An adventure
Senior Liam O'Sullivan vlogs about his two weeks in Ecuador.
Sea lions are puppy, and nobody can change my mind.
You know what else is puppy? Rabbits are puppy. Cows are puppy. Kittens? They’re puppy too. In my mind, puppy is anything that seems like it should enjoy a good pat on the head, a chin scratch or a belly rub.
Sea lions, which are absolutely everywhere in San Cristóbal, are forbidden puppy. As puppy as they seem, Ecuadorian law mandates that I keep at least 2 meters between myself and any excessively pet-able sea lion. While I would normally absolutely risk an international incident to grab a sea lion by the cheeks, I figured it would hurt my grade if I spent the remainder of the trip in Ecuadorian jail. Such is the price of forbidden puppy.
One sea lion in particular stands out to me. I was traipsing along the boardwalk, and on the beach below me, a sea lion was fast asleep. He or she was in an extremely cuddly looking position, so I loudly called out, “Look at this guy over here!” to my classmates. As I did so, the sea lion opened its eyes and stared at me with intent. Usually, sea lions are indifferent to humans, but this one made eye contact with me and held it for nearly a minute. It didn’t seem agitated, just curious.
That being said, prolonged eye contact could just mean the sea lion was about ready to bite my head off. I’m no animal behavioralist.