Hi,

Am so behind on this so, here is hopefully a quick catch up from the last week:

Sunday

Diving again but with Iguana dive centre. They seem to be really good and more about the diving rather than anything else. I would say they were the best place to dive with.

Today we are going to Seymore and Gordon rock. The two BEST places to dive, but you have to be an experienced diver to do them.

I bumped onto some of the others from the dive centre yesterday outside Silverstein as they were diving here again, but also Graham, who i dived with and he was also heading for Iguana, so we walked together, and met some others once there, including Alex who used to be a dive instructor over in Pattaya, Thailand. While we were waiting to leave to go diving, they put on a video with Tilda Swindon on the Galapagos Islands, which was interesting, then did the itinery of the day.

Again we travelled to the other side of the Island to get the boat. We would be split into 2 groups, based on where we were sitting. Everyone was experience except an English couple, who were in my group, who had only done about 19 dives, so not sure why they were diving here.

After again doing a safety practice dive, we headed to Seymore. Once in, we quickly descended, as the sea was rough. Once we got down to the first level, i had a few problems with my mask leaking, but i quickly got that sorted out. The vis was a bit better today, but the currents were stronger. The dive was great, LOADS of fish, turtles and a few white tip sharks and even one sitting on the bottom behind a rock with a hook in its mouth. Lots of rays, it was difficult to mind them. I found that when looking at one thing something else was directly beneath you. A sea lion was also swimming past. One came directly at me and swam straight under me, it was so quick and a shock that i only managed to take a picture of it departing!

As we were doing our safety stop we looked don and found 3 HUGE black tip sharks swimming under us. They must have been at least 3m long!! Very exciting! The couple went up early so missed this.

After a break we headed over to Gordon which is deemed the BEST diving around Santa Cruz (you have to travel about 5hrs north to get a better dive site). Once we descended, the couple were having a few problems, so my buddy (an American girl called Lana) we had to really hold onto the rocks as the current was so strong. We have to litually press our whole bodies onto the rocks and hold on for dear life when were the current hit! Once everyone was togther we started our dive. This comprised of zig zagging going from the rock away into the deep ocean, were we were looking for shaddows. To cut a long story short, BEST dive ever. We saw a whole load of hammerhead sharks and white tips swimming together, just below us!! About 15 spotted rays also swimming just below us, mantra rays, turtles, sea lion, thousands of fish, which litually only just parted as we went through them. It would have been amazing if we had not still be looking for sharks!! On the bottom there were thousands of these sea snake like things sticking out of the bottom, of different highs, which i had never seen before, so quite cool. When we were near the bottom one time, i had a hammer head shark swim straight for me. My first thought was get a picture and my second was that most other people would first thing help, get me out of here!! Instead of taking a picture of it head on, i waited for it to turn and got a picture of it side ways.

The couple again went up early and the American girl, myself and the guide caaried on. when we got low on air we started buddy sharing the guides air. When we both got really low, we started to head up. The girl ran out of her air (she was on 0) but my dive computer was being sensitive and saying i needed another 7 mins at the safety stop as this dive had been longer and deeper. I waited with the guide for a few extra mins then headed up as my marker was just above the 0. Came up elated! What a dive!! Thats going to be hard to beat! Luckily i am not diving for a while, so i am not disappointed!

We all headed back to shore on a complete high! The boat took us back to the dive centre were we chatted and got out books stamped and headed back into town together.

Luckily we now had hot water, so after a long day diving a hot shower awaited.

Adam had met a guy who was in the next room called Nick, so we planned to meet up later for dinner, again heading to our favourite Kiosk. Alana walked by just after ordering, so she also joined us for a lovely dinner.