Las Islas Galapagos - Las Otras Dias

The group changed halfway through the tour, with only Fabrizio and I staying onboard. The second group was, thankfully, far more interesting and we had four Spaniards, and Italian couple, two Dutch, a Irish girl, an Australian girl and an America girl join. Diving continued to be amazing and we got to see sea lions herding schools of fish, heaps of turtles, rays and sharks, one of who I chased for a while before realizing chasing a shark around probably wasn't a good idea and thousands upon thousands of fish. I'm a massive fan of flock and school behaviours, so watching how the schools of fish behaved was really amazing for me. At one point we were even in a school of tuna, fish everywhere you looked. All up I got in 8 dives all of which were great and really different even if we didn't get to see sharks or turtles every dive. I just love going down, hearing my breath and enjoying the way the ocean carries you around. The other dives we did were Punta Cormorant Reef, Devil's Crown, Rabida, at Cousin's Rock and La Punta de Bartulome. They were the hardest diving I'd done, in currents stronger than I'd experienced and I loved every minute of it.

The other great thing in the Galapagos is snorkeling, and we got to snorkel with fish, turtles and, of course, sea lions. I had both the scariest and most amazing moments in my life snorkel in the Galapagos and I'm hooked on it as well.

One day after a dive we went snorkeling in a small bay where there were some sea lions. There was a huge bull who I was keeping my eye on, but ended up swimming away from where he was and put him out of my mind. I was floating around enjoying the view when he swam directly under me, less than 10cm from my stomach. He was well over 2 metres long and, after having all the talk of how dangerous they can be drummed into me, had a very freaky "Oh Goodness Me!" moment, well actually I thought something else, but my nieces and nephew read this. I was still reeling from this when he came back and did the same thing again before swimming off. His point very well made I swam out a little and waited for my heart to slow down before heading back to shore, the ship and a nice hot shower.

The sixth day found me snorkeling with a sea lion again, this time a pup who swam and darted around a big group of us for 10 or 15 minutes before darting off. That was great, but nothing compared to the seventh day, when Kerri (Ireland), Lucy (Australia) and I went snorkeling after a dive and found some feeding turtles who we swam with for about 15 minutes before swimming with another sea lion for half an hour or so. She was so playful and curious, swimming directly at me, stopping 10cms in front of my mask for a few seconds and then darting off, around, over, under, back in front, under, around and then off for a while. We chased her around, diving up and over her all having a great time. Then another sea lion appeared and joined in the fun, then another and another and before we knew it we were playing with five pups, from half to just over one metre long. I was beyond happy and think it was one of, if not the, most incredible experience of my life. Looking into the sea lions eyes as they hover in front of you, seeing the interest and curious amusement in their eyes is amazing, and watching how gracefully they move in the water, absolutely captivating.

The Galapagos Islands are an absolute treasure of this world and I highly recommend that you visit them if you get the chance. Diving and snorkeling there are amazing, as is just walking around the islands. It's hard to know what else to say about a place so amazing, but I've got plenty of photos to help me do that. You can check them out at the usual place.