Today was amazing. First thing after breakfast we jumped in to dinghies and went to a beach on Gardner Bay, where there were tonnes of sea lions, iguanas and brightly colored crabs. We also saw 4 large marine turtles swimming just off the shore.
After returning to the boat we sailed to a small Island and snorkeled for over an hour. The island had steep volcanic cliffs plunging into the water and we swam around them watching the various fish feeding off the rocks. At one point we came across a school of thousands of silver fish and were amazed when 4 sea lions appeared and started swimming around them, and then us! They swam around us and below us and stared at us, totally unafraid of our presence.
On the Galapagos Islands there is very little history of people hunting animals, so they really don’t see humans as a threat. The Islands are a national park and the rules are that you should never touch an animal or get within about one metre, but they often approach humans and are very tame. We loved swimming along with the sea lions!
After lunch we went for a short hike around Puerto Suarez – we saw loads of animals – more sea lions, iguanas and crabs, as well as lava lizards. We also saw loads of birds called Nazca Boobies – some of which had babies with them – infact, we saw birds of all ages – and even saw how they were created when a couple started to mate in front of us – these Galapagos animals really aren’t shy!
We also saw a couple of blue-footed boobies, another unique Galapagos species – their feet are really bright blue!
One of the last things we saw was a lonesome albatross – it was very comical looking, although rather sad – all of his mates have migrated and for some reason he’s stayed here on his own. We called him Billy.
Other than those we saw several hawks, frigates (which look spookily like pterodactyls when flying overhead) and mocking birds - a truly memorable day!
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