Academy Bay in Galapagos - worth it?

[Leejnd]

My husband and I are going on a 3 week group tour in October that includes a week in the Galapagos - most of which is on a small ship, but we do have two nights in a hotel in Santa Cruz. We're making arrangements to do a day dive out to Beagle Rocks with Scuba Iguana on our one full day on Santa Cruz, but I noticed that they also do afternoon dives in Academy Bay. We could fit those in on the afternoon of our first day there, but we're wondering if Academy bay is worth it...it appears to be a novice site, where they do their check-out dives for new divers. We're advanced, experienced cold-water divers, so we don't want to give up an afternoon for dives that won't be worth doing. If it's not worth it, we'll just stick with our tour group and do whatever pre-arranged land activities are on the agenda for that day.

Any feedback from you experienced Galapagos divers?

(I wish we could stay longer, but it's a tour to Machu Picchu & Galapagos that we're doing with friends, so we're just trying to squeeze in some diving whenever we can during the Galapagos portion.)

 

[Doc]

With Scuba Iguana, on their Academy Bay dives, after you show sufficient buoyancy control, they take you into one shallow area that is awash with bubbles from surface churn and crashing waves. This must be some sort of signal for the Seals to come out and nip at your fins.

My wife still believes they were being playful, but I have seen this kind of behavior exhibited with any new Pinniped newcomer, as well. She has vivid memories of them zooming up to her faceplate, making a stop 10" away and twisting their heads in a display of anthropomorphic curiosity.

At a neighboring spot, there is a rocky vertical wall that has a long rectangular slot about 20x20' cut into it, slowly ascending along it's face. On the four times I have been inside this three sided "hallway", I have seen a Shark three times and an apparently residential Ray, a huge critter (Not a Mobula), awaiting our arrival in the sand and light at the top swim through.

An easy day trip for them is Gordon Rocks which is the submerged crater of an extinct Volcano. As a close-in day-dive site, I highly recommend it. I have always seen Hammerheads, Mobulas and it is a playground of extreme currents.

I have dived Wolf and Darwin from liveaboards, and I like the land based diving better at this point. That is what makes me wonder... what are you skipping out on in Santa Cruz?

The land based activities from Santa Cruz should not be missed! You should take at least 2 hours to walk through the Darwin Station (stop at their gift shop), two hous to walk through the Art Galleries in town (not much shopping otherwise) and a trip to see the natural habitat of the land Tortises at higher elevation is well advised.

Other really interesting options include the two Lava Tube Tours. There is one that is older and more well known, more likely the one you will be sent to. If you know where to ask, take the other one instead (if you have an either/or choice) and search for the recently discovered tunnel that is on the grounds of a posh resort, right near town, the tours were begun there by Oswaldo.

Academy Bay is a fun dive, Gordon Rocks even better- but don't miss out on Santa Cruz. My buddies manage to keep quite occupied there along with a week of shore-based diving, as well.

 

[Leejnd]

Thanks for your quick reply!

We're actually on a three-week package tour of Machu Picchu and the Galapagos...and we're only in Galapagos for 6 nights, 4 of which are on a 16-passenger boat. I wish we had more time in Galapagos, but we're doing this tour with friends of ours who are an older couple, and we've been promising to do Machu Picchu with them for years and this is how we ended up doing it. I'll just be happy to get to Galapagos at all, and I would KICK myself if I didn't go diving at least one day while there!

I'm glad you described the Academy Bay dive. I think we'll just skip that and stay with the planned activities with the group. I dive in SoCal frequently, and we see sea lions all the time. In fact, we were diving with a TON of them at Anacapa Island this past Sunday...they do seem to be playful, but they have been known to nip at snorkels and pull people's masks off! That's one reason I don't dive with a snorkel these days.

As for Santa Cruz...yes, missing this is a concern. In fact, the day we have planned to dive with Scuba Iguana out to Beagle Rocks is the day the tour group goes to the lava tubes! So it's a struggle trying to figure out what to do. Still, how can we be in freaking GALAPAGOS, one of the top dive destinations on the PLANET, and not dive? I'd never forgive myself.

I wish we could figure out a way to dive during the four days we're on the boat, but the tour company can't tell me where we'll be...it varies each trip. Here's what the tour intinerary says:

During our four-night cruise in the Enchanted Isles, we'll stay aboard a private, 16-passenger small ship, chartered exclusively for our group. It's small size (between 85-95 feet long) allows the vessel to easily maneuver through the island chain, with an emphasis on island access, not shipboard luxury. During the day, we use small motor dinghies for shore excursions.

I spoke to the tour company, and they said they just don't have an exact itinerary for the days on the boat. And we only have two nights staying on land. So, it's really only on that one full day in Santa Cruz that we can dive. And that day, Scuba Iguana is doing their day trip to Beagle Rocks...so that's where we're going.

Any comments on Beagle Rocks as a dive site?

I guess we're just going to have to put a longer stay in Santa Cruz on the bucket list for the future!

 

[Doc]

And that day, Scuba Iguana is doing their day trip to Beagle Rocks...so that's where we're going.

Any comments on Beagle Rocks as a dive site?

From my tattered notebooks....

Beagle Rocks is straight West of the Baltra Airport. You will likely be taken back North to the dock area on the Northern tip of Santa Cruz, the place that the ferry ties up from the very short trip over from Baltra. There you will meet the boat from SCUBA Iguana. Here's a picture of that landing and meeting:

Beagle is made up of small 3 exposed rocks located just south of Santiago Island- it is the remainder of a volcanic cone top, known for harbouring a large number of fish. The island appears as a stark and towering wall just beyond. This dive site starts on a 35 fsw plateau and leads to a wall, covered with black coral and sea fans, that drops to more than 200fsw. Pelagic species that can be observed include Hammerheads, Galapagos Sharks, Mobulas during the hot season, smaller Rays, Turtles and Sea Lions. On our 2005 trip there we saw a Sea Lion and a Shark leave a lot of blood in the water. It worked out better for the divers and the Shark.

I have a few other SCUBA Iguana images and some of Santa Cruz at Doc 's Galapagos Trip 2002

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

If you want pelagics, you might think about going to Gordon Rocks and N. Seymour/Mosqueras instead of Beagle Rocks. Last time I was out (3rd week of July), we had about 50 hammerheads two different days at Mosqueras...Mantas at N. Seymour. I have grown to expect turtles and rays on every dive almost anywhere in the Galapagos. And they are quick trips in a boat from the Canal. Beagle is a long boat ride after a 45 minute drive to Itabaca Canal. So you will probably spend 4+ hours of the day just getting to or coming back from Beagle Rocks.

Since sea lions aren't your target, I would not bother with La Loberia and it seems most Academy Bay dives do head to La Loberia. There are 2 decent sites in Academy Bay, El Bajo and Punta Nunez Cliffs / Macarron's Place...not bad for the afternoon of arrival in terms of jumping right in.
El Bajo is a submerged platform with mini walls where you can see White-Tipped Reef Sharks, Eagle Rays, Sea Turtles, schools of tropical fish and more. It's a pretty interesting place that can have decent currents and surge. Punta Nunez Cliffs /Macarron’s Place is along lava cliffs with lava tunnel caves usually with quite a few White-Tipped Reef Sharks as well as Sea Turtles, Rays, schools of reef fish, etc.

If you can live without taking a shower and just change clothes on the boat, (bathrooms at Itabaca Canal are always closed in the afternoon) you could do 2 dives at either Gordon Rocks or N. Seymour/Mosqueras and still get to Promecias tunnels by about 3-3:30...diving plus lava tunnels and tortoises in the wild.

 

[Leejnd]

Unforunately, it appears that we don't have the option of where to go on our day diving in Galapagos. Scuba Iguana has a daily schedule, and that day they are going to Beagle Rocks. I don't know of other land-based dive ops on Santa Cruz, so this is what we've got available to us.

I can ask them if there is any way to subsitute Gordon Rocks/N Seymour/Mosqueras, but I don't know if they'll do it. I would love to be able to do a closer site, and get back in time to see the tunnels in the pm. I'll see what they say.