havecarryonwilltravel

These last two day have been chill days. Yesterday, we checked out tour agents to see if we could dive a site called Kicker Rock near San Cristabal Island. No go. The few dive boats that were going out were booked. We had enough folks to fill another boat but there are restrictions on the number of divers that can dive any given site on any given day and the quota had been filled.

R, our friend from DC, and our newly minted friends from the dive cruise opted to snorkel at Bahia Tijeretas and swim at Playa Carolas. An easy day of walking, snorkeling, getting rained on and sharing dive experiences with new friends over drinks.

Today, we learn something new. Book your spot on the inter-island ferry early. Not to ensure a ride but to get preferential treatment. We booked two days ago. Two tickets for the 7am ferry on May 19, por favor. Today in the crush at the top of the gang way, when it is time to hand over bags for loading, Debbie hears the lady call, “Murray and Deborah”. Our bags get loaded first. Looks like we are on the boat for sure. As the others hand over their bags the crowd around the entrance gets tighter and denser. As it is time to load, our names are again called and we are able to load first and chose our seats. It is good to be first on the list!

The boat is a smallish seagoing boat with a cabin which holds 20 passengers and has 3 – 200 HP engines. Quite fast for a ferry. We covered 47 N Miles in 1 hour 43 minutes. A might rough but not too bad. Some sections are actually very calm. There is a pod of dolphins playing in the wake and I see one flying fish.

Puerto Ayora has not changed one bit since we were last here (two days ago). A few more cars and the shops are mostly open instead of mostly closed. But other than that it is the same.

Debbie isn’t feeling well so I scout the town, finally get to try an empanada for lunch and procure french fries to take to Debbie. Later in the afternoon we walk to the Darwin Research Centre to take a look at the baby tortoises and the land iguanas. We get soaked for the second time on this island. Seems to be a recurring theme.

It was a chill day and we are back in our room, with Debbie dozing and me writing.

We wake up moored in the harbour at San Cristobal, our starting point a week ago. We disembark and say our goodbyes to the divers flying out today. There is a small group staying on the island.

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal Island

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the urban centre of San Cristobal, is a town that is not sure of what it is. There are modern buildings and new construction but there are also dilapidated houses and commercial buildings. It is like it is trying hard to be an international destination but it can’t quite compete with the older bigger sister of Pueto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. The noticeable lack of tourists may play a big part.

The sea lions are in abundance in town. The town appears to have confined the sea lions to the beach area by erecting a wire fence that separates the beach from the sidewalk. We walk down onto the beach and get within 10 or so feet of a few sea lions. They are humorous to watch as they search for the best sunning spot just slightly out of the water. They will clamber over one another in their quest for the perfect repose position. We hear mom and pup sea lions calling to one another.

Traffic is sparse. There are taxis, small white trucks, easily hailed. Taxis are relatively cheap, so it is easy and affordable to hop in one instead of walking. Amazingly, there are bike lanes on the roads. But not so many bikes either.

There are an abundance of dive shops in town. Our group of 8 divers staying on the island tried to arrange diving for tomorrow, but even with the many dive operations, the number of boats is restricted so we were not able to go out. We are meeting to go snorkeling and beaching instead.

We will stay on San Cristobal for 2 nights to explore the area and then move over to Santa Cruz.

Last dive today and it was a good one. The site was Dumb Rock near Pinzon Island. The water was the clearest it has been anywhere, not cold as it could be and not a big current. The goals were to find the Red Lipped Batfish, locate a sea horse or two and see what was up in the cleaning station around the corner.

Dive to the sand bottom found two or ten Batfish. Check. Travel towards the wall part of the dive find two sea horses. Check. Sneak over the top of the wall find oh so many turtles in to the cleaning station to be deloused or whatever. Then during our safety stop two sea lions decided they would come over to see what all the fuss was about. The dive master started to play with them and they found it to be great fun and joined in. When we reached the surface the sea lions followed and Debbie found a couple of play mates. We were busy taking off our gear and she is out in the water cavorting with a couple of aquatic acrobats.

It was a good dive.

King Angelfish

Later on board the mother ship I was on the bridge talking with the captain and one of the crew stuck his head in the door and said baby hammerhead. R, a fellow diver and I jumped out side and stood at the railing watching a miniature giant swimming about very near the surface a few feet from the boat.

The last full day ended with our first view of the giant tortoise in the highlands of Santa Cruz. Tomorrow we disembark and are land based for the next few of days.

Scuba diving in the Galapagos is hard work. Every dive has its challenges, from surge to current to deep dives.

Roca Redondo

Surge is when the water moves first one way and then the other. Sort of like rocking. We watch the fish and, when in Rome, we do what they do. Pause when the surge is against us and kick like hell when the surge is with us. Many of the surges we have encountered are so forceful that we glide 15 feet forward only to lose just as much going back, so we hold onto a rock to stop ourselves from moving backward. Sometimes the power of water is so strong it rips us from our perch and we freefall losing the ground we had just gained. Surges can be fun as long as they are not to wild.

We have experienced some pretty heavy currents here too. Kicking against the current, we use up a lot of air to make very little progress. Often it is just easier to crawl, our arms doing the work and our legs just dangling with our stomachs inches above the rocks looking like a herd of lizards. We are learning to be careful what we grab onto. We do not want to harm what little coral and wildlife there is down there. It is easy to dislodge a shell creature or rip a piece of coral from its home.

We are doing a series of deeper dives within a day. Nitrox, which is 32% oxygen instead of 21% in air, is available so we are using it. This is easier on our bodies and allows for longer bottom times and shorter surface intervals.

With the dives being so difficult, we are so busy concentrating on the dive it is hard to see the fish. We cannot take time to look because we are busy holding on, crawling along or kicking hard. We have opted to leave our cameras on the boat for many dives due to the conditions.

This hard diving is very tiring. We are falling asleep after lunch while writing our dive logs. We are falling asleep at 9:00 pm. We sleep well, or as well as we can on a moving boat, and still wake up tired.
Two more days of diving and we will see what challenges are to come in the Galapagos.

Darwin’s Arch

Darwin’s Arch. The photographs of the arch are known across the world. It is also the location of all our dives today. It is renowned for its schools of hammerhead sharks. The divers on the boat are all excited about finally seeing these unique sharks.

The 15 divers have been divided up into two groups. One group is called the dolphins and one is the sharks. We are in the sharks group along with R from Washington DC, K from Texas, P and A from Vancouver and I and R from Munich. The dolphins comprise of four Russians, two from NYC and two from Moscow, a Belgium, a Chicago “copper” as she likes to call herself and a New Yorker.

The dive deck is divided in two halves, sharks on one half and dolphins on the other. With 8 on our side, there is lots of room to move and gear up. We each have a specific station where our tank and BCD sit and below is a basket to keep the small stuff like booties, mask, gloves and dive computer.

Our dive stations

About 10 minutes before the slated dive time, we start to gather on the dive deck to gear up. This involves checking the percentage of nitrox and psi of gas in our tanks and recording these on a sheet. We hook up our octopus and make sure straps and buckles are ready to go on our BCD.

Next we wrestle on our 7 mm wetsuits. This was a big chore until one of the crew suggested we wet the inside of the wetsuit legs and arms, wet and soap down our legs and arms, and VOILA! how easily greased legs and arms slide into the wetsuit.

Murray gearing up

Then come gloves, dive computer, weight belt, BCD with tank and mask around our neck ready to put on. With 7mm wetsuits, more weight is required than our regular 3mm wetsuits we use in the Caribbean. I am using 14 pounds of weight in a belt. Add that to the weight of the tank and other gear and that is a lot of extra weight to hoist around. Each time we perform this ballet of donning gear, we get faster at doing it as the routine becomes familiar and well-practiced.

Once we are all geared up, the panga (zodiac) pulls along the side of the mother ship, and with help from some of the very strong crew, we gingerly step from the boat to the panga and sit on the side. Fins are passed over to the panga in a basket and then handed out. We don these right away. Cameras are handed over next and we are ready for the panga ride to the dive site.

Stepping to the panga

Once at the dive site, we put on our masks, the dive master counts down 3 – 2 – 1 – GO! and we all back roll into the ocean at the same time. Sort of like the navy seals. We descend quickly and regroup on the bottom.

We search for the elusive hammerheads over 4 dives and are disappointed when we find a scant few at Darwin’s Arch.

Today we experience some of the toughest diving we have ever encountered. We dive a number of sites off Wolf Island. We hope to see hammerhead sharks. On one dive we back roll off the panga in calmer waters, descend and swim (with our right shoulder to the wall) a bit down the wall. We reach a point and the surge, going up and down the wall as well as along the wall, is massive. We swim with the surge and when the surge changes direction, we grab onto a rock and hold on for dear life. So much for taking pictures. This continues for about 10 holds and we hit a depth and place along the wall where the current changes to a manageable intensity. The other dives today are similarly challenging and our skills are tested.

Trumpet Fish

We keep looking for schools of hammerheads to swim past in the blue but they seem to be elsewhere today. This is THE SPOT to see hammerheads. Where are they?

We do see another sea lion who gives Murray a good look before twirling away in the current. We also see Moray Eels, lots of them. Turtles. Spotted Eagle Rays. Puffer fish, Trumpet fish, Star fish. The currents and surges give no opportunity for seeking out small stuff like gobies, crabs, slugs and blennies.

It was a day of hard diving, learning and wishing for hammerheads.

We are posting 2 posts a day to catch up for when we were in the “no WIFI zone”. Check below for another new post.

My sleep in is interrupted by a grinding noise, then a sloshing sound, and the bed is rolling from side to side. Up to this point I have slept solid and now it is an on and off thing. We’re moving towards tomorrow’s dives and it is the first night on the boat for a couple of landlubbers.

The day starts with a land tour of Bartolome Island. Not much there really. A walkway over desolate solidified lava to the top of a fairly short volcano. There is a cactus or two and some other scrub, the occasional lizard but that is about all. The view includes some of the adjacent islands and we get an idea as to the layout of the territory.

Bartolome Island

We get back on the Panga and tour the shore line. Our first sighting of the blue footed booby is just around the corner but the highlight is a short Galapagos Penguin standing on a rock preening. The only time northern folk get to see this bird is in the zoo so to see them up close and personal is a treat.

Blue Footed Booby

On the mother ship, after lunch, we prepare for out next dive. The gear is different than what we use in the Caribbean. The wetsuits are 7mm thick. They are not only a struggle to get on but require you to about double the amount of weight you need to carry. Everything is more awkward and takes longer. Most on board do not deal with this amount of gear and everyone struggles.

Both dives today are at Cousin’s Rock. A relatively easy place to dive and it is obvious practice for the next few days. One dive we go clockwise and the second dive is counter clockwise. We see most of the same animals only in reverse order. A few white tip sharks nodding a bit before a evenings work (they are nocturnal), a couple of large eels, a small group of eagle rays and quite a few very large tortuga. One extremely big fellow I’m guessing 6’ long and about 4’ wide.

Hawksbill Turtle

Neither dive is difficult but as I mentioned I think they are practice for the more technical dives in our near future. After the second dive today everyone is feeling more confident.

As I write, the boat is again on the move and when we awake in the morning we will be above our next dive site.