Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Our two dives today were at Cousins Rock, near Bartolome Island. The dive consisted of a series of rock shelves below a reef jutting out from one side of the rock under the water. Very quickly Richard pointed out a sea horse tucked into the seaweed. A stingray glided by below us, rippling it's sides to propel itself along.

We split off from the group and swam around the far side of the reef. We saw a large school of barracuda. Then we turned around and saw a school of spotted eagle rays gently swimming in the current. We swam along-side them for a bit, they were beautiful and graceful, like birds flying in the breeze. Back on board we had a hot plate of cinnamon rolls waiting for us along with hot chocolate and hot towels after a hot shower on the dive deck!

  • Pacific Seahorse
  • Pink Cardinalfish
      • Barracuda
        • School of Eagle Rays

          For the second dive we decided to skip directly to the far side of the reef in hopes of seeing more eagle rays. We saw a scorpionfish and some blennies. Then Rick took off excitedly, he had seen a manta ray! Randy didn't see it, but fortunately when we were back in the panga Rick spotted another one on the surface and we jumped in and got to see it in the water. They are really amazing looking!

          • Player Scorpionfish
          • Panamic Fanged Blenny
            • Manta Ray

            After lunch we prepared for the part of the trip that Rick had been waiting for: snorkeling with penguins! We motored over close to shore and saw a couple of them on a rock. Then we went to another area where we saw some more, but still didn't find any in the water. Finally we saw a couple swimming on the surface and jumped in to snorkel with them. They were so cute, swimming along, honking and then diving down below the surface looking for food. We followed them around for quite a while, then it was time to leave, much to Rick's disappointment... he could have stayed all afternoon!
                • Galapagos Penguin

                              We changed from wetsuits to shorts and t-shirts and took a panga for a land excursion on Bartolome Island. We walked along the dry lava island and up a bunch of steps to the top of the island 300 feet above sea level. The views from the top were great and we watched the sun set behind the islands.
                                                        • Aggressor I and II at sunset
                                                        • Where are the penguins?

                                                        On board it was our final meal and it was a big one: a full turkey (though Richard told everyone it was pelican!) We had gravy and cranberry, it was delicious. For dessert there was even a big cake with a dive flag on it. The food had been amazing all week!