Somewhere in the middle of the Pacific ocean, around 1000km off the Equadorian coast, there is a gap between the Nasca and Pacific tectonic plates where magma spouts from the earth's core onto the ocean floor. This is the Galapagos Hot Spot, where lava builds up over hundreds of thousands of years until a volcano pokes up out of the ocean creating a brand new island. The Nasca plate is moving eastward, towards the South American coast line at a rate of 8cm per year, taking each new island in the Galapagos archipelago with it. As the millenia pass, the islands move far enough to be cut off from the magma chamber below, rendering it's volcanoes dormant and making way for a new island to be formed over the hot spot. This process has made the Galapagos an extremely diverse environment, with islands ranging from several million to a few hundred thousand years old. In addition, the Humbolt, Panama and a deep water under current converge on the islands, providing a variety of climates, nutrients and a one way ticket for the abundant wildlife which has floated, flown or swum to the islands over the past few hundreds of thousands of years. As Darwin realized, the species that arrived here had to adapt to their new surroundings or perish. They evolved into completely different creatures and plants, genetically unique from their mainland ancestors. This endemic flora and fauna, combined with the astonishing volcanic landscapes are what makes the Galapagos Islands unique......also, you get to swim with sea lions and turtles and sharks and stuff, it's soooo cool!
We decided to opt for a land based tour. Most people who visit the Galapagos choose a live aboard boat option. This reflects the limited infrastucture of the islands and allows people to move between islands through the night and spend their days in different places. However, the islands have developed now to a stage where they have decent accomodation, certainly better than some of the places we have laid our head over the past 8 months! And, the famous sailor amongst us, who has a not so well publisised tendancy to seasickness, we decided land based was best! Our chosen trip was also multi activity, meaning we got to snorkle, mountain bike, hike and snorkle some more during our time there.
We spent our first couple of days on San Christobal, visiting the interpretation centre, to learn about all things Galapagos, hanging out on the beach with the sea lions and getting a little exercise with some mountain biking. I think that all mountain biking should be done like this, they take you to the top of the hill in a van and you gently coast down to the bottom again, very civilised. We also hiked up the small hill to see the large statue of Darwin looking out over the island. Standing next to him, over a beautiful turquiose bay, watching the sealions playing in the waves, and the iguanas and crabs crawling around on the rocks, while the blue footed boobies dive into the water to catch their dinner, I realised I was going to absolutely love it here.
This feeling only increased when we got in the water. Our first snorkle at Isla Lobas was one of my favourites. Drifting along in the current of the warm clear blue water, we watched as the marine iguanas dove down around us to feed on the algae. The juvenille sea lions came along to find out what we were up to and were soon playing with us in the water, swimming up to our faces and blowing bubbles and delighting when we dove down to swim around with them a couple of meters below the surface. There were lots of big pacific sea turtles, which, unlike all other ones I've seen before, were very laid back about us being there and just hung out, swimming along side us. A brief sighting of a sting ray, rounded our morning off nicely and we headed out to Kicker Rock the sight of out second snorkle. Kicker Rock is a different kettle of fish all together if you'll forgive the pun. It's deeper and there is a big swell, the visibility is not great and the water is a good bit colder. Why then, you might ask, did we go there? Because it's the best place to spot sharks! The promise of Reef, Galapagos and maybe even Hammerheads got Nic and I very excited about getting in the water. It wasn't until we'd circled the rock and were about to swim through a narrow channel in the rock that Nic excitedly grabbed my hand and put her fist to her head, the divers sign for hammerhead! I strained into the deep and sure enough about 10meters below us, the limit of the visibility, I spoted a large wide head poking through the gloom, then just like that, it was gone again. It was only Nic and I who saw it, and only for the briefest of seconds, and even now Nic says she can't be certain, but I was sure at the time and I'm not changing my mind now, we were swimming with a Hammerhead shark!
