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Dear Diary,
Well here I am, 600 miles off the west coast of South America. I am going
to fill you in all the details, although I have made an unfortunate promise
that anything compromising or otherwise potentially libelous will stay on
the boat. Capice? Good.
Getting to the Galapagos wasn't all that painful. From British Columbia,
four hours to Houston, meet up with some of the gang there, slug back a
few brewskis, another four hour flight, a two night layover at 9,000 ft
in Quito, a quick flight to Baltra, with a stop Guayaquadil, and we are
almost there... |
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That's one happy
braciole
in the other dinghy. It's his fault that I am here. When he returned from
the Galapagos last year, he wrote this.
After reading it, I knew I had to go, and when one of the original group
for this trip dropped out and the spot was offered to me, I jumped on it.
After clearing through painstakingly slow environmental controls at the
airport, which included paying a $100 Galapagos Park fee, trekking through
a squishy shoe wash, and a hand search of baggage to ensure no nuts or
roots or seeds etc was being brought into the pristine ecological park
(sapien sure breathed a sigh
of relief when his booty was not discovered ;^), we were met by some of
the Aggressor crew, transported by bus to the waterfront and then ferried
out to the boat. |
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Well,
thar she blows. The lovely Poder del Jesus aka Galapagos Aggressor 1 awaits
the eager voyagers. She carries 14 divers and 7 crew in comfort and style.
Contessa and I are assigned to a cozy cabin on the upper deck (really,
I feel like royalty ;^). My clothes in my duffle are all completely soaked
because the bag was still on the dive deck which was quickly awash when
we got underway. Oops.
It's a 16 hour run up to Wolf Island and we are all dog tired. After a
welcome cocktail with the crew, a fab dinner and a few more brewskis,
it's nighty-night, sleep tight.
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Awakening the next
morning, Wolf Island is close on the horizon. We will do four dives here
today - on the first we will tuck away around the corner and out of the
current to do a checkout dive in a sheltered bay, before they let us loose
with the big boys.
Since it's a checkout, I don't take my camera down with me. I'm checking
out quite a bit of new gear this trip - a new trilam drysuit, a long hose,
a slung pony and a Vyper wristmount computer. Task overloading is a definite
possibility in these adrenaline-rich waters.
We see numerous red-lipped batfish on this dive, sitting pretty and waiting
for their close ups. Of course, we never see another one for the remainder
of the trip... |
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Cris the Divemaster
gives the first briefing at Wolf Island. Back roll in together off the zodiac,
he says. Swim like hell to get down, he says. Grab onto the reef and drag
yourself upwind, he says. Then hang on and hang out there for a while, he
says. Then follow the yellow tank out off the reef and into the blue, he
says. The DM's will only bang their tank when they see Mr. Big, he says.
Carry an Aggressor-issued telescoping dive flag so the dinghy dudes can
spot you when you surface, in the event that the current carries you away,
he says. Stay out of the way of the whalesharks, he says. Righty-O.
I think our hearts our pumping now, and I notice even the wise-asses on
the trip are paying close attention ;^) |
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Day One, Dive Number
3. I spend the good part of a dive trying to get the camera happening. My
heart just isn't in it though. The esteemed DrCraig
has taken one look at me in my gear, what with that freaking long hose wrapped
around my body, the slung pony and the clipped off Aggressor-issued folding
dive flag, and he has declared that I am (oh, the shame of it) a fustercluck.
And to make matters worse, while I am attempting to capture (in images)
this skittish little bugger... |
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...the whole freaking
group has followed He
Of The Yellow Tank out off the reef into the blue, and has seen a whaleshark.
Everyone. Except me. I may possibly never live this down. One more dive
this day, and still no whalesharks for me. I have even been foolish enough
to change out my toasty drysuit for my 3 mm wetsuit to appease the whaleshark
gods. B-b-b-ig m-m-m-mistake in 73F water.
Even
though I have seen masses of hammerhead and Galapagos sharks this day, I
feel devastation and remorse. That f-f-f***ing little yellow p-p-p-puffer...
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New day, new dive
site. This is the far side of Darwin's Arch. DrCraig has deemed this place
to be quite possibly the best dive site in the world. I tend to agree with
him. That view there in the picture is one you don't want to be seeing from
the water with a tank on your back. Cris tells us he has seen grown men,
who have let the current carry them too far, crying, clinging to the rocks
here, waiting to be rescued. The dive site is on the other side of the Arch.
For whatever reason, every year large populations of whalesharks migrate
to Darwin's Arch for a few months. Some speculate it is where the females
come to give birth to their young. |
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Joe Bennie (aka
Zio, JB, Kenya Joe, etc etc) perches on the reef while swarms of fish fly
past. Like him, I am so in awe of this incredible place that I often just
drop my camera and suck in the view. In all of my dive travels thus far,
I have never seen the accumulations
of fish that are here in the northern Galapagos. They actually make
it difficult at times to take pictures by swimming through the frame while
I am trying to set up a shot. |
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Señor Hammerhead
does a fly by.
Previous to this trip, I had seen exactly 3 hammerhead sharks. I saw 3 hammerhead
sharks in the Galapagos (up close and personal) in the first 3 seconds of
my first reef-edge dive at Wolf Island. In a week of diving, that number
swelled into the hundreds. I mean, really, it all becomes a bit hohum after
a while. Not. |
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It has taken me
some time, but I have finally figured out that it is a good thing to keep
a close eye on He Of The Yellow Tank, and to follow him out off the reef
into the blue in search of Mr. Big.
Open ocean diving is a bit of a trip in the Galapagos (actually, I find
it a bit of a trip anytime) - without reference to reef or surface you swim
out across a stiff current, through hoardes of fish, with sharks often passing
below or above you, all on a quest to see whalesharks. |
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Massive schools
of creole fish congregate just off the reef at Darwin Island. They do a
good job of blocking the view to the whalesharks, so incredibly, sometimes
the wall of fish parts, and coming straight at you is Mr. or Ms. Big, who
are probably just as surprised to see you as you are to see them. |
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Waiting for Mr. Big.
That's deja in the foregoround, videocam at the ready, raring to go chasing
after whalesharks. He got some incredible footage for his efforts. |
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Finally, a whaleshark
sighting for the puffer girl. Okay, so I'm lying. This is not a picture
of the first whaleshark I saw, nor the second, nor the third. But I did
get payback for being skunked at Wolf Island by seeing three whalesharks
on my first dive at Darwin.
I hear the dull clanking of Cris' tank banger. I know the big guy is near.
Swimming hard for all I am worth, I see the massive fish coming towards
me from out of the gloom. This can't be real. In awe, I lift my camera to
frame the shot. And nada. Nooooooooo! The batteries are dead. But, in spite
of technical difficulties, I've got a smile as big as a whaleshark's arse
when I climb out of the water after this dive. |
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Speaking of whaleshark
arses, I'm seeing a lot of this view.
Even though they look like they are hardly moving - their propulsion coming
from a languid sweep of their massive tail, incredibly the whalesharks are
swimming faster into the current than any human can hope to equal, at least
for long. I will admit that I am getting pretty tuckered chasing whale sharks,
and after a while, I vow to stick to the reefs to take pictures of some
of the proliferation of other, much-overlooked creatures... |
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...like this dude, |
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...and this amazingly
inquisitive and friendly
guy, who is not at all like other sea turtles I have encountered elsewhere,
who tend to be very skittish around divers... |
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...and these bad
boys, who, as it ends up, are allergic to bubbles, and therefore tend to
avoid them at all costs... |
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...and a huge population
of eels. The place is crawling with them, many free swimming, and lots hanging
out under ledges, hiding their heads like ostriches with their full bodies
just lounging across the reef. Seriously, there are so many eels that when
I am hauling myself hand over hand across the reef to get to its edge, I
have to be very careful where I touch down.
On one dive I stop to try to take a picture of four or five of them free
swimming in a frenzied dance, and one of them even takes a run at my camera.
Jeez, just like a testy Hollywood superstar... |
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But even on the
reef, whalesharks are happening. I catch this whaleshark blowing over my
head while I am looking for smaller animals to photograph. To me, this fish
looks like she may have a bun or two in the oven.
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Words and pictures
can not translate the sheer mind-boggling size of these animals, nor the
thrill of being in the water with them. It's like seeing a school
bus, only bigger, not to mention alive, flying past you underwater.
And the best part is this: you know they are not interested in eating
you.
Beep, beep. |
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And then, imagine
this: in the zodiac on the way back to the mother boat for lunch, a large
dorsal fin is spotted in the water. It's a whaleshark feeding at the surface.
Cool! I jump back in with a few others to be in the moment, and I remember
to bring my camera in a vain attempt to capture it. Deja is there too, and
DrCraig and twang
and ga_seafan. We're all swimming with this massive fish, and it's hanging
around. Incredible! ga_seafan is positively over the top with joy. I can
hear her squeals of delight when I lift my head out of the water periodically
to avoid drowning. |
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That's DrCraig showing off some fine free diving form.
He's wearing masses of neoprene to keep him warm in the 73F water, and it
seems to defy logic that he is able to get himself this far below the surface.
Just before this freedive, he has handed off his brand new Oly 3030 over
abyssal waters for my safekeeping. I think to myself that the man is not
thinking straight, but I manage to avoid fumbling the pass, and to take
this picture too. |
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That's twang and
the whaleshark. The whaleshark is feeding, which explains the open mouth.
Sometime soon, twang will basically stick his camera in the whalesharks'
gaping maw and get a very cool pic of his plankton filtering apparatus.
I think he is lucky that the whaleshark doesn't swallow his camera, and
him along with it... |
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This is what a
whaleshark looks like when he's coming right at you. Go back and look at
the image above this one, which shows how teeny twang looks next to this
huge fish. That is one big mouth. And, as his eyes are on the side of his
head, he can't see you, so he is likely to run right into you unless you
get out of the way, fast. |
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...and this is
the view immediately after you get whacked by a whaleshark's tail. I get
caught between the dinghy and the big fish. Above the racing of my heart,
I hear Deja's frantic warning: "the tail, look out for the tail".
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Awoosh. The massive tail (which is taller
than I am) pushes me aside like I am but a bit of flotsam, and the whaleshark
seems none the nonplussed for it. I, on the otherhand, am laughing so hard
that I am choking on water. What an incredible rush. |
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But, all too soon,
it is time to say good-bye to Darwin
Island and head south in search of Manta Rays and seahorses and sea
lions and such in the southern Galapagos Islands. |
