Well our club has returned from an epic excursion to the Galapagos Islands, 1000km off the coast of Ecuador.
After exploring San Cristobal we excitedly boarded the Galapagos Master after locating our rooms we headed downstairs for our orientation and safety briefings.
Not long after that we were finding our spaces on the dive deck and excitedly preparing for our check out dive that afternoon.
The first of 20 dives that were on the agenda for the week.
We headed just around the bay to Isla Los Lobos which translates to the Island of Wolves but here refers Sealions and here they were. It has been a long time since I have had to sit in a circle and prove I can do skills but we all got the big ok and set off to explore the shallow bay. It was sandy with only a few fish but some very inquisitive sealions who apparently like pink fins!
The next day we completed two reefs dives with a lot of new and interesting fish to see, a school of barracuda and eagle rays, turtles and even a Manta swam by.
There is lots of ‘navigation’ as we moved around the Galapagos Islands and we dived around at least 8 different islands. The highlight of the trip was to be Darwin’s Arch and Wolf Island, an overnight steam away. They are so far north they are not even shown on most local maps. Our guides had mentioned currents but nothing prepared us for the extreme currents we experienced at Darwin’s Arch, a small rocky outcrop in the middle of nowhere. Our first dive was certainly an experince as we clung onto the rocks (or tried too) and hid from the currents. Apparently we were supposed to be looking out off the reef for the infamous hammerheads, Galapagos and Silky Sharks that are regulars here. Unfortunately the visibilty wasn’t great, 8-10m, so we didn’t get to sense we were surrounded by sharks but they were definitely there and in large numbers.
We then headed over to Wolf Island to hunt for the weirdest looking fish I have ever seen – the Red Lipped Bat Fish. Worth the 30m night dive as we found 4 Batfish along with morays and sleeping turtles.
The following day we dived Secret Cave – it might not be that good a secret but an intersting system with a massive air bubble for the sealions to hang out in, plus turtles, rays and crayfish in the walls and a lava tube to swim through on our way back out.
One of our divers had Mola Mola, Sunfish, high on her list of fish she wanted to see and we headed off to a cleaning station off Isabela Island to look for these massive fish. If you have ever been told to expect certain species at a certain depth at a certain site you know to take this with a grain of salt however this time we were not disappointed with at least 20 Mola Mola seen on our first dive. We saw none an hour later!
One of the most unusual dive was off Fernandino island with the Marine Iguanas. If you are patient and allow the iguanas to settle on the rocks they will graze on the algae for 8-10mins before swimming back to the surface and into shore to rewarm before heading out for another feed.
Our final dives were at Cousins Rock, with only a slight current we were able to relax with the sealions, eagle rays, and take photos.
Overall the diving was more extreme than we had expected, with intense currents and lower visibility than we had hoped. BUT would we go back?
Absolutely – in a heart beat. The amount and diversity of life, above and below water, made this trip truly incredible for all of us.