This morning while conditions were calm, we took our snorkel gear in our dinghies over to Isla Granito which is about 1-1/2 miles across the big East Bay. Adam, Cindi, Don and I had heard about the sea lion colony there and wanted to visit it. In fact, we could hear them all the way across the bay, especially at night. Isla Granito is an island about 1/2 mile long and not very wide, completely covered in bird guano and thousands of large organ cactus. We've all seen sea lions up close before and even swam with them at Isla Islotes down by La Paz. Usually there's one huge male that oversees the area and his harem. Well Isla Granito was quite different. We dingied along the edge of the island and maybe every 200 yards there was a big male sea lion with his own family of several females and lots of young. The entire island was full of different family groups all living in their own area. All seemed to get along with each other fine as long as borders weren't crossed. As we dingied by a group, the gigantic male would enter the water with a big splash and swim quickly towards us barking loudly telling us not to come any closer. They are so big and loud they can be very intimidating, especially when they are in the water and coming right toward you. Sometimes it seemed he would ignore us and instead swim in front of his family group barking loudly at them, telling them 'don't you dare leave this area while the strangers are here'. We made our way around to a small bay in front of a sand beach where a very large group of maybe 200 were congregated. To me, the left side of the beach looked like the birthing area full of large females and young pups, closely guarded by an enormous male. To the right side of the beach and onto the rocks were hundreds of sea lions, a mix of young and old, large and small. As the two dinghies approached you could see the excitement level of the entire area rise (as did ours as well). We got as close as we thought prudent with the big males barking at us loudly. We dropped our anchors in 15-20 feet of water. Right at that moment, dozens of animals on the right hand side got very excited and moved very quickly into the water all at once causing a big commotion and then more followed. My initial thought was, OH GOD they're going to attack. But they just swam very excitedly towards us, sticking their heads out every few seconds and looking at us with great curiosity. There seems to be an imaginary line in the water that they would not cross, they just all swam back and forth from the left to the right and back again. I held my breath as Don put on his snorkel gear and slipped into the water with Adam close behind. The boys swam slowly towards the big group to the right as Cindi and I watched. Don turned to me and tapped the top of his head which means 'All OK' so I slipped into the water and Cindi did too. I think the most exciting moment snorkeling is when you first drop into the water and you get to see what's there. Well what a sight, dozens of sleak and energy-filled bodies with their big eyes staring at you, moving quickly and easily through the water. Twisting and turning, some upside down or even slowly standing on their heads looking at you. They seemed to be having the time of their lives investigating us and I know we all felt the same way. Also, remember, this water is 85 degrees - we're all in our swimsuits only and enjoying this experience to the fullest. I liked to dive down and look into a female's eyes and twirl around in the water and watch the female imitate me. I also liked to take a big breath and go to the bottom and grab onto a rock and stay down there as still as possible for as long as I could while the sea lions came down around me to look at me and see what I was doing. We had a grand time. I am sure the sea lions had as much fun as we did.