 |
**This is an ongoing series recapping
my last vacation. I am so freakin' bored of this blog recap you have no
idea. Somebody kill me now.**
Hey!
Time for another entry! Whoo hoo! Awesome! Our second day on San
Cristobal was scuba diving day! We met Karla at the dive shop and she
introduced us to a nice couple who'd be joining us. The guy was from
Argentina and the girl was from England. They were staying on the
island for 6 weeks to teach English. I'm always amazed at people who
travel abroad to teach English. I couldn't do it. Don't you have to
know the students' own language to be able to teach them yours? The
only place I could go to teach English is England.
Although
the couple were both divers, they were going on the dive boat just to
snorkel. She was pregnant and he was foolishly selfless enough to want
to stay with his wife. As Karla walked us to the dock, we asked
questions about her life. She was born on the island, but spent some
time in New Zealand where she met her husband Tim. Together, they
opened the dive shop Galakiwi which is a clever combination: Gala for
Galapagos and kiwi for a popular shoe polish made in Australia.
However,
Karla said they are no longer a couple. That's unfortunate for Tim, I
say, because Karla is pretty much the most awesome person we met on the
entire trip. If the chicas fell in love with Carlos, then Karla was
definitely the female version of Carlos for the chicos. Sure, she was
attractive, but she also had the type of personality that lifts her
rating on a 1-10 scale of attractiveness to about 26 or 27. Did I
mention she also had wings and a halo?
Much like Las Vegas any
time of year, we saw lots of campaign signs posted around town for an
upcoming election. I asked Karla if she would ever run for office and
she said she wouldn't mind, but she doesn't think she'd win because her
fellow locals kind of disowned her ever since she married an
"outsider". I guess Galapagos and New Zealand are like the Montagues
and Capulets, or the Jets and the Sharks, or the Disney Channel and
Nickelodeon.
At the dock, she introduced us to our divemaster,
Victor, who happens to run his own rival dive shop on the island called
"Dive & Surf Club". I don't know how that works between competing
dive shops in the Galapagos. Could it be a collective? A real life
conservative Republican nightmare? Maybe the motto is, "from each dive
shop according to their available dive boats, to each dive shop
according to their bookings". Let's hope town hall America never scuba
dives in the Galapagos!
Besides an assistant dive master, there
were two other divers. One was just some random dude and the other was
a guy sailing solo around the world. Now, up until this point, I
thought that "training dolphins" was the ultimate conversation
dominator. But, no! It's not even close. Dolphin Trainer™ hardly talked
about his job once everyone found out about the Around-The-World guy.
He faced such a barrage of questions that in one hour I learned more
about him than everything I've learned about Michael Jackson since his
death. I also learned a lot about sailing around the world. You spend
98% of your time on maintenance because there's always something to
fix, you never get a full night's sleep because you have to wake up
every 20 minutes or so to check that you are still on course, and, most
importantly, you have plenty of time to wonder why you have no friends
or loved ones.
From the get-go we could tell that Victor ran a
more professional operation than Sub Aqua on Santa Cruz. We did a
pre-dive check at Isla Lobos which was our first stop with the Galaxy
a week earlier. Victor was able to gauge our abilities from that quick
check which means he probably made the following mental note: "Keep eye
on shaved head guy...a diving disaster waiting to happen".
Our two dives were at Kicker Rock, otherwise known as Leon Dormido which means "sleeping lion" because it looks
like one to people who are blind. Our first dive was a complete circuit
around one of the large rock formations. Of course, I only made it
halfway around with my lousy air consumption. The assistant divemaster
came up with me so, unlike Sub Aqua, this dive operation actually kept
track of their divers. How refreshing. I don't remember anything about
the first dive, but I do recall they gave us tasty cookies to eat in
between dives. I guess that pretty much sums up my scuba diving:
"How was diving in the Galapagos, Brandon? What did you see?"
"I saw a box of Oreo Double Stuf on the boat and I was hoping they'd pass it around and THEY DID! It was awesome!"
As
we prepared for the second dive, I noticed the air tank they gave me
was at 3300 psi. Usually it's always at 3000. I was so excited that I'd
get to be underwater for a bit longer. I had a bonus 300 psi! That's
like a whole extra minute for me! Apparently, air is a zero-sum game
because Around-The-World guy had only 2700 psi. He was not pleased.
Sorry, dude. I guess sometimes it pays to be an air hog.
The
second dive was excellent. Right as we descended there was a sea turtle
waiting to greet us. We also saw plenty of sharks including an entire
school of hammerheads! This was by far my longest dive in the Galapagos
even though, unsurprisingly, I was the first to ascend. Once again, the
assistant dive master came up as well. Poor guy. When you are the
assistant dive master your dives are only as long as the worst schmuck.
After a minute or two, Around-The-World guy came up as well. Again, he
was very unhappy that he started without a full tank so his dive was
"cut short". I didn't bother telling him that he outlasted me even
though I had 600 more psi.
After the dives, we went back to Isla
Lobos to eat lunch and snorkel with a dozen young sea lions. Dolphin
Trainer™ had his waterproof camera and we took video of each other
swimming with the sea lions. He didn't like the footage I got although
he loved the footage he took of me. He said it was my fault. I say,
rather than blame the camera guy, why not just admit that the
underwater camera likes me better? It's not my fault he is a lousy sea
lion snorkeler. Why not come to terms with the fact that I am the
superior "leading man" when it comes to video of swimming with sea
lions? Search your feelings, Dolphin Trainer™. You know it to be true.
Overall,
the diving experience with Victor was fantastic (as was booking through
Karla). I left the following feedback: Highly Recommended! Would do
business with again! A+++++++++++++!!!!!!
Back at our hotel, we ran into fellow Galaxy
passengers Jessica and Erica who came back from Isabela a day early
because Jessica was sick. She probably came to soak in the healing
powers of Karla's angelic aura which permeated the island. The couple
we met during the dives recommended some beaches with good snorkeling
further down from Playa Mann so we went to one via taxi. They were
right. There were lots of sea lions, sea turtles and sea bears. Oh my!
As
I was showering after the snorkel, Dolphin Trainer™ went to find an
internet cafe to call his girlfriend to tell her about Around-The-World
guy. He also ran into Karla. Now, we had previously discussed that we
were both going to find her that night and give her a tip for being so
awesome. Instead, Dolphin Trainer™ tried to give her money right there.
At first she refused. He told her to use it for dinner and she
confusingly thought he was asking if she'd join us for dinner. And she
said yes! The newly single goddess of San Cristobal said she'd join us
for dinner! So what did Dolphin Trainer™ do? That's right, he shoved
the money in her hand and ran away like a wuss. "I didn't know what to
say," he'd later claim. Congratulations, Dolphin Trainer™. Your award
for the World's Worst Wingman is at the bottom of the ocean. Go get it.
So
rather than spend our last night on San Cristobal in the presence of a
sparkling female personality, we ended up at a nearly deserted
restaurant on the outskirts of town eating with a cat named Gordo. That
was the name of the kitty who roamed under the tables. We also ate with
the owner of the restaurant. At least, it felt like it considering he
came over to us so much. I felt bad for the guy. He was super nice and,
apparently, we were the first customers he'd had in 10 years.
The
only information I had gathered about San Cristobal before we arrived
was that the Mockingbird Cafe had killer milkshakes. That was my "must
do" thing on the island. Finally, on our last night, we went to the
cafe only to find out that they couldn't serve any that night. Perhaps
the machine was down or maybe it wasn't even on the menu anymore. I
can't recall. Hey, this was almost 6 months ago! I can't remember
everything! Instead, they had a tasty looking ice cream brownie on the
menu. We ordered that. But wouldn't you know it? It was sold out. We
ended up with those small ice cream cups with the lid you peel off and
the flat little wooden spoon you use to stab the rock hard ice cream
until it softens enough to become edible.
We wandered the
streets the rest of the night in search of Karla. By this time during
our stay on the island, the dark streets of San Cristobal, although
much worse looking than Quito, felt very safe. We were almost tempted
to give it the Muller/Dolphin Trainer™ backpack test. Besides the
ubiquitous political signage I mentioned earlier, San Cristobal has
another thing in common with Las Vegas--things are open late. Well,
sometimes. Actually, I don't think any business on the island has
regular hours. They just open and close as they please, even during the
day. Damn commies!
Unfortunately, Karla must not have felt like
opening up the shop that night, or going out at all. Dolphin Trainer™
really blew it by not taking her up on her dinner idea. That would have
been a great way to finish off our Galapagos experience! Sometimes I
imagine her sitting at a table that night, laughing and smiling,
brushing her hair away from her face, and then leaning in closer to
whisper, "So tell me more about sailing all around the world by
yourself."
6:12 AM
Powered by  | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|