Yes, I know, I know, killer whale is not the right term and if you have not seen Blackfish on Netflix I highly recommend it but killer whale is most certainly the name more people are familiar with than Orca. As many readers commented when I got back from Ecuador, yes, I did see a lot of animals and while I shrieked over turtles and swam with baby sea lions which I thought was incredible, I learned those were rather common occurrences in the Galapagos. Orcas, which believe it or not are actually dolphins, not whales, on the other hand are rare. Through broken Spanish my brother learned from the driver of our inflatable zodiac boat that despite driving every day he had not seen an orca in more than a year – wow!
So rare, in fact, that I shared it on FB. I only update my personal Facebook page once a month which is quite odd compared with daily Instagrams and five new blog posts a week, but seeing an orcas in real life, following them, and watching them take down a sea lion was worthy and I shared the photo below with the caption, “Today after a half hour chase I saw an orca take down a sea lion – easily one of the top five coolest things I’ve ever seen in nature. ? #killerwale #galapagos” It is true, one of the top five things I have ever see!
And then came the birds. And my goodness were there birds. I swear I have more than 300 shots of them circling without a fluke in sight as they were priming to get the left overs after the giant beast was done. Take a look:
While definitely not the same quality as the other photos I wanted to include this shot below that my Mom took. She was sitting behind me on our zodiac boat as we drove around the Pacific Ocean watching these gorgeous creatures and it really puts it into perspective just how close we were!
A truly incredible experience, ocras, thank you for stopping by and showing off for us – it was absolutely one of the highlights of the trip! And I realize it is incredibly hard to see in these photos but there was actually more than one – we watched three different orcas but they never came out of the water at the same time in the same frame so I did not capture it. You will just have to believe me! Bye until next time! ?
Aren’t the Galapagos Killer Whales gorgeous?
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Yen says
What beautiful pictures you’ve taken! Wow!! That was really close to the killer whales.
My killer whales watching experience wasn’t the most pleasant. Really. My first time and most probably will be for a while. My family and I went on a killer whale watching trip at Monterey probably 3 years ago. I was the only one having bad sea sick the entire trip. Definitely caught me by surprise because I had been on a dolphin watching trip and whale watching trip in Australia but never had I had sea sick. I guess Monterey’s water was just a little rough on me that day. I never saw a single killer whale but almost the entire boat saw it. I was busy in the WC. I’ll try again someday.
Emma says
What great photos and I love the perspective shot – you were so close!
Ashton says
I’ve never seen a killer whale in the wild! That’s so exciting and lovely pictures!
Ashton | Instagram
Lucy says
Wow, what an incredible experience! You got so close!
Cris says
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Pam says
You were so close. Wonderful photos!!!