The Galapagos Islands and their surrounding waters form an
Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a biological marine reserve. The islands
are famed for their vast number of endemic species and were studied by Charles
Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. His observations in the Galapagos
contributed significantly to the inception of his theory of evolution by
natural selection.
We flew from Quito via Guayaquil to Baltra Airport and spent a few
days enjoying the island of Santa Cruz, with its Giant Tortoises, friendly sea
lions, Land Iguanas, Blue Footed Boobies and much more.
We then joined the live aboard dive boat Nortada for a week of
diving in the northern islands of the archipelago. The 8-berth boat, with 7
crew, only had four guests that week including us! Our dive buddies for the
week were Felix and Shiling from Singapore who we instantly hit it off with.
Our week long cruise took us first to the island of Isabela where
during the night we could see the glow of Wolf Volcano erupting on the northern
tip of the island. Unfortunately the cloud rolled in so no dramatic pictures
were caught, however plumes of steam and smoke could be seen rising high into
the stratosphere.
We did three dives during the day at Isabela. The visibility wasn’t
great but we saw plenty of white tip reef sharks, lobsters, snapper, hogfish,
green turtles and even a sea lion came for a quick play.
We got on really well with the crew and our dive buddies. As there
are only 4 of us we invited the crew of 7 to join us for meals in the saloon
rather than eating on the cramped bridge or their quarters. This worked well as
there was good friendly banter between crew and guests, although our guide,
Patricio, had to do a lot of translation. The captain Pietro, Chef Francisco
and barman Jerry spoke a little English but engineer Carlos and deckhands
Aureilio and Pablo spoke only Spanish which forced us to improve our Spanish.
Once we’d finished our dives the boat set sail for the northern
Galapagos Islands of Wolf and Darwin. It was a very rocky night but we awoke
moored on the south side of Wolf Island. We were surrounded by Red Footed and
Nasca Boobies, Frigate Birds and Swallow Tail Gulls – the only true nocturnal
gull. The occasional lost Pelican and Blue Footed Boobie appeared along with
Fur and Galapagos sea lions on the rocky shore and playing in the water – pure
paradise.
There was a lot of swell and chop, which made getting into the
tenders all kitted up in our scuba gear a tad tricky, but once we had descended
to 10 metres it was pretty calm. Within minutes we saw schooling hammerheads,
along with trevally, pacific sierra, black skipjack and green turtles. On the
second dive we saw bottlenose dolphins but they didn’t want to play. Once we
were out of the water however they accompanied our tender all the way back to
the boat giving us underwater and aerial displays.
Our third dive of the day was a wall dive with a number of shallow
caves to explore. We found 3 whitetips resting in a cave, outside were a number
of hammer heads and towards the end a pod of around 25 dolphins came to say
hello, one swam upside down, showing off to us all, and one approached me really
close for a little look!
At the end of the dive we explored a cave (old lava tunnel) in the
rib and swam in its dim waters. At the cave entrance three sea lions joined us
for a play and chew on Felix’s camera! It was wonderful to play and dance with
them under the water, they moved like lightning, twisting and turning showing
off their flexible acrobatic skills!
We spent the next few days diving at Darwin and Wolf islands. Darwin
was a disappointing because of poor visibility but we still saw the odd shark
and plenty of fish. Wolf however always delivered something, hammerheads,
turtles, eagle rays and plenty of sea lions.
We returned to Santa Isabela via Bartolome Punta and Roca Cousin to
do some land visits, getting close to the Blue Footed Boobies and Frigate Birds
who, like all Galapagos animals, have little or no fear of people.
A big thank you to Felix and Shiling for their pictures and awesome underwater
videos.
It was a fantastic week, jam packed with activities and 17 dives,
and one we are looking forward to repeating as soon as we can. The Galapagos
Islands provide a window on time. In a geological sense, the islands are young,
yet they appear ancient.
A collation of clips from our time beneath the waves
A Blue Footed Boobie looks as interested in us as we were in him
Our route took us from the central island of Santa Cruz, along the east coast of Isabela and up to the far North Western islands of Wolf and Darwin
Sunset with Darwin island in the background
Getting into the tenders is tricky work once your all kitted up. Here we are going for a dive with the Captain Pietro
With Felix and Shiling our dive buddies
The sea lions were pretty obstinate and would have to be persuaded to leave their sunbathing spots on the jetties so we could disembark!
Watch out for falling pumice from Wolf Volcano!
Giant tortoises on Santa Cruz migrate each year from the grassy highlands down to the coast to mate and lay their eggs. This can take 6 months for a round trip of around 30 miles!
Panoramic on Bartolome Punta
The crew and guests of the Nortada
