25-JAN-11: Isla Isabela
In the afternoon, we snorkeled in a bay on Isla Fernandina. The conditions and visibility were atrocious. I kept my head down under the water mainly to avoid looking at the scum floating on the surface. Oddly enough, I wasn’t bothered by my hair going through the muck, but watching Katie swim through it…
Anyway, it was hard to see more than a few feet: we had to stay right next to the rocks, ahem, to the rock cliff to see anything. There weren’t many fish. A couple of stars. Not much to see at all, actually.
Until I saw a sea lion dart directly underneath me. And then back in front of me. And around me. It was magic. I was checking out the sea lion, and it was checking out me. But the moment didn’t last long: there were other humans for the sea lion to investigate, and it disappeared in the green muck.
A couple minutes later, I heard Katie shouting for me to get over to her. There was a Galapagos penguin swimming with us. By the time I swam over, it was out of the water and on a little ledge along the cliff. It and a friend were just hanging out, and Katie wanted me to take a picture of her near them. On impulse, the day before we left, we decided to purchase an underwater Canon point-and-shoot. I had trouble figuring out how to use it: button-to-shutter response just wasn’t as instant as with my 1d, and that meant I thought the shot was done when the shutter was still open. Yeah, it’s not like the shutter is open for very long, but if you move the camera when taking a shot, it’s going to be blurry. Add in the movement of the waves… I took three of Katie with the penguins, and only one wasn’t a modern painting of gray streaks. The one that did come out… metered badly. Blown out a bit.
That was it for the excitement, though. Someone called out they saw a sea turtle, but with visibility so low, you had to be right on top of it to see anything.
I had a bit of a scare before the penguins, though: my right calf muscle suddenly cramped up into a tight, baseball-sized knot of pain. The rest of the time, I was swimming either with one leg, or just by moving my feet, rather than my legs. Thankfully, the pain in my right toe mostly subsided with all the salt water: all I got from the flipper rubbing against it was a dull ache. Cut right big toe, abrased left ankle, sore right calf muscle. What else could happen?