Dive 2, Tortugas, Galapagos - (24)

Beaujolais
Wed 10 Mar 2010 21:23

We dropped in for our 2nd dive, which was to be a drift dive.

 

The currents were considerably stronger now and you had to hold on to the rocks to slow yourself down. There were no seals this dive, we should have put 2 & 2 together as this was probably because of the number of sharks there instead!

 

We swam up a wall to a plateau and were greeted by about 8 white tipped reef sharks, 2 Galapagos sharks and upon downloading the photos, we later found a further 2 hammerheads in there for good measure. Rob showed no fear and swam close enough to get some good photos, which as I had forgotten my camera, was fortunate.

 

 

The dive was quite fast because of the current, though we did manage to stay stationary to enjoy the huge school, of what we later identified as young Barracuda. They swirled around us in their thousands.

 

It reminded me of last year when we were snorkeling in the San Blas.

 

 

 

 

Another scalloped hammerhead cruised by, so we just hugged the rock, just to be safe.

 

There were also 3 or 4 turtles, it’s funny how blasé you can become about what you see. I remember not so long ago, seeing a turtle was a big thing, but here in the Galapagos, there are so many they get taken for granted.

 

Roger and I were on our safety stops when we looked down and saw 3 Manta Rays, one as big, if not a little bigger than the last dive. What an amazing feeling swimming with these creatures. They glide and hover like alien spaceships (maybe I’m ’narked’, but they did look like the mothership!!!).

 

If we do no other diving here, these 2 dives made the trip worth it. They will be difficult to top, perhaps only Gordon’s Rock, where you can see schools of hammerheads (and that’s too many for me I’m afraid) would be more exciting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Galapagos has lived up to my childhood memories of the Jacques Cousteau documentary I saw all those years ago.