The Big Dive Build Up

Now I do know that it is good story telling practice to set out a chronology of events so the general reading public have a reasonable chance to follow your ramblings.  But this time I am going to have to stray from this golden rule.  There are pressing matters that need to be addressed upfront my friends and now is the time!

 

The iguana situation is heading critical.  I have recently learnt that these critters aren´t as marine as their name would suggest.  As it turns out, they hate cold water and would rather wait till low tide to smack down that now exposed tasty tasty sea moss.  Three hours in a wetsuit in 18 degree water waiting for the buggers to get off their warm little rocks taught me this one.  THEN to spice it up a notch, there is some interracial goings on.  Marine iguanas have been getting their freak on with their local land dwelling cousins resulting in the world driest marine iguana.  Hmmmm, if the bible doesn´t cover that somewhere, then it should.  I am seriously thinking about just snatching one of these buggers of a rock and making my own marine happenings.  That’s right all, when nature gets weak, I am willing to put things right.

But point made, now return lets return to my chronology shall we... 

Sooo, these islands have way more than just not so marine iguanas.  We have: big yellow land iguanas, little iguanas, big turtles and tortoises, seals, sea lions, penguins, boobies (yep boobies herherher), sharks, orcas, whales etc, etc.  The coolest aspect of all this nature is that it is just there.  Yes, over there.  All you need to do is get out and see it.  So that was one of my first missions upon arrival. 

Numero uno on my list of out there activities was operation “Scuba Steve”.  The Galapagos is one of the world’s premier dive destinations and here I was with time galore to indulge.  Finding a dive itinerary was easy, but exceptionally costly.  To see what the Galapagos has to offer in all its splendor there is no denying that you have to do a liveaboard dive trip.  An eight day liveaboard dive charter costs in the order of 5,000 to 5,500 USD!  And this is for only 7 days of diving at 3 dives a day!  Expensive even when compared to Australia.  You have little choice in the matter either.  The best diving is some 20 hours away by boat and only a handful of operators have permits to travel there.  Market cornered... 

But this being the low season and all, I was hounded with last minute options, some with savings of around 25% on offer.  When the lady doing the dealing mentioned that the last trip had seen 20 whale sharks in one day coupled with a total of 12 sun fish, a bazillion hammer head sharks and some crazy big tuna etc, I was sold!  I would have ridden behind the dive boat for 20 hours on an inner tube to see that kind of stuff!  But instead they insisted I pay a s@!t tonne of money.   

Now to the drama of actually acquiring the money for the trip.  I will sum up my hassles with one concise sentence.  I HATE Australian Banks (big hate).  How can the most successful businesses in Australia be so poor at what they do?  Give me my friggin money, its simple!  The kind lady on the other end of the phone though explained to me however this is apparently not so.  This was right before I popped a capillary in my eye, turned big and green and mashed a village! But everything as always gets worked out if you have the motivation.  And I am a motivated motha when it comes to my diving! 

With five days to pass before my cruise starts, I had nothing to do other than explore.  I found quickly that there are a lot of areas around that are designated out of bounds.  I also found that if you just go a little beyond these boundaries there is some really cool stuff!  Now I did say that one of the things I was going to do when I got here was kick it marine iguana style on a rock to check out these little native critters.  Done....and it was COOL!  There were heaps of the little guys around the rocky headlands of Tortuga Bay (which you technically weren´t supposed to venture over).  The big fellas tended to keep a little distance from you but I found if you just go and sit down on the rocks near the water’s edge, the little iguanas practically swoon.  I had one guy traverse some 20m of rock to come and chill out right next to me. 

The little guy in person.  He knew how to compose a great photo.

Note to self but.  These guys have a whole nasal purge thing going where they clean excess salt they ingest from their bodies.  Yeah, they purge it a hell of a long way if you get my drift. Nasty.

There are also a number of other animals just out and about doing their thing.  Down at the boat ramp a local seal greets the fisherman when they arrive along with the usual brigade of beady eyed pelicans.  Little land based iguanas roam freely just on the edges of the town as well.  One challenged me to a duel by showing me his red neck and doing some pretty impressive push ups.  Lucky I´ve never dueled an iguana before and I´m trying to be more likable with nature, so I let him go this time.

I managed to pass a couple of other days with scuba diving day trips.  Now the Galapagos is not the most enthralling marine scape in the world, but it has buckets of marine life to spruce the gig up.  I have never seen so many fish in my life.  Most of my dives were clouded in bait balls.  Below are a few photos of the usual suspects you can be sure to see when you dive locally. 

Sand Eels by the dozen all darting back and forth like something from a Muppet show.  I love their little flip top heads. 

 

There were many fishes slackjawing.

The seals were making easy prey of these fishes.  One actually managed to chase a fish down and eat it a full 2m in front of us.  Das cool ya.

 

Now this is what an angry bull sea lion looks like moments before that little voice in your head goes "oh crap...."  This guy had a toothy lunge at me and nearly made it stick! 

The smaller guys were way more fun.  We spent about 10 min in the shallows with three of these guys as they darted around hamming it up for the cameras.

 More hamming.

And did I mention, these fellas are FAST!

Unfortunately, the water is not so clear locally and the temperature...well...not to good if you ain´t a plankton eating mammal from the subarctic bro.  All the more reason to look forward to the 8 days of diving bliss in the clear warmer waters 20 hours off the Galapagos. 

And to the present.  Chronology fully restored.  I am one day out from my trip and chilling it island style to some local beats.  I have met me a couple of Galapafolk who are wickedly friendly.  They introduced me to the rocket fuel they call Aguadiente and in return I introduced them to the words “awesome” and “awesomeness”.  They freaking love these words too, everything now is aaawesome!  I love South Americans.  Chou, Chou and a Choucitto.