Sea Lions for Days, Part One

Galápagos sea lions are So. Freaking Cute.  And friendly. And cuddly looking. And the OG nappers.   The first morning when we arrived only five minutes outside of the airporty family was standing on the a pier waiting to get into a ten person zodiac and I noticed a sea lion on the pier. I shrieked, grabbed my camera, and started shooting the animal which was at least 25 feet away.  The pictures came out well but if I had known how close I was going to get to them later in the week, I would have held off.  

In the Galapagos there is a law that you can not get within six feet of an animal but if the animal comes to you, don’t move. And if you are in the water, good luck.  As such over the course of. E trip I had a baby sea lion lick my shoe and another try and bite my flipper when, after 30 minutes of playing, I tried to swim away – he was not done yet!   I have too many photos of these beautiful creatures both in and out of the water for one post so welcome to part one, the Galápagos sea lion on land. 

And thank you for all of the feedback on the turtle videos from  last week! To help with load time I have shared the clips to YouTube, hopefully that helps – take a look at the baby sea lion: 

You will notice through through the video I am taking dozens and dozens of photos and with the cloudy day some were definitely misses but at least a dozen are real gems – the photo below is one that I took at the one minute part of the video, such a cute baby sea lion!

Switching from Fernandina Island, where the photos above were taken (which is also the island with the Razor Snakes and Marine Iguana from Planet Earth two) to the large, inhabited island of San Cristóbal take a look at just how comfortable the sea lions are around people – from lounging on their boats and benches to interacting with tourists and locals alike! 

They really are adorable, don’t you agree?