Scuba Me!

Like all things you look forward to with great anticipation, they all come and go.  Some experiences leave you with a sense of disappointment and wanting while others, like this scuba trip, manage to blow your little mind.

So you know the experience was good, but how good is good and was it all good?  I think I will start with the tour group dynamic.  Imagine this: a tour worth a lot of money, a country not too far from the good ol US of A.  Worst possible outcome.... heaps of older yanks and little old me sitting on a boat 150nm off the Galapagos.  I must have said at some point in time “what are the chances of that?” because you guessed it!  Six rich Americans and little old me.  I was thinking real hard on how I could throw this trip and claim it on my travel insurance when I heard of a last minute inclusion to the itinerary.  He was a bloke called Denton who had accidentally missed the tour start date because he had got on the wrong plane in Guayaquil and ended up in the Jungle!  We would have to pick him up on our second day.  My thoughts were mixed as I was hoping to god he would be of a similar age to me and a complete dude, but I was also thinking “If he can´t get on the right plane to here, I ain´t buddying up with him in the middle of the bloody Pacific Ocean!”  But as the fortune gods would have it he ended up being a really cool Jamaican guy who just got the wrong end of the stick in Guayaquil.

So I had a friend!  And I needed it.  All the “back in California” and “I´ve had better here and seen better there” rubbish was wearing a little bit thin with this hot blooded bloke.  Wow, American tourists living up to their rep abroad, who would have thunk it?

But that was pretty much all the complaints I could have.  The crew were good, the food was great and the diving was out of this world!  We started our trip off with some introductory dives to get everyone used to the extra salty and retardedly cold conditions of the local waters (I am from sunny Australia, so I am allowed to say 19 degree C water is retardedly cold!).    The first few dive sites were close in to the main islands of the Galapagos and as such not to good on the ol quality meter.

 There were heaps of starfish....

As we moved further afield, the diving shifted up not just one gear but the whole gear box!  The waters became warmer (about 24 degrees C), the visibility improved massively and the animals, well.....holey crap!  Our first stop was Wolf Island where we encountered heaps of schooling hammer head and Galapagos sharks, big eagle rays and our first whale shark!  The whale shark encounter had me and my dive buddy excitedly punching the living hell out of each other under water as we were the only two to see this monster during our second dive safety stop.  On each dive I managed to employ some of my fish stalking skills to get extra close to these critters of the deep in order to bring you some photos that help portray the whole experience.

These guys were all around either soaring overhead or resting on the boat as we headed out.

There are lots of spotted eagle rays at Wolf.  This one is acting as a cleaning station for some jacks.

This is a black tip shark

One of many hammerheads.  They really don´t like to come too close.  Watch your bubbles if you want to approach them.

After Wolf Island, we moved on to Darwin Island where things bettered themselves yet again.  There were more sharks, including the odd whale shark, massive tuna, dolphins, octopi and the list goes on.  We saw schools of thousands of bonito being herded together by hungry dolphins.  I managed to run my finger from the tip to tail of a whale shark, dodging the dorsal and tail fins on the way.  It was nothing short of incredible.  I was in my element and not being afraid to get among it, I consistently got closer than anyone to the action.  And so the reputation of yet another crazy Aussie abroad continued.  It was absolutely amazing. 

Bonito by the tonne.  I discovered a little trick with these Ferrari´s of the ocean. Point at them and it is almost like trowing a lasoo around them.  They will now follow where you are pointing (at least for a little while).

Yep, there were many a hammerhead.

This is a big 12m mumma whale shark.  She was tagged earlier by some local scuba Steves with spearguns and tag prongs.

On top of a whale shark.  Bam!

The good life in front of Darwin´s Arch.

Quintessential Andrew.

The diving culminated with some very cold water dives to the north of Fernandina Island.  Here the waters were a little below 14 degrees C.  Wearing nothing but a 7mm suit and hood I soon came to feel the cold.  Consistently diving 30m and staying in the water for nearly an hour per dive, I became border line hypothermic.  After the second dive, my motor and neural skills declined rapidly and not even a 20 minute hot shower after could cure me.  I managed to bring my core temperature back by wrapping myself in all my clothes and lying on the sun deck of the boat for an hour.  It was for this reason that I decided to opt out of the third dive of the day and snorkel instead.  Best move EVER.  Because I did this, I was assigned a panga (tender) driver of my own to look over me as I did what I wanted too.  As we were heading off to the area I wanted to snorkel the driver spotted some orca.  At light speed we were over there right next to a massive mother a calf and what looked to be another juvenile.  The driver and I had spent some time getting to know each other earlier on the trip and I think it was because of this he quickly hit me up to see if I wanted to hop in.  As he hit me up the mumma orca breached showing a full set of pearly whites.  Massive.  I have to admit I was a little slow in my getting back to him on that one!  There were a few thoughts battling it out in my mind.  The first:  Big animal...BIG TEETH.  The second:  When are you going to get this chance again bro?  The third:  Just get in the water you girl.  And with that my mind was set and I was in.  But as soon as the orcas came they went and I actually didn´t get to see them in the cloudy waters.  ARRRRR! 

Mumma orca.  Big teeth.

All this was soon forgotten though because I was snorkelling less than a meter away from hunting penguins, grazing turtles and iguanas!  And none of them were going anywhere fast.  I just chilled in the water for some 60 minutes just soaking it all up.  It was the best snorkelling experience ever! 

Iguana in the water

And I mucked around with this little fella for a bit too.

But it was all about the pengiunos!

The last day of the tour was a land based day where we got to see some of the sights of the main Galapagos island, Santa Cruz.  These sights included the giant tortoises the Galapagos are so famous for.

Now I think I should do a service for all those of you who are thinking of ever scuba diving the Galapagos.  Here is what I have learnt in my time on the islands:

1. Land based diving is not even a shadow of what is on offer out wide upon a liveaboard.  But liveaboards are expensive as hell in comparison.  Last minute deals are readily available in the low season if you have the time to shop around.  You can fairly regularly save around the 25% mark.  But a word of advice is that the cost of hiring equipment is extra and pretty costly.  Then there are dive videos and gratuities.
2. Finding a tour from the Galapagos is what I did and it was very easy.  I booked through Scuba Iguana but there are other operators you can use.  It is easier than booking through an agent in Guayaquil or Quito because you can more readily find a place that specialises in scuba trips.  That said, you can just email the operators directly and negotiate that way.     
3. The best diving is during the period of the year when the Humboldt Current is in force and the waters are colder.  I would highly recommend October which is smack bang in the middle of the low season.  The skies may be pretty grey, but the waters are rammed with more animals than any other time of the year.
4. The diving is more advanced than the usual.  Currents can be pretty strong (3 knots or so) and the visibility out wide is still only limited to about 20m on a good day.  You will experience thermoclines that at any time can just wash in with the current.  Some temperature differentials were in the order of 6 degrees.
5. Though we did not experience any big swells, the group before us did.  This can make surfacing and getting back into the pangas (tenders) difficult.  You will more than likely be diving out of the pangas for all but your first dives.
6. Bottom time is important.  You want to be good on your air so that you can stay down longer to see as much action as possible.  Depths are consistently around the 20 to 30m mark.  Though I was diving on air, others were using Nitrox in order to not have to worry about their bottom times maxing out.  This forced me up on the odd occasion.
7. If you are using an underwater camera, the temperature differentials in the water play havoc with any condensation inside your housing.  Pack plenty of silica to try to counteract this.  
8. And finally, the Galapagos is about the big stuff.  The underwater landscapes are dull and drab.  It is the animals that make it amazing.  Hence as I mentioned earlier, go when the animals are at their peak.