Graham looks with facination at the little curious bird picking at his baby toe while he rests a bit after his surf on loberia beach. I just finished my yoga and found out that standing on your head on the beach is extra hard.
once the sun gets to warm we go for a bit of a snorkel and cool down. one bay is even nicer than the last here. in this one we are encountered by four big sea turtles and when we follow one of them we see a stingray. my first reaction is one of fear as after all it was one of these animals that killed Steve Erwin. but i cant help but be amazed by the beauty of this creature. I remember reading that Steve was extremely unfortunate as Stingrays are not aggressive and that when you keep your distance you are fine. So i decide to follow Graham who seems to have none of these objections.this animal seems to have quite a big body and is not as flat as the ones Ive seen on TV and in pictures.
After some time i notice that a sea lion has come out to play with me.he seems to have a particular interest in me and im not sure if im happy with that as he swims up to my mask to about 20 cm distance. I think he is a young male and he is showing off to me by hanging upside down in the water and going backloops and twirling around me. but that is nothing compared to the experience we have the next day when we are on another beach. the seal there is so interested in us that he nearly hits me with his tail and when i get out of the water i feel his snout hair tiggle my big toes. that was not enough though for the little one as he has a little nibble at my lower leg to check out my weird flippers. its only a playful bite like dogs do so he doesnt hurt me, but its still a little bit too much excitment for me and with a shreek i run out of the water, in time to see the little bugger do the same to Graham who handles the situation a bit better and just gives the sea lion a bit of a push away.
its in that same bay that we encounter about 10 different sea turtles, some of them huge. there are quite some groups of tourists turning up in the afternoon which can be entertaining as the adulesant male sea lions seem to enjoy approaching the fat Americans agressively which gets them to run along the beach with girly screams followed by a running sea lion sounding like a wounded sheep.
