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[Zoltan]

Our one teenager is terrified of sharks- Thanks Steven Spielberg!- and may not enjoy our Galapagos cruise as a result. Can anyone please share a non-terrifying experience swimming in the waters of the Islands? We had not anticipated such an issue!

[Yorkie]

We were in the Galapagos in August this year. My son is 13 and my daughter 10 and they encountered white-tipped reef sharks a couple of times. Once while kayaking they got very close - the sharks at one point swam right under their kayak, but showed no interest at all in the boat and did not seem threatening at all. On another occasion, a white-tipped reef shark (these are the common sharks in the islands) patrolled the beach in just a few feet of water only a few feet from where we stood in the water up to about our ankles. The shark swam so close we could see it very clearly and the dorsal fin sometimes broke the surface - it was a fascinating experience and again, there was no indication of threat from the shark at all. My son is an avid shark fan so he knows a lot about the different species and which ones can be dangerous and which ones are harmless. The white-tipped reef shark is harmless. It has the familiar shape of a shark that we've all seen from the movies and books, so in that sense, I suppose it could look threatening. But ones we saw were all less than 8 feet long - a good sized fish to see so close up, but not huge or fearsome by any means.

And, although it would be too bad to miss this species, as it is a Galapagos specialty, there is always the chance that you might be lucky (or unlucky) enough to not see them at all. Besides the sharks, we had some excellent views of another seagoing predator - orcas! Though we had seen plenty in our other travels, our guides were quite excited as they said they usually see them only a few times a year, so that was a special sighting.