Galapagos so far and our first dive here
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Thu 11 Mar 2010 18:56
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We've now had a few days in Puerto Ayora and
we've thoroughly enjoyed what we've seen so far. We took a stroll along the main
street with Brian and Sheila and met some of the locals. We then all piled into
a taxi (a pick up truck) to take us back to the anchorage. The reason for this
was purely because you can get a taxi from anywhere in the town to anywhere in
the town for $1 - as many people as you can fit in, one way - $1
   Of an evening this street is
closed off and kiosks open out onto the street and serve very simple but tasty
meals (below)
  
  Already we're amazed at how the
animals behave, they are so used to humans you really can go within feet of them
and they aren't afraid. We noticed this bird at the bow so we thought we'd test
the limit, as you can see Amy made it pretty close.
 It was the same when Amy and Jack
took the Miss Tippy kids to use the hotel pool. A sea lion just lay
sunbathing in amongst the tables in the restaurant, and marine iguanas strolled
around the pool as well as herons and pelicans.
 
 
 The sea lions sunbathing on the
tri-maran in the anchorage
Yesterday (Wednesday) we took a
dive trip out to Gordon Rocks, about an hour away, with some of the other
ralliers. We had one boat with 9 divers and another with 13 snorkellers, all
from the Blue Water Rally. Amy and Jack had a fantastic time snorkelling. They
saw a reef shark and lots of fish but they spent most of their time playing
with the sea lions.
  
 
 While the kids were snorkelling
we had one dive in the morning and another in the afternoon. Visibility wasn't
great and we didn't see all that much in the morning but on the second dive we
were surrounded by reef sharks, hammerhead sharks and white tip sharks as
well as turtles and fish. Because of the number of currents merging in the
areas surrounding the Galapagos the current was very very strong, more so in the
afternoon. Whilst rising from the dive you have to take a safety stop at 6
metres where we had to cling on to the rocks struggling not to be taken
with the current.
  
 Chrissy and Mark to the left
and Derry to the right
 All sorts of fish and
a turtle
 A white tip shark
  
 A shark that was heading
straight for Paul then passed within a couple of feet
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