🌊 Kids Q&A: Galápagos Edition 🐢

🐧Q: Which animal did you find the cutest and would want as a pet?

Edward: So many penguins! I want a whole bunch.

Emma: A baby sea lion! Did you know they’re called pups? That is how they are called mami and they are mammals.

Parent: Not a chance. We’re not turning our bathtub into a marine sanctuary.

🦎Q: Which animal was the weirdest?

Edward: The giant iguanas. They have funny faces and they spit salt!

Emma: The giant tortoises — they look like aliens! So wrinkly, so slow. They always look super old, even the babies! But they can live to be like 200 years old.

Parent: I mean… she’s not wrong.

🦭Q: If you could swap lives with one of the animals you saw, which one would it be?

Emma: A sea lion — they live in water and on land. Best of both worlds!

Edward: A blue-footed booby. Their feet are just so cool!

🐢Q: Edward, does the giant tortoise go in water? 

Edward: Yes they do, to take a bath and relax. We saw them in green water. But they don’t go swimming in the ocean. 

Parent: Yeah, pretty sure I would be sick if I went in that water… 

🦎Q: Emma, are the differences between marine and land iguanas?

Emma: The marine iguanas can only be found in the Galapagos. They swim in the ocean and eat seaweed at the bottom of the ocean. The land iguanas don’t go swimming in the ocean.

Parent: A fun fact about the marine iguanas is that every few minutes, they would let out a big old sneeze, spraying out water up to several feet. Why? To cope with this high-salt diet. They use large cranial salt glands that excrete most of the sodium, potassium, and chloride ingested by doing a dramatic snorting!

☀️Q: What was harder: putting on sunscreen every two hours or dealing with seasickness?

Both kids: The waves! We felt so bad sometimes, we couldn’t even eat all our dessert. 

Parent: Really? Teddy, then what was all the sun scream about?

🧠Q: What’s something new you learned?

Edward: I didn’t know Manta Rays could jump out of the water so high!

Emma: I learned a lot about boobies! The red-footed booby can perch on branches, but the blue-footed one can’t. Also, when a red-footed booby dies, their feet stay red — but the blue-footed ones lose their color.

Parent: Who knew feet could be so dramatic?

🤿Q: What was your favorite activity?

Emma: Snorkeling — I loved seeing the animals underwater!

Edward: Kayaking!

Parent: Of course you loved kayaking, Teddy. There weren’t any paddles your size — you just lounged in the front while Joey and I did all the work!

😱 Q: Can you tell me about a scary moment?

Emma: I dove down while snorkeling and a sea lion zoomed right underneath me. It gave me a big scare!

Edward: There was a shark in the water with me once! I did not see it but I was very scared.

Parent: And yet somehow, I was the only one screaming into a snorkel.

✨ Q: What about a magical moment?

Emma: Whale watching! A giant Manta Ray jumped into the air, and we saw dolphins, a blue whale, and other whales too.

Edward: Seeing a sea turtle with seashells all over its shell was really magical.

🏁Q: If a blue-footed booby and a sea lion had a race, who would win?

Emma: The sea lion! They swim super fast.

Edward: The blue-footed booby, because they can fly. When they dive, they have to tuck their wings in fast or they can break them. They even have a cushion in their heads to protect them!

Parent: Nature’s got crash helmets, apparently.

🥵Q: What was your least favorite moment or activity?

Emma: That hike in the middle of the day. It was SO hot. But we did see hundreds of iguanas, so that part was cool.

Edward: Saying goodbye. I didn’t want to leave.

Parent: Same here, buddy. But our wallet was already sunburnt — we couldn’t afford even one more day.

🍽️Q: What was your favorite food or drink?

Emma: Chicken and rice!

Edward: Blackberry juice!

Parent: Not the ceviche? Too tangy for you guys, huh?

🚤Q: We did a few zodiac tours — did you have a favorite moment?

Emma: Seeing hundreds of blue-footed boobies diving together, over and over. It looked like a waterfall or fireworks!

Edward: Yeah, that was fun. I liked when Carlos was driving fast and when he let me drove the boat. 

🐟Q: What story would you like to tell your friends about the Galápagos?

Edward: Snorkeling! The water was cold and salty. I was nervous at first because I couldn’t see clearly and was scared a shark might appear. But then we saw SO much: sea turtles, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea stars, rays, and all kinds of fish! 

Emma: Definitely the boobies diving. But also snorkeling. Once, Dad was filming a big school of fish and a sea lion popped up right in front of him — he jumped so much, it was so funny!

Parent: Yeah, the water was pretty chilly and you guys ended up with two wetsuits (one on top of the other) to be comfy in the water.