It takes a bit of willpower to slide off the dinghy into the rather fresh water. But the wetsuit helps and the world you immerse yourself in makes you forget the cold of the water immediately. It’s getting calm, in the dark blue, crystal clear water quite close to the rocky coast: an ocean full of colorful fish – in the truest sense of the word. We start moving slowly, always close to the rock. It doesn’t take long before something big suddenly appears right in front of me, first like a shadow, but then very clearly visible, maybe 30cm in front of me; we look into each other’s eyes for a moment, a sea lion lady! Then she dives under me as fast as she came. Wow! With the crystal clear view, the first shark among us soon shows up, a white tip shark, maybe a meter long. He elegantly swims past about two meters below us. The sea lions are becoming more curious and keep swimming in front of, next to and below us as if they are circling us for a while, who is watching whom? Fascinating. This is snorkeling in the Galápagos Islands!
Arriving by plane on Baltra Island , I first take one of the airport buses to the island’s port to see some of the ships there. That was agreed in advance. Shortly before the harbor you can see a fairly large, yellowish land iguana running across the road from afar. The bus driver stops and waits patiently. I’m the only passenger on the bus, opportunity to strike up a conversation with the nice bus driver. And the iguana has already reached the other side of the street and we continue. Welcome at the harbor by THE Galápagos soundpar excellence: sea lion roars. And there they are: one in the middle of the bench at the bus stop, the other on the jetty and many in the shade under the jetty. During the dinghy ride to the first ship, something appears in the water next to us, like little fins: “Mantas” says the dinghy driver, rays right next to us: Welcome to Galápagos, I think!
