Gálapagos: Día 8 - Seymour Norte Dive

I woke up early, had a quick breakfast and met the diving crew at the dive center close to my hotel at 7AM.  I was excited to go diving as it has been 2 years since my last dive!  The diving location was Seymour Norte (north of Seymour Island).  We drove to the docks at El Garrapatero which was about a 40 minute drive.

The crew preparing the gear.

A chart of some of the types of sharks you can find in the Gálapagos Islands.  I learned so much about sharks during my time in the Galapagos.  Did you know they can pin point the exact location of a drop of blood in an olympic size swimming pool? Oh ya, and they don't like humans.  Not in a hateful way, but they just don't want to have anything to do with them!  Sharks are beautiful creatures and vital to the entire eco system of the world. So please, if you are reading this, learn for yourself about sharks and see how and why they are so important to the world and do your part to help protect them!

 The port of El Garrapatero.

We set sail to Seymour Island which took about an hour or so and did two dives. In between dives we went swimming in the ocean.  The dives were good.  It's just so good to be under water.  It's always like you're on another planet. We saw white tip sharks, sea turtles, ocean worms, a baracuda, *rays, and a host of fish. 

Here's a compilation of our dive in Seymour Norte.

On the way back we were so lucky to spot a pod of orcas whales! 

I got home in the early afternoon and have wanted to visit the local beach called Tortuga Bay! My schedule has been so busy, I never had a chance until today!  Although the beach is in Santa Cruz, it does take awhile to get there by foot.  The trailhead from the city is about a 10 minute walk, but you need to walk another 30 minutes on a trail to get to the beach!  The 40 minute walk was every second worth it!

The trailhead.

To get to the beach you have to walk...

 and walk..

 and walk..

 and walk..

 or run..

 until..

.. you finally get here!

The beach closes at 5PM every day as a way to preserve the beach.  The other reason is that the marine iguanas come out to feed and the turtles come in to lay their eggs!  I arrived at the beach at around 4, so I had ample time to still enjoy it!

You can see surfers surfing behind me.

 

And the usual suspects sun bathing..

It's true when they say time goes by fast when you're having fun, because sooner than I had expected it was time to leave..

For dinner, I begged my travel agency to let me eat at another place because I was getting sick of eating the same food over and over again.  They graciously let me eat at Perana Perina Restaurant which was located on a strip in the center of the city where restaurants would put tables on the streets and you can eat outside.  I got a plate of seafood which I couldn't finish. In the middle of my meal, the lights went out and the restaurants had to go to plan B by putting candles on all the tables!