Diving with hammerheads. Surrounded by sharks. Paradise underwater.

Before I boarded the diving vessel, I visited the Tame Office. Tame is the airline I had my flights booked with. I enquired if I could change my departure airport from Baltra to San Cristobal, so I wouldn’t have to go back to Santa Cruz the next day. I was told I couldn’t, if I was not willing to pay around 300 $ extra. I wasn’t.

Over to the pier, off we went: 3 divers, 8 snorkelers, 2 dive masters, 1 captain. Great crew.

After a short test dive we were on our way to Leon Dormido, the sleeping lion. Its English name is Kickers Rock. Funny how people see different things when looking at a dead rock formation. ^^

The first dive happened in the channel between the two rocks. I was really nervous, breathing fast, as I had never been down as deep before (22m). That is why I ran out of air approximately 20 minutes before my diving mates did. But not before we all had seen an Eagle Ray, some small (male) Hammerhead sharks and a lot of other fish.

The absolute highlight: We got circled by sharks! All of a sudden, I found myself surrounded by five, six Galapagos sharks! Oh dear, what a feeling! (And what a shame that I haven’t yet received any pictures of the two dives!)

After the others had surfaced as well, we had some chips and bananas to regain energy, relaxed for an hour, and down we went again. This time at the left end of the big rock, down along the cliff.

Again, it was breathtaking. Literally. Even though I managed to breath slower at the beginning this time, I’d be the first one to run out of air again. Due to the one lady diving with us: While we were all marveling at big (female) hammerhead sharks, hundreds of beautiful smaller fish and whole colonies of starfish, sea urchins and wonderful corals, she disappeared!

So our dive master set out to look for her, while I stayed with the other lady around 20m down in the Pacific to wait. And wait. And wait. Because I had never before experienced such a situation, I had no idea what to do – except for increasing my breathing speed. Pretty bad idea. ^^

As our dive master and that lady finally reappeared after what felt like 20 minutes, I was about to run out of air. So I had to leave my three fellows behind, surface and signal the vessel to pick me up. I missed out on yummy looking crayfish and two fighting squids, I was told later on. What a shame. Just because that one lady had had buoyancy problems, as she reported after hopping aboard again.

But well, that’s how life goes. I still had the diving trip of my life, had seen hammerhead sharks, which was the main aim of the excursion, and had even been surrounded by Galapagos sharks! Sometimes life hides some pretty little bonuses, and sometimes one has to dive 20m down to find them. :)

We anchored at a pretty little beach, scuffled our feet through white sand while listening to interesting information our tour guide gave us. In the meantime, the other two crew members prepared a delicious lunch on board.

Upon return at San Cristobal I booked my ferry for the next morning back to Santa Cruz and ran to watch the sunset from the lighthouse at Punta Carolina. As I detected Kicker’s Rock far, far afield, I reflected again on this super impressive day. Memories that will last for a lifetime. Even if I should never see a single picture of this unique trip.

In the twilight, I watched sea lions playing around like dolphins and wave boarding right next to the shore – and they are really skilled at it!

Before total darkness surrounded me, I walked back, just to find me sitting in the Zanzibar once again 15minutes later – awaiting another massive Banana Split. :) “Celebrate good times”, I thought.

From the banana split until the moment when I decided to finally head back from the beach front to my hostel room (ca. 2 hours), a melancholic Chris thought about philosophized about the Galapagos Islands, the world in general and anything that lies in-between. Why do all good things come to an end? Can someone please tell me? And: Why can no one ever tell you for sure when you will do something for the last time?

The only idea I came up with that night was the one of living at the beach side someday soon… guess those were my last thoughts before falling asleep on San Cristobal for a last time… maybe…