Diving in the Galapagos

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hey hey hey,
so my day of diving was pretty amazing as expected. i woke up at 6.15am, rushed through breakfast and made my way to the dive shop. i was the only aussie, and one of few fluent english speakers on board. but it was all good. after freezing my butt off during the 1.5hr boat trip to the island (trust -only cold day we had) we finally arrived and i warmed up by gearing up in the full wetsuite get up, inc hood. i looked so pretty!! my buddy was the dive master so that made me relax a bit, given i was a bit nervous. it´s kind of scary going 24mt below the surface with strangers (and a tank for air) and my memory of the signals etc was a bit sketchy! but it was great, we did two dives, the first was 36mins (18mt) and the second 33mins (24mt). during the first dive i saw a huge school of eagle rays swimming above which was quite a spectacular view, i also saw a shark but only from a distance and it wasn´t a hammerhead unfortunately. there were also loads of cool fish and a sea lion. the second dive was my favourite....for the majority of the dive i had five sea lions frollicking around me..they were so cute!!!! it was awesome to be so close, they are so cheeky. took loads of photos so hopefully a few will be worth printing. i also saw heaps of sea turtles which were also cool. i was spewing because the second group saw heaps of sharks but i missed out. oh well at least i saw a few when snorkelling!!! i wish i had had more time in the islands, i certainly would have gone diving again. what a cool way of experiencing the underwater world!! anyways they did not feed us until like 3.30pm so by that time i was absolutely starving and it was boring tuna sandwiches for lunch. i had gotten used to being spoiled on the cruise boat which saw us eating the likes of garlic prawns for lunch!!! it warmed up in the afternoon which made the long journey back to shore more pleasant, thank goodness!! had dinner with the girls and had an early night last night because i was knackered. right now i´m sitting at the airport in quito, waiting for my flight to lima. after the 24hrs of travelling we have ahead we will arrive in cuzco, it is there where we take off for the inca trail which is a 4 day hike. i will be incumminicado during that time but i´m sure i´ll have heaps to say upon my return. we´ve heard some horror stories.....apparently it is really hard, esp given the altitude!!
not to worry, i´m still looking forward to it and i´m sure it will be worth the pain. it´s going to be a pretty boring bday for me given we can´t really drink before the trek!! listen to me.....as if i was a d&a counsellor. lol. no i have been behaving since meeting up with the girls surprisingly...it´s too action packed to drink much. we had a few on the boat though, but all in moderation. go the harm min! ok well i better head off the tummy has started to rumble. i will try and attach photos of the galapagos, but not sure this computer has the software. if not, stay tuned because there are some great shots coming.
hope you are all well. love and kisses to you all. xxx
ps. my cold went away in time for the dive, but then jana got sick, and i have a feeling i´m getting it back again!!!!!!!!!!!aaahhh!!

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Photos

Love these guys
These sea lions followed me around for most of the 2nd dive

Eagle rays
If you look closely

Comments

[clare]

Hi Mel, I did the Inca Trail last year and it was absolutely amazing. It was hard but not as bad as I thought ( and I really wasn't super fit!) I weirdly found the first day the hardest. Just make sure you pack light. Hope you're not cheating and hiring porters!! Enjoy...oh I wish I was back in South America!! Hi to Jana Lotsa love Clare xx