We’re making the most that we can here in Galapagos. A dive trip out to Kicker Rock proved to be a spectacular day. This incredible formation rises staight up high out of the sea. The photo gives some idea but it’s difficult to show the size. We dived between the splits at about twenty metres and could look up to literally dozens of rays and sharks gliding overhead. The rays were spotted eagle rays and the sharks primarily the slender Galapagos shark with the odd white-tipped and black-tipped in between. All were fairly small and not the least bit interested in a hoard of divers gawking at them. Our second dive was in search of the hammerhead sharks that are fairly common in the vicinity but the viz wasn’t brilliant and they must have been just too far away for us to spot them through the gloom.
Again, we were intrigued with the different varieties of fish compared to those in the Caribbean waters. Most spectacular are the many king angelfish that we had not seen on the other side, some of them quite huge. In addition, we saw turtles and, on our second dive, were entertained by a lone seal who performed constant water aerobics between us.
This was the first time we’d dived in a few years and the first time we tried to don our thicker wetsuits in more than six years. Not good! I’m told that wet suits when not used tend to shrink. I believe it and I’m sticking to that! After a major struggle with a lot of help, I finally got into my 5mm wetsuit, gathered up all my gear, jumped into the water and proceeded to panic. I simply couldn’t breathe in all that stuff. I thought I’d have to abort the whole idea but Paul convinced me to try without the jacket and, voilà, I wasn’t too cold. It turned out just fine. And just to clarify things, I definitely weigh less now that when we left Cape Town where I last wore the suit so that’s why I’m sticking to my shrinking wetsuit theory!
The following day, we took a two-hour ferry ride over to Santa Cruz. Two hours in an exceedingly uncomfortable and crowded boat. It was probably designed for a maximum of 15 people but it had at least double that. Our trip was primarily to visit the Charles Darwin research centre which was very interesting and, had we had more time, I’m sure we would have gleaned a lot more but the return ferry left at 2:00 which really didn’t give us an awful lot of time there. We were glad to note that we had chosen the right anchorage as when we passed by Academy Bay anchorage, the alternative choice, the boats were subjected to some rather large swells, making living aboard very unpleasant.
One of our absolutely favourite things here are the blue-footed boobies. They actually dance! As part of their mating ritual, they hop from one foot to the other dancing. Just too cute! I don’t have a very fancy camera and wasn’t able to get close enough to take decent shots so, forgive me, I’ve included a few I found on internet as no record of Galapagos would be complete without these funny, charming little characters. One early explorer noted that they were so easy to catch as they were “too silly” to run away.
It’s now time to move on, we’ve got a very long haul ahead of us to reach the Marquises, but Galapagos has been a wonderful stop.
Photo Gallery:
Kicker Rock
Diving with the seals
Our Favourite Watering Hole
A Very Crowded Trip to Santa Cruz
But these two were just too sweet
(internet pictures)
Great Frigate Bird
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