Galápagos Snorkel with the Sea Lions

I’ve just returned from a fantastic holiday in Peru, Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands. Unfortunately, I did not get the chance for a “full fat” scuba dive due to time constraints on a fully escorted holiday — but we did have an incredible day’s snorkelling, which I would love to share with the club as a dive report “lite”!

We spent two days on San Cristóbal Island. On day two, we took a boat to a small island inlet about twenty minutes’ sail from the main pier and had a guided walk among the nesting grounds of the islands’ endemic blue-footed boobies. As with all the wildlife on this magical island, they were totally unfazed by us, provided we kept a respectful distance.

Flying overhead were scores of frigate birds that also nest there. These birds have small bodies but huge wing spans, and resemble pterodactyls when viewed from below! The island was also teeming with small lizards, marine iguanas and crabs — including hermit crabs near the shoreline. The Galápagos are home to a large colony of sea lions which live and breed throughout the archipelago.

We then spent a good hour snorkelling along the shoreline. Although there was no reef — just a volcanic rocky shore dropping to about a 20 m sandy bottom in the centre of the channel — it was teeming with life.

The highlight of the dive was that we were joined for the entire time by the colony of sea lions. They spent the whole time inquisitively diving amongst us, coming right up to our masks to take a look at the strange ungainly creatures floating past their home. I took a few dives down a few metres under the surface and just watched in awe as they dived amongst us.

The waters were teeming with tropical fish — surgeon fish, parrot fish, Galápagos ringtail damselfish, stone scorpion fish, Sergeant Major fish and many more. We even spotted an eagle ray and a green turtle.

Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, a blue-footed booby nose-dived into the sea among us to catch a small fish.

A truly memorable morning, followed by lunch on the boat and some beach time, where my wife and I went off for more snorkelling.

The Galápagos sea lions are extraordinary. They are totally comfortable amongst the human inhabitants — to the extent that at night, not content with the rocky shoreline, they “invade” the streets and spend the nights lying out on the warm tarmac of the roads and pavements, or hilariously climbing on to park benches to sleep like huge aquatic vagrants! This is my enduring image of these magical islands.

I would love to return one day for a proper “full fat” scuba dive, as we only scratched the surface of these incredible islands — but in the meantime, I hope this snorkelling version of a dive report is just as enjoyable. Unfortunately, I did not have a waterproof case for my camera, so I have no underwater footage of a great day, but hopefully Richard’s surface shots (to follow) will give a feel for the magic of the Galápagos.