Snorkeling In Galapagos

Doing Snorkeling In Galapagos, Funny Stories Underwater

For those not so avid swimmers or first-time snorkelers, I would like to share with you one of the cutest snorkeling stories I experienced from the many times I jumped in the warm waters of the Galapagos Islands.

One of my travelers once asked: 

- "Roberto, tell us about a time you feared being underwater. Isn't it dangerous to swim in Galapagos?

And this is what I replied:

- "being able to travel to the Galapagos Islands year-round is a unique opportunity to connect with nature, no fear at all, important lessons can be taken from small details like this I'm about to tell you:

From the many WOW moments that have stayed with me over the years, this is one of my favorites:

It was another snorkeling morning in Champion Islet near Floreana Island, and I was about to enjoy it together with my travelers.

Is everybody ready? I asked -Yeah! replied the group with one voice.

We were all excited and ready, so we jumped in the water and started to swim away from the boat, soon after a group of Galapagos sea lions appeared and we decided to follow them not foreseeing the spectacle we were about to witness.

Galapagos Sea Lions. Photo by Roberto Peralvo

The sea lion group moved along but one of them stayed behind and got closer to us, and just before my group and I started to swim again, we saw something amazing! Right in front of us, this curious sea lion started to play with a pebble, the animal collected it very gently from the bottom, put it in its mouth, then swam to the surface and let it go again to the bottom… picking it up, swimming up, throwing it and swimming down, over and over again, not once but several times… it was the first time I saw a sea lion playing like a kid with a toy!"

It seemed like this sea lion was the happiest of all in the ocean, this showed us that small things in our day-to-day can make a big difference in our lives if we know how to take advantage of them. What a lesson we all learned that day! The animals spread so much joy and we humans should be freer to enjoy life like a kid, just as that cute sea lion taught us that day.

Lucky me, I was able to record it with my underwater camera -do not forget to bring yours, the next time you go snorkeling- so here's the video.

Enjoy it!

Snorkeling in Champion Islet, Floreana. Video by Roberto Peralvo

Until next time fellows!

Your <virtual> guide,
Roberto