Underwater Adventures in the Galapagos

As much fun as I was having hanging out with sea lions on the beach, as it turns out, they’re even MORE fun underwater!! On land, they just kind of lounge around on the beach, soaking up the sun (can you blame them!?) but underwater, they zip around like they own the ocean!

RAAWR!!

Check out my Youtube video if you’re still not convinced these kids are the sea’s royalty!

(Fun video fact: “High for This” was the #1 song choice when I googled “underwater songs”, which I found far too ironic to pass up.)

In review of the video, I got the chance to play with these beauties again on San Cristobal, Santa Cruz and Santiago islands. Of course, there were also tons of sea turtles, fish and even the occasional shark – despite what rumours seem to lead people to believe, the Galapagos sharks I encountered were actually kind of shy, hiding behind reefs. (While this could be shyness, it could also just be their crafty way of being a cunningly elusive hunter – bumbum BUUUUUM!)

Our dive spot in Santa Cruz was especially popular with the locals, as just as we were about to hop in the water, a pod of dolphins appeared out of nowhere! Squealing at impossibly high and loud octaves (I’m actually surprised any non-dogs could hear me), I sprang into the water and bolted after the pod at super speed (grateful to be putting by triathlon training to real-world dolphin chasing use)! For a while, I was surrounded by the pod, who seemed to be gracefully floating through the currents as I flailed to keep up.

Before I could reach for the “play” button on my GoPro, the group was gone. It was an amazing moment to be able to be a part of and though it was was fleeting, seemed to exist outside of time and isn’t something I’ll soon forget!