We Saw Them All…..    Hammerheads, Black Tip, White Tip and Galapagos Sharks.

We did our Snorkel/Dive  trip with Wreck Diving, Shay (pronounced Shy) was head diver and Angeles took care of the snorkelers.  Our first S/D was at Isla Lobos famous for the marine iguanas, sea lions, sea snakes, turtles and fish.  This is quite a large sea lion colony, the young sea lions that were swimming with us ranged in age from 6 weeks to 6 months.  The kids loves to frolic with each other and swimmers, the mommies are on land and sea, there is usually one or two females in the water to nurse  the young sea lions, whilst the rest of the females are on the rocks waiting for the young to come in and feed.  The big guys patrol the outer waters to ensure no unwanted guests come for “Dinner!”  The little guys like to clump together, safety in numbers… just exactly what we were doing on our next S/D.  I did get a lot of photos of the sea lion’s fins, bodies and heads, they move so fast it is very difficult to get that perfect shot or even a complete body.

 Our next stop was Kicker Rock, look at this photo can you figure out why they called it Kicker Rock?  We  thought the divers were going to swim through the cleft to the other side where the Hammerheads hang out and we the snorkelers were going to swim around the cleft but not go through.  We kidded the divers about the Hammerheads until we realized we were all swimming through the cleft in the rock, Divers and Snorkelers! 

 We saw Eagle Rays, they are a golden colour,  small Galapagos Sharks, King Angels, Squid and here is where it gets exciting, the divers were seeing white tip and black tip sharks up close, but we who were on top of the water only saw vague shadows below us as the waters were really churned up and made it very difficult to see - then it happened…my first Hammerhead sighting.  I was at the front of the pack, (not a good place to be I now realize) when just below me about four to five feet swimming along was a Hammerhead!  I was really excited at first, then realized I was all alone watching him and with those eyes watching me.  I did the Hammerhead signal( two fists at your temple) looked around to see if anyone else had seen my signal and realized they were all behind me looking for fish.  I yelled out hammerhead so everyone could see him but he was gone.   John and Ian were diving so they got to see the sea life a little better than the snorkelers, but not much more since the water was so churned up.  This was a very good day for the Sea Misters. Enjoy the photos of the seals and blue footed booby.  Ian did ask me if I felt better about swimming in the Pacific amongst the sharks, I replied, “Only if there are at least six other people around me!”  You never really appreciate this phrase, ‘Safety in Numbers’ unless you are out there swimming with the I can eat you in two gulps guys!

Here is a Blue Footed Booby.

Thank goodness we weren’t swimming with this group of  Hammerheads!

Cheers from the Sea Misters in Galapagos