Cruising the Mangrove Cove in Elizabeth Bay on Isabela Island – Galapagos Islands

This was the second part of our morning’s panga ride. 

Cloud Reflection

As we cruised up to the mangrove cove in our pangas, I noticed this great reflection of the clouds in the water.

Swimming Among the Mangroves

Once again, here are the ever so cool sea turtles, swimming along in the clear water!  What a life!

Sea Lion in a Tree

Here’s something you don’t see every day – a sea lion just camped out in the mangrove trees!

A Big Guy

This guy is one that Jeff captured with his camera, coasting along close to the bottom of the sea – it was fairly shallow at this point.

Close Reflection

I really liked this image of a leaf floating on the water with the mangrove leaves reflecting in the water around and below it.  Now, some of the leaves actually grew below the surface, so this is really kind of an optical illusion – is it a reflection or leaves growing below the surface?  I honestly don’t recall!

Golden Cowrays

Aren’t these just so cool?  I thought these were manta rays, but they are something called Golden Cowrays (I have no idea where the name came from!).  I thought they looked so cool just gliding along below the surface.  I lost count of how many of them there were!

Pelicans at Sea

I loved the image of these pelicans just sort of hanging out on the water a short distance from our panga.

Sea Lion Waving

And, finally, here’s a little sea lion waving goodbye to us!

Enjoy!

 

Fun with Sea Turtles – Punta Vincente Rocca – Isabela Island – Galapagos Islands

This snorkeling adventure firmly convinced me that snorkeling is a fabulous thing!  Of course, doing it in the Galapagos is probably one of the most perfect places to snorkel.  Take a look at the fun I had swimming with the sea turtles!

Next to Me

I was just snorkeling along when I felt someone coming up alongside me.  I thought it was one of my snorkeling buddies (there were about 8 of us) and I focused on not drifting over into them.  I turned to see who it was, and was beyond surprised to see that my “buddy” was a huge sea turtle!  He was about 2/3 the length of me and way wider!  I was lucky enough to be able to get the underwater camera pointed in the right direction to capture his photo, all the while saying “Oh, my God” into my mouthpiece!

Swimming Buddy

Clearly I was swimming too slowly, because this guy just sort of glided past me!  He wasn’t afraid of me – in fact, I don’t think he really cared that I was there.  No fear of being bitten either.  I’m not his food choice!

Up for Air

And, here’s my buddy, as he surfaced briefly to capture some air!  It felt kind of odd to be on the same eye level as this guy.

Coming up toward Me

One thing that I found amazing was how these guys just sort of levitated themselves off the sea floor (about 30 feet below me) and floated up toward me.  Then, as they got sort of close to me, they just began to gently swim.  I did get out of their way, because I wasn’t sure if they’d keep coming up right under me and I’d end up on their shell!  Since I’m not supposed to touch them, I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t end up riding them either!

Another Swimmer

It was a regular sea turtle traffic jam below me!  I don’t know how these guys avoided each other , but in their very laid-back way, they did.  Someone reminded me of the turtle in the movie “Nemo” and I would say their personalities seemed to match the turtle character in that movie!

Enjoy!



 

Sea Turtles from the Panga – Punta Vincente Rocca – Isabela Island – Galapagos Islands

We were also lucky enough on this panga ride to see some sea turtles swimming right next to the boat!  They were amazing and totally not concerned with us at all!

Morning Swim

So, here’s one of the turtles just out for a morning swim!  He was totally not bothered by us being there – and I love how clear the water is so we can see him so well!

Blowing Bubbles

Is he playing with us or just coming up for air, blowing bubbles at us?

Up for Air

Ok, so he came up for air, but I think he’s mugging for the camera, the little (???) ham!

Clearly Swimming

I can’t believe how well we can see these guys!  If it weren’t for the waviness of his shell, I wouldn’t think he was under water!  Gosh, I really wanted to go swimming with them……but it was just the morning!

Enjoy!