Galapagos, Ecuador - Snorkeling the Cracks

Las Grietas
Las grietas means "the cracks" and describes a large fissure in the rocks that runs inland from the ocean on Santa Cruz island.  We traveled there to go snorkeling - it's one of the few things you can do on Santa Cruz.

We walked down to the docks and paid 80 cents for a water taxi.

You're in the water taxi for about five minutes and then you walk the rest of the way.  Probably a mile or two.  

The walkway weaves through a secluded neighborhood that is not connected to the town by any roads - the only way here is via water taxi.

We learned that we're near the end of the eight month dry season and that explains why everything looks as it does.

About a mile inland there's a salt field.  The field is flooded with sea water and the sun does the rest.  For hundreds of years they've been using this salt to dry out and preserve fish here in the Galapagos.

There was a light drizzle going by the time we arrived.  It was not exactly warm either - perhaps just a touch over seventy.  However, as the Dodo always says "we've come all this way...." and then she started putting on her wet suit.  I skipped the suit, grabbed my snorkel mask and made my way to the edge, slid in and swam to the middle.  Dodo soon followed. 

Near the rocks there were a number of large fish to see.  We swam to the end of the first pool, climbed up the rocks over the shallow second pool and into the third one, where there were just two or three people.  It was exhilarating - 40 feet deep of crystal clear water, absolute quiet and fish all around.  I don't have an underwater camera - I got this shot from the internet.