Galápagos an Archipelago of Enchantment: PART II – My Favorite Sights Sub Aqua

Exploring above land was pretty amazing, but my true adoration for the Galápagos definitely lies beneath the oceans’ surface where we spent most of our time.  We did five days of diving, discovering Gordon’s Rocks, Seymour, Floreana, Mosquera, Daphne, Punta Cormorant, and Champion.  Every dive was unique, exceptional in its own right, and irreplaceable in my memory bank. 

Sea Lions

Sea Lions are extremely charming little creatures, they captured my heart and may just hold the top slot for my favorite animal in the Galápagos.  Diving with them is incredible, at both Daphne and Champion there were dozens of Sea Lions frolicking with us.  
They are very curious, and definitely a little mischievous.  They would bite our flippers, swim up and push their nose into our camera lens…and I’m serious here, literally pose for the camera. 
Their graceful bodies would spin and maneuver through our bubbles, often three or four are twirling around entwined with one another, playfully nuzzling and biting.  Incredible to watch, their favorite game was tossing rocks up and chasing them, catching them and tossing them up again and again.

Sharks & Rays

Perhaps the most sought after sea life in the Galápagos, Sharks and Rays - I’ll bite, it was extremely thrilling!  We saw lots of White and Black Tip Reef Sharks, a Galápagos Shark, tons of Hammerhead Sharks, Eagle Rays, Diamond Rays, Marble Rays, and a Manta Ray.  Unfortunately we weren’t graced with the presence of a Whale Shark.

I think the most thrilling was the Hammerheads.  We had a number of sightings; the largest shiver we saw was about 15 cruising a few meters below us.  There were also lots of times that they swam very close to us (within a couple meters) it was amazing to see their detail up close. 
The Galápagos Shark we saw from a bit of a distance, but it was large at around three meters.  Reef Sharks, particularly the White Tip were everywhere.  Looking at them straight on they appear to have a smile on their face, almost cartoon like.  We saw many sleeping (good chance to look at their face straight on), prowling, and my favorite was a little baby I spotted less than a meter long.

Diamond Rays were also abundant in our dives.  They are kind of eerie creatures, giving the impression they are watching your every move.  We saw them feeding on the bottom a number of times, and also saw them at cleaning stations where little fish eat the parasites off of them (we also saw lots of Sea Turtles at cleaning stations). 

One Marble Ray we saw was quite large, one meter in diameter; he was fantastic to watch swimming as he ripped his edges to move.  Eagle Rays were my favorite ray, their movement through the water was so graceful.  On our dive at Seymour we saw a school of 12 Eagle Rays elegantly voyaging past us, it was stunning.  Lastly was the Manta Ray, he showed up on our last day of diving at Gordon’s Rocks…just in time!    

Huge Schools of Fish

Another thing that is absolutely incredible in the Galápagos is its huge schools of fish; I am talking thousands and thousands here.  During most dives you are constantly surrounded by fish, but when you run into a solid moving mass, 10 times the size of yourself, it is pretty breathtaking. 
We had two striking encounters; the first was with a school of thousands of small Barracuda.  We slowly swam into the middle of the school and they formed a dome around us.  Looking up and to both sides they were encasing us within inches, as if we were swallowed by this massive sink hole. 

The second encounter was with a large school of Black Stripped Salema.  In these schools the fish were packed so tightly it looked like a giant black cloud moving through the deep blue.  As we swam into the nucleus the fish would part to let us in, and break at the top where our bubbles rose, revealing the sunlight high above their swarm.  Simply Beautiful.  It was also an incredibly cool experience because there were Sea Lions playing in the school of fish with us.

Octopus Mating

Last but not least, we saw two Octopuses mating.  Actually we saw three Octopus, two where mating and one was under the rock next to them…take what you will from that!  Male Octopuses have one tentacle that is shorter than the rest, this is their penis.  They entwine together and do the deed, it was a pretty incredible sight to see all these tentacles mingled and glommed together.  After the female Octopus has her babies she dies on top of them, in order to protect them.  I love our Divemaster Keke who pointed this out to us, something I would never even dream of seeing. 
  

Galápagos an Archipelago of Enchantment: PART I – My Favorite Sights on Dry Land

At the risk of sounding cliché, the Galápagos Islands are a truly magical place.  There are Sea Lions sun tanning on the sidewalks, Lava Lizards and Iguanas lazily sauntering about, and Pelicans covering almost every surface.  A series of volcanic islands, the landscape is stark and barren, a far cry from the typical ‘paradise’ depiction, however it possesses a certain nirvana uniquely its own.  Both under the sea and on dry land the encounters we experienced were incredible.     

Giant Tortoises

In the 1960’s the population of these grand creatures synonymous with the Galápagos dropped to near extinction, but today many subspecies are back up into the thousands because of breeding programs around the islands.  At one of the breeding centers we actually saw eggs hatching in a baby tortoise incubator.  Next the little guys are moved into one of many large enclosures where they will live and learn the skills needed to survive in the wild.  When the tortoises are ready they are re-released to the island of their subspecies origin and will carry on the life cycle naturally.  The islands have 11 subspecies, including Lonesome Gorge, who is the last surviving member of his subspecies from Isla Pinta.  He has been living at the Charles Darwin Research Center since 1972 - reproduction with another similar subspecies is the hope, but so far to no avail.

 

Marine Iguanas

Marine Iguanas are also unique to the Galápagos.  They survive completely off of algae and seaweed in the water and are surprisingly admirable swimmers, with long sharp claws for clinging to rocks underwater in heavy currents.  Although their abilities in the water are distinctive, it was on land that I loved these guys.

After a swim they saunter up on to the beach and collapse, usually in huge piles climbing all over each other.
Their dark skin absorbs sunlight to warm them up after their forays into the cold waters.  As if their smashed-in faces, spiky scales, molting skin, and salt-encrusted heads weren’t enough to love, they projectile snot excess salt from their noses! 

In fact they even have special glands that clean their blood of extra salt, which they ingest while feeding. 

Blue Footed Boobies

Watching huge flocks of Blue Footed Boobies fish is like watching diving in the Olympics.  Their grace is undeniable; nonchalantly cruising 20 feet overhead, in a split second they turn their bodies into projectile missiles barreling downward and explosively hit the water.  Their wings are arched until the very last millisecond when they tuck them back for the perfect entry with no splash and a flawless ripple.  They surface, and fly off a bit less gracefully, shaking out their wet blue feet.

We also saw a lot of other birds: Darwin’s Finches, Pink Flamingos on Isabella Island, Frigate Birds with their red chest pouch, and Herons at Tortuga Bay.

The Fish Station

Fishermen bring their daily catches to the fish station to fillet and sell to the public, for the lazier Pelicans and Sea Lions this is the place to be.  It’s quite comical, and a little scary, with dozens of Pelicans perched in all of the surrounding trees, on cutting tables, and storming the boats.  Every so often one will make off with a scrap, we saw one grab the freshly snipped tail fin and try to choke it down.  Every so often Sea Lions will also scramble up the rocks to await their piece of the pie, sliding on their bellies following the fishermen’s every move.  I’m sure if it wasn’t for the camera happy tourists all around the little guys would get a pretty swift kick.