Undersea Hunter Group
Registered
After our first dives to Manuelita, in which we had interesting sights like Galapagos, blacktips, tigers and the firsts schools of hammerhead sharks, mobula rays, and eagle rays in the dozens, we changed direction and explored the west side of the island.
Punta Maria, known for it's Galapagos shark cleaning station, was packed with hammerheads! We also had one of the most magical encounters of the entire week while making our ascent. Just when we thought our awesome hammerhead packed dive couldn't get any better, a Giant Manta joined us for around 15 minutes! Both photos shown were taken by Tobias Friedrich.
Close to Punta Maria there's Dirty Rock, a dive site that offered us unbelievable dives all week long! In each dive we were overwhelmed with the amount of hammerhead action, but on the last day we were in for a huge surprise! A crystal clear view of an absolutely insane number of hammerheads, at least 200, directly in front of us.
The third day we dove the east of the Island. Submerged Rock was packed with small fish and at Alcyone there were plenty of hammerheads both at the cleaning stations and in the blue.
In the South, Small and Big Dos Amigos were a bit quiet especially compared to the other sites, but it was nice to see the magnificent arch at Big Dos Amigos and one panga even saw an 8m Whale Shark!
Another highlight of the trip were the tiger sharks at Manuelita Channel. On one of the dives we saw up to three at the same time, but what made that dive so special was that due to the strong current two of the tiger sharks were hovering right next to the group for several minutes, we were watching them with our jaws dropped!
Mating season for marble rays has evidently begun, because we observed behavior in Ulloa and Chatham Bay. The night dives at Manuelita Coral Garden and Ulloa were packed with whitetips hunting around the reef!
What a trip! We can't wait to return - Cruise Director Jim and DM Juan Manuel
Visit our website to view the full Trip Report with dive conditions, more photos, and the Guestbook Comments.
Trip Reports Cocos & Malpelo Island
