I went Sept 05, the ten night trip on the Agg around the same time as goldcountry diver. I think we had about 6 whale sharks, becuase we were on a 10 night trip we got to spend a whole week up at wolf/darwin. South we hit Seymour and Cousin's.
The whale shark action was limited. Boats previous to ours got skunked altogether due to warm water. We had MASSIVE hammerhead and galapagos shark action..... literally hundreds of hammers on some dives. We went to one site, Landslide on Wolf for two days straight and consistently hit huge schools of hammers, schooling galapagos sharks and schooling eagle rays. Also snorkeled with humpback mama and calf at Wolf in Chimney Bay
The Galapagos exceeded any expectation I could have had, had a sh** eating grin on the entire time. And the land tours were almost as impressive as the diving. If you miss the land tours you are doing yourself a disservice, IMO.
You should be comfortable in current. doing blue water safety stops in current, and potentially diving on your own. It is not for the beginner diver.
I am going to Cocos on June 30, so I'll tell you after that, but if it's any indication I have already booked return trips to the Galapagos in Sept, 9/07 and 9/09 (a two weeker)
You can do land based, and Puerto Ayoro is a very nice town, but you will not get to Wolf and Darwin, which is the pinnacle of Galapagos diving, on a land based trip.
Chris
Hammers
