Hello everyone. Yesterday was our first full day in the Galapagos. What a magical place! We got to sleep in yesterday! Yay! 7:00 wake up. We headed to a very nice breakfast. We got off the boat and rode a zodiac around James island. We could have gone deep water snorkeling but we decided to take a boat ride instead. Our first sighting was the famous Blue Footed Boobie. They actually weren't as amazing as I expected. That's probably because we couldn't really see their blue feet. We saw tons of pelicans too! Everybody's favorite spotting was the dolphins. We were riding along in the zodiac when our friend Jesse saw something moving in the water. Our guide was so excited to tell us that it was a dolphin. It was the first dolphin we had seen. everyone crowded to that side of the boat and started taking pictures. All of a sudden another one jumped out of the water and then another one and then another one and then another one. There were maybe 20 dolphins surrounding us. It was only then that we realized we were riding through a pod of dolphins. It was incredible. I couldn't believe how close they got to the boat. I took out my camera and started taking pictures. One of the dolphins was white. At one point I almost had to put away my camera because it was getting wet. I thought we were getting splashed by the boat but when I looked up, i realized that a dolphin was flapping its tail at us. The dolphins were playing with us. They started jumping out of the water and putting on a little show. We spent so long looking at the dolphins that the head of all the guides told us that we were late and that we had to immediately return to the boat. Whoops. When we got back to the boat we did a lot of sleeping, eating, watching, and playing cards. Upon our arrival onto the ship, we were given the opportunity to get snorkeling equipment and go snorkeling. As many of you may have imagined we are not a snorkeling family but since we were in the galapagos we decided to try it. After lunch, we went up to the deck and got fitted for our snorkeling gear and our wetsuits. When we were all ready, we got onto the zodiac boat in our bathing suits and wetsuits. We got off at a beautiful beach. After we put sunscreen on and put our snorkel masks on we headed into the water, very slowly. Let's just say we faked it till we made it. We got about knee deep in the water and stayed there for awhile. We started going out further and we saw a lot of tropical fish. They were really pretty. Let's just say we were very grateful that we didn't do the deep water snorkel. Luckily, I had brought my underwater camera so I got to take a lot of pictures of the fish. A sea lion also swam right by me. They were all along the beach. After snorkeling we dried off and went on a hike around the island. I took almost 1,000 photos just on that hike. We saw sea lions, iguanas, crabs, mockingbirds, herons, these little yellow birds, sea turtles, doves, lizards, and many more. It was magnificent. Except for the iguanas. I have to say they are really ugly. They also spray water out of their nostrils to clear them up but it really just looks like they are trying to spit on you. After that, we went back to the boat and did some more sleeping, eating, and showering. We had our briefing about the next day and then ate dinner. The food is really good on the boat. After dinner we went almost immediately to sleep.