Kicker Rock. This is one of the tours I've been most looking forward to. It's really hyped up as one of the best experiences with deep, clear water. I'm expecting hammerhead sharks and hoping for manta rays. I got up and had breakfast and headed to the pier. Sat around for a while because, go figure, I was early. Alethea and Fabian met me with my wet suit, introduced me to Niko, our guide, and saw me onto the water taxi. I boarded the boat – a really nice catamaran. When they said we could go upstairs, guess who was the first one up?! We went by some frigate breeding grounds. Pretty far away and I didn't want to take the camera out of her condom, so I just listened and didn't take pix. I did try a few with my phone, but he was too far away. Plus, with the boat moving. Yeah, you don't want to see the result! Apparently, juvenile males have a white head and a white chest. Adults have a black head with females having the white chest and neck. Breeding males have the red neck, but you can't always see it, especially if it has been punctured. They will sit on the nest with their red neck puffed out for up to 10 days trying to attract a mate. After 10 days, they have to go eat, and somebody is likely to steal their nest if it's any good. Males will also fight, with some using their beaks to puncture another male's red sac, which puts them out of the breeding pool for about 2 years. They don't have breeding seasons because they generally just steal their food from other animals, and they aren't very picky, so they breed all year long. We did see a male with his neck puffed out sitting on a nest, and before our boat passed the area, a female came down to the nest. Wondering if he sealed the deal, but he at least got noticed!
We got to Kicker Rock and there weren't very many birds, so I wasn't terribly concerned about getting bird shots. Plus, tomorrow is a big bird day for me. Niko said that he didn't have a camera today, so he offered to take my go pro knock off and get closer shots for me than I could get with it on my chest. I jumped all over that offer!
We did 3 snorkels in the area because they said the water is cold. I didn't feel it, but today, I was wearing a 3mm wetsuit and my rash guard, so maybe. Most people were shivering by the time we got in the boat, both snorkelers and divers. So, maybe the water was cold. Of course, divers have limited oxygen, so they must surface back to the boat every so often.
The fish along the wall of the rock were beautiful, but the stuff off the rock was dissapointing. The water was murkey, so the things we did see were difficult. There were a couple of turtles, a huge school of a variety of fish, a very fast black-tipped reef shark that most folks didn't see, and a trio of beautiful spotted eagle rays. That was it. No manta rays or hammerheads or galapagos sharks. The divers didn't see anything, either, so it wasn't just that we were on the surface and not deep enough. All videos were taken by Niko on my action camera. All stills were taken by me with the Lumix in her condom (underwater housing). One of the girls on the boat had an Ikelite housing for her camera. I'm definitely happy to be traveling with my little Outex that takes up almost no space in my luggage.
The best I could get of the little black-tipped reef shark. He was pretty deep and moving quick. This is heavily edited. The original shot looked like just a black line across the frame. Niko didn't get him at all and lots of folks didn't even see him.
During the last snorkel, I asked Niko what the little white feathery things floating around in the water were. He said they were the “fingers” from the barnacles that have been shed when more grow. They are the part that grabs the food and brings it in, and as the barnacle grows, these get shed and new ones grow.
After the 3rd snorkel, we got back in the boat and had lunch. This was a good lunch. We had choice of protein (ordered in advance, and I chose chicken), and then instead of just white rice and a little teeny ensalada, there was broccoli, a medly of carrots, beans, and potatoes, a nice salad with tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and only a little lettuce, and yellow rice with lentles. A nice spread, and I finally got some good veggies! I've been craving veggies!
After lunch, we went to a beach on an uninhabited island. They took us in the dingy, and while it was a wet landing, it was only about calf deep, not even to my knees, so nothing got wet. I took my towel and my whole backpack. On the beach, I took the camera out of the condom and walked around. Got some shots of many birds and iguanas. There were several sets of bones and carcasses, but I won't include those morbid shots. We weren't allowed to go up in the vegetation. I found trash on this little beach. It was a plastic soda pop bottle top with Chinese writing on it, believed to be washed up from the Chinese fishing boats, which are only legal as long as they stay in international waters. There is no commercial fishing, especially shark finning, in the galapagos waters. The Chinese are the biggest violators of the laws in the islands.
Ruddy turnstone
After the beach, we boarded the dinghy back to the boat and headed back to port. I spent a good portion of that time chatting with a couple from London. We talked about the differences in the laws in the US and the UK, with a little bit about the election.
The snorkeling around Kicker Rock was really great close to the rock, but I was disappointed that the bigger animals weren't there. Even the divers didn't see anything. But can it really be a disappointment when we saw so many awesome things?
When we got back to the pier, Alethea and Fabian were waiting for me. We chatted and I got the 411 about tomorrow on Espanola. I need my hiking boots and they will send a walking stick for me in case the captain forgets that I need one. Snorkeling will be before the bird hike, so properly dress the camera. They took my wetsuit to dry again, and Fabian will meet me, bright and early on the pier, to give it back to me.
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