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!