John and I were up and ashore by shortly after 7am. The dock in Ayora was crowded so the dive boat ended up rafting up the other side of the garbage barge. Tanks and equipment were chain ganged over and around the barge before the dive boat moved to the taxi dock for us to board. The ride was about 90 minutes to where 5 more divers were picked up from a small cruise ship. In another 10-15 minutes we were at our first dive site.
This dive was over a gently descending sea floor covered with sand, rocks and small ledges. We saw a number of rays and plenty of fish. As the dive progressed the current picked up and soon we were floating effortlessly over the sea floor.
After our dive the boat took us to a calm anchorage for lunch near to a small colony of seals. John snorkeled with the seals for a while. I was about to join him when we were called to ready for our second dive. The second dive was along a wall which gave us plenty of opportunities for exploring the nooks and crannies. We saw a very well disguised lion fish – see if you can see it in the picture to the left. We were also joined by a couple of seals who swam by quite closely. It’s always a pleasure to be in the water with animals that are in their own environment rather than an enclosure.
The return trip was just as lengthy but I managed to sleep most of the way. We stayed aboard Dignity for a quiet and restful evening.
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