Snorkel Fest 2022

By Nick Beesley

During our trip to the Galapagos, I thought I'd try out some underwater videography and turned it into a minor obsession.  With sea lions playing, turtles everywhere, penguins, marine iguanas (swimming lizards!?), diving cormorants, sharks, and rays it was easy to forget about the plentiful tropical fish.  Galapagos is a paradise both above and below water; but, I found myself, even in between snorkeling times, looking down to the water more often than not and straining my eyes to see what marvel was roaming under the surface.  The whole family did some miles flippering around the archipelago wide-eyed and awestruck.  Suzie suggested that snorkeling could replace kayaking or backpacking as a form of backcountry travel and camping.  

So in my post this time around, I focus on the things we saw while snorkeling in the form of four videos.  Some of the footage was taken by dunking the GoPro off the side of a rubber raft but most was taken while ogling through a mask.

Sea Lions.  Graceful, playful, and energetic, these guys always bring the party with them.  They've got to be related to dogs.

Turtles Forever.  You can skip your meditation and spend six minutes in mindful bliss watching these fantastic creatures.  At one point I had to stop taking video of them.  They were everywhere, though, and never stopped being beautiful.

Fish.  Like I said, though beautiful, they didn't really get the time of day.  The orange ones and the neon blue ones are called parrotfish and were quite large.  There are some odd surprises at the end so stick around for those.  Also, see if you can spot the octopus after the thin white fish swim across the screen just below the surface.  That funky fish at the end is a sunfish.

The Six Species Special should be called the eight genus special because of the crabs and dolphins but that title didn't have the same ring to it.  This is a video of unique animals that were also a little bit more rare to see.  The six featured animals are: Sharks, Rays, Marine Iguanas, Penguins, and Flightless Cormorants.