Swimming with Sea Lions!

Written by Carol:

As some of you know, I love sea lions.  In fact, I am convinced that if I were not a human, I would be a sea lion (Mike thinks I would be a cat).  Anyway, ever since our travels in the Galapagos, I have a great affinity for them and a huge selling point for joining the kayaking trip was for the opportunity to swim with them.  

Most of us think of sea lions as these barking, loud, or lounging rather awkward creatures trying to lug themselves on shore or a buoy or rock.  However, under water they are magnificent torpedo ballerinas.

It was a true highlight of our trip, and one of the highlights of our whole trip thus far.  When our boat arrived to the rocks where they like to sun themselves, many of them dove into the waters to swim over to us and were splashing and wiggling their flippers at us.  Our guide gave us some rules about behaving well and respecting the sea lions and their space.  My favorite rule was:  If a sea lion feels mellow and wants to float near you, do not hug it.  Do not hug the sea lions.

When we jumped into the water, they swirled and swam all around us- very excited to play with us and with each other.  They were also very mouthy like dogs- one grabbed on to a fellow swimmer's arm and played tug of war with it.  It kind of freaked me out to watch it, because I could hear him saying, "Hey.  Let go!  She won't let go!"  I found out later it did not hurt and she was gentle, but I could see her teeth gripping him.  They also liked to nibble each others tail flippers and the ends of our fins.  They also liked to play a one way game of "chicken" where they would race at us as fast as they could and then veer off at the last second.

The two biggest highlights were when a sea lion used Mike as a hurdle- she leapt out of the water and flew over him, landing on the other side.  Also, when I thought Mike was bumping into me and grabbing my neck, I popped up and said, "Mike, knock it off."  Only he was nowhere near me.  Mike started laughing and said, "That was not me- that sea lion just rolled into you and it looked like she gave you a kiss on your head.  I saw her flying over to you and was going to say something, but was speechless!"

I am grateful they were so willing to spend some time playing with us.  It is something I will never forget.