Trip Report:
Galapagos October 2003
I have just begun a new
film project that calls for a lot of shots
of whale sharks and hammerheads, so I used
my time in the Galapagos this year to
shoot video exclusively. Except for one
night dive at Wolf Island, I didn't use a
still camera for the whole trip.
Therefore, all the images in this report
are from guests on the trip! Thank you to
all of you who stepped up to the plate
with great pictures for enjoyment by
all!
This was the first year
that I attempted to lead two back-to-back
groups in the Galapagos. I met the first
group in Guayaquil, escorted them to
Baltra, then at the end of the trip, I saw
them off at Baltra and met the second
group arriving. Finally at the end of the
second trip I headed back with the second
group to Guayaquil.
The first group arrived
mostly without incident in Guayaquil
except for Mark who managed to miss his
flight from LA. To protect him from
terrible embarassment, I am not going to
say how he missed the flight.
Nonetheless, in this case, the built-in
extra day in Guayaquil of my itinerary
saved the day. He arrived a day late, but
in plenty of time to make the boat.
Fortunately his luggage arrived on time as
well.
We made our way to
Baltra and met the crew as well as 4 more
of the group that had flown in to the
Galapagos a few days early for some land
tours. I met up with my friend Nelson who
was one of the divemasters on my 2001 trip
but I didn't see him in 2002. It was great
to have him aboard for both trips. We got
on board and headed straight to Wolf
Island the first night, a trip that takes
about 15 hours. The seas were flat
calm.
We arrived at Wolf and
did several dives the next day. The water
was a tad warm (79-80 degrees) and clear.
In spite of the high water temps (normal
for this time of year is 75 degrees) there
were tons of hammerheads, and they came
very close, even to the open circuit
divers (which was everyone except me due
to a snafu with David's Inspiration
Rebreather).
I got a complete
surprise when the crew announced that we
were going to do a night dive at Wolf in a
protected cove that has no current. I had
told everyone that there is no night
diving in the northern Galapagos because
of currents but this is a newly discovered
site that has hundreds of
red-lipped batfish at about 90 feet out on
the sand. WOW! And there I was with no
video lights or anything, completely
unprepared for a night dive. Oh well, next
year.
The next day we headed
to Darwin for three days of shark action.
Again we found massive schools of
hammerheads. In 2002, we had many whale
sharks, but the hammerheads for some
reason stayed way out at the limit of
visibility. Not so this year….tons of
hammerheads everywhere. My goal was to
film them being cleaned by the King
Angelfish--not an easy task because they
are very shy when they are being cleaned.
Even with the rebreather, I couldn't seem
to get close enough to get good shots. By
the end of the first week I had only
gotten one really good close shot, and I
ran out of videotape right in the middle
of the shot. Talk about a heart-breaker!
In any case, there were hundreds of
hammerheads. We saw our first whale shark
later in the day. Then we caught another
glimpse of what was almost certainly the
same shark later in the dive. All but
three people were in the water and got to
swim with the whale shark. (Never skip a
dive at Darwin!!) Unfortunately, that
ended up being our last whale shark
encounter of the trip. Not sure
why….currents were very slack
perhaps, water temps too high maybe, or
just bad timing. It just goes to show that
nature is unpredictable. This very same
week in 2002 we had 24 whale shark
encounters in 3 days at Darwin Island. I
was glad that everyone got to see a whale
shark up close and fortunately everyone
realized how incredibly lucky we were with
the hammerheads. We also had many
outstanding encounters with dolphins
underwater. Throughout our stay in the
north, we had large pods of dolphins
hanging around the boat and the zodiacs,
buzzing by us in the water, and several
close swim-bys where the dolphins would
stop to look at us. This is not to mention
the omni-present sea turtles, eagle rays,
morays, etc.
We headed back down to
Wolf on the way home for some more dives
including a daytime dive with the batfish
and of course more hammerheads and lots of
sea turtles and eagle rays! Finally it was
time to head back down to the south. A
long 15 hour crossing in rough weather is
no fun, and thankfully it was not bad at
all, though a bit choppier than the way
up.
I had arranged a land
tour of North Seymour Island, one of the
better land hikes, but a bit off the
beaten Aggressor path. Doing this land
hike meant skipping the Darwin Research
Station and dinner in Puerto Ayora, but it
was worth it for the Blue footed boobies,
sea lions, marine iguanas and frigate
birds showing their red throats
inflated!
Next we hit Cousins
Rock for two dives. This southern site
usually has COLD water around 65 degrees,
so I told everyone to suit up as warm as
they could. We all rolled off the zodiac
into balmy 75 degree water. I lost all my
credibility. I swear, it was cold last
year! The water temps were just acting
strange. The crew said that only 3 weeks
earlier, the water was barely 60 degrees
at Cousin's Rock but the currents had
shifted, bringing warm water to all the
islands. No matter, we found seahorses, a
marbled ray, a turtle, a massive school of
barracuda and playful sea lions. Our
second dive was a sea lion dive where
nobody got deeper than about 30 feet but
we played with half a dozen juvenile sea
lions for an hour as they barked, zoomed
around us and played in our
bubbles.
At last it was time for
the first group to depart. We went to the
airport and hung around for a few hours
because the flights were late. At last
they boarded the plane and made their way
back to Guayaquil, while I stayed in
Baltra and met the second group. They had
been met in Guayaquil by my friend Gator
who had never been to the Galapagos before
but had been thoroughly briefed on the
important things to know like how to get
excess baggage on the plane cleaply, and
things to do in Guayaquil.
Many NEADC members were
on the second trip, all of which had been
on trips with me before. The first thing
they asked was "How many whale sharks did
you see last week?" and I was sorry to
have to tell them that we only had two
sightings. That didn't seem to dampen
their enthusiasm though. "This is a lucky
week….we'll see lots of whale
sharks!" They proclaimed. I hoped
so!
Things did not start
smoothly though. The airplane delay had
forced TAME airlines to use one of their
727s on a route that is now serviced by
A320s and the food for the Aggressors did
not show up on the plane. This was a
problem. We could not immediately leave
for the north. I had a meeting with the
captain and discussed options (with Nelson
translating for me since my Spanish is not
very good). We decided to do a land hike
at North Seymour and then a couple of
dives there on the first day while we
waited for food. This actually worked out
well because I was not planning on being
able to get a North Seymour hike for the
second group. The special plans I made for
the first week could not be repeated
because the crew members needed to get
ashore at the end of the second week and I
could not change the itinerary and keep us
out of Puerto Ayora. The dives at North
Seymour were very exciting. The water down
south was still warm (in the mid 70's) but
the first dive had a ripping current. We
had to hold on for dear life, but there
was a huge school of dozens of white-tip
reef sharks "surfing" in the current. They
allowed us very close in the turbid water.
I have never seen so many. On the second
dive, the current was much less. I had
wanted to film "sleeping" sharks on the
bottom and we found some. Using the
rebreather I was able to get very close.
At one point, Gator and I were filming a
white tip resting in a small overhang. I
was shooting from one side and he was
shooting from the other side. Then a sea
lion swam down, poked his head into the
cave and started barking at the shark. The
shark, annoyed, got up and started
swimming away, so the sea lion pulled its
tail and generally used it as a toy. The
sea lion got a kick out of this and
continued to follow and harass the shark
for another 5 minutes. So much for the
killer shark image, being pushed around by
a sea lion!
At last we got our food
delivered and made our way to Wolf. A
smooth crossing. The next day we did 4
dives, including a dive with the batfish
that night. The water temps were still
high but the hammerheads were still
numerous and approachable, a delight to
the group. Nonetheless, there was still
one big thing on everyone's mind….the
whale shark. Nobody could stop talking
about it. Would we see one?
The next day we arrived
at Darwin. Instead of three days at
Darwin, we would only get two and a half
days, so we had 10 dives to find some
whale sharks. Wouldn't you know it, on the
first dive we had 4 sightings (of the same
shark that kept cruising back and forth up
and down the dive site). The excitement
level after the first dive was about as
high as it can get and I was relieved that
everyone saw the shark, just in case it
turned out to be the only one of the week.
I am fortunate to have
such good friends. When I was sideswiped
by a whale shark tail, the only question
they could muster afterwards was "Did
anyone get that on video?" Here's what
happened: while swimming to the open-water
side of the shark to attempt to get it to
turn towards the reef (and the group) I
didn't realize it would work so well. The
shark turned on a dime. One minute I was
swimming alongside the head and the next
minute a 12 foot high tail fin was coming
at me at a high rate of speed. I couldn't
get out of the way so I braced for impact.
The forward edge of the lower lobe of the
tail clocked me hard in the head, ripping
my mask off. I managed to grab the mask
before I lost it, and got it back on and
cleared. (With one hand I might add,
because I was shooting video with the
other!) The whole time my video camera was
running and Gator
got the whole thing on
video too. At
least I had one person concerned: Bruno
said "I don't like that!"
We ended up having 9
whale shark encounters. This is still a
low number for Darwin in peak season, but
it was a heck of a lot better than none,
and the group got some excellent shots and
video of the whale sharks. Meanwhile,
Gator and I were very busy trying to film
that hammerhead cleaning. After spending 9
dives at Darwin working the cleaning
stations, we finally nailed it on the 10th
dive where I got a couple of excellent
close sequences as well as having a nice
whale shark encounter to close off the
final dive at Darwin. Apparently, due to
the warm water, the whale sharks were
staying deep. While we had encounters last
year as shallow as 15 feet, this year the
shallowest one was 60 feet. Some of us
ended up at about 130 feet on one
encounter (it's easy to lose track of the
depth when you are swimming with a whale
shark).
We headed back down to
the south (another nice crossing) and did
a dive at Cousins Rock. By this time, I
assumed that the water was going to be
warm so I didn't warn anyone that it could
be cold. Problem was, the unseasonably
warm water had vanished and the water
temps were back down to the mid 60s! I had
decided to skip the last dive to clean my
gear and off-gas (two weeks worth of salt
and crud not to mention nitrogen) and
everyone froze their collective butts off.
First thing they said: "Why didn't you
tell us it was going to be so
cold!?" Man, I just couldn't win this year
with dive advice!
We spent a night in
Puerto Ayora where most of the group went
to a nice sit-down restaurant but a couple
of us decided to try local pizza. We did
some shopping for t-shirts too.
Back in Guayaquil, we
had one last adventure when we decided to
go out to the Eclipse Café (my new
favorite "local" restaurant in Guayaquil).
First, Steve tripped a waiter who dowsed
me with a drink so I smelled like an
alcoholic for the rest of the night, and
then Chuck invited himself over to dinner
with a couple of locals. That Chuck is a
real party animal!! I tried to start a
food fight but had to surrender when Jim
prepared to toss an entire dish of noodles
at me. I'm just glad Steve was in the
way.
The usual airport
hassles followed and here I am sitting on
the plane writing this on the way home. If
I could summarize this year's Galapagos
Adventures, I would have to say it was the
"year of the hammerhead." We didn't see as
many whale sharks as last year, but we saw
them and I still have a 100% whale shark
sighting record! I'm hoping next year will
have lots of hammerheads and whale
sharks, but then again, you can never
predict mother nature. One thing is for
sure, no matter what, The Galapagos are
incredible and no matter what you see,
there is a lot of it and guaranteed to
blow your booties off!
Closing advice: always
pay close attention to the tail end of a
whale shark!
I would like to thank
all my friends who joined the trips this
year, coming from as far away as the
Netherlands. I had a great time hanging
out with all of you and I hope to dive
with you again soon!
-Jonathan
Bird
More trips
with Jonathan...
The incredible majesty of Wolf Island!
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All of the pictures here are from
guests on the trip, not me! Check out
their awesome pictures!
Check out Al's
pictures from the first week.
Check out Jonathan
gets "whaled" by a whale shark!
 I'll
bet you can guess what this is!!
The famous arch at Darwin Island!
Blue-footed booby at North Seymour
Island.
Orange Cup Coral
The male frigate bird shows his attractive
throat to the ladies. (Hey babe, check me
out...)
A marine iguana warms up between
swims.
Young sea lions playing in the surf.
Fine Spotted Moray in the rocks at Wolf
Island
A pair of turtles "gettin' it on" at
Darwin Island.
Getting up close and personal with a
hammerhead. Bruno got this close on open
circuit scuba.
Tomo is stalking the fish, but I think
they're on to her.
A sea lion playing.
A sea horse at Cousins Rock.
The famous Red-lipped batfish at Wolf
Island!
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