Galapagos- Days 4 & 5

Josh and I decided we were not leaving the Galapagos without going SCUBA diving. We had heard it is an incredible place to dive and didn't want to miss out on it. With Owen, we knew things would be a little harder to plan, but our travel agent in Quito assured us she found a company that would allow him on the dive boat, then Josh and I would just split the dives and go separately. This was fine with us.

Well, we talked to the SCUBA company a couple days before our scheduled dives just to check in, and they told us Owen would NOT be allowed on the boat, no matter what! We were a little frustrated because we had thought everything was all planned out, and if we had known beforehand that Owen couldn't come with us we would have found a way to arrange babysitting beforehand.

Well, lucky for us, and employee at our hotel graciously offered to babysit Owen. She was actually really excited to babysit because everyone, including her, can't seem to get enough of our little kid. They all want to play with, talk with, and take pictures of him. I was exremely nervous about leaving him because I had never left him longer than about 4 hours, and I was leaving him with a complete stranger for 9 hours! But she seemed trustworthy and I knew Owen wouldn't even know the difference. So in the morning we said our (almost tearful) goodbyes to Owen and away we went for some SCUBA fun! We went to Santa Fe Island, near where we had gone snorkeling two days earlier.

These were dives 5 and 6 for me, 7 and 8 for Josh. I was really nervous to dive because it had been nearly 3 years since my last dives which were only my certification dives. I had reviewed briefly online, but once I first hit that water I got quite anxious and felt like I couldn't breathe. I had to tell myself to relax and once I made it to the ocean bottom I felt much better.

The Galapagos are known for the diverse ocean wildlife. We did see some pretty cool things!

colorful fish...

an eel (his eyes are looking right at you!)...

lots of starfish...

lots of rays...

We also saw some Galapagos Sharks (don't worry, they were small, far away, and look pretty much like big fish), a sea turtle, and some sea lions! They were so awesome to see up close. I couldn't get pictures of these things because they were either too fast or too far. Another diver saw two hammerhead sharks after Josh and I already started to surface. We were so bummed we missed them!

During our surface interval between dives we went to the bay where we had snorkeled, and I was able to catch pictures of more wildlife.

sea lion...

blue-footed boobies, and yes, their feet are very blue!

In a way I was very happy they didn't let Owen on the dive boat because Josh and I were able to do both dives and we were able to be dive partners. And when we got back to the hotel Owen was still in one piece and was happy as a clam!

The next day we had to say our good-byes to the Galapagos. Owen was pretty sad to leave too. We feel really lucky to have been able to experience the Galapagos and see so many beautiful things!