Day 42: Snorkeling with Sharks and Sea Lions (Galapagos Islands)

3/6/2017

This morning I woke up about 20min bwfore the sunrise (6:20) so decided to stay up and watch it. It was beautiful to see over the ocean and wonderful to watch from the comfort of our balcony. Then today, we set out for our first yacht tour. However, on our way via taxi boat from Finch Bay to Porta Ayora, we saw a boat sinking! My dad and I had noticed it before because it looked so delepadated and totally abandoned. He even saw some sort of notice sign on it before. But this morning when we drove past, the stern was in the water (see photo.) However sad, especially as an ecological disaster in a place such as the Galapagos where the ecosystem is so fragile!

Anyways, for the tour we took a bus from Porta Ayora to the north end of Santa Cruz to the canal where we met the Sea Lion, the hotel's yacht. It was my dad and I, the Evans (the family from yesterday), a couple, and a few others that joined us. On our way, we saw a spotted ray, brown ray, and several seals. Our first stop was an island where we anchored out and then took the zodiac to shore. We walked along the beach where we could see the holes that the Toirtous' have dug for their eggs. We also saw more red crabs and marine Iguanas. We walked to a small lagoon near the beach where a pink flamingo was. It was beautiful to see, and we were so lucky that one was there. They eat crab and shrimp larva, and water insects. However it's the keratin that makes them pink. So the more pink they are, the more keratin they have ate. Our guide also said that the ones at zoos are often fed extra keratin to make them as pink as they are. After the lagoon, we took a quick dip in the ocean to get a break from the heat. Then we took the zodiac back to the boat. We were also going to snorkel here, but the waves were too fierce. We drove about 45min to North Seymore island where we then went snorkeling.

Everyone got their snorkel gear ready, and jumped over. Right where we entered the water, there was a group of sea lions ready to swim with us. They swam right beside us and around us, it was amazing! One even came right up in front of me, bit the flipper of the woman swimming in front of me, looked at me, and then swam off. The snorkeling here was very different from Belize. The water was still very clear, but we were right next to an island where the rock slowly dropped off. Not like the reef cliffs in Belize. Also, it was all rock and there was no coral. We saw beautiful fish with bright colors, especially the parrot fish. I even saw (I know it's not called this, but I don't know the official name) a really big yellow and black angel fish. Then, our tour guide says to the group "watch this." He dives down toward the underside of a huge rock to spook out about 6-8 white tipped sharks! They were swimming around us which was also amazing.

After the snorkel tour we went back onto the boat to find a new group of people that had joined us! About six new faces. We ate lunch on board, then headed to our next destination which was north Seymore island to see blue Footed Boobies and friggot Birds! Of all the animals in the Galapagos, I was definitely the most excited to see blue Footed boobies. We walked around the island for about an hour and a half looking first at tons of friggot birds, then the blue Footed Boobies were on the other side. The friggot bird males were beautiful with a full red chest. It's mating season, so a few were also inflating their chest like a balloon and dancing as a way to show off and attract the females. It's also mating season for the blue Footed Boobies so I was really hoping to see a boobie dance, but unfortunately didn't get to see one. However seeing the animals themselves were special enough. They're all so beautiful in their own unique ways.

After the tour, the yacht took us back to shore where we took the bus back to Porta Ayora for the hotel. We had some time before sunset when we returned, so we went swimming again. Then, we showered and got ready because we were meeting a couple and the Evans family to go into town, Porta Ayora. We wandered around for about an hour then headed back. For dinner we ate with the couple and enjoyed having some new company. Tomorrow we're doing another yacht tour!

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