Before arriving in the Galapagos Islands both
the anticipation and curiosity for this part of the world was high. As
the Divers amongst us know, the best way to see underwater life is to dive.
Yes, I will admit that snorkelling has its
advantages and provides opportunities to experience the wildlife to some extent (ie, like an injured seal flapping about on the surface) but this was
no place to skimp on experiences and the diving did not disappoint.
We randomly met an American dive instructor who directed us to a few better hostels on Santa Cruz Island and quickly identified that she worked for a quality dive center and tour company. We then established that the best dive locations were Gordon Rocks and Seymour Norte.
Gordon Rocks
Departing the next day to Gordon Rocks, we
were joined by a group of students on an Open Water Course, which made for a full load for the boat. So
without trying to brag too much, it was the most amazing dive experience that I have ever had!
The underwater formations were awesome and the wildlife was both plentiful and
radness! The marine life accepted you in their territory and were generally
happy for you to come relatively close. On the other side, the larger Hammer
heads were quite happy to come a check us out as well. On this dive I saw hammer head sharks, manta rays, turtles, sea lions, white tip reef sharks and then thousands of fish and
smaller life.
 |
| Teeming with marine life |
For our second dive, we were to dive between the
underwater piers that connected Gordon Rocks. Unfortunately this dive was cut short due to an accident with one of the other divers. One of the girls diving in our group got caught
in a current and whilst exerting herself to return to our group passed out
underwater. Thankfully after retrieving her from 30M and calming down the
boyfriend (who was at a point of being a hinderance), she was breathing on the
surface and come to shortly after. She has made a great recovery and hopefully
will get back in the water.
Seymour Norte
The second dive was at Seymour Norte. This diving experience was definitely more about the great underwater landscapes, including a sandy bank which had thousands of small Galapagos garden eels who caught small organisms in the currents. We also saw a sting ray
school, more hammer heads and a sea lion who decided to try and catch some dinner in
the school of fish we were swimming through.
The diving on both sites was amazing, and
hopefully the pictures give you a glimpse of the amazing marine life in Galapagos. There are a lot more photos that will be loaded to the Dropbox
account for you to look through. Unfortunately the video adventures will take a
while to load and you may not be able to see these until our return.
After these two days of diving it was hard
not to keep going back for more, luckily our 14 Day program gave us many more
great opportunities, so stay tuned…
