Sea Lion Kisses
September 29th, 2008 Posted in Celebrity Xpedition, Champion Island, Floreana, Mystery Bay, Not Quite Live from Celebrity Xpedition in Galapagos, galapagos, sea lions
It’s a very busy day today, with the potential for up to 4 excursions, 3 of which allow for snorkeling.
The early morning crew could head to Cormorant Point, hiking into a brackish pond which is fabulous for bird-watching. Flamingos, stilts, pintail ducks and more were seen here. You could snorkel here as well, but not if you wanted to also do the high intensity snorkel, which I’d been told by past passengers was THE place to snorkel and not miss. They were right!
About mid-morning, we loaded our snorkel gear into the zodiacs, and headed out to Champion Island to find the sea lions. Actually, they found us, as they headed into the water as soon as they sighted our boats. They know what the boats meant: PLAY TIME WITH HUMANS! As we got to the drop-off point where we’d slide off the boats into the water, several sea lions were already circling the boats, barking at us, telling us to hurry up and get in with them.
It’s a wondrous moment to realize these wild animals look forward to us and we make them happy and excited. Not often in nature do you get this type of interaction. I’d experienced it before in the Sea of Cortez, and it ranked among my most memorable and happiest animal interactions. These sea lions were just as enthusiastic and happy to see us, and we quickly donned our gear and got into the water.
The excursion is billed as a “high intensity snorkel”, but truly, if you’re comfortable in water above your head and snorkeling in potentially rough conditions (in other words, don’t get panicked if water comes into your snorkel), you should be fine here. I’m sure at times there are some stronger currents than we experienced, but it was a good snorkel where most of the exertion was in playing with the sea lions.
From the moment we dropped in, they surrounded us, darting in and out, zooming around us, begging us to play with them.
Several of the teens and naturalists were good at free diving down with them, and the sea lions loved it!
Many times, it seemed as if they couldn’t figure out why people were heading the other way (though they were likely watching other sea lions)
There were often multiple lions entertaining us – or were we entertaining them?
But it wasn’t all play – they were also fishing while they were out with us.
Interestingly, while the sea lions seemed comfortable with most cameras, they weren’t liking my dome port very much. I think this was new to them, as in the Sea of Cortez, they tended to use it as almost a mirror, coming right up and staying nose to dome with it. With my dome here in Galapaos, they came zooming up to me, but then veer off more quickly than I’m used to.
I think they just don’t see this type of lens and port here with the snorkelers as sea lions elsewhere where they get more divers with the larger camera rigs. By the way, it’s the dome port and fisheye lens that I used which account for the curves you sometimes see at the edges of the frame – such as at the top with the water.
Of course, there are the classic play poses that all sea lions tend to do.
And get a sense of their immense power while swimming.
The bubbles you see in poses like this aren’t from their exhaling, but instead from them barking underwater to communicate.
It wasn’t all sea lions, either. A reef shark was sighted, as were several types of tropical fish.
but the sea lions were absolutely the stars of the show.
It was with regret that we left to head back to the ship for lunch. The good news, however, is that immediately after lunch, there was another high intensity snorkel on the agenda!
During lunch, a huge school of dolphins surrounded the ship, one of the largest I’ve ever seen, with well over 100 individuals. Our Captain handled the ship as nimbly as a zodiac, turning and playing with them, following them, staying with them as long as possible. Yet another good reason to eat lunch out at the Beagle Grill! I just wish I’d had my camera, but alas it was in my cabin still in its underwater casing awaiting the afternoon snorkel excursion.
Mystery Bay was next up, and we were dropped a bit off the bay and swam in. I have to admit, I was a bit puzzled by this, as we didn’t really spot much on the swim in, and the swim was rather high intensity as we were booking along at a good pace over a distance. Since the zodiacs were able to get into the bay to pick us up, it wasn’t for that, so I have to presume it was that we were looking for other critters (such as rays, sharks or turtles) which weren’t in evidence this day.
We did pass one outcropping with Galapagos Penguins, but unfortunately we didn’t veer close to them. One of my few disappointments of the week. I have a feeling our guide didn’t see them.
The water was very dark and murky today, turning everything a bit of a green color underwater, with a lot of sand kicked up. But that didn’t keep a small family of sea lions from coming out to play with us!
This family seemed much more interested in being photographed.
– doesn’t that second shot seem to be asking if I wanted to photograph him, too? This sea lion actually bumped my port he came so close.
Even though there weren’t as many sea lions here, the interactions between sea lions and snorkelers were just as stunning, with them seeking us out to play.
The last excursion option of the day was a wet landing at “Baroness Lookout”, a site which figures prominently in the human history, gossip, mystery and scandals which are a part of these islands. Yes, these islands do have a fascinating human history as well, with many colorful characters, both men and women, attracted to these intriguing islands.
After dinner, many of us gathered on the “WHIG SIG” top deck to get a star gazing lesson from the second officer. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t cooperating by the time she arrived, though we’d already tentatively identified many of the southern constellations. Of course, some of the identifications might not have been accurate, but since we had arranged for “beverage service” up there, we weren’t too concerned by the end. This is such a wonderful way to end the day – lying on the loungers, watching the stars and talking with friends, with after dinner drinks being served to us. We were loving the luxury!
What is WHIG SIG? Several of us the very first day during the bus ride decided that “What Happens in Galapagos Stays in Galapagos” and I promptly named us the WHIG SIGs. So of course, the deck where we would hang out at night (sometimes having to evict the teens who thought it was their territory) became the WHIG SIG deck. All were welcome, as long as they embraced that philosophy and shared their laughter and fun with us.
That night we also got to enjoy the antics of the water creatures once we arrived at our anchorage, as the ship turned on the anchoring lights, attracting the small fish who came to feed, and then the pelicans and sea lions who fed on the fish. You could see the hierarchy of predators in action – the plankton are attracted by the lights, and are fed on by the small fish who, in turn, are eaten by the larger predators. This is the Galapagos – this is nature.