Scuba Diving - Galapagos, Ecuador

My first three dives in the Galapagos were basically cold and not overly exciting. The highlights were the eagle rays, sharks and sea turtles. The visibility was good, but not great. I’m guessing my initial dives in the Galapagos where clouded by memories of diving at the Great Barrier Reef, where I dived last.

 

If I were to list the dive sites where I’ve dived, in order, it would go: 1) Great Barrier Reef, Australia; 2) Red Sea, Egypt; 3) Galapagos, Ecuador; and 4) Gulf of Thailand. The expansiveness of the GBR is what makes it so amazing. The bright vibrate colors, makes the Red Sea a close second. Thailand might have ranked higher, if I dived during the dive season and on the ocean side, instead of the gulf side. Since I dived off season, it was recommended to dive on the gulf side, which from what I’ve heard isn’t a nice as the ocean side.

 

Dive four, however, changed my opinion of diving in the Galapagos. It was by far our best dive. It started at 6 am, near the Island of Bartolome, searching for seahorses. Our dive master, after a little probing in the seaweed, found a very shy one. It almost looked plastic. Minutes later, a sea lion whizzed by. Diving with sea lions was a new and fun experience for me. They are very curious and fast. A small sea turtle sauntered by next. Personally, I’ve always been impressed by the grace and elegance of the sea turtle. Following the turtle, we were greeted by a school of Semela fish. When we swam in the middle of the school everything turned dark. The school was incredibly dense. It was a little uncanny and exciting at the same time. Outside the school of Semela was school of Yellow-tailed Tuna fish being chased by a couple of Galapagos Sharks. The dive master told us later that the sharks were feeding on the Tuna fish and the Tuna fish on the Semela fish. But most intense was swimming within the group of Semela fish. They were extremely dense and swimming very fast, yet none of them crashed into each other or us. The best way to describe them would be like in a cartoon when a swarm of bees would surround a cartoon character, creating a dark cloud and changing shapes. After this dive I gained a greater appreciation for diving in the Galapagos. On our fifth and sixth dive, we saw a few hammerhead sharks, another very playful sea lion, more sea turtles, and a very ugly moray eel. I’ve come to realize that each dive site has it own experience to offer and that people dive at different dive sites to gain these different experiences.

The Dive Master took a few underwater pics:

 

Moray Eel

 

Sea Lion (the bubbles to the left of the picture are mine)

 

Three Sting Rays