Aside from strolling around Puerto Ayora, we've been diving out to Rocas Gordon. That has been my favourite experience so far!! Why? Hammerheads, eagle rays, manta ray, green and hawksbill turtles, sea lions, galapagos sharks, white tipped reef sharks ... need I go on?! Wow, there was so much to see on these dives!
We were a bit nervous as we woke at 4:30 to start getting dressed and I had a knot in my stomach. I knew it would be our first real shark dive - Gordon Rocks are famous for schools of hammerheads. I wanted to go ahead and get past any fears of bigger marine animals since we'll be continuing on to dive in Australia, Indonesia and Thailand.
The 40 minute boat ride out was in darkness, with sunrise just before we arrived at the rocks. Gordon Rocks are actually 3 pinnacles sticking out of the water around a crater formed by volcanic activity. The view of the rocks with a light pink background was stunning. The water was clear and a brilliant blue-green.
We all entered the water together and almost at once encountered the famous currents. Gordon Rocks dive site is also known as the Washing Machine because of heavy currents entering to the central crater area from 3 directions. The currents force you to hold on to the rocks sometimes, or let air out to lower. but it wasn't as difficult to stay level as I'd been warned it might be.
Within 5 or so minutes, our guide Simon signalled our attention during a warm current, we were to hang on and look above. Before us was a parade of beautiful fish and the occasional rays when in entered a formation of hammerheads - to me, it seemed like the school football team was marching through, proud and strong and hanging in a group. There were about 3 sharks swimming about 3 wide. We watched in awe and felt strangely tranquil. Not scary at all, it was a peaceful experience that had us all in awe. Justin and I had waited years to see this and discussed this moment many times. I needed to pinch myself to know it wasn't a dream.
We became used to the hammerheads as they passed and returned about every 10 minutes through our area .. sometimes passing not more than 5 feet away from us. My favourite was when they passed overhead and you could see the silhouettes against the sky at the top of the water. They are so sleek and elegant, just magnificent creatures.
A seal zipped by playfully and then stopped to look back at us - what a flirt! A big green turtle swam past and seemed to hover about, it wasn't hurrying to arrive anywhere. We love swimming besides these guys and they don't seem to mind people getting reasonably close, they're very calm. A school of large eagle rays came by - maybe 7 or 10 of them. I raced to swim a bit closer to them. They had beautiful white underbellies that look like they'd feel so soft and smooth to touch. We've stroked a few of the smaller rays while snorkelling and they are soft as they look.
Nearing the sandy floor at the base of some rocks, I saw an octopus, maybe a meter long, beautifully camouflaged against the sand. It was stony grey-white-brown and moved around gracefully. But there wasn't much time to look as we had to race on and keep up with the group.
Justin cleverly spotted an elusive moray eel in the rocks and we all turned around to look. Morays always look unearthly to me, like dragons of the sea. With their sharp teeth they look so fierce, but they aren't really aggressive, they only bite in defence - I can't blame them, I would too!
There were so many starfish, we lost count. Not the usual we've seen before, but Galapagos starfish - the big fat ones that look like they've been decorated with rows of chocolate chips (hence the name, chocolate chip starfish). Lots of sea cucumbers too ... not very exciting, pretty close to a sea vegetable really if you ask me.
Soon it was time to surface. While we did our 3 minute wait at 3 meters from the surface, it occurred to me .. hmm, this is really the closest we'll come to sticking ourselves out into the path of shark schools, just hanging around in the blue. I am such a chicken! But I threw that thought out and tried to enjoy the view instead.
We did a second dive that day and then ... being so greedy ... we returned the next day for 2 more dives!! How piggish. But we had to seize the opportunity while here. The dives were similar. Same things to see and do. Some of the initial surprise and shock wore off on the 2nd day, but that made room for us to study all the creatures in a relaxed way. I spent a little more time the 2nd day looking at galapagos and white tipped sharks that swam near. They are beautiful too. It was interesting that they swam alone and not with friends like the hammerheads. That may have just been at this time, I'll have to check. We did get to feeling all very brave and more comfortable being closer to the sharks, which was wonderful as they are amazing and should be appreciated.
How will we ever beat that experience?! Hmmm, watch these pages...
Well, Saturday night, we went to watch Blanca's basketball team in a championship match-off. She was terrific, the best shooter by far. She may be small, but man can she move! The women's basketball team is no joke here, very serious business. There were a few penalties and I saw some interesting use of elbows. In the end, Blanca's team won, hooray!
For my birthday yesterday, we all went to Las Grietas. Rocks where you can jump into the water. We have some of these back in Tennessee and I was curious how these compare. We grabbed a water taxi for the crossing the the other side of the harbour where the path begins. There's a long, but well-marked, path to Las Grietas. The path is made of volcanic rock stones, rough and jagged. Along the way, there is a beautiful sandy beach where we found lots of locals basking near the mangroves.
Just before the rocks, we encountered a bar run by a couple of young Argentinian guys. We stopped for Fiora Vanti (the Ecuadorian 'coca cola'), beer and snacks. The Argentian brothers, Louis and Franco, showed the boys all sorts of magic tricks with centavos (pennies). I got impatient (after the someone's 2nd beer) and headed off to the Grietas, where the rest joined me a little later.
Las Grietas was much more scenic than I thought it would be. It was actually like a fissure or canal between two large walls made of reddish-brown stones. It didn't seem very child-appropriate, with uneven surfaces and lots of opportunity to fall and scrape or break something. But I saw the local kids were clambering over (most, wisely wearing shoes in and out of the water).
With imagination, there were lots of paths up from the water to rock ledges for jumping. Form a distance, the kids made climbing the rocks look like, well, childs play. When Ben arrived, he immediately dove in and joined them in the trek up and then jumping off the rocks. When I swam to the rocks, I saw that up close they are jagged and porous and didn't find it immediately easy to make my way up. But after a few minutes I found I could manage the climb - not gracefully at all, mind you!
The water at Las Grietas is the clearest I've seen yet, anywhere. I'm not sure the source of the water, but it is brackish. I could taste the salt, but it also felt clean like freshwater. Justin and I managed to get Sam up onto a lower ledge and jumping into the water ... but he was terrified. Ben was very brave and went in alone and holding hands with me too. Andy was so sad that he couldn't do this - but kept making me promise that we'll return to Galapagos again.
Heading back, we stopped again to have a drink and visit with Franco and Louis. They have loaded us up with contact information for when we are in Argentina. They live in Mendosa, which is a wine growing area. We've promised to try our best to get out there, but it's in the other side of the country from where we'll be, oh well!!
Back at home, in Puerto Ayora, we had a birthday dinner at Isla Grill .. a super-delicious steak house near our hotel. And we all played Spoons card game, which Katie and Brittney showed us when they were here (thank you!). Finally, we made it our first early night to bed in weeks. Ahhhhh.
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Monday, 23 January 2012
23 Jan Ecuador - diving with hammerheads at Gordon Stone, Galapagos
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