9 Jul 2026
Good morning, Galapagos!
Today, we’ll be doing a couple dives off the tip of Santa Cruz Island before motoring north to the remote islands of Wolf and Darwin:
Carlos, one of our dive guides, briefing us on today’s site:
Dive #2 – Punta Carrión
Not a great picture, but there was a large school of these bumphead parrotfish:
Barberfish:
Seahorse!!!
and a few feet away, I found a second one!
White-tip reef shark:
Coral hawkfish:
Bravo clinid:
This guy is endemic to the Galapagos!
Panamic graysby:
Barberfish:
Giant frogfish!
and another!!!
Little Guineafowl puffer hiding under a coral chunk:
King angelfish:
Giant hawkfish hiding under a pile of cardinalfish:
Young Mexican hogfish:
Breakfast buffet:
Fresh fruit and pancakes!!! (and yogurt and meats and other things that I didn’t try)
and yes, that neon sign was quite intense
Rocky coastline:
There were several birds swarming around, but I had a hard time tracking them from the moving boat 🙁
Dive #3 – Punta Carrión
Not only is the water here warm (79°F/26°C), the vis isn’t great:
Looking back up at the surface to fish silhouettes:
Longnose hawkfish:
These guys love hiding in coral, and I love searching for them!
Barberfish:
Well camouflaged seahorse:
A bit hard to see, but there’s an octopus tucked up in this crevice:
Starry grouper:
As soon as we got out of the water, we started our trek north toward Wolf/Darwin:
It’ll take us about 14 hours to get out there- the islands are so tiny they don’t even show up on my map!
Along the way, we had a lunch consisting of traditional Ecuadorian dishes, including locro de papa! My favorite soup!
I was so excited I almost forgot to take a picture 🙂
After lunch Carlos gave a presentation about the history and geology of the Galapagos:
Ocean as far as the eye can see:
No land in sight- we won’t arrive to Wolf Island until the middle of the night and, since clouds are rolling in, this is as close to a sunset as we’ll get tonight.