Scuba diving with sea lions

My time here in Puerto Madryn is almost at an end, tomorrow I bus back to Bariloche and meet Rodrigo, Rodrigo and Mayra four our mountaineering course. I haven't been very good about writing while here, I've been following Julio around a lot, and he's got a very active social life as well as a deep dislike of eating alone, which makes for prolongated, wonderful long lunches and dinners with friends.

This city is also where I discovered scuba diving. On a whim, I did a quick, supervised dive 6 years ago while traveling through and decided to stay and do the course. It was the begining of a lot of wonderful experiences diving in beautiful places. And this morning's first dive certainly ranks as one of the most exceptional!

We went to a sea lion colony, the same one Julio and I kayaked by on the first day of our trip. The best time to go is at high tide, where the seal lions run out of beach space on the nearby shore and are therefore at their most active. That coupled with the fact that they are naturally curious and playful creatures almost garantees that they will come by to have a look at the strange, awkward beings coming into their territory.

It was only a 25 minute ride by boat, and once there, 3 people got off to snorkel while me and another diver went in with the guide. He'd instructed us to go to the bottom and kneel, staying as immobile as possible, avoiding all brusque movements, and the seal lions would likely come. Which we promptly did, and in this spot, the bottom is only 8 metres. With visibility at a very limited 4 metres however (due to the recent north wind storm), it's impossible to see the bottom from the surface.

Once the slow descent with proper compensation (making sure enough air is sent to the ears, via blowing in your nose while holding it shut, to avoid ear problems) was over and we were kneeling, not even a minute went by before the three of us started being circled by fast-swimming seal lions. Most of them were female, likely pregnant, as the ones who are not yet stay in the harem until they are, as well as a few young males. I tried to stay as still as possible, swaying a little with the undercurrents, and soon felt something on my head. Looking at Bart, my diving partner, I knew I had on mine exactly what he had on his; a curious seal nibbling on the top of our hood, pulling it up. How fantastic!

Next I felt the same tug on my arm, but always behind me, and as excited as I felt, I schooled myself to stillness.



The effort paid off. Soon, more seal lions came and they swam right up to us, staring us in the face, touching us and nibbling on us, so close I could see individual markings around their beautiful, large eyes. Two kept on coming back to me. One was a (relatively) small brown one that stayed on my side and, when I slowly lifted my hand up to it, nuzzled it like a horse would, which sent a thrill right through me, and on its next visit, it slowly turned itself belly up and let me run my hand down the side of its taunt flank. I'd never touched a sea lion before. It was amazing! It came back a few times and each time let me touch it. The other never got close enough for me to caress it, but she stayed long seconds right in front of me, eyes locked on mine.


The minutes went by too fast as we watched them pirouette around us and hang, immobile and upside down, to just stare. When we swam (despite our being careful, we disturbed the sandy floor and this reduced visibility quite a bit, so we'd move to a new spot), they followed us, I could feel them touching our backs, and nibbling on our feet. Need I say I didn't want this moment to end? It was pure magic, and although I had been absolutely thrilled to swim with turtles and dolphins in Brasil, this was different because the seal lions actually interacted with us, played with us, were interested in what weird animals we were and it felt amazing to be poked at and watched curiously, like the zoo came into town and we were the attraction!



At one point, one of the adult males came. They don't usually do this, but they like to keep an eye on their females, and I guess it wanted to make sure we weren't males in disguise. It plopped down in front of us, all massive and huge and dark and imposing, and promptly ignored us by turning up its head. It commanded respect and it got it. There are no records of attacks by seal lions, but still, this huge being is a little scary.

It was soon over and we went back up. After resting the necessary time, warming back up and having some tea, we went to another spot to dive a shipwreck this time, the Albatros, a ship that was purposely sunk to create a new diving place. It is covered in life of all sort and provides shelter to this huge salmon like fish.



We went down holding on to a rope, and at 25m deep, it is pretty awesome to be going in to such a dark place, there isn't much light left once at the bottom. We circled the ship slowly on our way up. It's possible to go inside it, but I didn't feel comfortable doing it; I haven't been diving for over a year and a half (and fully intend on going a few times in Montreal, even if it is at the Olympic pool, just to not lose the feeling of it) and this made me unsure of how capable I would be of manoeuvering. I played with the fish instead during the 3 minutes or so that the other two were under. It was a bit frustrating, because I'd been to this shipwreck before, and, although eager, had then not been allowed inside because I'd just been certified and did not have enough experience. And now, I was the one limiting myself.



It was amazing nonetheless, and I was really thrilled by the time I got back up! And starving too; cold water has a way of opening your appetite. Thankfully, Julio and Tincho were hungry too and provided a huge, delicious lunch with plenty of salad, and then it was siesta time. I will miss it here!