May 23, 2026
There’s a first for everything, and today was a lot of firsts.
Today was our first diving on the Galapagos. We knew that it was supposed to be the Olympics of Diving, and that it would be challenging, cold and with a lot of current.
We got up at 5:30, got ourselves sorted, with breakfast and coffee, and set off for the dive shop at 6:50. We were the first divers to arrive, but we didn’t need to wait, as the other groups walked in right after us.
We sat in the shop and got a short briefing of the days activities from Natalie. She explained where we were going, how we were going to get there, and what the conditions would be like.
After the briefing, the group of 7 of us divers jumped into two taxis, and we were off. We were in a cab with Lacey and Matt from Virginia, and this was their first dives since certification. We chatted all the way to Itabaca Channel, where we exited the taxi, and waited for everyone else to arrive. Once gathered, we got onboard the boat, and set off for North Seymour Island.
Our divemaster Jose had everyone introduce themselves, and say what sea creature they were most interested in seeing. Then it was time to put the dreaded wetsuit on. I was dreading this part, but Jose had a solution. A soapy-water-in-a-spray-bottle solution! Once soaped up in our ‘internal shower’ (Jose’s words), we pulled on the wetsuits, and it actually wasn’t that bad.
Next on was the booties, and then the crew helped us get our weights, fins and BCD’s on. And by helped, they really just dressed us like we were four year olds.
Since Nathan and I hadn’t dove with this shop before, we needed to do a brief checkout dive to make sure we had enough weight on our weight belts. It took all of 5 minutes, and it really just was a weight check. My weights were fine, but Nathan in his 7 mil suit needed another added to his belt.
The group of checkout divers got back on board the boat, BCD’s, fins and weights came off, and we all sat back down while we motored to the dive site “The Point.”
Once we got there, all our gear went back on, hand holdy style, and we re-entered the water. Our group is Jose, our divemaster, and a mother daughter pair from the UK, and Nathan and I. The mother had over 500 dives, and the daughter had over 100 dives, and somehow Nathan and I got into the ‘experienced’ group!
The current here is stronger than we are used to, and the water temp is 81 degrees, so definitely cooler than the Caribbean, but I’m not sure I would call it cold.
We descend, and instantly we are surrounded by hundreds of fish. There are so many! We saw white tipped reef sharks, parrotfish, starfish by the hundreds, garden eels, morey eels, trumpetfish, and so many more.
Towards the end of the first dive we all held on to the rocks and watched a bunch of white tipped reef sharks swimming around above us. So crazy! The current is so strong, that even holding on, it’s hard to stay in one place and watch them…your body just wants to fly away!
It quickly became apparent that I was running low on air. In the Caribbean, I usually have plenty of air, dare I say oodles of air, but here, with the current, I’m going through my tank rather quickly. It doesn’t help that I used some up during the check dive, but still. Jose gives me his octopus (spare regulator), and we buddy up and I breathe off his tank.
It was about this time, where I was diving close to Jose, that he gave the sign for a hammerhead shark. I saw a dark figure swimming off in the distance, and I could see it, but sadly Nathan missed it. But they are here!
It’s a little awkward being tethered to the guide at this stage in the game (I’ve grown so much since I was holding on to Hector in Bocas or Denzel in Roatan!). Nevertheless, we completed our safety stop, and ascended together.
We all climbed on board the boat (all the other ‘novice’ groups were already on board), and the crew helped us out of our gear. We had a snack of cantaloupe, grapes, cookies and iced tea. Natalie actually offered us hot tea, but it’s nowhere near cold enough for that.
After a very short surface interval, and a short boat ride to a new dive site, we donned our gear and got back into the water. The second dive site we saw a black durgeon (my fav!), oodles of white tipped reef sharks, tons of garden eels, three spotted eagle rays (!) swimming as a family, morey eels, a shark and morey eel kerfuffle (!), triggerfish, a short nosed unicornfish (wtf!), the biggest grouper I’ve ever seen, a large hog fish, and several bumphead parrotfish (again, wtf!).
I got down to 1200 psi, which is respectable, but Jose once again gave me his octopus and we held onto the rocks tethered together. We gripped the rocks, and watched and waited for anything interesting to swim by. Nothing did, and dang my fingers were sore from griping the rocks, so I was happy when he had me put my own regulator back in and we drifted along while slowly ascending and did our safety stop.
Once we were undressed, kindergarten style, and back on board the boat, the crew served us lunch. Chicken in a sauce, rice, and veggies with passion fruit juice (my fave – add rum please!)
From there, our captain motored the boat back to the pier, we exited the boat, got back into cabs for the ride pack to Puerto Ayora and the dive shop.
We grabbed dive stamps and a sticker, and said goodbye to our new friends and the shop.
We walked back to our casita, showered, grabbed a coffee from a cafe, and grabbed a few groceries for tomorrow.