Non-stop action at “El Cañón” and “El Boiler”!

Hi again!
Last night we left Roca Partida after dinner and made it all the way back to San Benedicto island, the crossing was a little bumpy, but we managed to sleep trough it. This morning we woke up next to the majestic volcano, 6:30am red sky, a beautiful sunrise and calm seas, and to make it better we dived “El Cañón”!
For our first dive of the day we set the stern line and the descent was so easy as there was not really a current at the surface, we got to the end of the line and for our surprise the water there was actually warmer than the last few days, 82F/28C, then as we were headed towards the cleaning station on the east side we could feel a little bit of current coming from the south, so we decided to go on the look for hammerheads! On our way out first we found a few bottle nosed dolphins that were looking for their breakfast, big eye trevally jacks were on their menu this morning! After enjoying that show for a few minutes with the dolphins going up and down and chasing the jacks until they made them puke (literally) before they caught a bite, we kept going and a chevron manta came to say good morning! It swam right above the group and kept going on it on way so we finally made it to the cleaning station and after waiting for a few minutes surrounded by jacks and a lot of reef fish, our patience paid off, hammerheads showed up! Not a big school but at least 8 of them swam right in front of us, actually 3 of them came up the rocks and straight to us before turning around and disappearing into the blue water. After that we left the rocks and started slowly ascending and heading back to the anchor line, on the way back...more dolphins! A few more cruised by leaving a smile on our faces, by the time we got back to the ascent line there were 4 mantas waiting for us, 2 chasing each other really fast, flipping, turning and playing around, then they calmed down and came for their bubble bath! As we started ascending we found 3 silky sharks swimming under the boat, they came very close to us checking us out several times. Well after that we didn't want to get out of the water but breakfast was waiting for us!
For the second dive at “El Cañón” the current changed, it was still mild but now coming from the south west, visibility was still good, 70ft/21m, so we went down and first thing we see was a huge Galapagos shark of about 3m/11ft cruising at about 50ft/15m, but as soon as it noticed our presence it left, so we kept going down and this time we crossed over the sand to the other corner of the dive site, on our way there we found a single hammerhead coming from the blue  right to us, so we just hovered and enjoyed the view, it swam right in front of us, slowly, circled couple of times and then kept going, it was great! Then we found a chevron manta just kind of hovering against the current right above us at about 15m/50ft, so we got to the corner and just laid on the rocks waiting patiently but this time only 2 hammerheads came close to the rocks, so we left and on the way back we saw another dolphins chasing jacks and another hammerhead cruising on the sand and posing for the divers!
For our third and fourth dive of the day we decided to go to “El Boiler” to get some manta action, and yes mantas were there!! The visibility was not great, 30ft/10m, but we had 10 different mantas checking us out, and getting their bubble baths! The dives were great, we jumped in the water off the back of the boat descend and just hover looking a the mantas going up and down, swim in formation, swim into the blue, come back for more bubbles, we couldn't ask for a better show...both dives were very relaxed and the best is that everybody came back to the boat with a big smile!
Now we are resting next to the island, and tomorrow we are going back to “El Boiler” for more manta action and hopefully some dolphins in the morning!
So stay tuned!
Hasta pronto!

Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor