Traveling Applejax

You’re excited to see the sea lion pics, right? They’re so cute and silly, who wouldn’t want to?

Well, sea lions are abundant in the Galapagos. Mike and I have had close sea lion encounters before (when we got Scuba certified in Mexico we dove with them), but we got to spend lots of time with them on land and water during our cruise. Here are some of the picture highlights:

Aww… Baby sea lions sound an awful lot like lambs when they are crying. This one is really young.

This mama sea lion had some sweet racing stripes! (By the way, it’s easy to tell the males and the females apart becaust the males have huge bumps on their foreheads.)

She’s such a pretty golden color, but if I’m not mistaken, she’s sporting a double (or quintuple) chin.

Sorry about this gross-out picture…Mike wanted me to include it. This poor sea lion had a run in with a shark. Our guide seemed to think that she would pull through, but it wasn’t pretty.

Just like a puppy. Awww…

Kisses! The next photo Mike took was a bit too close, though…

Sooner or later you’re going to get sand in your craw if you’re a sea lion.

“I’ve got a secret, but I’m not telling!”

We watched this sea lion eat her entire fish. It took about 20 minutes. Apparently it’s not easy to eat without hands while swimming in the ocean. She would grab the fish with her teeth and then whip her neck super fast to tear the chunk of meat in her mouth away from the rest of the fish’s body. Then she’d retrieve the fish and repeat the process. You can tell that this was early in the feeding, because the fish was still spraying blood everywhere.

I, too, have been eating fish recently. I thought I hated seafood, but I’ve had some really tastey meals lately. I guess fresh fish makes all the difference.

Time for a siesta. There are no pics of me with the sea lions, because none of them turned out too well. You can snuggle up right next to them though.

The sea lions really make themselves right at home anywhere they please. They make their way onto docks, boats, and benches, as you can see for yourself.

Here’s the classic shot of the sea lion in front of a gorgeous Galapagos landscape.

Okay, that’s all for now. Next up: marine iguanas. They’re ugly buggers, but they’re funny too. Have you ever seen an iguana swimming underwater?