Location: Santa Cruz Galapagos
Early this morning at around 0400, watch team 2 anchored us at Santa Cruz. 4 of the 6 of us had to do an hour of anchor watch after getting in, which meant that I was awake from 0230 to 0400, then again from 0500 to 0600, then again from 0745 on. Interesting sleep schedules are part of the fun, though. Over the course of the next three days here in the Galapagos, all of us will have done a day of diving, a highlands tour, and a day completely full of free time. However, because we are a fairly large group, we are all doing different activities each day. Today, 8 of us went diving, 12 went on the highlands tour, and the other four had the day to do whatever. I was one of the ones with ample amounts of free time, and I spent the day walking around town, buying souvenirs, and enjoying cold drinks and a burger. In addition to generic souvenir shops, there are a lot of cool art galleries and crafts to see. There is also a lot of blue-footed booby merchandise. Some of us have bought blue-footed booby socks, others got shirts, and I myself have a sticker. While waiting for a water taxi to take us back to Vela, Elise and I saw black-tip reef sharks and golden rays. After getting back on our boat, we had some time to take ocean showers and air dry on the bowsprit and deck.
I did, however, interview members of the other groups so I would have some more interesting content to share. The people who went on the highlands tour saw a lot of tortoises and some cool sinkholes. Apparently, Miles was more interested in the cows and ducks, though. The divers also had a great time and haven’t shut up about it since they got back. They went on multiple dives, the deepest one being 102 feet. They swam through a cave and saw a school of hammerhead sharks, and Sammy got a cool video of a sea lion interacting with her for over a minute. But the main event was the manta ray they saw at the very end. They guesstimated that the wingspan was about 15 feet. Everyone has said the diving was one of the best, unbelievable experiences of their lives…apparently, some tears were shed. My squeeze question was, “What has been your favorite day of the trip so far?” Almost everyone who dove today responded with Today. Morana’s dinner was pasta, but she also made us tiramisu for dessert, which was a nice treat to end a pretty decent day. I’m going to wrap this up now so I don’t miss the diving content being shared on the salon tv screens momentarily. I’ll check back in 31 days from now.