Swimming with sea lions on Galapagos. This was definitely a highlight of our approximate 3 week stay on the Galapagos Islands. We made a new friend – Ramiro – at a restaurant after we landed by boat on Puerto Ayora.
When he found out I was a travel writer with a website, we became stuck like glue and in exchange for helping him sell his house outside of Quito, we not only got to stay at his house a block away from the Charles Darwin Center, we were also invited aboard the luxury ship M/V Santa Cruz for a three day/two night stay – it was amazing.
One of the afternoon excursions was to swim with the sealions… and if lucky, hammerhead and other types of sharks. The sharks didn’t appear, but swarms of sealions did, coming at us from all directions, even up close, blowing bubbles at our facemasks; too fun.
There was also a large school of angelfish sharing the ocean waters and many other beautiful reef species.
You do not have to pay for an expensive boat trip to swim with sealions in the Galapagos Islands – they are also plentiful at times in the cove off the beach at La Loberia Nature Reserve on San Cristobal Island.
Thank you for the wonderful pictures. My wife and I visited the Galapagos in 2013 and we can’t wait to get back there this fall. We did mostly hiking trips last time but are looking for a good place to swim with the sea lions this time. Can you recommend a way to visit one of the islands from Puerto Ayora such as a day trip? We can’t really afford the big cruises unfortunately.
Hi Rob and your welcome, glad you enjoyed them! You get to go back? I am sooo jealous and swimming with sea lions was definitely a highlight – the green sea turtles too. Amazing.
From Puerto Ayora take the day trip to San Cristobal and visit La Loberia Nature Reserve. So many sea lions, and we were visited by a giant green sea turtle while in the water as well – there is a beautiful cove where the tours take you to snorkel and swim with the sea lions.
Here is a short write-up on the basic day tour schedule but you can of course take the boat over in morning, taxi to the nature reserve and spend the day then back on boat in afternoon back to La Loberia. https://www.mollymchugh.com/hiking-san-cristobal-island-galapagos/.
Enjoy, Molly