Diving in the Galapagos Islands

I just returned from a wonderful trip to the Galapagos Islands, where I joined 15 other divers (most of whom I knew from previous dive trips) to experience the amazing life beneath the surface there.  It was great getting back in the water after my recent surgery (see previous blog entry), and what a place to do it!  You can jump right to my PHOTO GALLERY if you want, or you can read the following about the trip. 

Spotted eagle ray swims through a school of hammerhead sharks

Unlike tropical destinations, where divers are attracted by beautiful, colorful coral reefs, the scenery underwater in the Galapagos islands is almost entirely drab, jagged volcanic rock.  The attraction instead is the amazing variety of BIG sea life: we saw dolphins, sea lions, mantas, hundreds of sharks, spotted eagle rays (more than in all my other diving combined), and I finally got to see my first whale shark underwater!  We estimated that it was 30-35 feet long, and being only a few feet away from it was pretty amazing!

Galapagos water temperatures are significantly cooler than other equatorial dive destinations, thanks to a unique confluence of deep water currents that rise to converge in that spot.  Water was particularly cold for our visit, with temps in the mid-50's on many of our dives in the southern islands.  That is similar to summer temps here in Puget Sound, and most of us wished we had brought our dry suits or thicker wetsuits to keep us warmer!  The good news is that cooler water temps seem to bring big sea creatures closer to the surface, so we saw tons of amazing stuff.  Hammerhead sharks, which often stay below 100 or even 150 feet, were plentiful on almost every dive, even at depths of 30-40 feet!

Luke swims through a tunnel of salema

One of the neat things we got to do is swim in/through a school of thousands of black-striped salema.  These little (4-5 inch) fish move in waves, parting to let you swim through, and then closing around you - to the point where the sunlight is blocked and it can be almost totally dark!  We got to see sea lions zoom through the school (feeding), and there were even huge yellow-fin tuna cruising overhead (they also feed on salema).  To give you an idea how salema move in unison, I shot a short VIDEO OF A SEA LION chasing a smaller school of salema at another dive site.

Mansion del Angel in Quito, Ecuador

If you go the the Galapagos, you have to stop in mainland Ecuador en route to the Galapagos (Ecuador owns the islands).  I highly recommend staying at the Mansion del Angel in Quito if/when you pit stop there.  It is a beautiful old mansion, completely refurbished, with excellent service and great breakfast and dinner besides!

I hope you enjoy my photo gallery, and if you haven't visited the Galapagos (even if you don't dive), be sure to put it high on your list.  There's no place else like it on earth!  

How to Evict Deadbeats and Lose Weight!

My old kidneys: Y1K and Y2K

Three weeks ago, I had surgery to remove both of the kidneys I was born with.  Over the years, they had - due to PKD (see earlier posts) - become increasingly fat, lazy and troublesome.  They no longer functioned, but just got bigger and caused trouble for the neighbors (in this case other organs), sort of like white-trash freeloaders.  In other words, they were deadbeats.  Here's a photo of my two old kidneys; I think you can see why they had to go!

There are three pieces of  good news.  First, my NEW kidney, "Y3K" (Yates' 3rd Kidney), which I got from my friend Sherry Robinson 20 months ago, is doing great.  In fact, it actually appears to be functioning better now that the deadbeats have been evicted!

Back in my college days...

The second piece of good news is that getting rid of those deadbeats resulted in me losing about 15 more pounds (on top of the 50+ pounds I lost after the transplant due to nausea caused by medications)! So I can add a new chapter to my "Easy Y3K Diet Plan" (patent pending)!  Seriously though, I needed to lose all that weight, and I'm thinner than I have been in several decades.  Now I just need to get back in shape...so I can dunk a basketball like I used to!

The last bit of good news is that the surgery went very well.  The two deadbeats were successfully evicted, and the surgeon estimated that they weighed 12 pounds (a normal kidney weighs 1/3 of a pound), so good riddance!  While they were in there, they even took out my appendix, so I never have to worry about getting appendicitis!  It'll just take a while for the internal wounds and the incision in my abdomen to heal (it's slightly over 12 inches long - hold a ruler up to your abdomen and you'll get the idea).  But so far, I'm healing well!  I expect to be back to work next week, and back to normal (if not better!) and back in the water diving, within a couple of months!  Thanks again to all of you who've supported me through this...and the earlier transplant...surgery.  With any luck, I won't need any surgery now for a long, long time!

Up Close With the Majestic Snow Leopard

I've had to cancel two dive trips already this year due to hectic conditions at work, so my cameras haven't been getting much use lately.  But Cheri and I recently had the extraordinary opportunity to join our friends Doug and Judy for a "behind the scenes" visit at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.  


Judy is a volunteer/docent at the zoo and was awarded this opportunity by virtue of having reached the amazing level of 6,000 volunteer hours!  She was kind enough to invite Cheri and me to join her and Doug for almost an hour behind the scenes getting close to and  talking with the "keeper" of the snow leopards.  We of course were not allowed to actually touch the leopards, but were inches away from them and got to take photos through gaps in the fencing.

I took hundreds of photos, but only felt a half dozen were worth showing anyone, and I've posted those on my website (three on the first page and three more on page 2) HERE.

Stalking behavior (when you're GLAD you're behind a fence)

It was a wonderful experience, and gave us a real appreciation for how far zoos (at least Woodland Park) have come in the treatment, exhibition and conservation of endangered animals like the snow leopard.  I hope you enjoy the photos.  Oh BTW, if you're interested in learning more about snow leopards, or trying to help in the effort to save them, check out the Snow Leopard Trust, the global organization trying to save them from extinction.  It happens to be based right here in Seattle!