Editor’s Note: our camera battery died in the middle of this tour, which was so frustrating since there were beautiful and fascinating things to see at every turn.  Thankfully, some kind fellow tourists, Chris and Christina, shared some of their photos with us.  With the state of wifi here, I’m sure emailing them was no small endeavor, and we really appreciate it.

When we went on the Tntorero Tour the water was really cold but the things we saw were very cool. It was a tour of the bay here in Puerto Villaril and they call it the Tintorero Tour because of all the sharks you see on it. (The word tintorero is a reference to color; the sharks in the bay have wite tips on their fins, or sometimes black tips  – Ed)

Snorkeling above the sharks

We saw sea lions, penguins, sting rays, eagle rays, and lots and lots of sharks. We swam through a narrow channel (a lava crack, according to the guide) and right below us in the channel were so many sharks. There were 50, probably, and most of them they were longer than my body. The channel was warm, but when we swam out I was very cold.

Tintoreras landscape

Then, on land we went on a hike to another channel full of sharks but we didn’t swim there. The island that we hiked on was totally made up of jagged lava rocks covered in white lichen. I thought it would be a good setting for a Star Wars movie. We saw baby sea lions playing and baby iguanas watching us from beside the path. Then we looped back to the boat and the boat took us past some rocks that had penguins on them. Then we saw some blue footed boobies and some more sea lions sitting on a platform in the middle of the bay.

Another shark tunnel, seen from above

I liked that we got to see lots of animals and that our tour guide was really nice. This tour was one of my favorites that we’ve done in Galapagos.

Before the tour we spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the beach right outside our hotel. There are lots of waves. It was really fun because Zoe and I tried to jump and dive over and under them. We also buried ourselves in the sand. This beach was fun because of the waves and the really, really soft sand. We didn’t even want to leave when it was time for the tour.

We didn’t even want to leave for ice cream for lunch. Nadia and I got chocolate ice cream bars and Zoe got mango. Mom got coconut.