Belize or Galapagos?

[diversusan]

The only place we saw hammerheads, whale sharks, and dolphins was Wolf and Darwin. I don't read dive magazines, so I don't know about the marketing efforts, but we wanted to see schools of hammerheads and research showed that a liveaboard was the only way to do that. Our liveaboard was also more comfortable than either hotel we stayed at on land (Sol y Mar and Casa Opuntia). Food on land was pretty basic as well; I preferred the variety in the meals served on our liveaboard. I understand that perhaps not everyone can afford a liveaboard, but I do think people miss out by doing only a land based tour. That said, you'll still see plenty of cool stuff: sea lions, rays (but not in big schools), mola mola, and hopefully penguins and marine iguanas in the water. By spending a week on a boat and ~4 days on land, I feel we pretty much saw everything. Loved our trip, but I agree that I see no reason to return to the Galapagos Islands. However, I might feel differently if I was still wanting to see hammerheads, and had only been able to do land-based diving...

 

[ronscuba]

I have never did Galapagos land based. Did one liveaboard. The diving was fantastic the whole trip, but the days we were at Wolf and Darwin were the highlight.

 

[laurenceh]

taking into consideration the water temps and viz, other than darwin and wolf i found the diving in galapagos a bit disappointing. having experienced land based and wolf and darwin i would not return to galapagos just for land based diving. i enjoyed diving isla de la plata off of mainland ecuador way more than the southern islands of galapagos.

 

[jltimothy]

Thank You. Exactly the opinion I've hoped to find. I want to see the Galapagos, underwater and on top. I've been told that the park doesn't allow both. I'm a single female biologist who lives in Alaska, and I'm pretty solitary. Can you recommend an iternary that would be something similar to what you enjoy? I'd like to go late September or October.

Thanks. . .Jackie

 

[Doc]

Thank You. Exactly the opinion I've hoped to find.

That's a great time of year for diving- I have seen numerous Hammerheads and Mobulas- even from land based.

I like what RDRINK25 has booked- let's see how the trip reports look upon return! SCUBA Igauana will also take you by car to the far North of Santa Cruz or Baltra and meet up with their boat which has been moved there without your having to ride it.

I like the idea of booking the dive portion with SCUBA Iguana- the owner of it, Mathias Espinosa, has been a big part of establishing dive-ops on Land Based Dive Tours the other nearby islands, retraining fisherman for a more long term sustainable career- divemastering. It seems that the Island Hopping tour operator has worked with the restrictive system and merely ferries you to other islands to use their land based dive ops- so then you can do the land trekking as well as use the local dive-op. The legal system allows for that.

I would suggest that for your very specific needs, that you get in touch with SI as Mathias is also the SCUBA Naturalist Guide for the Parks Department. You might also want to contact the Darwin Research Station (on Santa Cruz) and see what they can offer on your level of professionalism.

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

There is not a lot of space left for Sept and Oct as it is the height of high season, but there is some...even some discounted. You need to be experienced to dive from a liveaboard.

Honestly, diving from a liveaboard vs diving from land are like going to 2 different destinations. Divers don't put Galapagos on their bucket list for the central islands. You might see the same things, but definitely nowhere near the quantities you'll see from a liveaboard. Easy to compare to other sightings... If you walk down a street in mid-town Manhattan, you'll see large numbers of people. If you walk down a street in Small Town USA you will most likely also see people. Now pretend people are hammerheads. NYC is Darwin/Wolf and the central islands are small town USA. That's the difference. Between Aug-Nov, odds of seeing whale sharks in the central islands are virtually nil. At Darwin and Wolf, it's a question of how many you'll see. Largest school of hammerheads I ever saw in the central islands was 35..and only 2 days back to back at Mosqueras when I was diving week after week month after month year after year. Largest school of hammerheads I ever saw at Darwin was too large to count or even estimate. I stopped when everyone else went after the whale shark and just hung completely surrounded by hammerheads who just swam around me...hundreds and hundreds.

How about a liveaboard combined with an extension? That is the solution to having the 'Best of Both Worlds' for many of our clients. We have developed specialized extensions (see on our website) specifically for that purpose.

If you are going to go with the Scuba Iguana itinerary, unless you have less than 30 logged dives or their other boat is full...I would highly recommend that on Jan 5, go to Daphne / Gordon Rocks instead of Beagle / Daphne. First, it's about 1.5 hours to Beagle. 2nd, Gordon Rocks is advanced diving but your best chance of hammerheads in the central islands.

If you do decide to dive the central islands in Galapagos with anyone other than Scuba Iguana, be sure to ask to see a copy of their patente. Many in Santa Cruz operate without proper permission and there have been safety problems as a result this year, including 2 deaths. There were accidents last year as well. If they don't have a patente, they are not legal dive operators. If they do have a patente, they won't mind you asking to receive a copy or they will send you a link to where they have it online.