i am headed to ecuador in august for 3 weeks and i'm going to the galapagos while there. Are there any cheap liveaboards with good diving. I've seen one called the comorant that looks relatively cheap, any word on where it goes or how the diving and dm's are? I could care less what the on board conditions are like as i'm use to sleeping in $2-$5 ratholes when i'm traveling. Is land based diving just as good there? I don't mind spending the money for good diving, i just don't want or need the creature comforts. Any help would be great.
cheap galapagos?
- Thread starter diffleym
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diffleym:
You would do well to seriously consider a land based option.
Search here, or see www.scubaiguana.com
I've done a lot of liveaboards in the G. Now I do land based. Few Americans do. Advertising sways the opinions.
kevreid
Contributor
RoatanMan:
The land based package is showing 2 dives a day. I know you well enough Doc to know that would not keep you happy. How are you handling getting in more dives doing land based?
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kevreid:
Contact ScubaIguana and tell them what kind of schedule you want to do. They took us out for 8 and ten hour trips. What you're seeing there are 1/2 day trips.
Here's our trip report: http://www.geocities.com/johnofrancis/galapagos.htm
We were there with some highly motivated divers. We did three a day, some days four. It wasn't gentle, but it was 30% the cost of liveaboard with some major plusses:
Every evening was spent walking through the Darwin Research station, we ate dinner at a different place in town every night, we night dived once (could have done more), they shuttled us to Baltra in pickup trucks and cabs to meet the day boat when we had seen Academy Bay, Gordon Rocks and such spots nearby, and most importantly, our beds didn't rock.
We also got to see the upland reserve for the tortises (where they are really meant to live) and did both lava tunnel tours. Well worth the trip!
Personal decision, my call, here, but after doing liveaboards for so long in the G, I know there was more to see, and honestly, for the price and what there is to see versus the lengthy trip to get there.... this is my heartiest recommendation.
I know for most, it will fall upon deaf ears, but I will tell you, it just works great for me. The liveaboards are so overhyped by advertising dollars, this is all we see in the North American publications. If you look at European magazines, the land based ops are featured. These divers are more money concious and they want other things than diving. Usually I want dive-dive-dive, but this is one of a few exceptions.
Galapagos is indeed world class diving, certainly more important in a dive career than the Blue Hole of Belize or saying that you've been to Cuba, but it is so much more than diving. There are many places in the Pacific that all there is may be diving- nothing to see or do on land. Galapagos offers so much more than being on a cramped boat for 5 dyas, 1.5 of which you are making the crossing to Wolf and Darwin.
Would you go to Thailand and just dive? Not me. There are a few things to see other than what's underwater. When I go to Roatan, I want diving 24/7 because once you've done the 6 hour island tour, sorry to say, there's no more to see. Better have diving by the bucketfull to keep you busy!
Galapagos truly offers other diversions, much more so than will be afforded by any liveaboard. Still not sure? Arrive at ScubaIguana a few days before tour liveaboard sails. Spend three days doing some warm ups and see the local stuff. You might skip the liveaboard the next time around!
kevreid
Contributor
RoatanMan:
Great report Doc. I think I had read that last year when I was looking into Galapogos. Decided it wasn't the place to take my non diving, Four Seasons spouse. Just got back from Greece on "her trip" so now I'm looking at my next one. You will be hearing from me as I get more serious about the plans :happywave
I am writing this from the Red Mangrove Inn in the Galapagos and I second the opinions about the live-aboards vs using Scuba Iguana. We had two GREAT days diving with SI before we got on the Aggressor. Tons of hammerheads, a lot of schooling fish and too many whitetips to count. This is our second trip here and we were totally psyched to see even more on the Aggressor. Sadly it turned out to be the most BORING and expensive trip I've ever been on. Zippo on whale sharks, terrible vis and the water is too warm and currents too slack for any serious shark action. A total blow out- imagine 14 totally pissed off divers from all over the world seeing about $3k+ blown on very little. The crew was great and the boat is very nice but that did not compensate for missing what we all came for. I want to complement Xavier on doing his best with a bad set of water/weather ingredients- but his encyclopedic knowledge could not conjure what we all wanted to see from the big blue.
We are going out tomorrow on the SI boat to a nearby site- Gordon Rocks where we had some great action last week. The key is to get yer butt in the water super early- then the water will be clear and wind-driven surge suppressed. Wait two hours and you will see a lot of water. The Aggressor folks wasted the AM on a land excursion- nice but we should have been in the water when it counted. The irony of all this is that on our previous trip we saw a whale shark from the SI boat at Enderby Island and that was what got us fired up to spend the $$ and get on the Aggressor to see even more- yeeeesh what terrible decision. We were also wrongly informed that the jul-aug timeframe was the peak for whalesharks- which is total BS- but Aggressor appears to have a perverse company policy about telling clients when the optimal time for visiting is- gotta keep those boats full ya know. The guides were as silent as clams when these obvious questions were posed to them. A more vengeful client would have zeroed those tips without a straight answer.
This is not to say that for a beginner that the diving is not OK- there are lots of dives with sea lions, eagle rays, and small schools of hammerheads, dolphin and golden rays. You will be immersed in thousands of streaming baitfish and jacks. These are good consolation prizes and if you have not seen them then your perception may be very different. But every diver on the GA saved for what was perceived to be a near-certainty of seeing whalesharks- clearly we were the dupes of a great advertising campaign. We only did four dives on one day and the lighting conditions made the last one rather pointless. Unless you are driven to get wet regardless of conditions it is likely that three dive are the max- using Nitrox.
My recommendation: wait till October/November, bring warm clothes and a drysuit and get on ANY non-Aggressor boat that goes to Darwin. We were here in mid December and we think we caught the end of the whaleshark season. The Lammer Law might be a less costly alternative. Get on a 10 day trip that goes to the west end of Isabella too. Mola-molas & sperm whales there apparently. Though we were all surprised to learn that they( LL that is) don't have a decent medical kit on board- a trauma surgeon on our boat had to go over and help a woman on the LL with a dislocated shoulder and was dismayed at their resources.
And don't think that staying here is always super expensive- the hotel Elizabeth ( I think that is the name ) has rooms for $10- $2 more gets you breakfast. A Brit we were diving with swore by the place as perfect for folks on a long world trek.
Be aware that the airport in Baltra is presently closed until the end of August- and that date is of course highly flexible. This forces you to fly into San Cristobal and take a $30 pounding and wet two hour water taxi drive over to Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz- if you want to dive with SI.
I would also encourage you to take a regular trip to see some of the islands with all the weird creatures- it is truly an amazing and unique place on the planet.
We are going out tomorrow on the SI boat to a nearby site- Gordon Rocks where we had some great action last week. The key is to get yer butt in the water super early- then the water will be clear and wind-driven surge suppressed. Wait two hours and you will see a lot of water. The Aggressor folks wasted the AM on a land excursion- nice but we should have been in the water when it counted. The irony of all this is that on our previous trip we saw a whale shark from the SI boat at Enderby Island and that was what got us fired up to spend the $$ and get on the Aggressor to see even more- yeeeesh what terrible decision. We were also wrongly informed that the jul-aug timeframe was the peak for whalesharks- which is total BS- but Aggressor appears to have a perverse company policy about telling clients when the optimal time for visiting is- gotta keep those boats full ya know. The guides were as silent as clams when these obvious questions were posed to them. A more vengeful client would have zeroed those tips without a straight answer.
This is not to say that for a beginner that the diving is not OK- there are lots of dives with sea lions, eagle rays, and small schools of hammerheads, dolphin and golden rays. You will be immersed in thousands of streaming baitfish and jacks. These are good consolation prizes and if you have not seen them then your perception may be very different. But every diver on the GA saved for what was perceived to be a near-certainty of seeing whalesharks- clearly we were the dupes of a great advertising campaign. We only did four dives on one day and the lighting conditions made the last one rather pointless. Unless you are driven to get wet regardless of conditions it is likely that three dive are the max- using Nitrox.
My recommendation: wait till October/November, bring warm clothes and a drysuit and get on ANY non-Aggressor boat that goes to Darwin. We were here in mid December and we think we caught the end of the whaleshark season. The Lammer Law might be a less costly alternative. Get on a 10 day trip that goes to the west end of Isabella too. Mola-molas & sperm whales there apparently. Though we were all surprised to learn that they( LL that is) don't have a decent medical kit on board- a trauma surgeon on our boat had to go over and help a woman on the LL with a dislocated shoulder and was dismayed at their resources.
And don't think that staying here is always super expensive- the hotel Elizabeth ( I think that is the name ) has rooms for $10- $2 more gets you breakfast. A Brit we were diving with swore by the place as perfect for folks on a long world trek.
Be aware that the airport in Baltra is presently closed until the end of August- and that date is of course highly flexible. This forces you to fly into San Cristobal and take a $30 pounding and wet two hour water taxi drive over to Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz- if you want to dive with SI.
I would also encourage you to take a regular trip to see some of the islands with all the weird creatures- it is truly an amazing and unique place on the planet.
tekdiver170
Registered
If you really want to experience the Galapagos Islands then a liveaboard is the only way to truely appreciate the scuba diving. You have to make a trip to the outer islands where you find the schooling hammerheads, whale sharks, silky's, huge schools of jacks, eels covering the floor of the dive sites and more. I dove with the Aggressor fleet when I was there in 2003 and along with diving the inner islands, outer islands they also took us on several different land tours where we got to see all the local wildlife. After our cruise we spent several days in Santa Cruz to tour and see a little more.
But if you spend all that time and money to travel to the Galapagos Islands you have to dive Wolf and Darwin or else you are truely missing what they are all about.
But if you spend all that time and money to travel to the Galapagos Islands you have to dive Wolf and Darwin or else you are truely missing what they are all about.
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