The Galápagos is home to many unique species. Some of them live on land but in my opinion the water owns an even wider diversity of life. With this said, we were going on a boat to an island called Santa Fe. This is where we were going to go snorkeling. We were going on a day trip and we started on Santa Cruz, then went to Santa Fe where we would go snorkeling two times. Then we would come back to Santa Cruz and snorkel once and also take a walk to see marine iguanas and blue-footed boobies.

We arrived at Santa Fe and put on wetsuits, snorkels, life jackets, and flippers.

The water was at the most twenty feet deep. Our guide was the first one ready out of the eleven of us. He sat on the edge of the boat, put down his mask, put in his snorkel and flopped into the water. Everyone followed. I was the last one. There I was sitting on the edge of the boat, shaking. One, two, three, jump. Those words never did anything! Finally the guide gave me his hand and I jumped in. I soaked up the water like a dry rag. The water spilled in from my legs and my neck and not one single part of me was dry. “You are dry?” The guide asked. “Not at all.” I mumbled, but out loud I answered the opposite. I put the snorkel I my mouth and put my face in the water. Fish! Thousands and thousands of fish. A large group of them swam past me and I looked over. They were dark, shiny blue with a yellow stripe in the middle. Many other fish passed and what surprised me was that I found something different in each of them.

I finally gave up trying to fight the cold so I swam back to the boat and had a break. We drove the boat about ten more minutes to the next spot. It wasn’t too long but we still got a snack. There were Oreos and juice, which gave me a good energy boost. We arrived at the next lagoon where we are going to play with sea lions. Since I was so freezing cold at the last spot, I put on a spare wetsuit under the other to be extra warm. Like the last spot, everyone jumped in before I did. I sat on the edge again, waited for two or three seconds, then plopped myself in and swam to where the rest of the group was. To my surprise, the water was very shallow. I could stand flat-footed on the bottom.

The water in front of me twirled and I looked. A baby sea lion, only two feet away from me flipped and jumped and I realized that it was coming closer and closer. I tried to stay on the rock that I was standing on but the current was too strong and I slipped. I flipped and twirled as much as the sea lions did and after that a sea lion hit me with one of its flippers.

After a few more minutes we swam to a different spot in the lagoon to find sea turtles. Two turtles were side by side and I could see them clearly. Again the water soaked through me, chilling me to the bone, and I climbed back into the boat.

After everyone got in the lunch was served. The guide joked with us that we wouldn’t have lunch unless we caught it and he cast two fishing rods into the ocean. Within 5 minutes we had caught a fish – but we didn’t eat it! He saved it for the next day, as our food had already been cooked and prepared. The fish (tuna) tasted really yummy and gave me another energy boost.

After lunch the boat took off at high speed across the ocean. You could see only water in every direction. We drove for an hour and finally arrived at Santa Cruz. We jumped out of the boat and walked ashore. Loads of marine iguanas greeted us as we tried to find our footing across the bumpy volcanic rock. They would sit on the rocks to get warm and once their body temperature reached a certain level they would head toward the water to eat.

Sitting on a large rock on the shore were two blue-footed boobies. Their blue feet looked so odd, against the black volcanic rock and their white bodies. They looked at us curiously as we approached, but didn’t seem overly concerned.

After our short walk around the shore we headed back out to the boat and drove out a few meters into the lagoon. It was time for our final snorkel. Our guide was hoping to see some sharks this time. Instead we were happy to find another pair of sea turtles who swam close to us for quite some time.

Snorkeling in the Galapagos was an amazing experience. The wildlife is so abundant and comes so close to you. Just make sure you have a warm wetsuit because the water is cold!

The Galápagos Islands are named after a very unique species: tortoises. Today we were going to see the giant tortoises. We took a 30 minute taxi to where you could see the tortoises in their natural habitat. We stopped at the first tortoise, two meters from where I was standing. Too bad you couldn’t touch them! It stood 1 meter tall and looked like a large bolder.

We passed a second, then a third, all of them looked the same but they were everywhere!

We got to the end of the path and there lay two tortoise shells. We asked if we could go in them and we could. I looked at the front. I looked at the back. HOW DO I GET IN?! I put one of my feet in the front of the shell, then the other. I got on the ground and shimmied the rest of my body through. To my surprise I was comfortable. We took a few pictures then got back in the taxi and drove back.

It was both scary and fun. It was scary because you were afraid of stepping on a turtle. It was fun because it was just plane cool!

Today we visited Las Grietas. Las Grietas is a small grotto that is full of water so clear you could see every single fish swimming around in it. We brought snorkels so we could see everything. There was also a dock raised up about five feet above the water that you could jump off of. 

There was an extremely large assortment of fish in Las Grietas. Some were a bland grey, others were a very vibrant blue. Since we had gone snorkeling in Australia, we knew how to snorkel, so we were able to see many of these fish up close since we knew how to dive underwater. My favourite fish was a fairly large one that was black with white zigzag stripes and a bright blue ring around its eye. That fish was the most colourful of them all. 

 Once you swam through part of the grotto, you reached a pile of rocks that you could climb over to get to a tiny pool, and then you had to climb over another pile of rocks to reach another long grotto that went on for quite a ways. We only snorkeled in the second grotto for a short distance, because there was no resting point, meaning we had to tread water for about 40 minutes. Connor and I were also freezing to death. The water was ice cold. We snorkeled there for about an hour before climbing out of the water and drying off.

I would recommend this grotto for people new to snorkeling, because there are no currents, barely any people (if you go early and leave before four o’clock), and the water is so clear you can see everything. The only downside is that the water is freezing, but other than that, this place was great. 

Waves could be seen from pretty much anywhere if you were standing in the right spot – some big, some small, and some in-between. Big waves were right in our faces and they would flood everything in their path. We were at Tortuga Bay. Tortuga means turtle but it’s ironic because we didn’t see any of them here. The waves, however, were at least 10 feet high. Caleb and I sat on the sand closest to the waves. We went up and down with the waves as the tide got higher and higher. A two-foot wave crashed into us and soaked the entire shore. Caleb jumped up and started sprinting to shore. I was sitting down and then looked over my shoulder. A wave, so big it looked as tall as me standing, was heading my way. I was not sitting anymore, I was sprinting for my life and the wave was right on my tail. I could feel its cool water on my heels. I ran as fast as I could to where our belongings lay. The wave was so powerful we had to pick up everything or else it would have pulled our stuff into the ocean. The lifeguard said that the tide was coming in too quickly so we had to leave and go home. Tortuga Bay was a blast for me and I would definitely go again, but if you don’t like swimming in big waves, I suggest you go to a different beach.

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