Puerto Ayora, Ecuador (Galapagos)

Sunday, November 21, 2004:

I have always been convinced (and justifiably so) that upon sizing me up, large and ravenous predatory critters could come to no other conclusion than that I must be absolutely delicious as a meal. Five-star, blue ribbon and nothing less. Consequently, the prospect of encountering lions on an African safari, crocodiles on a river-rafting trip or Oprah Winfrey in Chicago has always had me terrified. Even stray cats and small, ratty-looking dogs seem to have that gleam in their eyes when I pass. Its a wonder I don´t lock myself permanently in-doors and take to a comfortable cartoon-watching and taco-eating agorophobia. Perhaps in retirement some day (one must always have dreams), but already I seem to be digressing...

I dove today at Gordon Rocks, an extinct volcano with the remnants of the crater rising dramatically out of the water. This is one of the best locations in the Galapagos for spotting large fish and, in particular, scalloped hammerhead sharks. I saw them. They saw me. Up close, 70 feet down, not more than 4 or 5 feet away at one point. They did not bite and I admit to feeling slightly rejected as a consequence. Perhaps the 7 millimeter neoprene wetsuit put them off. My ego demands these rationalizations.

Here´s the run-down:

I´ve been getting a number of dives in here and its been hurting the wallet at roughly $120 per two-dive trip. After several trips through the best operator in the islands (I am very comfortable saying this after diving at two other very decent shops as well), Scuba Iguana (www.scubaiguana.com), I was able to obtain a slightly discounted rate of roughly $100 per trip. Still very pricey, especially coming from utila where the dives are about $35 per trip, but how many times will I be able to dive in the Galapagos again? The dives are spectacular, once you get comfortable with the cold water, strong currents and surge. This is not the Caribbean.

Our first dive of the day did not yield any shark sightings, though we saw several giant green tortoises, enormous schools of baraccuda and even a few large bonito (thick and fat at 3-4 feet in length). We ended the dive along a sheer rock wall where two young sea lions dove down to swim around us and imitate us by blowing bubbles of air in our faces. Curious, playful and eager to show off their agility, the numerous sea lions I´ve encountered like to run circles around divers and occassionally make close "chicken" runs directly at us before veering away at scarcely a foot or two before collision. They often look me directly in the eyes as they do this. Once or twice a massive male bull sea lion has approached --- they often seem to appear from nowhere as the visibility here can be quite limited (10-20 feet in the murky, brackish green-turquoise water). This gets the heart-pumping incredibly quickly as they can be quite aggressively territorial on land. Underwater, however, they seem ambivalent and generally swim by with barely a glance at you.

Our second dive was the best of the 33 I have been on so far. Because there are strong currents at Gordon Rocks (this is one of the reasons large fish frequent the area) the dives there are often stationary and do not involve much swimming around once you find something worthy of looking at. Some 15 minutes into our dive, we found ourselves approximately 70 feet down along a wall of volcanic rock gazing at hundreds of different fish (many of them baraccuda) passing by above, below and often just a couple of feet in front of us. The divemaster of my group, a very small and very young (20) but extremely competent and experienced guy named Paulo, sensed that this would be a good place to stop and wait for a bit. The four of us hovered in position or held onto the rocks and watched. After a few moments, Paulo directed us to swim away from the ledge with him and so we followed him out about 50 feet into the open water. Out of nowhere --- visibility being quite limited --- the sleek, muscular profile of a hammerhead swimming lenthwise past us emerged from only several feet away. Although we only saw it for perhaps 5 seconds, every feature was clear: the beady black eyes, the rows of teeth, the bizarre head and the powerful body and sharp tail. Scars and discolorations of the skin were abundant. Perhaps the most striking thing about it was the relative grace of motion in relation to size. The shark was approximately 9 feet long but moved with an ease and efficiency I never expected. It clearly noticed us and seemed as uninterested as could possibly be. In fact, the bubbles we were blowing likely scared it off even faster.

After the first shark swam by we saw several more in quick succession. They would emerge from several feet and, after a brief moment, disappear with a long, powerful throw of their tails. Shortly after this excursion from the rocks, we returned to the wall and waited again to see if more sharks would appear. One did but only for a moment. At about this time, one of the divers ran low on air and Paulo signaled to me and the other diver to hold on to the rocks and hang out for a few moments while he returned the first one to the surface (we still had quite a lot of air left --- the first diver was less experienced than we were and had never been diving in the Galapagos or cold water before, factors that greatly accelerate the depletion of your oxygen tank). We hovered there for several minutes, rock at our backs and open water in front of us. Then, out of nowhere, a hammerhead´s hammered head materialized not more than a few feet away. The shark had turned sharply around a corner in the rock wall and come face to face with us. It didn´t stay, however. Five seconds or so and it too was gone, in search of something more edible or at least less alien-looking. As with the first dive, we ended it with a couple of sea lions showing off for us.

And that´s it. If I didn´t get eaten by sharks this time around, there is always next time. I don´t particularly feel like sticking a bundle on chum into my BCD vest, however (as I threaten to do with the vests of diving buddies from time to time). I would prefer them to like me for me.