Helen snorkels in the Galapagos
For three days on their Galapagos adventure, the passengers got the chance to go off snorkelling. Lewis didn’t like the thought of his face getting wet in the water, not to mention his golden mane and so happily watched on instead as Helen and the other passengers donned wetsuits, masks, snorkels and flippers.
Lewis the Lion was surprised that they even needed to wear wet-suits. Surely they were on the Equator and the water should be warm? But that was not quite the case as it was a point on the globe where different currents converged and so whilst one moment you could be swimming in delightfully warm water, the next minute you would shiver as you hit a cold current!
The wetsuits hang out to dry at the back of the ship
Helen had three such snorkelling expeditions and was chuffed that she had an underwater disposable camera with her. She’d really struggled to find one before she left for the Galapagos Islands but in the end managed to get hold of one in a chemist’s. The only problem with a disposable camera was that you got your prints in paper form, like in the olden days. That’s meant that to show you some of them here, Helen had to take a digital photo of the glossy paper photo so they may look a bit grainy. However, Lewis the Lion hopes they give you some idea of the different sorts of marine life that Helen saw.
Shoals of fish swim by
The first snorkelling trip, Helen got a shock as she jumped off the zodiac and into the water: it definitely felt cold and she was grateful for her wetsuit. The water was rather cloudy on this first outing due to the water having been churned up during some of the recent stormy weather. Nonetheless, Helen was still in awe at this underwater world. Like the marine iguanas, all of the different fish seemed to have their own distinctive personalities. Brightly coloured neon fish whizzed by and shoals of translucent, almost ghostly looking fish ebbed to and fro with the current.
Ghostly looking fish swim silently by
Yellow fish with black stripes (or bumble-bee fish as Helen like to think of them) swam around her. She just loved it!
Yellow and black striped fish swim by
The next day, the water seemed to be a bit clearer which was just as well because Helen experienced one of the most amazing things of her life when she suddenly realised that she was swimming alongside a giant green sea turtle!
Helen snorkels alongside a giant turtle
She was awe-inspired. Deceptively, it was rather quick moving in the water and it often swam down to a deeper level to the ocean’s bottom when it realised the snorkellers were there.
A green sea turtle swims into the depths
Lewis the Lion wasn’t entirely left out either as this time, the zodiac past by an enormous and noisy bull sea lion that had somehow managed to climb aboard a fishing boat.
A sea lion takes charge of a fishing boat!
Lewis the Lion was glad that he wasn’t the one confronting it, telling it to get off his boat!
The elephant sea lion is like the captain aboard ship!
The third and final snorkelling session was the best session yet but rather disappointingly, Helen had run out of pictures on her disposable camera so she told Lewis the Lion all about it instead.
As Helen jumped into the water that was crystal clear and much warmer, Lewis the Lion spotted a cheeky penguin dart right past her! Even from the Zodiac itself, Lewis the Lion could see a plethora of sea-life in the water below, notably enormous star fish. He hadn’t realised there were so many different types but he noticed big red ones with long legs and short, yellow, fat ones that looked like stars. Ivan popped his arm out of the water to show Lewis what looked like a giant sea-cucumber too with little bobbles on it.
A red starfish by the water’s edge
He could also see the different coloured corals lying a few metres below him.
Brightly coloured fish feed amongst the corals
Helen who was gaining more confidence in the water was able to take a deep breath and dive down deeper to follow particular fish she found interesting. She just needed to remember to give the snorkel a short, sharp blast of air to clear the water from it when she came back up to the surface. She was truly blown away by the fish that she saw this time: often much bigger fish than she had seen up till now and often these fish swam independently and not in shoals.
These included:
*An azure parrotfish (Click here to see a picture of one). This fish reminded Helen of the fish in the story of the ‘Rainbow Fish’ as when the light caught it, it looked iridescent.
Do you know that story?
*A Bumphead Parrotfish which indeed looked as if it had just bumped its head!
*A hieroglyphic hawkfish looked as if someone had squiggled a blue line all over it!
*A Clownfish or as Helen preferred to call it ‘A Finding Nemo’ fish!
*A Galapagos puffer fish seemed to have a boxed-shaped head
As well as the bigger fish, there were also lots of little fish to be seen, darting in and out of the rocks or sucking on the corals. These included some of the following fish:
*Galapagos Ringtail Damselfish were also multi-coloured and added further splashes of colours to the underwater world
*Black striped salema which had sloping heads and tapered bodies. Helen remembered these fish from her and Lewis the Lion’s visit to Paraty in Brazil because Lewis the Lion had called them Geordie fish because of their black and white stripes!
*King Angelfish which looked really funky as if they belonged to a 70s disco. They were black, with bright yellow fins and tails, with a bright blue stripe above their eyes.
*Yellow-tailed surgeonfish swim in shoals and are a bright blue colour with yellow tails
This time there were also lots of tiny jellyfish in the water that she could feel sting her face briefly but then it passed quickly.
From aboard the boat, Lewis the Lion could see the snorkellers getting excited as a shoal of stingrays swam by. Helen missed it as she was to busy being hot on the trail of the most beautiful blue iridescent fish: a azure parrotfish.
Like swimming around inside a fish tank!
What a wonderful and memorable experience snorkelling in the Galapagos Islands had turned out to be for Helen. She described it as a bit like being able to swim around in an enormous fish tank! Lewis the Lion had also enjoyed watching the fun from the zodiac too!
Have you ever kept fish as a pet? What special considerations might be given if you were keeping tropical, marine or freshwater fish?
