Galapagos Dec-13

[weinerr]

Any scubaboaders on the Dec-13 Explorer Ventures trip ton the Galapagos?

 

[laurenceh]

i was on the humboldt explorer at the end of august. we had an amazing time, truly spectacular. the boat was nice and our dive guides maccarone and jaime were the best. its a shame the dive guides change every couple of weeks as they more than anyone effect the quality of the divers experience. the boat is very comfortable and darwin and wolf island are diving heaven: huge pregnant whale sharks (i've seen a lot of whale sharks before but these guys were massive), hundreds of hammerheads and orcas hunting them!!!
many on board were using 7mm semi-dry suits, i used a 5mm long john with a 5mm long sleeve shorty over and was fine.
the currents at darwin and wolf make the diving more like rock climbing, you go down, grab hold of something and hang on tight!
have a great time

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

i was on the humboldt explorer at the end of august. we had an amazing time, truly spectacular. the boat was nice and our dive guides maccarone and jaime were the best. its a shame the dive guides change every couple of weeks as they more than anyone effect the quality of the divers experience.

Actually, the fantastic team of Peter and William aboard the Humboldt Explorer is who most will have as they are usually aboard. The Humboldt's lead guide, Peter Freire, is a Marine Biologist, a Class III Naturalist Guide (highest level of Park certified Naturalist Guides), a PADI Instructor and a National Park Marine Reserve Guide. Plus he has 13 years experience as a liveaboard dive guide. He is an incredible lead guide...doesn't get better than Peter. But, every now and then, he does need some time off to see his family, etc.

I had some back to back island hopping charters last summer. Macarron left us to go aboard the Humboldt Explorer and Peter came off the Humboldt Explorer to go island hopping with us. Macarron said then he would be more excited than the guests as it had been about 3 years since he dived the north. He is now usually aboard the Estrella del Mar. The Park pulled Jaime to help rewrite all the new regulations...the only diver on the committee, btw.

Most do have steady dive guides, so changing every couple of weeks is not usually the case.

 

[tstormdiver]

Actually, the fantastic team of Peter and William aboard the Humboldt Explorer is who most will have as they are usually aboard. The Humboldt's lead guide, Peter Freire, is a Marine Biologist, a Class III Naturalist Guide (highest level of Park certified Naturalist Guides), a PADI Instructor and a National Park Marine Reserve Guide. Plus he has 13 years experience as a liveaboard dive guide. He is an incredible lead guide...doesn't get better than Peter. But, every now and then, he does need some time off to see his family, etc.

I was on the Humboldt Aug./ Sept. I will second Peter & William being excellent guides!
Here is a link to a video of our trip: YouTube - Galapagos Diving