May 26, 2026
Nathan wanted to join a snorkel tour for today, and that really surprised me yesterday. We are not snorkel tour people. We’re independent, judgy snorkelers, better suited to our own plan. But he wanted to do it so I obliged. I’m so glad I did.
We didn’t have to get up and out of our casita until 8:10, so we had a somewhat leisurely start. We ate our breakfast of yogurt and granola, enjoyed our coffee, and left with 10 minutes to spare.
We walked down to the pier area and Nathan took some photos. We saw a baby sea lion suckling it’s mom. So cute.
At 8:20, we walked to the tour company to get set up with gear, and the fellow working told us we had a few more minutes, so we again walked down to the pier.
At 8:45 we rejoined the group at the tour company, got into the bus, and drove across the island to Itabaca Channel and our awaiting boat.
Our group is evenly split with 6 English speakers and 6 Spanish speakers. Once we got to the Itabaca Channel, we climbed onboard the Hippo Campus, our boat, and our guide Roland explained where we would be going. We started out on the boat for about an hour to Pinzon Island.
At Pinzon Island we all got in the water and had to stick pretty close together. This area (and most areas) are protected and you can only enter with a guide.
We saw Galapagos sharks, a large blennie, some type of lizard fish, and parrotfish. The highlight from this spot was the lone sea lion that came out to swim with us. I had heard that if you mimic their twists and turns they think you are playing with them and will continue to engage with you.
In the Galapagos, you are encouraged to keep a 2 meter (6 feet ala COVID times) social distance from the animals, which we did, but I really can’t help it if the animals chose to come closer to me, which they did.
And boy, did they ever. The sea lion was quite friendly and would really swim quite close to us. He played with us and the other guests, and then come back for more.
After about an hour in the water, our guide had us get back onto the boat and we motored to a small beach on Santa Cruz Island called Eden. During the ride, our boat crewmember Oscar served coffee or tea, watermelon, cookies, and baguette slices with jam.
Eden was quite turbid, but we still saw a bunch of fish, and a sting ray. Bonus of this site was we were allowed to swim at our own pace, break off into small groups, and generally do our own thing.
After about 45 minutes, Roland summoned us back on the boat, and we were served ceviche, rice, plantain chips and iced tea.
For the third and final snorkel site, we motored quite a ways to Daphne Island. I was anxious to check it out, because it’s one of tomorrow’s dive sites, and we heard there was a lot of current there.
We all got into the water, and it’s teeming with fishes. There are boobies and other birds overhead, and the place is really a sensory overload.
There are two sea lions in the water here and they are aggressively friendly! They swim right towards our faces and only change course at the last minute to avoid a collision! Nathan even thought one jumped over him. We interacted with them for a long time, and then continued snorkeling along the coast of the island.
We saw many turtles, and one guy even saw a hammerhead shark, but sadly it wasn’t Nathan. But it does give us hope for tomorrow.
Roland hollered for us to turn around and go back to the boat. There were several turtles below us that occupied our attention, and it was as if the sea lions were not willing to be upstaged. They came back, swimming with a vengeance, not willing to play second fiddle to a turtle.
Back on board the boat, we dried off, had a snack of coca cola and bananas (gross!) and motored to the pier. We grabbed all of our belongings, tipped Oscar, disembarked the Hippo Campus, and got back on our bus.
Once back in town, we grabbed more yogurt and granola, and went back to our casita to shower, decompress and get ready for dinner.