Location: Santa Cruz, Galapagos
Today we started off with an early wake-up at 6:00 am for the half of the boat that was on day 2 of diving. I was already awake because I had the 5:00 – 6:00 watch, so I was ready to go asap. We threw together a quick breakfast of granola, yogurt, cereal, oats, etc., so that we could get people fed fast and be on our way. We ordered a water taxi for our group so we could head to shore and catch another taxi (car this time) to the other side of Santa Cruz Island, where we would meet our dive operators. After a beautiful 30-minute drive through the jungle, hills, and fields, we made it and met up with our dive instructors. We had a briefing on rules and gear, and then headed out to our first dive site. It was about a 20 minute boat ride next to cliffs, beaches, and jagged rocks, that looked as if humans had never set foot there, there was beautiful wildlife everywhere like boobies, sea lions, and pelicans.
When we arrived and got in the water, I was immediately struck by how clear and blue the water was, but also the abundance of marine life, it was unlike any dive I had been on prior. We followed our guide Kieke down deeper, where we found our first of many sharks. There were two black tip sharks about 3-4 feet long resting on the bottom. Six months ago, the thought of swimming with sharks would’ve scared me, but after diving so much and seeing how truly peaceful it is underwater, I was ecstatic and weirdly calm. We kept swimming for a while, and on the tail end of the first dive, we saw hammerhead sharks, a high-value, very sought-after sight. They were beautiful and I felt so lucky to share the water with these unique creatures. We finished up that dive and had some snacks before our second dive and moved the boat to the other side of the small uninhabited island for our next dive. Almost immediately after getting in for the second dive, we saw my personal favorite sight, a massive Galapagos shark, by far the biggest shark I’ve seen in person. Even Captain Mac was excited enough by this sight that he turned around and gave me a “mind blown” expression with his hands and head. We saw a few more, but none as big as that first behemoth. We saw eels, urchins, fish, sea lions, and so much more. It was truly amazing. After that, we enjoyed another nice, beautiful car ride back to the pier, and we returned to Vela for dinner. It was a long day, so I went to bed pretty early, but it was a very special day.