Everyone knows about the giant tortoises, iguanas, and blue footed boobies in the Galapagos. You literally have to step around them as you walk around the different islands. However, the real wildlife bonanza here is revealed only when you put on a mask and snorkel and look underwater. Giant schools of fish fill the water column. Sea turtles and sharks swim by. And curious sea lions come so close that they might even chew on your camera playfully.
I could have stayed underwater here for a long long time. I was very eager to see some of the rarer endemic wildlife underwater, like the Galapagos penguins, flightless cormorants, and marine iguanas. I had my old GoPro camera mounted on a pole ready to go.
Well, it turned out that the ocean conditions didn't cooperate entirely with us for our underwater time. The waves were quite big, which stirred up a lot of sediment, decreasing the clarity of the water. We had to cancel one beach snorkel because of huge waves. In fact, one wave was so big that it swept people's bags, shoes, and cameras out to see at one point. But despite the rough conditions we still got in and snorkeled a bunch of times. I wasn't able to get many good pictures of the rare endemic animals above, but check out the photos below!
The real stars were the sea lions. I had some wonderful, intimate encounters with them kissing my camera, gnawing the camera stick, and even chewing on my fin at one point. I mostly took videos, but you can see some of the still shots I have down below.
There is at least 8 Galapagos sea lions in this rare photo
It was like a tornado of sea lions here at Champion Island.
They were so curious. I think they should be renamed 'Sea Dogs' with how playful they are.
Galapagos Sea Lion
One good thing about the GoPro's wide lens is that you can get super close to the animals and still get a shot like this. It works so well in a place like Galapagos where you can get so close to the wildlife because they have no fear of humans.
This Green Sea Turtle was getting washed around by the waves, but would take big mouthfuls of algae on the way. The little wrasse in front of the turtle's face would eat any spare algae floating away from the turtle's mouth.
This is a usual kind of view here in the Galapagos....fish everywhere! The yellow tailed fish in the middle is a King Angelfish.
Another school of King Angelfish in the deep blue
Yellow tailed surgeonfish grazing on algae
This is a bad picture because it was nighttime, but check out how many sharks are in the water, circling our ship!
I hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride. The underwater world is just amazing. Like I always say, snorkeling is your window to a whole new world!
-Dai Mar
[//]:# (!pinmapple -0.43121 lat -90.72169 long Underwater Galapagos d3scr)