With twists and turns, backward somersaults and curious, big, blue eyes the sea lions darted around and under us - zooming in close to inspect our funny masks and snorkels, and nibbling at our fins.

A 50-minute boat ride through 4-foot high swells started our snorkeling adventure in Santa Fé Bay on the northeast side of Santa Fé Island. When we arrived we saw about 60 sea lions and their pups relaxing on the beach. Dressed in wetsuits, we cautiously swam toward them, going only as far as the guarding male sea lions would allow. Then we swam off to explore the rocks surrounding the bay.

An octopus hid in a crack and hog-head fish swam among schools of surgeon and angelfish. A scorpion fish lay camouflaged on the bottom. But the center of attention switched when five, young, female sea lions swam belly-to-the-sky over the barnacle-covered rocks to check us out.

We played together for about 15 minutes before a male sea lion, with his imposing form, broke up the party. We took the hint to swim back to our boat and on the way crossed paths with two green sea turtles.

After lunch on the boat, we saw the shadows of three white-tipped sharks, a white-spotted eagle ray and two more sea turtles cruising the green waters around us.

On our way back to RV Revelle, we relished our feeling of euphoria. The inquisitive faces of the sea lions will be with us in our minds as we begin our sonar surveys tonight of the undersea flanks of the western Galápagos Islands.

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