We were all up early once more (its a theme on the Galapagos) and after a brief breakfast got in a taxi to the north ready for scuba diving at Gordon Rocks. The dive site is famous for its schools of hammerhead sharks so we had high expectations.

On the way to our test dive location I spotted 2 eagle rays that literaly jumped out of the water about a metre high making an almighty splash. I don´t know what they were trying to do but it looked like they thought they could fly!

After the 30 minute boat ride it was time for a test dive to check out equipment. All seemed well with bouyancy and equipment so I had plenty of time to play with the sea lions that had joined us.

When everyone was ready we had a 5 minute journey over to the Gordan Rocks. The dive site itself is around 3 rocks which protrude out of the water. It was en route that I noticed my mask had cracked on the outer casing and thus I needed a new, untested one.

Before long I was in the water and it was clear I had picked a duff mask as it kept flooding, even though I tried to clear it 5 or 6 times. After a while I got the attention of the instructer and I had to swap masks at 20m deep. We went around the slopes of the rocks for 40 minutes or so and it was a rather disappointing dive with only 3 turtles and some trigger fish to note. However, there was a sea lion which livened things up as he chased the fish for 2 minutes in front of us.

All too quickly it was time to surface and when everyone was on board we returned to the shallows by the sea lions for a spot of lunch. Afterwards we headed back to Gordon Rocks for dive number two.

This dive was immediately way better as we saw a white tipped reef shark pass in the distance overhead. We saw a few turtles that swim with us and then a 2m hammerhead shark which passed about 6 - 7m away from us. It was a cool sight looking up at the silhouette of the creature. All to quickly he had passed though but our attention turned to a huge school of barracuda. They surrounded us as well as another school of some unknown fish until another sea lion joined the party but passed way closer than previously.

Afterwards we went to the cliff side of the rocks where the current was really strong. We had to hold on to the rocks to prevent us from getting swept astray. After 5 more minutes we turned back around and saw another turtle swimming through. Again it was over all to quickly as my air started to run low so it was time to surface.

We waited to collect the others and then after a few more snacks headed back to shore.

We didn´t see the huge schools of hammerheads I had hoped for but nonetheless it was not a bad couple of dive, and not a bad day either!

On the way back to Puerto Ayora we stopped off at a tortoise centre. Here they were left to roam in the wilderness which was a much better way of seeing them. Some of them were huge and had certainly clocked up a few years. It is just as well that there are no predators on the island too because you could hear them clumsily tripping and knocking into plants from a mile away.

After the tortoise centre we also visited a giant lava tunnel. It was made by a volcanic eruption as the lava in contact with the air solidified and left a tunnel underneath for the lava to flow through. The lava had none gone and what was left was a 300m long tunnel about 10m high in places which gives an idea of how much lava was flowing through! It was very impressive, at one point though we had to get on our hands and knees and crawl through as the tunnel suddenly fell to only 50cm high!

Back on Santa Cruz we chilled out with Tito and the gang for a bit before heading out for food once more and turning in early ready to go diving again the next day!