Today we went snorkeling. Our boat was named "Pacific." We had two captains. They helped us aboard. The boat had 3 200 HP motors and could really tear up the waves. We ended up spending about 12-15 hours in the boat moving from island to island during our entire tour. Although the ride was bouncy at times, I really enjoyed the time in the boat. Sometimes we were so far out we could not see any land at all. We plowed through the waves and bounced in our seats. I don't get sea sick. As we motored along, I was reminded of driving down a county road with fields of corn and soybeans on both sides. Instead of the straight rows of vegetables, I had rows of waves and all the bounty was below us instead of on top. We donned our wetsuits in the rocking boat and that was no easy task. We had to help each other zip the suits up the back. To get into the water we had to sit on the side of the boat with our legs over the edge, hold onto our masks, and slide in. We had 3 or 4 feet of air before we hit the water. As I sat on the edge of the boat with my hand on my mask, I was fearful of sliding in. I didn't know what was down there. I didn't know how deep I would go and how long it would take me to get back to the surface, clear my snorkel of water, and take a breath. And then I thought, "This has GOT to be easier than ziplining," and plop, in I went. I kicked up to the surface in no time. It wasn't that bad. I put my face into the water and WOW, everything was so beautiful. We were in a protected channel next to the island. Waves weren't bothering us here. The bottom was sandy so the water looked turquoise blue. I could see all kinds of fish. I saw blue fish, black fish, white fish, green fish but my favorite was the black fish with yellow lips and yellow tails. I was totally relaxed watching the fish. I looked up once in a while to make sure I was near the group and near my snorkeling buddy. I freaked out once when the long cord on my zipper touched my arm. I thought a fish was touching me at first. Pablo, our guide, found a yellow starfish and he held it so we could see it close up. I used my $10 disposable underwater camera to take some pictures. As I floated on the water that was maybe 15 feet deep, I saw a large fish come under me from behind. It was maybe 5 or more feet below me. As it got right below me I realized it was a shark. I screamed into my snorkel. My scream was 25% fear and 75% joy. The shark swam on by. Golly, that was exciting. My heart was pounding. Later I learned it was a Galapagos shark and not dangerous to people. Sea lions swam in the water with us. After about an hour, we got back into the boat. I was reluctant. I wanted to swim longer. They lowered a ladder. The bottom rung of the ladder came just below the surface of the water. We had to take our fins off in the water and hand them to a person on board. The rungs were round and hurt my feet. It took some maneuvering to get my foot on the lowest rung. And it took some arm strength to pull myself up. I must have looked like I was struggling because people were pulling and pushing me. I made it though, it wasn't that hard. Back in the boat we went by some bird nesting areas. We saw Magnificent Frigate birds nesting. The male frigate birds indicate their willingness to mate by inflating their red double chins so it looks like they have a big red balloon on their chests. We saw blue footed boobies. Their feet are not visible when they're flying but when they're standing around, we could see that their feet and bills were as blue as the sky. They fly around over the water and suddenly dive into the sea at high speeds for fish. We saw brown pelicans, Elliot's storm petrels, great blue heron, shearwater, Nazca boobies and swallow tailed gulls. My favorite was a tropicbird. It is a white bird with a tail 6 times longer than you think a bird that size would have. I don't know how it was able to turn around with that big tail. We saw Pacific sea turtles mating in the water. Pablo, our guide is very enthusiastic. "Luke! Luke! Luke!" he would say and then add, "It is amazing." He said things were amazing about 10 times a day. He is passionate about nature and once he explained it, we would agree that yes, it WAS amazing. As a biologist and environmental educator, he knew the nature in this area very well. I told him I liked birds so he made a special effort to make sure I saw them. Then we snorkeled at Kicker Rock, also known as Las Lobos (sleeping lion) rock. See the top photo? We snorkeled through that passage on the right. The rock extends 500 feet up from the water and several hundred feet straight down. When we got into the water at this spot, we were surprised how cold the water was. My hands got numb. I was cold for the first 5 minutes and then I must have gotten used to it. The sides of the rock were covered with beautiful coral of red, orange, deep blue, purple, white and black. The swells were bringing us up and down in the water and the current pushed us through the passage. Once we got to the other side, the water temperature warmed up about 15 degrees. Again, I wasn't ready to get out. We got back into the boat and motored to a bay. We had lunch on the boat. We waded to shore to look around. We saw 4 white cheeked pintail ducks and a yellow crowned night heron near the shore. Ghost crabs lined the shore and disappeared as soon as they heard us coming. We found a pelican skull. We headed back to town. We were given a few minutes to shower and change clothes before we headed out to an interpretive center. After learning more about the Galapagos Islands, the group hiked up to a frigate bird nesting area. Because it was getting dark and I'm a slow walker, I opted to hike back to town. I will add another entry on the sights I saw on my hike back to town. We were on our own for dinner. Three of us decided to eat together. We got recommendations for places to eat but ended up not being able to find any of them. We wandered around town looking for a good place to eat. Two of us were vegetarians. As we strolled by one place I saw corn on the cob on an outdoor grill. We decided to eat there. I had corn, rice and beans. The owner was Juanita. She didn't speak very much English and we didn't speak very much Spanish but we had fun trying. I knew enough to say, "No carne." She was born on the Galapagos Islands. My bill for dinner came to $1.50. I gave her a big tip. As we left, we noticed there was a black hair dryer on the grill; the cold side of the grill. Why the hair dryer? We could see it was splattered with grease. Was it used as a bellows to stoke the coals? What other reason could there be for a hair dryer on a grill? We left there confused. As soon as my head hit the pillow I fell asleep.
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