Day 331: Gordon’s Rock & The Lava Tunnels
We couldn’t leave the Galápagos without one last dive. One of our friends from the liveaboard dive trip had recommended Gordon’s Rock – a trio of rocks off the northern coast of Santa Cruz island known for strong currents and lots of Hammerhead Sharks. We seem to bring good (or bad) luck when it comes to currents, as the water was incredibly mild today. As a result, we didn’t see any Hammerheads, but there was more than enough sea life to leave us satisfied!
After a quick scrambled egg breakfast at the hospedaje, we grabbed a taxi into town and met up with our tour group at the dive shop at 7AM sharp. There were 7 divers and two guides, so we all hopped into 2 taxis and drove 45min across the island to the Itabaca Channel where we would catch our boat. Once we were all aboard, it was another 45min of navigation to reach the dive site.
Once we arrived, the two dive masters split us up into two groups, based on experience. Now that we had a whooping 40 dives under our belt (!), we were in the “experienced” group! The rest of the divers were even more of beginners than we were when we arrived in the islands – they all had gotten certified together a few weeks ago and only had 10 dives each! We were really happy we got to go off on our own – the tour included photos from the day and when we looked at their shots, it’s clear that we had the better dives!
After our briefing on the dive site, we back-roll into the water. After Darwin & Wolf this is child’s play!
We spot a HUGE 50+ school of Golden Rays
Oooooo, barra – Barracuda!
One dive down! We take an hour break before plunging into the water again, on the other side of Gordon’s Rock
This sea lion is convinced that fins are in fact chew toys
This bitey lobo gets upset when our instructor won’t let him eat his scuba gear, and zooms off in a huff
The sea lion makes a pass at another diver’s fins before finally leaving us alone. He seems to prefer colored fins, and as Igor and Lindsay were wearing black fins, the sea lion didn’t attack us (boo.)
We saw dozens of moray eels in Darwin & Wolf, but a ZEBRA Moray Eel is something new!
A slow-moving sea turtle seems to be getting a car-wash from a group of Angelfish
More rays: an Eagle Ray soars overhead while a Marbled Ray hides below in the rocks
A pretty starfish and a lobster
Big-ticket items: White-tipped Reef Shark and a giant Manta Ray
After drying off, our hosts serve us lunch: a delicious fish curry with lentils – yum!
Our tour ended around 1PM, and we were back in Puerto Ayora an hour later. We dropped off our rented dive computer at the agency and then started looking for a taxi to hire for the afternoon. We had heard about some lava tunnels in the island’s highland’s and wanted to check one of them out. A few taxis offered as a tour package for USD $50 to see the tunnel, some sinkholes and visit a giant tortoise farm, but we had already visited 3 giant tortoise centers by now and did not want to bother repeating. We finally found a taxi driver who told us he would take us to the lava tunnel for only USD $20 which seemed like a deal (of course, he neglected to clarify that he wanted USD $20 *each way*). Luckily for us, he drove us over to the sinkholes as well “for free” so we didn’t feel quite as ripped off at the end of the day.
Of the two natural formations, the lava tunnel was totally the coolest! The entire island of Santa Cruz is an extinct volcano, formed a little under 1 million years ago. The many lava tunnels on the island were formed when slow moving flows of magma started to cool and formed an outer crust. The crust insulted the lava inside allowing it to continue flowing down the island, draining the inside of the tunnel when the eruption ceased. The resulting tube-like cave was pretty spectacular – the majority of it was wide and high-ceilinged, with only one blocked off section that narrowed to a crawl-space (would have loved a tour guide to explain that part of the formation – where my Seabourn geologists at?).
The sinkholes were pretty, but unfortunately we’ve been spoiled by so many cool experiences this year it’s hard to “WOW” us. Though they look like calderas, these sinkholes are *not* volcanos – they were formed when underground lava flows ceased, leaving unstable caverns. When the caverns collapsed, the sinkholes were created. Yes, very nice, but do they have manicured gardens at the bottom like the Umpherston Sinkhole in Australia? No, indeed.
The Lava Tunnels in the village of Santa Rosa are located on private land, so no park guide necessary
Igor descends into the darkness
Inside the lava tunnel – the cave is lighted, so no flashlight necessary
The lava tunnel is one of the coolest caves we’ve visited on this year-long trip!
The mottled walls of the lava tunnel
While the majority of the tunnel has a high ceiling, there is one spot where the opening is so low, you have to crawl on your hands and knees to get out
As Igor climbs the stairwell out of the tunnel, he spots a little owl trying to sleep in the darkness! Poor girl did NOT appreciate the flash photography
Our taxi driver stops on the side of the road and lets us take an unauthorized self-guided walk by the Los Gemelos sinkholes
Sheer rock cliffs encircle each of the jungle-filled holes
Lindsay poses on the other side of the sinkhole, surrounded by the Scalesia forest
Los Gemelos Sinkholes, in Santa Cruz Island
We returned to our hospedaje in the early evening – plenty of time to pack up, cook our final self-catered meal of the trip, and kick back with our first (and last) bottle of Ecuadorian wine. Farewell, Galápagos!
Clever trickery, Ecuador! This bottle of wine has a label CLEARLY designed to mislead consumers into thinking it is from Argentina – the back label “story” even talks about tango. However, when Lindsay read the fine print, the winery is located in ECUADOR! How was it? Meh. Good enough for two backpackers in a hostel.