Wednesday 18.01.2012

            In the morning we took a water taxi to Las Grietas, which is a place where fresh water mixes with salty ocean water. There was a place to jump off from the side and as more time passes, we realized there was still more to explore. This place was soo cool!!

           Then we went to Santa Fe to snorkel. This has been by far my favorite snorkel spot to date. We stopped at three different places. The first was along the coast where we were swimming with sea lions. Rene took two other girls and me to protected cove where we got to see two juvenile sea lions but after a while, we got chased off by a bull. They move so fast in the water and are a little intimidating. Needless to say we moved away as quickly as we could.

The second snorkel was in a bay that was filled with sea lions. We got to see a young sea lion arguing with his mother to go in the water and she kept blocking him. Eventually he ended up going in the water and then quickly got out once he realized how cold it was. Both his mom and dad seemed to lecture him with grunts as he climbed back up the rocks he was on before.

For the last snorkel, we went into a cave along the coast. There were waves that were breaking that would sweep us farther in and then out of the cave. All of the places around Sante Fe that we snorkeled were absolutely fantastic! To top it all off, on our way back to Santa Cruz we saw jumping Manta rays!! At first I had no idea what was jumping out of the water, but once a few other people saw them too, we decided they were Manta rays that were flinging their entire bodies out of the water.

We finished this spectacular day at the only pizza place in Puerto Ayora and with delicious gelato :D

Las Grietas!

people jumping :)

group shot after swimming

marine iguana just chilling on the dock we walked past

young sea lions playing on the rocks

male sea lion circling and defending his family

large parrotfish swimming. i have never seen so many parrotfish that are sooo big!

group photo outside of cave by Santa Fe