Galapagos – Isabella

Galapagos Islands – Diving

Early in the morning Eva got picked up. The first dive site was north Seymour with a smooth current and a good visibility. We only ( 😉 saw a few hammerhead sharks, black tip reef shark, white tip reef shark, galapagos sharks, turtles, schools of barracudas, eagle rays and a variety of other fish!!! What an amazing first dive! The second dive site was Mosquera. While going down I realized the very strong current already. We had to hold on to rocks and crawl on the ground to get forward. Behind a rock we discovered two sleeping white tip reef sharks which we were observing for a while. The moment we let go all of us were washed away by the current. It felt like in waterslide!

 
The next day a dream came true when I (Eva) dived at Gordons Rock. The first hammerhead shark appeared on our way down, followed by a huge dark shadow at the surface. After a few more minutes a huge shadow showed up directly in front of me: a 5 meter manta ray! I always wanted to see one but I haven’t expected it to be so enormous. It was amazing. But as if that's not enough – a school of approx. 30 hammerhead sharks came straight at us just to turn left and right directly in-front of us. We were surrounded by a huge school of hammerheads! The dive went on like that and we saw everything a divers heart can dream of: more hammerheads, manta rays, galapagos sharks, white tip reef shark, turtles, reef fishes, sting rays, eagle rays, barracudas, etc.

Diving Gordons Rock

Diving Mosquera and Seymore

Some impressions in pictures
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Galapagos Islands - Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz has one of the best diving sites on the Galapagos Islands. Therefore, we spent 6 days on Santa Cruz in total so Eva could tickle off some items of her bucked list. Instead of being green and packed with animals the area around Baltra airport (where we arrived) is very dry and reminds of the moonscape (with cactuses though). At our arrival we were shocked. But after taking a bus, a small boat and a bus again the landscape changed. With every meter the bus drove further to the south of Isla Santa Cruz the vegetation became more green. The first two days we slept in long, explored the area around Puerto Ayora and learned about the magic of the islands: sidewalks are used by marine iguanas for sun bathing, sea lions are lying on the docks (and benches), pelicans are flying around and get fed by local fisherman. Animals are extraordinary fearless; The whole atmosphere on the island made it a perfect stay. While Eva was diving, Niels further explored the island (including the highlands, the Darwin Station and a beach in the north).

Marine iguanas at the beach01 02021

One of our new friends - We never though we'd love sea lions03031

Pelicans are everywhere on the islands - especially where the fisherman are 😉04041

This animal gave Charles Darwin the idea for his theory of evolution: Darwin's Finches 05

A Galapagos tortoise (the next post will just be about them!)06

Sally Lightfoot Crab - bright red crabs which are way bigger than they seem on the pic07

A wonderful coloured lizard which only moved away when Niels nearly touched it08

Some harbour and Port Ayora impressions09 091 092

During day time this is a normal street. At night time it's a lively, cheap place to have dinner093 094

Sometimes the Galapagos Islands reminded us of Cuba: hardly anything to buy besides long life goods.095

Las Grietas - it's said that there are white tip sharks, we didn't see any though.096


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