GALAPAGOS-reckless scuba stylies
Trip Start
Apr 14, 2004
1
7
25
Trip End
Jul 27, 2004
Angelique-a boat,
Ecuador
Monday, May 24, 2004
lighter in my load due to checking in, i wandered the street in search of a travel agent known for her ability to find last minute deals on cruises...(most people book well ahead, and pay twice as much because they dont want to risk spending many days to find one, or they need to fit a schedule---lucky me, i dont have a schedule so...there i was)...bad news, all of the budget boats are full, except a few shit ones that i have been recommended not to use unless an absolute last resort...i tell her ¨no problem i can spend a few days waiting if need be, see what you can sort out for me¨...she tells me to return later in the afternoon...
wandering around for awhile, i bump into a crew member of the ¨sea sheperd group¨--an eco activist group that broke off from greenpeace because they were too soft, and were to involved with bureaucray, and money and shit...so basically these are the hardcore activists (read ëco-terrorists¨), and he tells me stories about how many whaling ships they have sunk, had collisions with, as well as all the longshore fishing line they have hauled in...he also fills me in with their itinerary for the next little while, and mentions that they need crew...i am intrigued, so it is agreed i would join them on their boat the following evening for dinner to discuss things...
at this time i bump into a crazy italian and his girlfriend whom i met in guayaquil, and we went for a few beers to discuss the possibilities of finding ourselves a cruise...before u know it, it is evening, and i realize the travel agency closes soon, so i ditch out with half a beer left on the table, promising ill be right back...
at the travel agency, i am told there are not many options for at least a week, but a boat is leaving in an hour and a half, and i can get the last spot...a rush decision to book the cruise and i am off scrambling to inform my amigos(who are now gone because i was way more than a few minutes in returning)...
i manage to catch up with them at the italian restaurant (go figure) they were talking about earlier, where i take a little abuse for ditching on the tab...not that they were actually upset, because i ended up joining them for dinner and they also sorted me out with some wine, which they also refused payment for...ah blesss them...
now short on time, i dash to the hostel, explain to the woman that i wont be needing the night i paid for, but could i return in 8 days for a night???...sure no problem she says...so i grab my shit, and head off to the port, for a quick stop at the super market for some last minute supplies...on the way, i run into an aussie couple who i met on the bus ride over...earlier they had explained to me that they had booked a boat, but had been bumped off to another one because it was full...they were still waiting to see what was going to happen for them, not sure if they actually had a cruise or not...they ask me what boat i am on, and i reluctantly admit that i got on the very boat they got knocked off of...there were no hard feelings and i departed for the boat a few minutes late...
so now i get to the boat, thinking i am late, but finding out that we dont leave for another 3 hours!!!bastards, i rushed my dinner and ran down the street fullly loaded for nothing...
i crawled into my cramped quarters that would be home for the next week and drift off to sleep, rocked back and forth by the waves and the boat...after what seems like only a few minutes of sleep, i am woken up by a knocking on my door...it is ten to 7, and i am being informed that we are diving in 10 minutes....um, okay, thanks for the notice...not having dove for a few years and feeling a little rusty, i was hoping for a few last minute refresher tips and instructions...yah right...get in the boat!!!put this on!!!okay ready???1...2..3..vamos!!!and then we are in the water...but my regulator, which is meant to supply me with lifegiving oxyen for my descent into the abyss, is drawing nothing but seawater...but of course that is not a problem here in ecuador, and my divemaster quickly solves the problem by giving me the octopus (backup regulator for my dive buddy)...okay ready? he says...all i can think is, ¨fuck no, this is super dodgy¨, but of course i went ahead and did the dive anyway...
while i am on the topic of diving, i am just going to fill u in on the remaining dives i did as well...
so a day later, and we are readying ourselves for the 2nd dive, and i ask if he fixed or changed the regulator...yep, no problem, and sure enuff, now i have a new bcd and both regs are functional...but the american dude i was diving with, now has the old bcd with the shit reg...all he did was switch our gear...so now he is on the backup, (which is meant to be my back up reg)...again, dodgy situation, but of course we do the dive...next thing u know, and we are descending past 100 feet(which isnt really that big of a deal if u are informed and prepared for it, which we weren´t)...because i had a bit of a problem gettin down last dive due to the thick wetsuit i was wearing, i took extra weight with me this time, and was having a little trouble compensating at the bottom...this meant a lot of laboured breathing trying to stay close to the 100 feet mark with out going much deeper...i could almost watch my air gaue falling...
i started feeling bad because i was going to force a shortened dive due to lack of air, and this was my partners last dive of his trip...i catch up to him and signal to ask him how much air he has left, and it happened to be the same...we decide to signal our dive master of our need to start thinking about resurfacing, but he is well ahead of us, and against a strong current...we try to catch up with him, but with the laboured kicks to catch up, we are burning even more air...we look at each other, and decide to surface without him...slowly ascending to our safety stop, where you are to wait for a few minutes to allow the nitrogen to seep out of your blood...but a couple of minutes was not an option as we reach the surface after only a half a minute at the stop, due to us both being almost completely out of air...when i say almost, i dont mean 100 psi, i mean like 2 psi...im not sure what the dive course suggests as a minimum to end your dive with, but i think it is something like a couple hundred...easily the dodgiest dive i have ever done!!!
well, the surface boat picks us up, and we wait about 5 minutes while the dive master is looking frantically (we assume) for the 2 gringoes he took down with him...he surfaces, and instead of being concerned as to where we went, or that we ran out of air, he proceeds to start asking us if we saw the ray, or the grouper, or the.....no concern at all...gotta love these latin american safety standards...thanks for asking about my bends man...(i didnt have them)...
third dive, was actually pretty straight forward, and comfortable as i had now agreed to take full responsibility for my dives, and treat him only as an underwater tourguide...
well this should keep u busy for awhile, so i will send it out, and start on my next....
peace
