Galapagos Journal - Deep Water Snorkeling

Normally we don’t like to wear wet suits. We generally pick warm water places to snorkel or dive but we weren’t about to miss out on what we could see in Galapagos. We donned dive skins (our own) and short wetsuits provided by the ship. We had brought our own snorkels and masks and the ship provided swim fins and a bag to stow all the gear in.

Once suited up and life jackets on for the ride, we boarded a zodiac and headed for the drop off point. It was a long bumpy ride against the waves and into the wind. I kept hoping that wherever we were going would be out of the waves and wind.

The naturalist picked a spot that was relatively calm but did have a bit of a current. We donned our fins and snorkels and jumped in the chilly water. The plan was to start at one end of the bay area and drift with the current around to the far point. It didn’t require much effort and the reward was great.

The sea lions wondered what all this activity was out in the water and soon they were out swimming with us and around us. They would do flips and somersaults in the water and act like entertaining clowns.

Oh, there were some schools of fish around as well but they just couldn’t compete for our attention like the sea lions did.


One other thing of note, there were not any corals. There are some areas that have coral but it is difficult for it to survive in the Galapagos. The islands sit in the middle of five different currents which alternately change the water temperature. Add to that several strong El Ninos that brought warmer waters and the corals struggled to survive. The warm water during those times caused the corals to lose their symbiotic algae which caused bleaching and left them open to disease. I'm guessing these were different corals than what we would see in the Caribbean since those corals survive in a warmer water temperature.

All too soon, we were to the other end of the bay and Juan Carlos was calling us back to the zodiac. Few of us wanted to end our adventure. Cold water? We never noticed after the initial jump in and the chatter about all we’d seen warmed us on the long but much easier ride back to the ship.