Hollywoodivers:
Hi I have a trip to Galapagos on June 22nd to July 1st. I have been told this is peak whale shark season. Any one been during that time of year ? Can you advise on gear, etc for me to take.....I still have 5 spaces left for sale on this trip....it's 4340.00 aboard the agrressor..includes all...any takers or any advice from you experienced whale shark folks let me know. Hal
I led a group on the Aggressor II the last week of July, 2004. We saw 6 whalesharks in 2 days at Darwin. As I was shooting picture of one, I ended up 5' away from a marlin (see photo at my web site link below). We were surrounded pretty much all the time with a huge pod of dolphins - snorkeled with them during surface intervals, but they were very shy.
Visibility was 30-50' most of the trip with some dives worse, some better. Water temp ranged from low of 62F to high of 70F.
I wore 5mm jumpsuit with 5/3 hooded vest and was comfortable until we got back to the dive deck and started peeling it off. It was windy most of the time and the wind whips through the dive deck freezing you as you get your wetsuit off. They give great service handing you warm towels and hot chocolate as you strip off your suit. I have done about 20 liveaboards around the world in 25 years and the Galapagos Aggressor II crew service was the best I have had. Here is my rating on a scale of 10:
Crew: 10
Boat facilities: 8 (salon/dining layout poor, hottub didn't work all the time and it was needed)
Land Tours:10
Food: 10
Weather: 6 (cool, windy and not much sun to warm up between dives)
Diving: so unique, hard to rate, but we saw frogfish, 4-5 seahorses, dolphins above and below water, hammerheads (Darwin), sea lions, lots of eagle rays (Wolf), lots of turtles, schools of silky sharks and large fish (jacks, snapper, etc.), lots of Galapagos sharks (Wolf), several nudibranchs, etc.etc. Diving from pangas, back entrys, getting back on, water temp, currents and vis make this challenging diving for lesser experienced or "wimpy" divers. Be sure your folks know this so they are shocked.
Go to my web site and look at photo gallery.
http://www.mtss.net/gallery.asp
We did 5 day extension in Quito. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Stayed at 5 star Swishotel hotel, had private tour bus and incredible guide, breakfast & lunch, transfers to airport. All for $750. Let me know if you want name of company we used.