Seal kisses and Mosquera

Saturday, July 31st
We started our day at 6am to ride the high tide onto shore. We started our day on a tiny little islet called Mosquera. The island was literally a long sand bank filled with numerous sea lions and calves, lava gulls and marine iguanas. The sea lions here rule the roast and rarely see people. Because of this, they have a healthy curiousity and quicky approach you when you deboard the boat. Within a few minutes of being on the beach, I had a 3 month old calf wobble up to me and touch my leg with it's nose and tickle me with it's whiskers. You should have seen my face. I so badly wanted to lay down and play wrestle with it. After Mosquera, we hopped back on the boat and sailed 5 hours to our next destination - Santa Fe. On route, I was told to look out for mating humpback whales, sperm whales or orcas. I refrained myself from taking a nap to use all my energy to find the whales. After an exhausting 5 hour ride, I sadly saw nothing. We arrived at Santa Fe and snorkeled straight away. The water was pretty murky today. We saw alot of the same fish that we've seen in all of our previous snorkels. However, this aquatic adventure was unique. There were 3 sea lions who were in the water with us swimming all around us. They would dodge in and out, between our legs, and right up to us and at the last minute would swim away. It was soooo cool! After flirting with the sea lions, we came across 3 huge green sea turtles and swam alongside them for a bit. These turtles were the most tranquil and chill turtles I've ever seen in the wild. They didn't even try to swim away. It was incredible! I desperately wished that I had an underwater camera to film it all. Then we went aboard changed into clothes to go on a quick hike around the island. We had a uniquely rare siting of 4 nocturnal rice rats (endemic to Galapagos and it's one of only two land mammals on the islands, the other is the Galapagos bat). We also saw some endemic land iguanas, lava lizards and more sea lions. From the beach we spotted a group of about 30 spotted eagle rays and white tip reef sharks in the water. The zodiac came to pick us up to get a better view of the rays. The rays were gorgeous. I've never seen so many of them in one group and so close to the surface of the water. We then headed back to the boat and set off to sail for another 5 hours to San Cristobal, which is where we began our trip. Less than 30 minutes into our voyage, we saw (possibly humpback) whales breaching in the distance. What a perfect last day on the boat!