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Snorkeling
Mar. 11th, 2010 12:35 pmWe snorkeled almost every day. Of course we've done a lot of snorkeling in the past, mostly in the Caribbean, but this was the first time I've ever worn a wetsuit. (We didn't originally think we'd need them, but they told us several good reasons for using them: (1) we were likely going to be in the water a long time, and even mid-70s(F) water will chill you after a while; (2) it protects your back and legs from sunburn; (3) sometimes, unpredictably, there are jellyfish around, and one does not want to get stung. (An additional advantage to the wetsuit is that it increases buoyancy.) It took me a while, among the boat's rather large collection of suits, to find one that actually fit me well enough so that I could put it on without too much of a struggle, but I'm glad I did.
Mostly we did "deep-water" snorkeling, which means going out in an inflatable dinghy and swimming directly from it; thus we could visit places where the shoreline is essentially cliff, and thus inaccessible from the land. A lot of fish and other creatures frequent these cliffs.
In addition to large numbers of fish in a large assortment of sizes, shapes, and colors (many of which were new to me), we saw large numbers of several kinds of sea stars. Our second day was on a stretch of coast frequented by green sea turtles, which are pretty big, and don't mind having people around (a characteristic they share with most of the Galapagos wildlife). At one point on this day I saw something that looked kind of turtle-shaped, but much smaller, moving rapidly away from me, and my first thought was, "My, the young turtles move fast!" But later on I got a better look at these creatures, and discovered that they were penguins.
Yes, there are penguins on these equatorial islands: specifically. the Galapagos Penguin, which is the northernmost and third-smallest species of penguin in the world (might be as much as a foot long, not more). Having them dart past immediately below you is quite a thrill.
On one of the days when we snorkeled off a beach, most people (including![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jwg saw a group of white-tipped reef sharks a little way offshore, but I never got to the place where they were hanging out (I was having trouble with my mask leaking more than usual that day). But on the last day we did encounter a few sea lions in the water, doing their barrel rolls and other aquabatics.
John now wishes he owned an underwater camera. And I need some more suitable user icons.
Mostly we did "deep-water" snorkeling, which means going out in an inflatable dinghy and swimming directly from it; thus we could visit places where the shoreline is essentially cliff, and thus inaccessible from the land. A lot of fish and other creatures frequent these cliffs.
In addition to large numbers of fish in a large assortment of sizes, shapes, and colors (many of which were new to me), we saw large numbers of several kinds of sea stars. Our second day was on a stretch of coast frequented by green sea turtles, which are pretty big, and don't mind having people around (a characteristic they share with most of the Galapagos wildlife). At one point on this day I saw something that looked kind of turtle-shaped, but much smaller, moving rapidly away from me, and my first thought was, "My, the young turtles move fast!" But later on I got a better look at these creatures, and discovered that they were penguins.
Yes, there are penguins on these equatorial islands: specifically. the Galapagos Penguin, which is the northernmost and third-smallest species of penguin in the world (might be as much as a foot long, not more). Having them dart past immediately below you is quite a thrill.
On one of the days when we snorkeled off a beach, most people (including
jwg saw a group of white-tipped reef sharks a little way offshore, but I never got to the place where they were hanging out (I was having trouble with my mask leaking more than usual that day). But on the last day we did encounter a few sea lions in the water, doing their barrel rolls and other aquabatics.John now wishes he owned an underwater camera. And I need some more suitable user icons.
