DIVE LOG DECEMBER 25 ISSUE 415

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS: Kicker Rock text and photos by Ken Hoppen

There are times at Kicker Rock when the marine life really seems to welcome you into their lives.

A bout an hour and a half’s boat ride from the port at San Cristobal on the Galapagos Islands, Kicker Rock is possibly the best dive in this iconic island group, and that surely makes it one of the best dives in the world. www.kenhoppenphotography.com.au

Called Kicker Rock due to its impression of being shaped as a boot when looking at it from the northern side, this island is a must-dive location if ever you are heading to the Galapagos Islands.

Typically done as a double dive, boats leave San Cristobal around the 7.30am mark and return around 3-4pm. Dropping into the clear water near the edge of the island brings you to a steep wall that starts to flatten

out to a thin ledge around the fifteen to twenty metre mark. Though the action has already started by the time you reach the ledge. Schooling fish out in the blue are being rounded up by small yellowfin tuna as eagle rays glide happily past. We tended to swim left shoulder to the wall in both dives and it seemed that every small projection on the wall had its own resident species. The best of these waystations had scalloped hammerhead sharks continuously moving in

KHP6343 A juvenile king angelfish hides in the nooks and crannies of the rock.

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DiveLogAustralasia #415 December’ 25

www.divelog.net.au