Leon Dormido, aka Kicker Rock, is the most popular dive site in San Cristobal with its abundance of life, particularly the sharks. To the Galapagenouns this rock that shoots out of the water looks like a sleeping lion, the English translation of leon dormido, and to some Americans it looked like someone kicking a rock hence the name. I've had 2 good days of diving here, the most recent this past Thursday. The first dive involves going down 20 m to the sandy bottom of a channel that cuts through this ginormous rock about 3 or so miles off the eastern coast of the island. The first time I did this dive I felt like I was swimming against a wall of water while wearing a 5/4 wetsuit; the current was that strong. But the second time there was less of a current and better vis. With my underdeveloped hobby of fish identification, I could include a detailed list of all the fish I saw with their latin names But I'd rather not bore those reading this. Awaiting for our descent to the bottom are Galapagos, black tip reef, and white tip reef sharks between 4 & 5 ft long. During my most recent dive, AGHHHHHH!!!!!! It was one of the most thrilling experiences I've had! Not only was I swimming after these sharks, but others would swim right towards me and get crazy awesome close (from this frontal view their heads look a little like a bull shark's)! I guess they could sense my inner fish, fearing me less than the other divers. It was very tempting to reach out and touch them like all the other animals here, but again you're not suppose to disrupt the wildlife here. The sensation around these guys is incredible, no fear. Instead of fear or anxiety, I was amazed but very relaxed & wanted to get as close as possible to the sharks. I think a balance of emotions w/ swimming technique allows a closer interaction among divers & sharks. Sharks have neuromasts for electrical sensing and pores covering their heads and lateral line which are glycoproteins that aid in the detection of muscle contractions and heartbeat among a few other functions. So I proposed that maintaining a steady heartbeat by controlling my emotions & swimming smoothly in an energy efficient way would optimize my opportunity to engage in a closer interaction. I put this hypothesis into action and it worked for me, hopefully also with future dive encounters w/ sharks. Ok, but for each day of diving we do 2 dives, so the 2nd dive was along a vertical rock wall where you can see hammerheads. Unfortunately the vis for this dive wasn't as great and I only saw 7 at a distance. But the apex of this dive is swimming in the middle of a giant bait ball of black striped salema. A word of caution goes out to those who stray too far, you may get engulfed and isolated in a maze by these small fishes and lose your sense of direction.
Other good uses of large cruise boats:
This time of the year here is pretty popular for tourists to visit by boat and plane (the only 2 ways to visit). But the beach across from my university has direct access to the harbor so there are usually boats anchored just beyond the no boating zone (that restriction is taken with a grain of salt, as I almost became sushi once while snorkeling). So on Women's Day (yes, such a thing exists here but thank goodness it's not a replay of Valentine's day) a couple of friends (mostly chics) and I swam a little more than a half mile out to a small can buoy. Once we were out there we decided, "hell it's a holiday, why not jump off the top of this small cruise ship?" So we climbed up on the boat's zodiac, to climb up on to the boat (only inhabited by a few workers at the moment & no tourists), only then to climb up to the top floor. This was a good opportunity to check the surf at the next headland over, Punta Carola, which by the way was a few feet over head. But to fulfill our half-joking comment, I looked for a suitable spot to jump from, one where the floors beneath didn't jet out too much from the third floor. Quickly after searching I found a good spot on the port side just behind the bow where the floors below only exceeded 1 or 2 feet farther out than the top floor. So naturally the only guy with us wanted to be the first to jump, immediately after selecting this spot without so much as saying a word. Followed by me and another gal (me holding down my top), and after some persuasion we were able to convince the last two gals to follow. Its about a 30 ft drop of sheer awesomeness plunging into the clear tropical water below. This was followed by me demonstrating several backflips off the side of the zodiac to try and teach the other gals, and a while later the setting sun forced us to swim back to the beach to rejoin the others. Sadly I don't have any documentation of this, but maybe next time I'll remember to carry my underwater camera with me.
And now I'm drinking a drink that my mom made, but is normally drinkin (is that even correct grammar?) on November 12 for Day of the Dead. When I first looked at this giant bowl, it looked like it some kind of thick, purply potion with chunks of something that could have come straight out of Harry Potter. Not wanting to be rude, I took her mug full of this saucy drink and took a gulp closing my eyes not sure what to expect. My first swig was like taking a crappy shot of tequila, very very quick in case I wasn't too hip on the flavor. Despite the look and somewhat alcoholic smell, this drink wasn't too bad and after my 2nd sip my mom preceded to give me a few ladle fulls more. From what I can get from this drink is that it has purply pineapple, peaches, and cinnamon but I think there's more.
Anyways this Friday I leave for island hopping to 2 other islands, Santa Cruz and Isabella, for my spring break. Eventually I'll blog about it when I get back. Until then salud y chao!
Galapagos shark
Black striped salema bait ball
Female Pacific Green Sea Turtle
Galapagos shark again
My Galapagos niece handing me my mug of Day of the Dead potion
No comments:
Post a Comment