Galapagos. Ecuador, part 4

Dive Day 3: Darwin Island

Feeling much better, I was looking forward to all four dives this day. This was where we would have the greatest chance of seeing Mr. Big, the elusive Whale Shark. The dives at Darwin all take place around Darwin's Arch, a rock formation that basically just eroded over the years into an arch. Simple as that. Heavy currents around the Arch, just like at Wolf. And the same drill as Wolf, too. Drop in, kick like mad till you find a rock, hold on. The currents weren't quite as strong as Wolf, so we could move around if we wanted to. But with the sealife all over the place, there really wasn't the need.

Solon and the other dive masters would dive with these little stick that they'd bang on their tanks if they wanted to get your attention. At Darwin, they told us before we went in that the only reason they'd bang the tanks on these dives was if they saw a Whale Shark. So there I was with my dive buddy Mark, perched on a rock watching more Hammerheads, turtles, and tons of fish, but hoping to hear that stick. Sure enough, not much more than a few minutes in, we heard it. But where was it? We weren't all together, so Mark and I looked around, but didn't see anything. If memory serves me correctly, only 4 people saw the first sighting... just enough to get a serious Whale Shark buzz going!


We didn't see any Whale Sharks on the next dive, but a Hammerhead got within about 10 feet of me. Raised the adrenaline a bit, but not too bad. They've never had any issues with shark/diver confrontations, so I wasn't too worried. A massive school of Jackfish came by and briefly blocked out the sun. There had to be thousands of these things. They look a bit like a tuna, but much smaller. Very cool!

Dive 3. Dive 3, day 3. Mark and I went down to our perch, with Teresa and Lew not too far away. Solon was with us just perched up on a rock with his camera, keeping an eye out. Not 10 minutes in, Solon makes a break for the open ocean pounding his tank with his stick. We bolted after him, and just like that, right before my very eyes, was the biggest creature I've ever seen. This thing was 40 feet long if it was an inch. Tiburon Ballena. A Whale Shark.









Oh my God!









I was kicking as hard as I could, and Mark was just to my left. I remembered Solon telling us earlier not to touch the animals, so I resisted the tempation to grab the dorsal fin. It was moving pretty fast, so row after row of this majestic creature's spots moved past me as I tried to keep up.









Oh, my God!









I checked my computer and saw that we were at 88 feet, pretty close to our 100 foot max depth. I was so excited I didn't know what else to do, so I pulled up to watch the rest of it roll on past, then looked at Solon and did the only thing I could think of to do at that moment. Pump my fists! I turned around with Mark, Lew, and Teresa, and we headed back to the rocks. I think in hindsight we could've swam with it for a little longer, but not much. Even Solon with his super-long free-diving fins couldn't keep up for much longer than we did. Even though it only lasted for a minute at best, I did what very few people on this planet can say they've done. I swam right next to a whale shark, and it's a moment I will never forget! But now I have a glimpse of what a Super Bowl Champion thinks after he's won his first Super Bowl. "I want another one!"

Mark sat out the last dive of the day, so I dove with Sheri. We didn't see much until we started up. As we were waiting at one of our deco stops, we rode the current past a school of Hammerheads. They were juuuust within visiblity, so I'd say maybe 40 feet away. But even at that distance, 50 or so Hammerhead Sharks look mighty impressive!

What a day.



Day 4 was split between Darwin and Wolf. Didn't see much on the two Darwin dives. Now, let me just say... there were neat little fish on every dive, and I didn't put down in my notes every time I saw a turtle, so I may very well have seen some cool critters, but I just didn't write it down. On the second dive, I did see another Whale Shark, but I was about 40-50 feet above it with only about 900psi left in my tank. My dive buddy (not Mark or Sheri) pulled me back as I was trying to get to it. Nope, we're not going, says he. I ended the dive with 500psi left in my tank, so I know we could've done a bounce down and back. It would've been quite unsafe, yes, but we could've done it. It's a frickin' Whale Shark, man! Of course I'd push it!



The dive at Wolf that day was more of the same that we had seen there before. Hammerheads, Galapagos Sharks, turtles, and fish. We saw another school of Jackfish, but this time as we watched it, a Bottle-Nosed Dolphin went screaming right through the middle of it. Needless to say, it parted like the Red Sea pretty quickly. I forgot to mention in my last entry that we saw tons of dolphins on our first stop at Wolf Island. They rode our wake for quite a while, and at one point were so thick right in front of the boat it looked like you could walk on water.






Tomorrow - the last three dives and Lonesome George