Today we were finally able to venture off the boat, we landed in James Bay on Santiago Island. The lava formations where we landed were absolutely beautiful, and as we continued on our trek, they became even more spectacular. While walking on the trail you can see one side dry arid land with a volcano in the background, to the other side, beautiful lava rocks hitting the sea. We spent our time there near the water, surrounded by the wonderful marine life. Every time you take a step, a few marine iguana would scatter, and sometimes they just would not move. Which made navigating through the rocks quite impossible because they were camouflaged against the rocks, causing us to almost step on them on multiple occasions. Iguanas are always the camera hams, but we soon found out that sea lion pups will actually pose for the cameras, too. We saw so many sea lion pups but the best of all was when we came up to 2 little pups playing in a tide pool. They were showing off, trying to get our attention, which they had fully. A few times they would come out on the rocks and try to play with us (see the video clip), no one could take their eyes off of them while they continued to play in the tide pool. Tugging on each others flippers, swimming in circles and snuggling was just a few games they would play. It was a little disappointing when we had to move on, the pups tried to get us back by jumping out and waddling towards us, but there was still more marine life we needed to see. The next stop was the sea turtles, teasing us by swimming just so we could see their shadow but unable take quality pictures. They would surface so quick, only the expert photographers in the group could snag a picture. The last stop we made was at the sea lion grotto, standing on the lava rocks we could see the tide coming through the tunnels underneath. There was one hole that would empty out when the tide receded and when the waves came back in, water would rush through very quickly. Jaqui and I were watching the tide move in and out, up and down, when a wave came in, the water quickly rose, and all of a sudden, out popped a sea lion, it frightened us both so much we screamed out loud, scaring each other even more. The grotto was an excellent place to get even more sea lion pup pictures. When our excursion was over, I realized that I had filled up my whole 512 memory card in my camera with pictures and video clips of one awesome day.
