.... shark!!! ...

my children had never snorkeled prior to our galapagos trip .... not real snorkeling ... i think some of them might have tried on friends' masks and snorkels at a swimming pool ... or walking into the surf at the beach ... but they'd never done real snorkeling ... where you aren't near the shore ... where you can't put your feet down on the bottom .... where there is abundant wild life, ocean life, to admire, watch, swim with ... or be scared of!

so ... after our walk to the top of bartholome, a shoooing of sealions off the dock, a zodiac ride back to the boat, and a quick change into swimsuits (the boys claimed the girls just weren't quick enough), and our boat zipped around the island to an inlet .... my family collected our masks and snorkels that the nice folks at the safari camp had set us up with .... we left most of our stuff on the boat, but had a bag of towels and water and sunscreen .... and we had our two waterproof cameras ... we hopped into the zodiac for our boatride ashore .... and we'd teach the kids about snorkeling at the shore then head out to the good stuff ....

we saw the sandy beach ... and we did not go there ... what?

sweet alejandro, our guide said, the best way to see the most underwater life is for him to drop us HERE and for us to swim around the point towards the beach .... ok then .... quick plan change ... make sure there's no hair breaking the seal of your mask ... hold your mask when you get in the water ... breathe normally .... swim don't sink .... stay together .... julia and sophie looked a bit sticken ... whadaya mean we jump in here ... we all had a moment where we just sat there looking at each other .... the dutch woman jumped in .... someone else jumped in ... and there sat five becks .... alejandro volunteered that he'd get our bags to the beach .... and there we sat ... we decided sophie should wear a life jacket ... she was wearing one anyway in the panga ....well then, julia decided she got to wear one too ... let's go ... all in  ...

RIGHT THEN when we were all ready to jump off the zodiac, a man about 15 feet away from us said SHARK, SHARK .... and alejandro said, HURRY, get in the water, go see the shark ....

hurry, get in the water, go see the shark .... that's just not a normal sentence, huh? again, my girls had that stricken look .... and there was some gentle nudging (no one pushed you, honey) and we were all in the water .... drew and i swam towards the shark ... julia swam away from the shark .... and andy (really truly the perfect dad)  helped sophie get situated and breathing through her snorkel .... sophie saw the shark .... and if you ask julia, did you see the shark, she'll tell you that she quite intentionally did NOT see the shark ....

so we snorkeled ... the kids figured it out easily ....

the water was cold, thought not too cold ... refreshing cold .... the water was actually VERY buoyant ... we asked later and the water is very mineral rich ... and very, very salty ... making us more floaty .... making the snorkeling, even without flotation assistance, quite easy ....

tomorrow's blog ... what we saw on that first snorkel .....