... sleeping with sealions ....

... our monday adventure in the galapagos started SO early ... 5.45 wake up ... 6 o'clock breakfast, 6.30 drive to the bus ... bus to the zodiac ... zodiac to the yate narel ... and a 2 and half hour boat ride to bartholome that was made perfect by an impromptu dolphin show ....

on my itinerary for the week, each expedition says whether it is a "dry landing" or a "wet landing" so you know if you can wear your hiking shoes, in our case, sneakers ... or if it was wet, our water proof sandals (keenes or tevas) .....on our itinerary, it says bartholome is a "dry landing" UNLESS the sealions won't get off the dock ... and then it might be a wet landing ... ha ... i read that and was amused from the luxury of my orange couch at home ....but when we got there, the truth of it appears, there is one very small rock dock and it would be nearly impossible to get where you want to go from a wet landing ... read: not safe ... too rocky, water rough .... and of course, the favorite spot for sealions is the smooth, cool, damp dock that is mostly out of the surf ...

when we arrived at bartholome, our boat anchored and half the group got on the panga to shuttle to shore ... sophie (always on the first launch) took me with her ....and there was a single sealion on the dock ... alejandro did the clapping and whistling that guides use to annoy sealions ... to no avail .. that sealion was sound asleep ... not a BUDGE ... someone on our boat asked if he might be dead ... to unload us at the dock arturo simply keeps the engine going at a low speed into the dock .. the dock keeps us stationary ... if the motor was off, we'd drift with the surf ... so, rev the engine, remove your life jackets and toss them to the bottom of the boat for the next batch, and hop out over the bow ... oh, and dodge the sealion ... not a movement from the sealion as 7 of us walked by .... arturo took the panga back to get the rest of the group ... our group got brave and started taking close ups of the sealion ... posing with it ... JUST DON"T TOUCH IT ... that's strictly forbidden ....

sophie got in on the bravery ...next to the immobile sealion ....

that's her napping with it above ...

and our family arrived ... you can see a guy doing down on the dock like sophie had been ... and you can see three more becks on the panga ... andy and julia are taking photos ... drew looks completely unimpressed .....

this picture gives you a better idea about the size of the dock ....and the steps leading down into the ocean ...

 and this picture, finally drew is giving the sealion a glance ... and sophie has decided to go for more close ups .... here's the pic she's taking:

right there at the dock of bartholome there was a sealion on the dock, sealions in the sea, bright orange lightfoot crabs, marine iguanas black on the black rocks, pelicans, and lava lizards ... all in the first steps onto the island ....

 from where we stood on the small cement dock of barholome, you could see our boat and one other ... and behind them, pinnacle rock ... a geological oddity ... a rocky point that we'd swim at later ...

 but first we had to climb to the top of bartholome ... that's tomorrow's blog post ....