Sea Lions, Sharks and Turtles…Oh My! by Mateo

            Galapagos is one of my favorite trips of all time! There are three reasons why I think you should go to Galapagos with your family. The first reason is because you get to see a lot of unique wildlife that is native only to Galapagos. The second reason is that you get to explore the whitest sand beaches and live on a boat. And the third reason is that it is one of the best places to scuba dive.           

We stepped off the boat and right away, we saw a baby shark swimming and a ton of cute sea lions. It was the most beautiful beach I’ve ever been to in my life. My family and I went to a deserted beach in Galapagos. We saw a bunch of native animals while we were there. After we got off the boat, we first went on a hike to see birds like the blue-footed boobies. By the end of the day, we saw mockingbirds, red-footed boobies and nazca boobies. We ventured to a lake on the island and saw at least 20 light pink flamingos. They were really pretty. They were mostly eating the shrimp while we watched. Did you know that flamingos are pink because of how many shrimp they eat? As we traveled from deserted island to deserted island we could look over the boat and see bright red crabs on the rocks. We also saw hundreds of the Galapagos iguanas, both on the land and swimming in the water. There are two different types of iguanas: land and marine. I thought the marine iguanas were cool because they would eat the algae then spit out the salt from a hole in their forehead. We also saw huge male marine iguanas that would fight each other for food or female attention. So cool! But the best part was seeing the land tortoises. We saw some small ones, but most of them reached almost to my waist. Even though I really wanted to touch one, my family was really good at following the rules of not touching the wildlife. We didn’t want to disturb them.

The second reason you should take your family to Galapagos is because you can live on a boat while exploring the islands. I loved living on a boat for a week because I got the best nights of sleep due to the boat rocking me every night. Our boat was called The Isabella II and there were 35 people onboard. You get to meet a lot of new people that are very kind while living on the boat and there’s even a hot tub on the boat! The food was all Ecuadorian food and it was delicious. And finally, one of the positives of living on a boat is that you get to snorkel everyday. We swam with sea turtles and sea lions almost every day.

The third reason you should go to Galapagos is because of the scuba diving. These are some of the marine life I saw while scuba diving: a school of over 50 hammerhead sharks, white tip sharks, black tip sharks, and one giant 10 foot Galapagos shark too! I really liked the camouflage-masters like the sea horse, the flounder, and the scorpion fish!

This was the best trip our family has ever been to and I really think you should go to Galapagos too!

Lia's Videos on our trip to Galapagos!