Galapagos Day 6: SCUBA Diving at Cousins Rock!

It wasn’t even noon yet on Friday, and we had already hiked to the summit of Bartolome Island, snorkeled off the shore and now we were struggling to get into our wet suits, hoping to see some seahorses near Cousins Rock. (We didn’t actually succeed in this quest, unfortunately…)


Blackstripe Salemas. There were an obscene number of these fishes swimming in humongous schools all alongside the reef. By descending, we were actually tunneling through them, and if there were more than a few feet between divers, we would be creating separate tunnels and not really be able to see each other – it was wild!


This video gives you a little bit of a feel for what it was like swimming through these massive schools of Salemas…


In the 6 dives I had completed before coming to the Galapagos, I had never descended deeper than 55 feet below the surface of the water. Earlier this week, I hit 85 feet in depth and really felt the difference. Before diving at Cousins Rock, Peter had told us we were planning to go to 60 feet below. Imagine my shock when I looked down at my gauge and saw that I was more than 120 feet below the surface. It was quite cold, hard to see, difficult to breathe, and I am sure the suddenness and depth of the descent really affected my mental processes. Nitrogen narcosis, anyone? Plus, it was easy to lose my fellow divers, because every time they swam into the salemas, the fish closed in behind them and they were gone.


King Angelfish


I'm still working on identifying this fish...


Marbled Ray


Here’s a video of my approach to the Marbled Ray – the thing is really huge, about 6 feet across!


Underwater landscape




Eagle Ray


Sea Lion & Seal (sorry I can't edit videos on my computer!)