Diving face to face with sea lions. Gliding next to manta rays, eagle rays, golden cow rays, stingrays Swimming with bull, blacktip, whitetip, galapagos, silky and the star of the show the scalloped hammerhead shark. Turtles, puffers, scorpion fish, scools of barracudas and thouasands of tropical fish. And that is just the underwater side to the Galapagos. The side I love and the reason why I have been working here for over a month now. 
I have been employed as an instructor at Galapagos Sub Aqua on a voluntary basis, meaning they cover my expenses for the hard work I have been doing over the past month. Diving...hehehe
Fernando the boss has been very kind in my behalf and I am grateful for that, he might be reading this u see !!!..hehehe But seriously I have been very lucky to dive almost everyday and it has been great.
I got myself upgraded from the 5 bed dorm at Los Amigos, my home for the first week, to the very shabby Hotel Gloria, where fresh water or better brackish water is occasional, unlike the screams from the charming family of 6 living in the next door room. But who cares. I pay $4 a day. The beach below is Tortuga Bay, a half an hour walk away from the main port, one of the few excursions on land i did so far but as you can see magical.
The main diving sites we go to are Gordon Rocks known for hammerheads, Mosquera, North Seymour and Daphnie, islands on the North side of Santa Cruz where we have seen bull sharks and manta rays, Floreana and Santa Fe on the southern side of Santa Cruz are a jumble or colours especially Devil`s Crown in Floreana. This is where I have been spending most of my time the past few weeks. And not to forget Bongo, the most famous bar, of 2, on Charles Darwin avenue, where we head to unwind after a hard day`s work.
Diving here is like nothing I dived before. First of all it is frickin freezing right now, water is a chilling 18 degrees with thermoclines down to 15. December and January are meant to be warmer waters, but in return for the cold, more life can be found right now including various types of whales and the biggest fish of all, the Whale Shark, which I promised myself to see before leaving the islands. Sea lions, turtles, sting rays and reef sharks became ordinary here and only hammerheads, eagle rays or mantas get me all excited again.
Here`s some of my favourite pics my little Ixus took in the last couple of weeks.
