Galapagos - Ecuadorean Presidential Decree

[EnronX]

Wow, it's really hard for me to believe that exactly a week ago I was back rolling off a Panga at Darwin's Arch...now I'm sitting back in my office and suffering a serious case of PGD! (Post Galapagos Depression)

Just caught a short article today about how Ecuador has announced the planned expulsion of 6,000 illegals...In my opinion, a positive step in the right direction if the island is going to be properly managed and protected...Only the people who have a documented right (tourist or resident) should be on the Islands.

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/6240125.html

 

[ChrisM]

Glad you made it out there! I'll be there two weeks from today. So, how were hte conditions, diving, currents, animals???

(As an aside..... I was going to say you took a fantastic picture, but noticed the watermark. One of my best dive buddies owns awoosh.com, she's on the G trip with me in two weeks..... you might want to take down the pic unless you got permission from her to post it. I won't narc you out.... but still....)

 

[baitballer]

You have no idea how lucky you are to be having post Galapagos blues! There are many many of us sitting about thinking about what could have been! I am supposed to be there as I type this as opposed to sitting at my desk!

My sympathy is for those that did not get to go, not with those that had a great time I'm afraid!

 

[EnronX]

Chris, we had good conditions on the trip, but they really were far from great. Best vis up at Darwin was only about 40 feet but it was closer to 30 most dives...We had one whale shark visit, but it was a youth and my best guess was 15 feet. We did see dozens of sharks, but they were not schooling in the typical manner I've seen video and pictures from Galapagos they were more commonly seen in groups of two or three and would only swing by close enough for a quick look at you and then they would disappear back into the blue. I noticed that if you clung to a boulder and held your breath the sharks would get closest, but once you exhaled bubbles or made any arm movements they would spook immediately.

During our dives at Darwin(10) and Wolf(2) we also saw a large school of rather large yellow-fin tuna, a half-dozen clown rays, lots of sting-rays, more eels than I could ever count(including a special albino), a handful of red-lipped batfish, and the crew told us they saw a small pod of Orcas pass the ship while we were diving.

Everyone on the boat realized just how incredibly fortunate and lucky we were that the stars aligned to get us on the boat...The roller-coaster of emotion and stress this trip cost was worth the price of admission but I really do feel for people like Baitballer who had the trip canceled. We had two or three occasions where we really thought this was all going to fall through.

Although I understand people defending the Sky Dancer, for allegedly telling the GNP on Deep Blue, I am angered because their actions (along with the Park's asinine new rulings) have put thousands of divers at risk of loosing an incredibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Both the Aggressor and SkyDancer will profit greatly from their exclusive rights, and that in my opinion is a travesty when it comes at the expense of boats like the Deep Blue with hard-working crew at a dive-site that can certainly handle more than one-boat at the islands per day. We made sure to try and give our crew extra-tips and be generous because many of them had not had worked in over a month and they had families to feed...

Good luck everyone with trips remaining, I'm really hoping things work out.

Oh, on the issue of the picture of the Arch, I was under the impression that by linking a picture with that has a clear watermark (and that came from Google image search) I was properly documenting that it came from Awoosh.com, and was not my own image. I took it down since I honestly don't know the proper protocol/legalese, but I'd be appreciate if someone could enlighten me.

 

[ChrisM]

Thanks for the report. Glad that you guys got to dive up there. Sounds like conditions weren't the best (but in reality it's the stuff in the water that brings the whale sharks in)

In addition to the GNP stuff, we've had additional roller coaster issues, I just wanna get on the boat and go.

No worries on the pic. It's bad 'netiquette to post someone else's pic even with a watermark, I know you didn't do it intentionally. (actually, thinking about it, I think it'd be OK if you said you found the photo on that website, showing the arch, I know it says awoosh but people may think you took it, etc., It's not a big deal really)

 

[LouUK]

Hmmm, EnronX, with the greatest respect I think you have your logic back to front on the Sky Dancer issue. Far from Sky Dancer's report of Deep Blue at Wolf and Darwin jeopardising 1000's of diver's trips, it is Deep Blue that may have jeopardised them by conducting operations for which it is possibly been banned from doing, during a period of high stress and, presumably, critical negotiation.

By accepting the trip out there, I afraid I feel that you are part of that. Did you check to see if the boat was now permitted to go out to Wolf and Darwin when they offered it to you, knowing that it was a contentious issue at the moment? Or did you decide to just seize your moment, regardless of any consequence?

I would love to have believed that all had been resolved to allow yoiu to get out there and that this was a sign of positive changes, but the reaction of the PNG to finding out that you were doesn't seem to indicate this.

Of course, as with 99% of this thread my views are all based on assumption and supposition, but I really had to respond to what i saw as your warped view of Sky Dancer's actions.

Best wishes

Lou

 

[cowjazz]

LouUK,

I agree with you that the Sky Dancer should get a free pass on this.

I would tap on the brakes on beating up EnronX for two reasons. First, the local dive shop I booked my trip with received a call from the Deep Blue on August 6th while EnronX was on it. We were advised they had a permit in hand to dive Darwin and Wolf. We now know that was not true. It seems reasonable to assume that the passengers on the boat received the same information. I think it would be unreasonable to assume the passengers traveled all the way there knowing the boat was not authorized to dive Darwin and Wolf. Second, I think any one of us would have gone on the trip. You are there, you have thousands of dollars invested, and this could be the only chance you will have to make the trip.

I think our frustration should be directed at the yacht for possibly further jeopardizing our trips, not the passengers who were fortunate enough to dive Darwin and Wolf.

 

[LouUK]

Fair enough if the info given was that a permit was held, it wouldn't, in the usual run of things, be too much to take their word. However, perhaps it is only me, but these days I am more suspicious of people's words on these matters.

 

[cowjazz]

No it's not just you. I'm skeptical of any information I receive on this mess.

The owner of my dive shop has received so much misinformation. He passes on information to us, and a few days latter he has angry customers asking why he is passing on information that was incorrect. No real fault on his part, but the poor fellow looks like a cat trying to cover its own crap on a tile floor. God bless him, he is maintaining a positive attitude, and is trying to pry good information from from people who should know.

 

[djac5700]

By accepting the trip out there, I afraid I feel that you are part of that. Did you check to see if the boat was now permitted to go out to Wolf and Darwin when they offered it to you, knowing that it was a contentious issue at the moment? Or did you decide to just seize your moment, regardless of any consequence?

I agree that directing blame towards the Sky Dancer would be unfair, but not nearly as shameful as directing it towards EnronX (or myself, as you indirectly are).

EnronX and I spent as much time as anyone researching this issue, filtering through the various unsupported hearsay, trying to get to the truth of what really has been going on. Neither one of us would have gotten on a plane bound for Ecuador/Galapagos unless we were given reasonable assurances that our trip would be going ahead as planned. Both of us spent significant time on the phone with our tour operator getting the best information we could to understand the dynamic, and the official status of our trip. We were given those assurances, not only by the tour operator, but also the crew on the boat.

If you have been following this issue anywhere as near in-depth as we have, you will probably already be aware that there is NO reliable source to find out what exactly is going on. No good place to get clear guidance for our trip (although Ken from Galapagos Adventures has done his absolute best for his clients - and I am deeply appreciative of that). Our requests for information through several ministries, especially the PNG, have gone unheeded.

We got on that boat because we had been given all indication that we were allowed to go to Darwin/Wolf, and that's the only reason we boarded. We did not even know that there was a problem until we docked back in Baltra on the 13th. To this day, neither you or I know whether we ever really had permission to go. Frankly, the way the PNG has handled this entire fiasco, it is not at all outside the realm of possibility that they simply changed their minds while we were out there...