The wrong time for a language barrier...(posting from the road)

Some of you may say I deserve to die – and you would be correct. There are certain deaths that are almost predictable, tragic and sad but predictable; the car that is struck trying to race across the train tracks or the base jumper whose shoot doesn’t open. Today I snorkelled in an area of the Galapagos that is home to several different sharks due to the high concentration of food – this is also the same rationale that makes if fairly “safe” for us.

Today the safety practice of “swim to the rock” would not be possible. We were snorkelling around Kicker Rock – a rock formation that jutted out of the ocean with a 100+ metre drop-off. There is a narrow channel between 2 rocks where the depth is only 18 metres, but overall there was no safe escape.

And so Juan decided that he should man the safety boat that would accompany us and Giovanni ((the bartender) would ‘guide’ us in the water. The hope of the day was to run into some reef sharks and hammerheads and potentially some giant rays but to avoid any visits from the Tiger, Bull or Galapagos shark (Galapagos sharks will actually eat other sharks). I tried to politely voice my concern to Juan over his choice to not join us in the water...but he said it would be fine...”follow the bartender”.

So the 11 of us plus the bartender all flopped out of the zodiac and into some of the most amazing snorkelling ever. The rock wall was covered in tropical fish and colourful coral...and on the other side...the deep blue of the unknown. It was creepy but amazing. Initially we all snorkelled along, behind the bartender towards the crevice between the two rocks...everything was peaceful until Guis lifted his head and yelled “shark”. Juan was sitting in the zodiac – not really paying too much attention to us while the bartender was fascinated by a little fish.

Of course by the time we looked in the water, the predatory fish was nowhere to be seen...so we all tread water...waiting for some guidance from the bartender. He seemed to finally notice that the group was in a panicked circle looking desperately for direction...he swam over and made the hand gesture for shark with an inquisitive look. We confirmed the presence of the shark but tried to explain; through charades that we weren’t sure what type of shark was circling around us.

Giovanni still seemed confused as to what was going on...it was then that I realized the epic fail in this plan. Seriously – we are now floating in shark infested waters trying to ascertain rather vital information from our bartender, who of course does not speak English and is quite lousy at charades as well. With enough yelling we were able to call Juan over and have him translate from the boat. Yep, overall this could certainly be classified as an epic fail.

As it turns out, the sharks were black tip reef sharks that are normally worrisome in this region, but as they were a bit on the small side and preoccupied with other tasty morsels we carried on. The remainder of the snorkel was equally amazing, we were treated to several sharks – more black tip reef, white tip reef and hammerheads, as well as turtles and a school of huge spotted eagle rays.

Attempting to get all dozen of us back into the zodiac seemed too challenging to Juan, so he had us swim directly to the Encantada. There was nothing to see on this portion of the snorkel except the blue abyss of the water below. We all waited patiently to hop out of the water, with the assistance of two of our crew members (the bartender was long gone by now). When my turn came...I swam up and was partially hoisted out by Luis and Marcello when I felt a sharp excruciating pain to my lower right leg. I screamed out in agony and collapsed on the lower deck certain that a shark must have consumed most of my lower appendage. I slowly glanced down and expected to see a bloody stump – I was stupefied to discover my whole leg was still accounted for. Apparently it was just a Charlie Horse – I think a shark amputation would have hurt less.

But it turned out to be Leila that suffered the worst of the day. After our return to the boat, and for the next few hours Leila kept complaining about water in her ear. She spent most of this time jumping up and down trying to dislodge the annoying bubble. Finally...the pain was resolved...when a tiny crab fell out of her ear. I spent my entire swim fearing sharks when it turns out that miniature crabs were our greatest danger...I am not even thinking of other places they may have crawled...