When Keith and I was at the agent's office earlier to make the final payment for the cruise, we met M/S Samba's owner, Catalina, by accident. We discussed about the route and she told us a story about how a long time ago (before the shipping routes were regularised), her family was stranded on Marchena Island for 1 week. When the regulation process started, Catalina's son remembered the island so fondly that he applied for the permit to sail to the island. According to Catalina, M/S Samba is the only boat authorised to go to the island.
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| Bottle-nosed dolphins next to our dinghies Photo credit: Sari |
It was supposed to be a great day since we had an auspicious start. Bottle-nosed dolphins met us and swam along with our boat as we were about to start our snorkelling activity. When we transferred to the dinghies, they swam under our dinghies and rode the waves with us, sometimes whipping their tails against the water. Alas we, humans, were not fast enough to give them the thrill - as soon as we located a pod and went into the water, they played for a while and swam off. We snorkelled for a while and jumped back onto the dinghies and looked for the pods. We chased the dolphins down, they followed and teased us. We jumped into the water and the whole process continued again.
Meanwhile, we saw a hammerhead shark which Martha did not think we would see (the night before, during our nightly briefing, someone had asked about the possibility of sighting a hammerhead and she told us that the shark would not be in these waters). There were huge schools of fishes and even a spotted eagle ray in the deep water.
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| Spotted eagle ray Photo credit: Sari |
Everything was fantastic except that the waves were very strong. So much for a great start - after an hour in the water, I climbed back into the dinghy and spewed for the first time that morning. Soon, more people returned to the dinghy and the captain sent the first dinghy back while the rest continued snorkelling. As soon as I boarded M/S Samba, I spewed for the second time from the deck, this time with more vigour. I struggled out of my wetsuit and after a hot shower, I took a motion sickness pill that would supposedly prevent further vomiting and motion sickness. 1 second later, I threw everything, including my whole gut, out.
I took a nap and managed to force myself to take a light lunch (and miraculously kept the food in) and stayed upright until when went for a second round of snorkelling. This time, we snorkelled in a sheltered lake (= calm waters!) on Marchena Island.
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| Lake on Marchena Island |
I was so glad to step on solid land. My decision to snorkel instead of sitting out was great. While I saw solo parrotfishes the day before, there were big schools of blue chin parrotfishes in the lake on Marchena Island.
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| Blue chin parrotfish Photo credit: Sari |
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| Panama sergeant major Photo credit: Sari |
Krisztina alerted us to a guineafowl puffer, which usually resides in rocky shore and coral areas. I also saw the juvenile guineafowl puffer which was bright yellow and looked nothing like the adult.
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| Guineafowl puffer Photo credit: Sari |
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| Reef cornetfish Photo credit: Sari |
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| Photo credit: Sari |
A Galápagos sea lion swam passed me, catching me by surprise. We swam around the lake to where these sea lions were based. Sari swam like a one and managed to take some amazing pictures:
After the snorkel in the afternoon, I felt so much better.
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| Bernhard, Jana, Leila Photo credit: Keith |
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