Underwater Adventures

I’ve been back from Ecuador nearly 2 months now and I still haven’t finished blogging about my trip. At the rate I am going I may continue writing about this trip all year long.

One of the new things I decided to try during my time in the Galapagos was snorkeling. My uncle wanted me to get SCUBA certified but I didn’t have enough time before I left. However, I was still amazed at what I was able to see near the surface of the ocean. Just like on land, the marine life were inches away from me.

The first place I tried snorkeling was at this beach on San Cristobal Island called La Lobería (lobo = sea lion). As soon as I submerged my whole body, it was as if I had entered a different world. There were sea lions, turtles and tons of amazing fish swimming all around me.

La Lobería is a sea lion’s beach. If a sea lion wants to lie on your beach towel, he will hobble up and lie on your beach towel. 

My Swiss friend Loreen joined me for my first snorkeling adventure. The water was cold so we had to wear wetsuits. 

While renting my snorkeling equipment, I decided to invest in a disposable Kodak under-water camera. Best 18 dollars I ever spent.

Rewinding to my first day on San Cristobal: The day I met my fellow volunteers while they were all still in the port town for the weekend, they invited me to go Kayaking with them. I’d been Kayaking before in Los Haitises in the DR, but Kayaking in the Galapagos was a lot more difficult. It was all really worth the work and the soreness I was in later.   A few weeks later I went back to the area where we had kayaked to to try snorkeling for the 2nd time. It was called Cerro Tijeretas (tijereta = frigate bird) and it was a much easier place to snorkel because there were no waves. However, there wasn’t much to see at the time that I went.

I caught a picture of this sea cucumber: 

I also tried diving down deep for the first time. I was with a guide and he pointed out this stingray for me to get a picture of. I got close for the picture and then shot right back up.

After snorkeling a few times now, I felt ready to upgrade to the next level: Kicker Rock. Kicker Rock (a.k.a. Leon Dormido) is a giant lava rock in the middle of the Pacific that looks like somebody took a giant sword to it and hacked it in two. The canal between the two rocks is where the Galapagos sharks like to hang out. It took a lot of mental preparation to join this tour, but I had stepped out of my comfort zone several times already so I figured, what’s one more time?

So glad the disposable camera captured these guys. There was no zoom, so this is as close as they were to me. I was able to take a few pictures without freaking out, but this was the only one that came out because the visibility wasn’t great.

I couldn’t leave San Cristobal Island without taking a picture with a sea lion on a the boardwalk. I leave you with this picture of the sea lion before he woke up…

And then after he woke up and yelled at me…

The land life of San Cristóbal Island

After a couple weeks of exploring and volunteering on San Cristóbal, I was able to get some pictures of the wildlife here. The pictures are extra awesome because they were not taken at a zoo – these animals are just roaming the streets/beaches/forests of the Galapagos Islands. You don’t even have to go off the beaten path to see them. It’s like they’re used to all of the people that come to these islands because you can walk right up to them and they don’t even back away.

The first sighting was at the Galapaguera tortoise reproduction station because we worked there two times a week cutting down the lantana and reforesting the endemic plants that are found in the area. I took way too many pictures of these guys, but I just have one here. See my previous post for more.

The other day while we were working closer to the Jatun Sacha station, we saw this owl just hanging out in a tree while we worked. Luckily we caught her (I think it looks like a girl) before we chopped down that tree. She was beautiful!

El chancho (wild pig) – definitely invasive but still cute. This is Ozzy, the Jatun Sacha pet, which will be domesticated and eventually neutered to keep from reproducing. He was more like a dog than a pig.

Just walking along the malecón in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, you see a ton of animals all around… This is the most close-up picture of a pelican I’ve ever taken.

This is the infamous Blue-Footed Booby. This might be my new favorite bird.

On Saturday, we went on a hike at La Lobería where we saw a ton of sea lions and marine iguanas. The iguanas were huge and blended right in with the volcanic rocks so you had to really focus to try not to step on one. The further in we got, the more there were. They would remain immobile, even when we crept up to them, and then they would spit out salt water about every 5 minutes.This is a male – apparently the males are more colorful.

The finches were flying and hopping all around me at the beach. If you eat crackers on the beach, they will even hop right on you. Even this ordinary-looking bird is cute on the Galápagos!

Now for my favorite part: the sea lions were literally EVERYWHERE. They don’t stop being cute! They are on the sidewalks, benches, rocks and beaches all around the island and I can’t seem to get enough pictures of them. The tortoises and sea lions have almost filled my memory card. You can get so close to them and they don’t wake up for anything. They are a lazy bunch but fun to share the beach with – albeit a bit smelly if you get too close.

I guess this is how the sea lions have their fun. This water slide is not for people.

Feeding party!

I can’t believe I took this with my own camera…

Let this be the last image you see before you sleep tonight.