Nov 13/16



Unbelievable day! We got to go snorkeling twice and it was incredible. There were tons of colourful fish everywhere, and all manner of marine life to gawk at. Although the water was not exactly warm, I was usually amongst that last to get out. There is something so zen-like just being in the water, hearing only breathing through the snorkel and the sounds of parrot fish eating coral. The zen-like calm was replaced by joyful exhuberance when a feisty sea lion came along and wanted to play. She came right up close to us and started flipping, jumping and cavorting. The synchro swimmer in me wanted to do the exact same thing, so of course I did. It seems that she liked it as she kept coming back and seemed to spend lots of time with me. As we were getting back on the boat, she returned for more playtime so I had one last twirl and dance session with her. Someone in the group captured some of it in video, which I will upload when I get a good connection.



This isn't like going to an organzied place where you pay your money and a captive animal plays with you, it is completely spontaneous. The sea lions seem pretty curious and love to play. Since everything here is so protected, the animals don't have human predators so they don't have much fear of us either. No doubt, the spontaneous actions of the sea lion helped make it one of the most magical experiences of all of my travels. I was already in awe of the sea life when this happened, so it just took that awe and magnified it, mixed in some joy and excitement to make magic.

We also hiked up Dragon Hill and saw lots of Iguanas. Cool views and nice to see wildlife where it should be.

Internet access is pretty spotty at best so I will post pictures and video later...