(Bloomberg) -- Near the edge of a rocky plateau 70 feet below the ocean's surface, I'm groping for sharp, barnacle- encrusted rocks with my gloved hands, when suddenly, our dive guide Jaimie signals us to let go.
Our group of eight divers kicks furiously into the blue waters off the Galapagos Islands, trying to make headway into the open ocean. Hundreds of hovering small, red snapper-like Pacific creole fish seem to observe our efforts. We can't see much else, beyond our own bubbles.
As Jaimie excitedly rattles his underwater noisemaker, we kick even harder. I'm frantically trying to catch my breath, when my eyes identify big, white spots that appear to be floating. As my vision adjusts, I make out a giant back fin, then a massive tail. It's a 45-foot, 8-ton whale shark -- the biggest fish in the sea, an underwater Mack truck.
My husband and I are on a two-week diving trip to these fertile islands, located 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador. This is a view of the Galapagos Charles Darwin didn't get when he sailed there aboard the Beagle in 1835 and began to formulate the theories of evolution he later published in ``The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.''
Tete-a-Tete
The Galapagos are the Nature Channel live. Today, 97 percent of its 13 islands, 42 islets and innumerable rock formations have been declared a national park, limiting fishing to certain areas and quotas (still, 100,000 people visited last year alone). The surrounding seas, 50,000 square miles of Pacific Ocean, constitute the second-largest marine reserve in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia.
Here a lucky diver undeterred by cold waters and strong currents can enjoy a once-in a-lifetime chance for a tete-a-tete with sharks and 150-year-old turtles the size of coffee tables.
During our two-week stay aboard Peter Hughes's Sky Dancer, a 110-foot vessel geared toward diving, we dove off Darwin and Wolf Island -- solitary rock formations located 250 nautical miles north of the central islands -- where we were surrounded by hundreds of 7- to 10-foot hammerhead and Galapagos sharks, swimming in wall-like formations just feet away, eerily eyeing us with their sideways-protruding eyes.
Big Mouths
On this particular day, I am just a few arm lengths away from touching this whale shark, a huge yet peaceful fish. My husband Matt is indeed so close that he is accidentally brushed by the gigantic tail fin and tossed off track in his efforts to film this leviathan. He manages to catch up with the creature, which seems completely indifferent to our presence, and gets a close-up of its 6-foot-wide mouth, slightly opened to filter the waters for krill and other small prey.
Even the most seasoned divers among us forget to check dive computers for depth and air levels as we try to keep pace with this mythic Goliath for at least a few moments before it slowly dives to greater depths and fades out of sight.
The Galapagos islands are bathed in nutrient-rich waters carried to the archipelago by several currents, including the warmer Panama current from the north, the Cromwell from the east and the cold Humboldt from the south.
Spectacular Variety
In this dynamic ecosystem, whale and hammerhead sharks and cold-water species of game fish from the southern waters of Peru, Chile and Antarctica co-exist with a profusion of warm- water and tropical fish.
Although a whale shark sighting was the silent goal for most of our dive boat's 16 members, it was regularly matched by the sheer volume and spectacular variety of other Galapagos denizens.
Ripping currents thrust us closely past a pod of bottlenose dolphins, schools of elegant, white-spotted eagle rays, clouds of schooling barracuda, as well as friendly hawksbill and green sea turtles.
The Galapagos are a celebration of the bizarre. I witnessed a manta ray with a 14-foot wingspan catapulting itself completely out of the water as if trying to fly. Galapagos penguins darted about at arm's length, catching and eating small red baitfish that hid in rock crevices.
Begging Boobies
Yet this place easily converts even the most hard-core divers into land tourists. About 60 percent of the trip was interspersed with hikes across some of the islands.
I saw three giant albatross juveniles engage in play fighting like overgrown puppies, completely indifferent to our presence, and blue-footed boobies feed their begging chicks.
Above sea level, the Galapagos mirror the underwater volcanic rock deserts. The surface consists mainly of melancholic landscapes with wind-swept coastlines, leafless trees and low-growing brush that hug the red and black volcanic earth that has been ground over millions of years into fine powder by the constant assault from wind and water.
The rugged islands are littered with generally unafraid, approachable animals. On land, we cautiously navigate our way around matriarchal sea lions with their nursing pups, bright red Sally Lightfoot crabs and thousands of dinosaur-like marine iguanas that litter the rocky shores like ancient relics.
Tortoise Meat
For centuries, humans have been attracted to these remote islands. In the 16th-century pirates arrived to fill their ships with the large turtles, stacking them upside down for fresh meat, as tortoises can live without food or water for one year. Following the pirates were ex-convicts and luckless mainland settlers who were looking for new beginnings on the Galapagos, also called the Islas Encantadas, or Enchanted Islands.
As settlers also introduced foreign species to the islands, including goats, dogs and pigs, many native species were wiped out or brought close to extinction, such as Lonesome George, the only remaining member of the Pinta Island sub-species of tortoises.
As we return in our dinghy to the main boat after one of our last dives at Darwin Island, Jaimie signals us to don our masks and fins for an impromptu snorkel.
We slip silently into the water. I stretch out my arms and legs and bob on the water's surface, breathing calmly while taking in a magical view. Hundreds of melonhead whale swim over to inspect me, as their piercing songs echo through the water.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Nadja Brandt in Los Angeles at nbrandt@bloomberg.net
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