Tuesday 29th October
By Faye Dawson and Alex Berrow
Another early start for Team #WeTwo as we grabbed our breakfast boxes at 6am and headed down to the shore to catch the last speedboat of the trip. We left Santa Cruz and, after some much needed sleep on the boat, we arrived 2 hours later in San Cristobal ready for this morning’s activity.
Jessica arranged for us to do another beach clean on the Marina beach, which was covered in sleeping sea lions! This time, in our pairs we covered a smaller area (keeping our distance from the sea lions of course) and combed through the sand with sieves to find smaller pieces of plastic, sea glass, paper and metal. After an hour, we managed to pick out lots of rubbish which we put in recycled plastic bottles. After throwing away our findings from the morning, we had a quick stop in our hotel to get changed before having a delicious meal at Celebration restaurant and heading down to the diving shop to grab our snorkelling gear.
The team on their beach clean – spot the sea lions. Picture: Faye Dawson
At the dive shop, Jessica introduced us to the family who owned the business. We were all given separate equipment to try on – a pair of flippers, a snorkel with goggles, as well as wet suits. We discovered that only 2 of us had ever snorkelled before, the remaining 8 of us would be trying it for the first time.
Once fully kitted out with everything we needed, we made our way, a little nervously, to the coach, which took us to the La Lobería, a particular part of the coast famous for its colony of sea lions. Once everyone was in the water and acclimatised to the cold, Jessica instructed us to keep within the boundaries of the buoys, which were within a safe parameter of the jagged rocks and strong currents.
Some of the team post-snorkel feeling happy. Picture: Mia Griffin
We swam a few meters out to get our bearings and feel the strength of the currents, and then after getting used to floating, we did a small loop around the open section of sea. We used our snorkels to look at the marine life inhabiting mossy rocks, shells and sand.
We discovered many species of tropical fish (including huge parrot fish), sea lions and their cubs and eels. Someone even spotted a friendly sea turtle, a truly beautiful animal! After further sightings of blue footed boobies diving for food, we eventually headed back to the golden beach, with a few people staying longer in the water to enjoy the wildlife.
While getting ready, a few sea Lions made their presence known as they flopped onto the shore, with one in particular hopping up the sand and making it self comfy no more than 2-3 meters away from our bags. Once dried and on the way back to the coach, a singular cub approached whinnying.
We had to get a quick picture with the adorable cub, then made our way onto the coach, putting an end to another day of amazing activities 🙂