January 31st, 2006

SANTA FE
I once again woke up to seeing sea lions leaping through the water just outside our cabin, and the strange barking of the sea lions coming from all sides. After breakfast we headed to land, pulling the panga up to a stretch of beach full of sea lions. There were barking males, sleeping females, and playful pups. One pup came right up and sniffed at John’s feet and others’ knees. She also sat amongst a group, rolling her head to dry to look at everyone. Unfortunately, her eyes were somewhat glazed as if there were something wrong with them. From the beach we walked the rocky trail to the top of a hill where there were land iguanas. We looped around the trail a bit longer, then back down to the sea lion beach and onto the boat.
From the boat we quickly grabbed snorkel gear and got into the water. We saw fish, a couple of sea lions in the water, and a green turtle! He swam gracefully and slowly and let us follow along and get right next to him. At that point, I got cold, so after looking this 5 foot turtle in the eye, I got out.
During lunch while we were sailing, John called us all out to see the dolphins! They leapt and swam and played in front of the boat for at least 20 minutes!

NORTH PLAZA
About 2 hours of sailing later, we arrive at North Plaza, where several people did more snorkeling. It was cloudy and windy at that point, so Erica, Janine, and I declared it too cold to go swimming and stayed on the boat reading and napping.

SOUTH PLAZA
A short panga ride got us to this island, which again abounded in adorable sea lions. We all decided that we’d probably taken about half our pictures of sea lions. On this island, there were also land iguanas, marine iguanas, and (precisely) two hybrids, which apparently cannot reproduce themselves. There were also finches, gulls, “Tropic Birds” with beautiful tales, and more dead animals than we’ve seen anywhere else. Perhaps it was just that there was very little cover on the island to hide carcasses that we noticed them. One side of the island was cliffs, climbed by the “loser” male sea lions – the ones who didn’t win any female mates. The rest of the afternoon was spent sailing and reading, with a beautiful sunset and chit-chatting after dinner.