Galapagos - Diving day 2

The next day my ear had finally unblocked and I bought some sinutab for the day in order to clear any sinus issued that might arise. This day I would have Pablo, the instructor/guide, all to myself. I was going on a deep dive to 30m.

White tipped reef shark

I had trouble equalizing  - popping your ears so they don´t hurt - due no doubt to my sinus issues, but slowly, slowly we went down. On the way we saw white tipped reef sharks, sea lions, and some beautiful coloured fishes.

One of the worries about going down deeper and deeper is nitrogen narcosis (wikipedia says: At these depths divers may feel euphoria, anxiety, loss of coordination and lack of concentration.) Pablo had to check to make sure that I wasn´t being affected, so he gave me a math test.  Uh-oh, I suck at math at the best of times. I´m happy to say that I passed though - didn´t go mad. Now that the test was over we could enjoy the environs.

That´s me in the back

Pablo pointed to a dark shadow that was quickly approaching us. A giant school of silvery barracuda! I waited in awe as they circled around me...then I remembered all those nature shows where they show a big school of fish getting chomped on my an even bigger predator. I turned around in paranoid fear...but there was nothing there. When I turned back around a sea turtle was gliding past...could things get any cooler?? Yes.



A short while later Pablo grabbed my hand and lead me forward and down with some urgency. A group of spotted eagle rays were flying through the depths!  And shortly after that a giant manta ray sailed over-head, his "wing span" the size of my entire body. Magnificent!

Spot the penguins - there are 3

In between dives we went to Bartolome to see some blue-footed boobies and hopefully see some Galapagos penguins. The boobies are fantastic fishermen and look like kamikazes as then dive bomb into the ocean for their meal. We were lucky too, to find 4 little penguins sunning themselves on the volcanic rocks. Again, we were lucky to have guides with us to show us these well camouflaged animals!





As we were making our way back from our last dive - in order to make a spectacular day even more spectacular, a dolphin started playing in our wake. Oh, and then to put the cherry on top a manta ray jumped out of the water to bid us adieu. No, I´m not exaggerating. What a day!