A long snorkel - and Frankie's first shark!

A couple of days before we left Santa Cruz and the Galapagos, we headed back to Playa las Alemanas for one last snorkel. Our friend Paul’s son Danny joined us and we agreed to meet Paul there with a couple of his friends a little later in the afternoon.

It was in between tides, so the boys and I were swimming out a little further out than we’d normally go, because there was enough water to find a route over the rocks that protect the outside of the bay. Then Paul and his friends swam up to us and he suggested swimming across to a little island.  It didn’t seem too far, so off we went, the boys were happy and full of energy, prompting them to dive down every now and again to get a better look below.  As we swam I reflected on how it wasn’t long ago  - maybe a couple of weeks - when the boys would regularly check how far we were from the shore and suggest we turn back if it felt too far.  Sadly, Jules had to stay on the beach to look after our gear, as we’d just taken out a bundle of cash from the bank to pay someone whose office was then shut when we got there just before our snorkel.  

I noticed Paul was swimming front crawl and realised, as I swam behind him, that he wasn’t wearing flippers.  He explained that he never took flippers otherwise he’d be waiting for everyone all the time, he swims so fast.  And he was not wrong.  He swims as fast without flippers as the rest of us do with them! 

Louis and Frankie looked very comfortable out there, sometimes swimming with me, but happy to be independent within the group too, and had no trouble at all keeping up, which surprised me given how much bigger my flippers were than theirs.  I didn’t once get any sense that they wanted to turn back.  When we got to the bank we'd aimed for, Paul looked over to another little island in the distance and picked out a point on the mainland well beyond that, where there was a small boat moored.  “How about we try for the dock over there?” he volunteered. “There are some great rays and sharks you can see.....”  Danny was uncertain, Paul’s mates were up for it, and Louis surprised me by saying “Yes let’s do it.”  We set off again, still reasonably full of energy and Frankie and Louis thrashing on ahead. It seemed odd to be snorkelling at such pace, but felt like a good opportunity for some exercise. As we crossed into a much deeper channel, you could no longer see the bottom,  although at the pace we were going, that didn’t seem to matter, there wasn’t much time to admire the view!   Louis dived down and when he came up said to me that he could still see the bottom when he was down there.  No fear there then!

Google view of our snorkel.  The shark isn't shown.

The group progressed up to the island at pace, and then on to the dock beyond - there were some boats passing at this point, and iI did wonder whether the boys would have the appetite for the return journey, as we’d swum at least half a mile. I was also conscious of how Jules would be feeling given that we would probably be getting back much later than planned, and most of the snorkel would be out of view of the beach. I hoped that Paul, when he’d seen her on the beach after I’d already gone into the water with the boys, had given her a sense that we might be on something of a long trip. 

Louis' recollection of Las Tintoreras

Once at the dock, we got out carefully - it was incredibly slippery - and walked along the footbridge and along a stony marked path to “Las Tintoreras”.  Basically, you looked down from behind a flimsy wooden fence to the lagoon 20 metres or so below and could see 5-6 white-tipped reef sharks resting in maybe 2 metres of water, accompanied by some large marble rays too.  It was interesting to watch them in this sun trap.  

The sun was clearly falling so we needed to get moving.  It seemed to take an age to get back into the water.   Almost immediately the boys were showing signs of tiredness, Louis’ foot was hurting from where his flippers had been rubbing, so for a while we swam three abreast. We’ve swum like this quite a bit this holiday, it’s lovely swimming hand in hand, and a great way to communicate when you see something of note, an unspoken rule that says the more exciting the view, the harder you squeeze.  But that had been at a very leisurely snorkelling pace, whilst trying to remind the boys to swim really slowly and enjoy and explore the whole view, not just spotting the biggest fish.  Now that we were racing back across the bay (and trying to keep up with the rest of the group as they seemed to be pulling away) it was a somewhat different challenge and my legs were getting tired too.  

Fortunately though, after a few minutes, the boys seemed to have gained the respite they needed and first Louis and then Frankie were off again on their own accord.  They still seemed to be able to go underwater now and again to go deeper, so they couldn’t have been that tired! The tide had gone down by now, so we had to be careful when trying to follow the identical route back. We got back to the island quite quickly and were rewarded with a really close-up view of two blue-footed boobies on a rock, less than a metre above sea level. As we went over some very shallow water there was a shout from ahead and the guys said that a sealion had surprised them by swimming under them all at great speed, almost brushing past them!  

Louis was fine by this point, swimming on ahead, I was with Frankie, he liked to swim holding my hand and every now and again I’d feel a tug back on my arm, which he said after he’d do so he could get himself to surge forwards. As we neared the shallow entrance to the bay we’d started at, I noticed a shadow to my right and suddenly a real live white-tipped reef shark was right in front of us, slowly swimming from right to left. Frankie squeaked loudly when he saw it, and squeezed my hand hard.

The shark, as Frankie recalled it

Now Jules and I have swum with quite a few sharks over the years on various dive trips and always marvelled at them, more in awe than in fear.  Nevertheless, I couldn’t help myself reflecting briefly on the fact that firstly, we were not far from Tortuga Bay where some poor chap was attacked a couple of weeks before, and secondly, it must have been approaching 5:30, around the time when sharks like to feed, a time when it is wiser to be out of the water.  I poked my head out of the water momentarily to beckon Danny over to see, as he was swimming not far behind us.  When I looked back the shark had gone from view and Frankie had turned 90 degrees to the left and was swimming after it!

Given we were still just outside the bay and the rest of the group were some way ahead now, I said to Frankie we’d head back NOW - there will be plenty more time for sharks in the future. He was still thrilled and said that it had disappeared from view anyway so was happy to go back.

Frankie writes:

We swam back to where we could see Mummy but just then we saw a black shadow, but Man! I squeezed Daddy’s hand real hard as this creature swam along that was amazing.  I was desperate to tell the others!  It was a shark and it was truly amazing!

Poor Jules had been worried when we got back, as we’d been gone over two hours, and all sorts of scenarios had gone through her mind!

After seeing the shark in the water, I didn’t glance behind me much as Frankie and I headed back to the shore at a brisk pace, with Danny close by, but I do remember pondering this question.  Before 1976, if you were worried about sharks when you were swimming, what music would be going through your head?