Travel With Betsy

Dr. Seuss knew what he was talking about when he created this fun children’s story. I wonder if he had the opportunity to visit the Galapagos Islands to see the beautiful and colorful fish here? I hope so. The snorkeling days we have had here in the Galapagos have been some of the best times of the trip so far. Who knew there were so many things living under the water and so much going on there?! It has been a real education for me.

In the last days, I learned that there is a rainbow of fish…and some other things, too…. living in the depths of the waters in and around the Galapagos Islands.   I had no idea what I would find a few days ago when I looked below the surface of the water for the first time. When I took my first dip, I was pleasantly surprised to see a whole palette of color moving around me. It was just incredible!

I have now had several “real” snorkeling experiences in addition to the training day…and, I’m feeling very confident about the technical part. I’m still wearing the “floatee” thing, even on the last snorkel day. But, I’m OK with that if it means I can continue to watch the fish swim and play under the water during my time here in paradise.

The first day of snorkeling was the most interesting for me, probably because it was so new. When I put my head in the water, I immediately saw fish below me. They were curious and started to move towards me, which was, frankly, a bit shocking. But, then, I realized that I was visiting them in their home, and they just wanted to take a look to see who was there. Once they saw me and exchanged a few friendly “hellos”, they were happy to move on. The depth perception in the water is skewed a bit, so I’m not really even sure how close they were to me. But, it looked like I could reach out and touch them, which we were instructed not to do, so I didn’t try. It was quite surreal.

Somewhere at the beginning of this first experience, I bobbed my head up to see where I was. As I looked out over the surface of the water, I saw 2 seals moving through the water together. They were heading right towards me. They came so close that I thought they would knock me over. Again, it was startling to me, but they had no fear, so I didn’t either.   They just came up to check me out and then went on side by side together. I put my head back down into the water and looked as far below as I could.   A seal and a large fish were chasing each other playfully in a circle. It looked like it was close to the bottom. Really, I don’t know if they were playing or if one was chasing the other. But, I choose to think that they were having fun. It was cute to watch!

Before long, I looked up and right in front of me was a flightless Cormoran diving into the water. This bird doesn’t fly because its wings are too small. They simply dive into the water from the surrounding rocks where they sit, swim down to get some food, and then return to their perches along the shore. The guide said that they are very curious birds. They will come right up to you and check you out….and, sometimes touch you. On the second snorkel day, one of them approached me and said his “hellos”. I guess I didn’t look too interesting, and I definitely wasn’t food, so he moved on. Truth be told, though, one of the other cruisers was “attacked” by one of these things and had to push it off a little bit. I didn’t see it, but it sounded quite exciting!

I floated along with the current and before too long, I saw 2 sea turtles swimming along. They were close to the bottom and taking their time as they moved along.

There were more sea lions as I swam through. All just swimming along and sometimes playing with each other.

The second day of snorkeling was more of the same, but there were more of the brightly colored fish than the day before. I wish I knew the names of them. The only one I was able to really identify was the “puffer fish”, but only because David, my cabin neighbor, was swimming near me and knew what it was. It was a kind of white fish with some brown spots on it. David tried to make it puff up by tickling it under the belly, but, alas, he wasn’t able to get it to “puff”. But, I have to say that in its natural state, it was quite attractive.

The fish were truly a rainbow of color. My favorite was one that was mostly bright orange with some black stripes. It was a little bit oblong in shape. I saw lots of them swimming through the schools of smaller fish. They were stunning.

There was a “flavor” of fish for everyone. Sometimes I would look down and see yellow fish with black stripes, or fish of neon blue, or light lilac colored fish. Sometimes the fish were just black or grey….or so it seemed.   They were all shapes and sizes. I saw them traveling alone and sometimes in a group of similarly colored fish. And, sometimes, I saw a mixture of all different kinds and colors of fish floating along with the current.

My favorite experience of the first 2 days was swimming with a school of fish. As the waves crashed on the shoreline and washed back to the ocean, I could just float on the top and move out with the current. As I was moving along, I looked down and saw school after school of fish. They appeared to be very close to the surface. I looked right and then looked left and realized that I was in the middle of the group of fish. How incredible is that? I felt like I was a part of their little fish community. They were very welcoming!

On our last snorkeling day, which was today, I had the experience of actually swimming alongside a sea lion. It came up next to me and looked up at me as if to say, “Let’s go play”, and I did…for a short time until it dipped down into the water and moved on to its next playmate. I wanted to dip down with it, but the “floatee” kept me on the surface. What a thrill to get that close to him!

I will never forget these last few days in the water.  I am absolutely blown away by the movement, the colors and the fact that you can get so close to these animals and they don’t bother you. Many of them never move. They simply look at you and then just go on about their business.

As I looked for the last time down through the clear water, I realized that the fish, sea lions, birds and other creatures of the Galapagos were living together in what appeared to be “perfect harmony”. They all have a place in their world and seemed to accept each other for what they were. I had a fleeting thought that it would be nice if we, as a human race, could just move along in peace with each other. But, we don’t do that. And, I guess, neither do the sea creatures all of the time. But, it’s a nice thought.

I will end by telling you that today, on our last snorkel day, I was actually able to instruct a fellow passenger on the fine art of snorkeling. Jaima, whom we met on one of the earlier days, was a beginning snorkeler, too, and she was a little nervous about going out. She was doing the same thing I was doing on the first day. Chatting along nervously…wondering when she should put on fins, how to prepare her mask, etc. Her husband wasn’t going today, so she needed a buddy. I offered to go with her and so we went. I found myself doing the same thing that Enrike did with us on the very first day. Taking her through the process of using the equipment and how to position herself in the water, and then pointing out some of the sights as we went along. Before too long, we were pointing things out to each other. It was a nice feeling think that I was able to help her. Sadly, I lost track of her in the water, but there is literally no way that one can get lost, so I felt OK about that. The Zodiac boats surround the snorkel group at all times and watch for people in distress. When we regrouped on the Zodiac at the end of our time, Jaima and I were both happy with our respective experiences. Who knew that I could get the hang of this snorkeling business well enough to help someone else. If that isn’t success, I don’t know what is!

So, now I really am thinking that I will open a snorkel shop!

Let me know if you want a lesson!

This entry was posted on February 25, 2016 at 12:21 am and is filed under Group Travel, South America, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.