Feb 10--Surprise, We Didn't Leave La Paz Today!

At least, we didn't leave on our bikes. So, we were planning to leave La Paz today, buuuuutttt...we talked to Chaz last night, and he showed us the video of swimming with the sea lions...and....well, we decided we had to do it! Sarah and I walked down to Cantamar on the Malecon, and made a reservation for today. We also had a most interesting conversation with Askana. We actually spent about an hour talking to him, in addition to making our reservation.

We showed up for the boat at 9:00am. This was a full day tour. A good chunk of the time was getting to the island. It was an hour and 40 minutes to Isla Espiritu Santo, a national park.

For this tour, we did have wet suits. We didn't take our own masks and snorkels (and kind of regretted that). Once we got to the southern end of the island, we got into the water and snorkeled around toward the rocks. There were tons of sea lions on the rocks (making a racket with their barking), and several in the water. I was swimming over toward the rocks, looking at the fish, when three sea lions swam right in front of me! IT WAS SO COOL!!!! I kind of just hung out in one place while the sea lions swam around me. One young one would come right at me, then at the last minute flip over on it's back and glide underneath me! I cannot express how amazing this was!

After hanging out with the sea lions, we returned to the boat, where we had some sandwiches and Cokes. Then we said goodbye to the sea lions, and headed 40 minutes to a great beach where we were able to snorkel around the coral reef and see tons more fish. Most exciting for me was seeing a puffer fish. There were also wrasse, damsel fish, angel fish, these long skinny fish...so many fish!

                                                                        Puffer Fish!!!

The tour guide, Javier, made ceviche from trigger fish, and we ate on the beach. We had stripped off the wetsuits, and enjoyed the sun on the beach.

After so much ceviche, it's siesta time for Tom! 

All too soon, we were back on the boat, and heading back. We did stop at Balandra Beach, but didn't get off the boat.

This was another most fabulous day! I'm so glad we stayed the extra day! As an added bonus, Heike is here now!!! But, we will leave tomorrow...we think.