked along the beach to where he was swimming and went ankle deep into the water. Suddenly he barked at me and started swimming my way with his jaws open and teeth showing. I took this as sign that I was probably a little close so ran away, Monty Python style.

It goes to show that however playful these creatures seem, there are limits and those have to be respected. As I understand things if you do get to close to a baby sea lion, its mother will then reject it and leave it to die so you respect the rules and don’t get too close to them even when they come towards you, you need to back off. All I can say is thank God for zoom cameras as it means you can get close without being close.

We stayed on the beach for about an hour but spent most of that time in the water because there were a lot of horse flies on the beach and they bite you which hurts a little because they are attracted to the salt on your skin but if you are in the water they leave you alone. We just had to keep an eye out for the male sea lion who would occasionally do a swim past just to reassert his authority on his territory. After this we headed back to shore.

In the evening we went out to eat at a local restaurant. I had been saving myself for eating lobster in a seaside town and took this opportunity to eat it. It cost $22 dollars and was served with French fries (just like those from a fish and chip shop, YUM! It was delicious.

We then proceeded onto a bar to celebrate our last night in the Galapagos Islands. The bar served relatively cheap cocktails at $6 each but its main attraction was a pool table so we played a few games. It was funny because the table wasn’t flat and tended to roll to the right which made playing shots very interesting. We left at 1am to head for bed.