Wednesday was an away day, we had booked a snorkeling tour called "los tuneles", we were to be taken by boat about 45 minutes up the coast to an area sheltered by a reef and formed by lava flows into shallow bolder strune bays. We would have a short walk to see the flooded tunnels and some snorkeling. The lure here was that this is one of the few areas in Galapagos to find sea horses, and probably turtles and sharks as well.
Off we went, wizzing along at 25 knots enjoying the ride, the skipper suddenly stopped the boat and got very excited, causing past going the other way was a huge hammerhead shark 🦈 then another, it turned out to be several sharks hunting a shoal of red snapper. From the excitement of the skipper not a usual sighting. So we were off to a good start.
Soon we were making our way carefully through the reef towards our spot when the skipper suddenly turned the boat and whizzed off back out to sea, our Eagle eyed skipper had done it again.
This time several huge manta rays moving fast, the reason they were moving fast was the mother Orca teaching her youngsters to hunt. Again very unusual and a wonderful thing to watch, orca and mantas in the same view. All this before the trip had realy started, those sea horses had some work to do if they were to impress now.
We anchored in the lagoon and jumped in, our guide soon found us a sea horse, about 4 inches long they were so camouflaged amongst the weed they were difficult to find. After getting my eye in i did manage to find one for my self but I can understand why they are so illusive. We moved on into the lagoon, rounding one large bolder we came across several more, these were moving however and were infact green turtles, huge turtles, moving slowly round the lagoon grazing on the weeds growing on the sea bed. They were quite oblivious to us and carried on with their lives as we watched. Next on the list was an underwater cave, as we poked our heads in and our eyes adjusted to the gloom we saw several white tipped reef sharks dozing in the cool shade, it seems daft to poke your head into a cave full of sharks but again they showed no sign of even acknowledging our presence.
After an amazing hour we headed back to the boat and a short ride to where we were going to walk round the lava tunnels. Again the boat stopped and we were back into the water in a rush to see a huge gathering of golden rays, they move together across the sea bed like magic carpets, each tessolating with its neighbours. This was another wonderful surprise which we were lucky to see.
By now we were a bit shell shocked with all the extrodenary creatures we had seen, snorkeling and then walking around the lava tunnels was spectacular but probably not appreciated enough. Back to the boat only to be handed a cold beer to enjoy during the trip home was an excellent way to end the day.
Galapagos just keeps on giving!.
Tim