To preface, thanks for getting this far, this is my first "insta nug" so I'm gonna do my best but I beg of you, do not come in with high expectations. K thanks.
We first heard about this experience when we were booking our accommodations in Lima, air BnB had a section for things to do nearby and this was the first one I saw. I once saw a meme that described sea lions as dog mermaids so naturally, I was intrigued. Jasmine was not so much, for some reason the thought of hopping into cold water and swimming around with potentially vicious animals did not appeal to her as much as to me. I know, crazy right?
Lucky for me, the internet was full of glowing reviews for this experience, not one person had rated it poorly, not so lucky for Jas, this left no room for excuses to get out of it.
Day of, I'm not gonna lie, I was flipping nervous, I do not do well in boats on the ocean, I'm a full on bundle of motion sickness so when we saw the thimble that we were expected to spend 3 hours in, I was not pleased. Thankfully due to a gravol and a well timed caffeine pill we survived unscathed. Although even if we hadn't I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have cared because the sea lions were FRICKING AMAZING (not to mention the fat little penguins we got to see on the way).
Upon first seeing them its a bit of a shock, I think we both grossly underestimated the amount of them that there would be. Jas does this thing where she has to research everything ahead of time on the internet (for safety, and probably a good thing because I'm not so great at knowing whats up and getting eaten by a wild animal in a foreign country isn't on my to do list) she said that sea lions are notoriously huge, aggressive and territorial sooo prob not a great idea to be swimming with them? But the guides had explained that only the large males are territorial and only on land, the ones that come into the water are generally juveniles and are just curious. I for one was convinced, nothing was keeping me out of the water, not even the weird, knee length wetsuit they made me wear...
Jas opted to stay in the boat, probably a smart move as the whole, stripping down to my bathing suit in front of 20 strangers, struggling into a wetsuit and then reversing the whole procedure after was not the most pleasant, especially in the less than tropical weather. However, the in between part (frolicking in the water with the dog mermaids) was MAGICAL. I've honestly never been happier, there was SO MANY, like thousands (7 thousand apparently), sea lion soup as we referred to it. They are the cutest, they come up and say hi, dive under you, kiss your feet, and one even bit my butt! It was more of a nibble, I'm telling myself he just really liked me. As promised the big fat ones stayed on the island so thats a relief, and the ones in the water were fairly little, no bigger than a medium sized black lab, which is what they basically were.
Overall, one of the best and coolest experiences of my life and most definitely a highlight of our whole trip. Jas said it was absolutely worth the money even though she didn't go in, so if that doesn't convince you I don't know what will.
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