As I approach 25 years of diving and foresee my 1500th dive later this year I was moved to reflect on some of the highlights. I was taken back to September 2008 and a dive club trip to the Galápagos Islands. This was incredibly good value at £2000 including airfares , bed and breakfast accommodation and a dive package. We were shore based on Santa Cruz Island. Many of the boat rides were lengthy with lunch served on board after diving.
The absolute highlight of the trip was a huge shoal of hammerheads at Gordon Rocks. There were other sightings of hammerheads but not in such a large group. The sealions were great fun. They would swim with us and do their acrobatics and stop and look at the divers as if to say ‘ you’re not very good are you’. This trip was the only time I have dived with a penguin. There were other sharks, white tips and Galapagos sharks. Lots of rays including mantas, eagle rays and golden rays. Several turtles and large shoals of barracuda.
On shore the sealions continued to entertain. At the fish auction the sealions were ever present. One, bolder than the others, kept creeping towards the fish and then playing dead when the auctioneer spotted him. The auctioneer fended him off gently with a squirt from his hose but they got a reward with the fish heads etc at the end of the sale.
We managed to see Lonesome George at the Darwin Centre while we were there as well as plenty of wild tortoises. They didn’t look all that wild perhaps mildly irritated or just grumpy.
Another memorable incident happened while the first boatload of divers were waiting for the second boat to get back. We heard a sound like a machine gun. It turned to be a flock of blue footed boobys dive bombing fish in the shallows. After each dive they would regroup and , as if one of them had given an instruction, they dive again in formation.
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