May 27, 2026
Today was our last full day on the Galapagos. We had prearranged to go diving with Scuba Iguana, so Nathan set the alarm to get up at 5:30, and we had our breakfast of yogurt, granola, and coffee, before we packed up our things to walk down to the dive shop.
We arrived a few minutes early and were put into the smaller group of divers going to Daphne and Mosquera. The other, larger group was going to North Seymour, which is where we went on Saturday. We received a small briefing, and were sent outside to hop in taxis to the Itabaca Channel.
There are two solo divers in our group of four: a fellow from France, Sami, and another American who was bent out of shape because his friends got put into the other group of divers.
I get it, dude, I really do. But this guy’s body language told me everything I needed to know.
A number of year’s ago, Nathan’s brother in law told his wife (Nathan’s sister) that she needed to leave and come back with a different energy, and that’s exactly what somebody needed to tell this guy. He was bringing the whole place down.
Nathan and I chatted away in the back of the taxi with Sami, and the other diver sulked up front.
We got to the Itabaca Channel and boarded our boat. It’s a lot smaller than the boat we took earlier in the week. It’s the four of us from the shop, a captain, a skipper, four dive guides, and four Discover divers from the US, who met us at the pier.
First stop is Daphne Minor, which the gal from the UK had said had a lot of current. I was a little nervous about this site. We got our gear on, and I can tell I wasn’t given the same wetsuit that I had on Saturday. Even with soap, the ‘internal shower’ it’s impossible to get on. I did an ok job, and one of the dive guides was not having it, so he had me stand up and hold on to the wooden rails on the ceiling. He meticulously inched my wetsuit up my legs, me holding on to the wooden rails above my head. It was reminiscent of Harriet Olsen getting cinched into her corset, ala Little House on the Prairie. Only difference is I kept my mouth shut!
Once I was in and zipped up, we put the rest of our gear on at the edge of the boat. And by that, I of course mean that the dive shop personnel dressed us in our gear, and we just had to set there and maintain our balance.
On the count of three, we rolled backwards off the side of the boat. Our dive guide today is Daniel, and once our little group of 5 is together we descend.
Or at least we attempt to. I can’t get under the water, and it was about then that I realized that had put me in a 7 mil wetsuit, and not the same 5 mil I had on Saturday. It all makes sense now, the struggle to get into it, and the struggle to get under the surface.
I told Daniel that I was in a different wetsuit and he at first wanted me to try to add water to it. When that didn’t work, he gave me more weight so I could descend.
At the same time I was at the surface, the guy who needed the attitude adjustment was also at the surface. He told Daniel he couldn’t calm himself down to breathe. Oh Christ, dude, we can’t have two of us on this dive. Pull yourself together.
I fully expected that we were going to leave this guy with the boat, but somehow one of the Discover dive guides was able to get him under the water to rejoin our group. Horray!
Once we were under the water, we descended to a cave, and were amongst a couple playful sea lions and thousands of schooling fish. Daniel had Sami demonstrate a couple dive skills, and thank god I didn’t need to do them. I could have, but just holding still to do them is just so much effort!
We continued on and there wasn’t as much current as expected. I tried really hard to conserve air and enjoy the dive. We saw white tipped reef sharks, tons of sea stars, a school of butterfly fish, a morey eel, and just so much more. I really wish we had access to a Galapagos fish book so we could look up what we’ve seen. So much of the sea life is different here in the tropical Pacific than in the Caribbean.
About 30 minutes into the dive or so, the other two divers with us run low on air, so Daniel motions to the Discover group behind us, and one of their guides took them up to the surface.
Nathan and I continued on with Daniel, and I got down to about 1100 psi, and Daniel offered his octopus to me. I took it, and we continued the dive, tethered together.
After maybe 5 minutes, Daniel released me to use my own air, and we completed the dive after our 3 minute safety stop.
We surfaced, and the boat picked us up. Daniel took our gear off of us in the water, and we climbed the ladder.
Everyone else was already on board, and we sat down for some snacks; pineapple, cantaloupe, banana bread and chocolate bread, served with iced or hot tea.
We waited out our surface interval, and after about 45 minutes, the Discover divers were ready to get back in the water (they had been at the surface longer than us).
Once they got into the water, it was our turn. It’s only Sami, Nathan, myself and Daniel. Our other diver felt unwell, and stayed on the surface. He told us later that he blew chunks after we got in the water, but I hope that was a fib.
We gradually descended, following the rocky shore down to a sandy bottom. Honestly, I don’t really remember what we saw in terms of fishes, because about 20 minutes into the dive, four hammerheads swam by us! They were swimming at about the same depth as us, so they were not very easy to see, but something about their presence, you know they were hammerheads.
Nathan and I watched them swim by us, and I turned to make sure Sami and Daniel were still with us. They were. I made the sign for hammerhead and Daniel nodded yes. Sweet Jesus!
We lingered in the area, and slowly moved on, at one time holding onto rocks to wait and see what swam past, and Sami and I definitely saw two more swim past us. So cool!
We also saw garden eels, sea stars, those bump headed parrotfish, and probably lots more, but it’s just so hard to remember it all!
After about 50 minutes, we completed our safety stop, and got back on board the boat.
Once back on board, lunch was served, and we motored back to the Itabaca Channel.
Sami, Nathan and I, along with the fellow who wasn’t feeling well, hopped back into a taxi for the return trip to the dive shop. We chatted with Sami the entire ride, and once back at the dive shop, I stamped my dive log, Nathan bought a t-shirt, and we said goodbye to Sami and we walked home.
Our route home takes us past a panderia, and we stopped to get a pastry, because why not?
At our casita, we showered, briefly charged devices, before we set off to souvenir shop before we leave tomorrow. Nathan arranged a taxi ride with Marco for tomorrow, and we generally spent the last afternoon decompressing and having a good stoll in Puerto Ayora.
