It’s Friday, and you know what that means! More adventure in the Galapagos!. Again, two daily excursions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, both with snorkeling.

 

There is a process to the snorkeling here on the boat. When you leave in the zodiac, you take your gear with you then leave it on the beach as you hike around. When you get back to the beach you put on your gear and go in the water. Before you head back, you need to gather all your stuff and make sure there is no sand on it, and when you get back to the ship, you have to rinse your feet off in a small shower, rinse off the wet suit, fins, mask, and snorkel, then hang them up. When you’re also carrying camera gear, it takes quite a while to make it back on deck.

 

The morning we were at Santiago Island. The excursion offered a zodiac ride with no hike, followed by a wet landing at James Bay, which would save me much time by not having to worry about shoes or the still camera. After our zodiac ride, the rest of the passengers decided that they didn’t want to frolic on the beach, and opted to not land. Since the naturalists couldn’t leave someone on the beach alone, I had to go back to the ship. No big deal. Of course, when the other groups came back, I heard tales of feeding sea lions, sea turtles, and penguins all swimming around. Just my luck.

 

The afternoon’s activity at Dragon Hill on Santa Cruz offered a short hike followed by a swim, rather than the long hike. Several snorkelers decided to take that trip, so this time there would be a landing!

 

I got my video camera ready in its underwater housing, turned it on, and entered the water. After about 15 minutes, I spotted a large ray sitting on the bottom of the bay! I trained my camera on it as another snorkeler swam down to it. The ray waved it’s mighty wings and swam off. Finally, a great shot. As I checked my tape later, the camera had turned itself off about 2 seconds after entering the water. I captured nothing. Guess this means I’ll have to go back.