Galapagos I - close to paradise

So the next day we got up early and went to the airport. Everything went smoothly and we even had time for a small breakfast. Then I started to get nervous and wanted to go through security and, as so often happens, in the end our time buffer was gone and we had to rush to the gate, last call to Guayaquil - well at least we made it. When we landed, we had to collect our luggage and it had to go through a special Galapagos check again and we had to buy special entry and exit tickets for ourselves. Thankfully there wasn't much going on and we made good time. At the gate we decided to get something from a café, which this time resulted in us being called by name and asked to go to the gate. We flew for about two hours and then we finally got there. We walked to the airport building in the rain and could hardly believe it. Until now everything seemed completely normal on Isla San Cristóbal: airport, taxi, accommodation. After checking in and visiting the diving center, which wanted to take us underwater again tomorrow after 10 years of abstinence, we set out to find something for dinner. We also found a huge number of sea lions, red crabs and iguanas. It was crazy and the kids were excited. A real paradise - that's how the world must have been everywhere, in the old days when humans couldn't behave so invasively.

The next morning we checked out of our accommodation and rolled our new suitcase to the dive center. We ran to the boat in the rain, took a "yes, we're all wearing life jackets" photo with one of the military and then set off towards adventure. The children were looking forward to snorkeling and diving and just as the children were getting ready for the water, our boat received an emergency call. A plane crash nearby, all ships gone as quickly as possible. So we took off the children's fins and drove to the scene of the accident as quickly as we could. Thank God everyone in the small plane had already been rescued. When we arrived, we could only fish a backpack and a few granola bars out of the sea; the rest had already sunk more than 40 meters deep. So it was time for us to go back to square one. So we took the boat back into the bay and the children actually went snorkeling. Márton and I were ready to dive, at least when it came to equipment. It took a lot of effort to let myself fall off the boat and I was actually afraid of suffocating underwater because I felt like I couldn't breathe. I was pretty freaked out, probably also by the plane incident, which we all laughed off as best we could. I was on the verge of breaking off, but somehow I didn't want to give in to my fear because I knew I was getting some air, it was obvious. So we did our exercises for the refresher and with the help of our guide I managed them all. When we had to surface for an exercise and I was able to breathe above water for a short time, thank God I calmed down and from that point on everything was better. Our second dive was an old wreck, which was pretty much destroyed and was about 15 meters deep. This time it went even better and ended up being really fun.

After the dive, we drove back to the island. There we ate alongside the sometimes loud carnival preparations and then got on our ferry, aka speedboat, towards the next island, to Isla Santa Cruz.