Swimming with Kings

"On the count of three...THREE!" Our guide for the day, Charlie, dropped me into the freezing cold waters of the Pacific Ocean, about five miles off the coast of Santa Cruz, one of the islands in the Galapagos. It took a minute or two for my wetsuit to warm up, and meanwhile I was gasping and shouting, "It's f-ing FREEZING!!" My amigos were all around me, fitting their snorkles or already bobbing around face-down in the water. After a few false starts, I too was ready to investigate life below sea level.

As my eyes focused through the snorkle mask, I was amazed to see all sorts of brilliantly coloured florescent fish darting in and out of the surrounding volcanic rock. A school of silver guppies literally swam through me, dodging here and there around my waving arms. All thoughts of the icy coldness of the water were immediately forgotten. The current carried me without a fight, as I floated on top of the water, ocassionally kicking to keep myself from crashing into the rocks. Suddenly, a large object splashed down into the water directly in front of me. As the bubbles cleared, I saw a shiny brown sea lion swimming in lazy circles about three feet from where I was! It darted away after about a minute, to chase down some dinner. However, three more sea lions took it's place, and one swam alarmingly close to me, curiously eyeing me with his huge blue eyes.

Their bodies were incredible. Sleek and chocolate coloured, they flipped and turned, chased and rolled in between the rocks. A few circled around me, but never bumped into me, though one came close. As the other two disappeared, the last one swam right up and peered into my goggles before he flipped around and cruised away to find his friends.

I couldn't believe I had just swam with sea lions.