After climbing Bartolome, we returned to the boat briefly, collected our snorkel gear. Then we headed out in the dinghy for the beach to go snorkeling. From the dinghy, a member of our group spotted a Galapagos Penguin swimming nearby, just below Pinnacle Rock. Penguins are are quite rare in this part of the archipelago, so we were lucky to see one. As soon as we arrived at the beach I was eager to snorkel in the direction of the penguin. It took some convincing, but Michelle agreed and we did. We didn't see the penguin, but we did see lots of fish, a few starfish, and some urchins, and a couple of sea lions. One of the sea lions was in very shallow water and quite playful, swimming around us and at times coming within in inches of our masks. We had an underwater disposable film camera and took some photos -- hopefully they will turn out okay and I can scan some and post them here.
After snorkeling, we learned that other members of our group went snorkeling on the opposite side of the bay, and they did see a penguin, which was feeding on the fish. Swimming with the sea lion was fun, but it would have been cool to see the penguin fishing as well.
It funny that, while snorkeling, I didn't once think about the two large sharks that I had seen in the area only a few hours before.