Our mid-morning activity was a zodiac ride to Buccaneer's Cove, where Darwin landed on Santiago and spent nine days on the island, his longest stay on a single island. (He only spent 19 days on land in total, amazingly enough.) This cove was also -- yes, wait for it -- a pirate haunt. It's beautifully scenic.
One group opted for the extended zodiac tour. This is their boat.
Stunning scenery!
No, it really looks like this.
Well, above ground..... Most of us were going deep-water snorkeling. So, we pulled into the cove, and swung ourselves overboard.
I'm so out of practice with my fish! I have the species lists from the trip, so I'm trying to match them up. I think this is a ringtail damselfish.
Bluechin parrotfish.
Ooh, black sea urchin. According to our master diver Ruly, these are VERY poisonous.
Parrotfish again, this time with, I think, some type of hogfish.
Um, the hogfish again? I just didn't think they were this color....
Ah, a king angelfish. So pretty!
Now, full disclosure. Yes, these are my photos, but I took them in part 2 -- on the other side of the cove. When we first got in it was really choppy. I already mentioned my lack of swimming prowess, so as the swells kept washing over my head, I panicked. And got back in the zodiac. Ruly tried to get me to go back in -- he offered to stay with me and stay along the coast. That was incredibly generous and sweet, but I couldn't let him do that. After all, there were about twenty of us in the water that he was responsible for, plus he had the big underwater camera and was supposed to be filming. While it would have been fabulous, I couldn't be that selfish. However, as we rounded the side, the water around the bend had different currents and was much calmer, so that's when I got back in. Still, I got in for a while, and even though I couldn't see the bottom here, I did it. And was continually reminded of what an amazing world we live in.
No comments:
Post a Comment