Little Lolly's Small Adventures: shark

We had an exciting day today even though it was an early start.

Juan and the bus driver met us at the hotel and we went to Santa Cruz, the Itabaca Channel, where we zodiac'd to a yacht. We sailed to Santa Cruz Island with Dragon Hill in the distance. During our yacht ride we caught sight of sea turtles mating, a shark, flying manta ray, pelicans, sea lions.

A zodiac trip took us over to the island where we had a bit of a walk around Dragon Hill. There was plenty to see: red crabs, iguanas, different birds, booby penguins and more. While on the island with Juan We learned a lot about nature conservation on the Galapagos islands. It was very interesting.

Back on board the yacht it was time for lunch on the yacht. The on-board chef had freshly cooked tuna steaks for us, cassava & vegetables; dessert afterwards as well as home made lemonade. It was a feast and a wonderful meal - our bellies groaned from such delicious food.

We next sailed over to another island, Sombrero Chino, where we had a zodiac ride across to the island and a ½ hour walk along the coastline to walk off our lunch. However the main aim was to see some sea sea lions. We weren't disappointed. We saw baby suckling noisily from mum's teat and baby sea lions without their mums as well. We also saw plenty of red crabs, iguanas and birds too. Back at beach we snorkelled in the warm water for a while. Juan pointed out different types of fish and other sea life. A baby sea lion joined us & swam amongst us. Juan and I mimicked its playful swimming, much to the baby's delight at its new play pals. But we respectfully did not try to touch the youngster as it swam around and between us and the guests.

Sadly our day came to an end and we had to sail back to the Santa Cruz to meet up with our bus and head back to the hotel.

Another delicious meal awaited us - I say no more. "Burp".

It has been a wonderful day and everyone 'gelled' well together, making a delightful group of happy/crazy but down to earth people. We felt very spoilt on the yacht with chef, captain & other staff there to make us feel comfortable. What a very interesting and fun day.

PHOTOGRAPHS

The Maasdam arrived in Ōpūnohu Bay at around 7:30am and dropped her anchor. Tender services were soon in full swing, ferrying guests across to the island. The tender ride was quite long because of the coral reefs.

Paul had obtained prior permission to go ashore and had managed to book us on a 2 tank dive with Top Dive. The owner was waiting for us at the pier and give Paul a quizzical look - Paul was still 'working'(having a quick chat on the radio to the ship's bridge) but in civvies! We were soon heading across the bay in the small but well equipped boat. After a briefing about the dive and what to expect, we arrived at a point above Lemon Shark Valley and anchored. We were split up into two groups, 4 or 5 people to a dive guide/instructor, and headed into the water. The dive went well and we got to see white tipped and black tipped sharks, a variety of fish of all sorts of colours, and lovely corals. Sadly part of the reef had been damaged by a hurricane in previous years but the coral was starting to regenerate again. After about 45 to 50 minutes we surfaced but with a decompression stop at around 5 metres. Back on the boat we learnt that one woman returned to the surface earlier - she had got frightened at seeing the sharks even though we were warned that everything would be fine.

The air tanks had been filled with nitrox which enabled us to a shorter surface interval before we began our next dive. After about half an hour's break during which time tea and fruit were handed out, the boat was started up again and we headed to the next dive site, Coral Wall. Once again we separated into our two assigned groups. During this time we saw a nursery shark and a turtle, as well as an abundance of corals and fish. Others managed to see more turtles, hiding between coral ledges. There were valleys within the coral reef and the 'hills and 'valleys' all ended at a sharp, deep drop, to the ocean floor many more metres below. We first swam along the ledge for a bit and then moved more inward on the coral reef to swim over the 'hills' and valleys'. After about 45 minutes we headed to the surface, with a decompression stop on the way up. It had been a lovely dive and we felt exhilarated.

We were dropped off at the tender pier but instead of heading straight back to the ship, Paul and I had a wander around the small market. We looked but didn't buy!

Back on the ship we had a shower and Paul had to get back to work. I needed a hair cut so went to see the hairdresser. I ended up emerging with a colour as well - copper with a bit of red thrown in! The poor hairdresser had no customers booked and he was bored. Allowing him to colour my hair gave him something to do and the afternoon whizzed by! Fortunately Paul likes it.

The Maasdam has set sail now for Bora Bora, another tender port.