The last two days have been dolphins and mantas galore! In the last seven dives, we have been lucky enough to be joined by dolphins on four and mantas on four. Yesterday, we were joined by a group of nine dolphins on the first dive just after our group got into the water. They stayed and played for a little while, swimming in circles around us and coming within inches of us. After about 10 minutes they swam off, but we were not sad about the dolphins leaving for long as we were soon after joined by a manta. Later in the day, we saw dolphins from the skiff that took us out, and were thrilled as we entered the water that the dolphins were immediately beneath us! This time we were joined by 6 dolphins, who were also quite friendly and visited us again later during our dive. Today, the weather conditions finally allowed us to get to the Boiler, which I think was a highlight for each group. We entered the water to see multiple dolphins and mantas. The dolphins did not stay long, but the mantas came around the diving group multiple times, sometimes in pairs, getting close to the divers and enjoying playing in the bubbles. Our group also got a special treat at the Boiler, and saw a whale shark at the surface! Our second dive at the Boiler included lots more friendly mantas, and our afternoon dives featured many different types of sharks, sting rays, and even a guitar ray, which looks like half shark and half ray. All in all, a great last two days of diving. We have seen multiple humpbacks near the ship and been able to hear them in the water, so fingers crossed we see one in the water on our last two days of diving!
– Kirsten, Washington DC, USA
Two amazing days at St. Benedicto. El Canyon greeted us with playful dolphins, schooling hammerheads, loads of mantas, silvertips, silkies, galapagos, whitetips, oceanic black tips and even a tiger shark! DM Martyn did an awesome job guiding and entertaining us. What a great start to the trip, can’t wait to see what’s to come.
– Marius and Ingrid, Norway
