Great dives, and a good time at Roca Partida!

February 22nd, 2016
Dive Report –Roca Partida
Hi All,
The first dive this morning at Roca Partida was fantastic!  We dove the northern corner of the rock, we made our descent to 100 ft/30m, and once there we spotted 4-5 Galapagos sharks and a few white tip sharks.  The current was strong at this corner, so when we made our way back with the current it was more relaxing.  A chevron manta showed up on this side of the rock and stayed with us for a long time around our divers.  We were with the manta for a while, and spotted some dolphins out in the blue.  After a bit, the first group of dolphins passed overhead, and more and more dolphins were coming!  There were about 40 bottlenose dolphins with us, including a mom with her baby!  Most of the dolphins passed us swimming quickly, but one of them was very curious about the divers but went on with their group.  A couple of them came very close to us, and at the last minute a couple of wahoos came by too, it was a great way to finish the dive.
 For the 2nd dive, we thought the action was still happening on the north side of the rock, the current was stronger this time, and the sharks weren't there.  After a couple of minutes; 2 Galapagos sharks came closer, but they were gone quickly.  A chevron manta came out from the depth and liked to stay around 70ft/21m.  The current picked up a bit and so we stuck near the rock; the chevron manta followed us to the east where we had no current.  There we played with the manta swimming overhead enjoying our bubbles; little by little we made our way to the southern point of the rock and on the east sied we checked the ledges; to find plenty of white tip sharks!  It was a great opportunity to take photos and video of the white tips resting on the ledge.  Towards the south we spotted a Galapagos shark out in the blue along with a few wahoo's as well.  While we were doing the safety stop; a couple of silky sharks started circling around us.  The last dive of the day, we planned to check on the northern point for the last time and do a drift dive to the southern point of the rock along the western wall.  We went straight down to 100' and there were no sharks this time.  We drifted to the south; a few white tips were there; and another Galapagos shark in the blue.  Along the wall we saw a beautiful school of jacks, a few trevally jacks along with different kinds of tropical reef fish, trumpet fish, Moorish idols, pacific trigger fish, hard corals, and a wonderful view of the weall and it's vertical drop off occupied by plenty of sea urchins!  We quickly drifted south  and were lucky to see 3 Galapagos sharks very close to us, one of them was especially large over 6' long!  A beautiful shark, gray to silver color, with a white belly and huge dorsal fin, triangular characteristic of this species.  It was amazing!  Before we finished the dive we spotted some more action in the blue, a mobula ray was swimming in the blue, a huge yellow fin tuna zoomed by us, and we had silky sharks circling us during our safety stop! Great dives, and a good time at Roca Partida! 
Ignacio H. Leyro

Scuba Instructor
Solmar V