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Galapagos Dolphin Race at Isabela Island

Written by Kevin Wright

Reading time: 2 minutes

Vicente Roca, Isabela – (26/MAY/2016) – Morning was going as usual in Vicente Roca, Isabela Island. Everybody was so excited for the first snorkel experience in the Galapagos. We disembarked at 8.30 am and started with a short panga ride where we saw some iguanas, Nazca boobies and a nice group of baby fur seals playing and showing off for us. We were almost at the snorkel place, when suddenly Mauricio, our expedition leader, started yelling and pointing out a Galapagos dolphin jumping on the distance, as we rushed to the spot we saw a couple more jumping and then other pangas that were about to go to the water joined us in.

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In less than 2 minutes we were four pangas (everybody’s face with an expectation look hard to describe). “Dolphins!” We moved and they went down. “Dolphins!” again we moved and they disappeared. They were playing with us. A couple of pangas left for the snorkel, but we waited. Suddenly they showed up again in front of us and as we started chasing them they began to swim just underneath our panga, and while I was filming with my arm underwater, one even blew water into my face. It was amazing! About 8 dolphins showed their fins and started racing with us for about 3 minutes.

After the chase we saw 3 penguins, one even went into the water and was so calmed that snorkeled with us. Turtles were everywhere in the water! But this was not such a big surprise, not because it wasn’t nice, but because the dolphins were simply unbelievable.