We woke up in a huge cove called Darwin Bay (yes, another Darwin Bay - there is a lot of stuff here named after Darwin) and had another early wake up call. Today was a 6am departure for snorkeling, and our best chance to see hammerhead sharks. I haven't brought up the hammerhead in a while and we had near given up, but Victor said we had one more chance.
We suited up while the sun was still rising, hopped in our Zodiacs, and went to a specific spot where we had the best chance for sightings. It was still fairly windy in the bay and the waves were rather large for snorkeling, but we all wanted to see the hammerheads, and no one complained. We jumped in and the water was an eerie murky green. We were getting tossed around on top pretty bad from the waves, but I was not giving up until we saw a hammerhead. We all swam around one main area and then we saw it! A decent sized shark swimming right below us. Of course, Elsie dove down to get the best pictures/video, which she did, as the shark was swimming right toward her. Once again, I happily floated up top.
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| Elsie's face-to-face with the Hammerhead |
We continued looking in the same general area and eventually
a few more seemingly smaller ones showed up.
I was able to see 3, but rumor has it there was a fourth. I only had a quick look since a huge wave hit
me just as I spotted them and filled my snorkel with sea water. It took me a second to clear my snorkel and
the sharks were gone by the time I went back down to look. With another Galapagos bucket list sighting
checked off, we came back to the ship for breakfast and got ready for our next
excursion at 8:15.
We took the Zodiacs to another area of the cove called “Prince Phillip Steps” – rumored to have been built by the late Prince Phillip. To get there, we had a short critter-spotting cruise along the "cliffs of insanity" (Princess Bride reference) where we did get to see another (more rare) fur sea lion.
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| Cliffs |
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| Fur sea lion |
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| Prince Phillip Steps (not our group, Google photo) |
We climbed to the top of a bluff on rocky/concrete “steps” and were rewarded with an unbelievable assortment of birds. Now I’m not much of a birder, but these things could not have cared less that we were there and they were EVERYWHERE, so we could get close to them and many of them are quite cute. We saw red-footed boobies, Nazca (green-footed) boobies, and the coolest bird out there – the horny male frigate.
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| Red feet, blue beaks - very cool |
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| Red-footed boobie |
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| Nazca (green-footed) boobie, also called "masked" boobie - for obvious reasons |
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| Baby boobie |
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| Super cute baby boobie |
The Nazca whistle (requires sound)
The male frigates have these shriveled up little red sacs under their beaks.
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| Deflated sac |
When they are ready to mate, the puff these sacs out like a bright red balloon to attract females. It any given time, we could probably see 10-20 in full or partial poof.
And, when they were actively seducing a female, they would also spread their wings and start flapping and screaming. Our turnaround point was a cliff that can be best described as a scene out of The Birds movie with hundreds and hundreds of birds soaring just off the coast. We were looking for owls but never did see any.
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| The whole group on bird cliff |
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| Just us on the bird cliff |
After the hike, we went back to the ship and as I was entering the main area, I slipped on the slick wood deck floor. One of the crew members looked at me, laughed, and said “again? You have trouble walking, don’t you”. I guess my clumsiness is now a known fact amongst the crew. We were given the option to snorkel, kayak, or siesta. We all opted for siesta time as it still seems too rough on the water for kayaking and we have another snorkel option later today.
Our siesta time took up most of the mid-afternoon but by 4pm, we were back on the Zodiacs for a trip to a beach that I think was still in or near Darwin Cove, where we had a short hike. We made the mistake of following Victor’s advice which is generally “shoes are very optional for the hike”. Since they were “very” optional, none of us brought shoes and were rewarded with a beach half covered in coral that was near impossible to walk on. We made it to some sandier terrain that butted up to a mangrove. The mangrove trees had an endless supply of sea birds nestled in the leaves.
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| More boobies |
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| Looking at them head-on is a little freaky |
It was interesting to watch them – boobies, frigates and a few others fighting for food and building supplies, trying to attract mates, protecting their young, and just generally yelling at each other. While it is interesting to watch the birds, they just are not as entertaining as sea lions and the thrill of seeing a fully poofed frigate has worn off. There is something unsettling about them where I just wonder if they flew into a tree - will they pop???
We ended our hike at the beach where, of course, there were more sea lions!
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| Poser |
We stuffed ourselves back into wetsuits to do some walk in snorkeling. The Original 8 stuck together and, per Victor's suggestion, we all swam into a small tide pool area – it was shallow water – no more than 10’ and probably less than that in many places, so it was a shock when we got up close and personal with our first white tipped reef shark. They are completely harmless (so we are told), but they are still sharks, and when one measuring 5-7’ in length swims directly under you, it is… interesting. There is a visceral reaction to sharks that you cannot control - it is something about how the move through the water...
Close encounter with white tipped reef sharks
The water was murky, so it became even more interesting when the first shark was followed by a second, a third and a forth. It is possible there were as many as 7-8 sharks in this small shallow area (hard to count because it was murky and they were moving) and the biggest challenge was, strangely, trying not to step on them or swim into them.
I continue to find it hilarious when someone yells shark and we all swim toward the area rather than away from it. While sharks are generally the main attraction, we also get excited spotting puffer fish as well as sting rays and manta rays.
After our snorkel, we loaded back on the ship to shower, have our briefing, eat dinner, and go to sleep. For our briefing, we generally discuss the current day and then our plan for the next day. Victor asked us if we would be up for a 6am snorkel AGAIN to see more sharks, and of course, we were all in. We had a six-hour cruise over open water and it was a rough one – for Damon & me in the cabin closest to the front of the ship, it was a several hour roller coaster ride until we finally fell asleep.
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| Dinner Art! |
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| The Archipel |
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