July 8th - Galapagos Diving - Seymour - the Rock for Coconut Lobster Linguini

Hammerhead Shark too close for comfort

I could not get out of diving today.  I would have had to cancel with enough time for them to try to resell that day but even that is against their policy.  She could see by the greeness of my palour that it was in both our best interest she try for the third day.

One interesting note is that if you are on a Tour Boat, you cannot Dive.  It is illegal. You cannot snorkel the dive sites either.  It is too dangerous.  On the flip side, if you are on a Dive Boat, you cannot go ashore.  The guides are not certified or permitted to go on shore.   We visited Seymour on our cruise but a different part and the water was much calmer.

Seymour was only a 20 minute speedboat ride and I was better prepared with the dramamine so it was a 20 dollar day at most (see my motion sickness game from yesterday).  It was a challenging dive for me.  I am a relative newbie but D is Advanced and Rescue certified.  He assured me that I could handle it so I trusted him.  I was a bit nervous from some of the discussion on how strong the current in the area can be.  There were areas during the dive where we were literally, climbing from rock to rock against the current to move.  As professional as Scuba Iguana was, that was something they could have better prepared us for.  Our dive master rather assumed that we all knew what was coming.  We had the junior of the two and he was very attentive so I was okay.  I was rather annoyed that the more senior dive master took a much smaller group because he let his brother in law and nephew tag along next to us on a Zodiac and then he led them all day.  Nice.

So we saw a few sharks and lots of turtles but for me it was the experience of navigating that current.  We had a lady on the boat who bailed out of the dive as soon as she dove in.  She had said she'd actually been diving for 20 years or so we were rather surprised.  And as I said, since JC of Scuba Iguana had taken a smaller team so he could let his brother-in-law and nephew tag along gratis, we were stuck waiting on the bottom for 15 minutes while she had to be fished out by the boat.  Not impressed. 

After that exhausting day as well as the day we had planned for tomorrow, I wanted a hefty meal.  I was so pleased that I was able to each lunch on the boat and all.  I recall staring at everyone eating yesterday and being so envious that they could even look at their food.  We chose the Rock on the main road.  I chose it mainly because it had Wifi and I wanted to upload photos.  The Wifi sucked.  We were at the window and I could not get coverage. Oh well, we at least got in there just time for their 2 for 1 Mojito special.  They were strong! Or I was tired!

I had the Linguini with Galapagos Lobster with a Coconut sauce.  I ordered it for the belly full of starch and the intrigue.  It was very good but it was a bit cloying by the end since the sauce was a tad on the dry side and continued to dry out.  Still, I enjoyed it.  D got a mixed grill with every possible mean under the sun. 

Overall, the food was well prepared though some of the meat too well done and presented.  The drinks were well made.  The service was excructiatingly slow and the prices on the high side for the area.  The place is clean and modern and you can read about the history of how Baltra and the area came to be called the Rock on their place mats.

D's Mixed Grill Side Dishes

I had forgotten my camera in the hotel so I took them with the webcam on my netbook.  All these places offer Wifi and some of them work so no one is surprised or put off by the presence of laptops..

Galapagos Lobster Linguini in Coconut Sauce

Cost: $$$ (relative to area)
Service: Tortoise slow
Ambiance: Tropic Trendy
Drinks: Specials nightly only applies to 2-3 drinks and beer.
Reservations: Yes

the Rock
Avendia Charles Darwin,
Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz
Galapagos

Mixed Meaty Grill