I look up and see this black shape swim up along with Graham who is unaware that a sea lion just popped up for a little nosey. I am afraid to make any noise to alert Graham and scare away the little sea lion who is very curious as it turns out. after swimming next to Graham for a minute it gets bored and turns around to me. Im not quite sure what to think of that as the sea lion swims up to me fast and just holds about 50 cm from my face. it takes all of my will power to suppress my fight and flight response as little seals are still quiet big. he swims around us a bit more and hovers under me and looks straight into my eyes. It´s so amazing.
we decided to go to the Galapagos after all and what a great decision that was. Thank you James. Its a sunny island paradise, with beautiful white beaches covered with sea lions who have no fear of humans what so ever. they are on the bench in the park, underneath the stairs up to the slide for the little kids and swimming in the water playing shark with their flipper sticking up. there are big sealions (the males) and the smaller ones (the females)and the babies who are the most curious and seem to enjoy being washed into the shore with the waves. did you know they sound a bit like sheep though. and they cough like a patient with pneumonia.
we hire some snorkel gear and instantly we are in paradise. the amount of different coloured fish we see just out from the beach is incredible. there are black fish with bright yellow lips, big flat grey fish with yellow fins who swim in big schools and big parrot fish. chilling out on the beach is no penelty either as its around 30 degrees with perfect sunshine.
the next day we go for a little hike along the island to find a secluded bay all for ourselves. its very well visible that the island is formed by volcanic activity as there is lava rock everywhere, on the way to the beach we spot a snake just in time. its only a tiny one but big enough to give me high blood pressure. the flora reminds we more of desert like landscape with small trees without leaves and lots of cacti.
we jump in the water with our snorkeling gear and after a few minutes out we spot a sea turtle swimming above the sea bed. we carefully follow him being amazed by the majestic movements of the prehistoric creature. i look up and see an even bigger one at a distance of about 3 meters going to the surface for air. he is about the size of me from head to tail and alot more curious than the first one as he as well decides to take a closer look at me. they are amazing creatures to see like that in the wild.i practice a bit more swimming down and actually spot a fish laying its eggs. it looks really funny ,they kind of squirt them out.
we get out of the water to warm up on our private pier and have to be careful not to get bitten in the leg by sammy the sea lion who seems to think that the stairs up is the best place to sunbath and is not going to move for us, forcing us to step over him. when we got here earlier we spotted two blue footed boobies which turn out to be a bird with the brightest blue feet you can imagine. we also see a swimming Iguana which are unique to the galapgos, and lots of pelicans, so its a successful day of wildlife spotting.
