Trip Report Galapagos in April - Aqua LOB

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diveUAE

Contributor
Messages
350
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258
Location
Abu Dhabi
# of dives
500 - 999
It's already been more than 3 weeks, since we returned from our "Once in a Life time trip" to Galapagos.

In total we had 19 days - including travel days.
Flying KLM from AMS-GYE in business, since this was our (delayed) anniversary trip. I got a great deal (about 1500 us$ extra for the 2 of us) for the flights and being able to lie down and sleep made a great difference to us - not just in getting there, but also going home.

I've written about the land based part of our trip on TA: Here now - March/April - Galapagos Islands Forum - Tripadvisor


For the LOB here are our experience:
4/4-11/4 2023, Aqua liveaboard.

After arriving from Isabela (inter island flight), we looked for a guide from our boat, Aqua. No one was there, so we sat outside the airport in the small cafe area and bought some water and an ice cream. When the planes from Guyanquil started arriving so did the guides from Aqua.

When finally everybody was there we were guided into a bus. Guides/ staff takes care of the luggage. The drive time to the small pier with a souvenir shop was only about 5-6 minutes. We get life jackets and board the panga.

There were guests from Great Britain, US, China and a big group from Israel.

First is a briefing about the dive deck - it’s small, but has a good layout. Everyone picks a spot, all spots have numbers, so you just return to your chosen space after every dive. Under the benches with tanks/bcd etc. are cubbyholes to put stuff like masks, booties, gloves etc. In the middle of the dive deck is a table for cameras- divided into 2 for the 2 groups. Above the table are small cubbies for towels- you take the towel from the number corresponding with your spot number.

We have a nice lunch and briefing about the rules of diving in Galapagos- follow your guide, don’t touch anything, you know the drill. Our dive guides Jose and Joel have clearly done this before and are thoroughly going through the things we need to know - like when you come up after a dive, you wait for the panga, pass your camera, then your weights, followed by BCD and fins last. There’s a ladder to enter the boat - beware of your fingers- grab hold of the ladder above the henges.

As always things are a bit chaotic with people setting up gear, others trying on rental gear etc., but eventually everyone had a spot and equipment ready. We brought our own equipment - I had a new 3 mm full suit and old 7 mm with long sleeve and hood, but short legs (supposed to be used with my long john), husband 7 mm semi dry. For the diving in April is was more than enough - some dives I did in only my 3 mm. We both had kevlar type (garden) gloves that we wore for most dives, but really didn't need that much, since there was not much current. Also brought knee pads - husband brought his old plastic ones from roller skating I had some from volley ball, nice to have, but again with almost no current not really a must.

It was easy enough to board the panga from the boat and vice versa- Actually I think it’s one of the easiest transfers between boat/panga we have ever had - crew is always there to help. Fins stay on the panga the whole time, everything else you need to dive you bring. Once we return from the dive cameras go first (the crew will fix that), then divers and lastly the crew will take weights and bcd’s. Works like clockwork.

Dives are back roll entry, the first 2 with positive buoyancy, rest negative.

Night crossing to Darwin was a bit choppy, but not too bad. Getting in the panga at Darwin was a struggle.

Crossing back to Isabela from Wolf was smooth sailing.

The boat: The name of the boat is Penguino explorer. It’s well used, but maintenance has been good - everything seemed to work fine. (Except for 1 evening, when there was no water, but they fixed it pretty quickly).
As mentioned the dive deck is small, but this was never a huge problem even with both groups getting ready at the same time. Nitrox was consistently between 30-33 % and only one time did my husband have to ask them to top up his tank as he only had 180 bar, all other times we had 200-210.

The dining area is set up in small “booths” with room for 4 persons each, we all moved around and got to talk to different people.

We were in cabin 4 on the main deck. Nice size with a double bed against the wall (I had to crawl over my husband to get in/out), a bit of floor space, chair and small desk along with a cupboard with shelves and hangers. In suite bathroom with nice shower and plenty of hot water. They supply shampoo, shower gel and soap - bring conditioner if you need (recommend).
There’s a nice sun deck on the roof with sun loungers - nice at night for watching the stars. And a covered deck with a “bar”, sofa and beanbags for just chilling out.

Food: food was great! Fresh and tasty if sometimes a bit bland there was always hot sauce. Menu changed every day and included a bbq day, Mexican day etc. often with starter, main course and dessert.

Guides: as I wrote: they’ve clearly done this before. Briefings were very good with all the details you needed during the dive. They made sure we knew the schedule for the day ahead and conducted safe, fun diving. I was thinking for Darwin/Wolf we should maybe go deeper to look for the sharks, but I guess they know and since there was no current that may be the reason for no sharks around.

Staff: very, very helpful! Everyone (even the chef) is on deck for the departure and arrival of pangas. 2 staff in the panga, 2 on the boat to help you get safely into and out of the panga - it was said often: “hold the staff with both hands before you step into/out of the panga”, even with big waves they made sure everyone was safe. On return after the dive, 1 crew member was ready to unzip suits if needed.

Normal schedule for a day is:
5.45 - light breakfast
6.00 - Briefing
6.30 - dive 1
8.30 Breakfast
10.00 dive 2
11.30 lunch
13.00 dive 3
15.45 dive 4
17.30 dinner
 
Dives:
1: check dive at North Seymour (Had to go back, because someone forgot their camera) Great check dive! Eagle rays, sharks, mobulas and more.

Day 2:
2: Cabo Marshal (had to go back, since someone forgot their weights) - nice dive, 1 oceanic manta, 2 hammer heads and lots of fish + Galapagos shark in the distance.
(After this dive we asked, if we could swap groups, since the ones we're diving with are all over the place and it didn't feel safe to dive with them - I would rather take a kindergarten diving than these people with supposedly hundreds of dives - hats of to the guides, who had no choice)

3: Cabo Marshal: fantastic dive - oceanic mantas, hammer heads (my favorite was a mother with a small hammerhead), 2 octopuses, lots of white and black tip reef shark, big, chilling eagle ray. Really so much more than I anticipated for the dives here.

4: Cabo Marshal: not so much stuff this time, but a sea lion comes by to say hi and show off it’s skills.

Day 3:

5: Darwin Arc. Only 1 hammerhead close, 2 in the distance. Very disappointing.

6: Darwin's arch - 1 hammerhead, couple of turtles. After surfacing and getting into the panga, we make a stop to swim with sea lions, but they don’t want to play.

7: Darwin arch's - south. Not much to see.

8: Darwin arch's - disappointing.

Day 4:

9: Darwin Arch's - 2 hammerheads, turtles, small school of jacks

10: Darwin Arch's - lots of lobsters- otherwise boring

Move to Wolf

11: Wolf - Landslide. Couple of hammerheads, otherwise nothing.
A diver in our group lose her weights at about 18 m and shoot to the surface! One of the other divers (her buddy) and I try to help her, but we didn’t manage to reach her before she was too far away/up. We salvage the weights (mark it with a smb) and start our ascent along the line as the rest of the group is not visible.
On our way up we hear the panga come and go and assume/hope they have the diver, so we make our 3 min safety stop. While there the guide and my husband arrives to find out what had happened- my husband was of course worried something had happened to me. Husband stay for safety stop, guide go down to get the rest of the group - and the weight belt. When we got back to the boat the diver was lying in the dining room, breathing oxygen, had a head ache, but otherwise ok - she did not dive more that day or the next.

12: Wolf - Shark bay. No sharks, but a group of sea lions when we enter and dolphins towards the end. We’re feeling so disheartened- it’s a very expensive trip and so far we would have seen more in the Red Sea for a fraction of the price.

Day 5:

13: finally some hammerheads- not a very big group, but about 7-10 including some babies

14: group of 7 hammerheads again, 2 eagle rays, white tip reef shark.

15: shadow of a hammerhead, eagle ray and white tip reef shark.

All in all Darwin and Wolf have been disappointing:-(

Day 6:

16: Isabela Island: Punti Vicensa Roca - a huge Mola Mola, nice wall diving with lots of pretty georgian fans, sea lions and a nudie. Some saw flightless commorant diving, but I didn’t see them. Water was about 22C and visibility was not bad. After the dive the panga driver took us into the bay and we saw 1 penguin on the rock together with a marine iguana and flightless commorant - very nice.

17: Fernandina Island - Cabo Douglas. So much fun!! Dived down to find the Red lipped bat fish and got lucky to see it, then up to 5-6 m for playful sea lions and iguanas munching along. Also managed to see the flightless commorant diving in for fish. We drifted a bit away from everyone else and had countless iguanas to ourselves. Very special dive.

Day 7:

18: Santiago Island - Cousins rock. Finally saw the Galapagos shark - right when we entered, also saw lots of eagle rays and a small mola mola. Further down were white tips and lots of other fishes. Towards the end we came up a bit to find what looked a bit like tunas - guides say they’re called “Lisa fish” and is endemic to Galapagos. Very good dive.

19: Santiago island - cousins rock. Great dive. Descended on two eagle rays, saw a group of 10 or so as well - they kept circling around us. Lots of white tip reef sharks. "Lisa fish" again. Guides found a (painted?) frog fish and a seahorse. All in all a fantastic last dive.

Afternoon trip to “El Chato Ranch ” tortoise center to see the tortoises and learn about them from our naturalist, James. It was a short walk - it was recommended to bring closed toe shoes or socks so you could get wellies. Not that it was very muddy, but the fire ants were fierce.
On site are also some amazing lave tunnels we visited (careful it can be slippery on the stairs down/up)
Afterward we had 20 minutes to get a beer (my husband said it was the best he had on the islands)
Along the way to the ranch we made a quick stop at Los Gemelos. Nice to see.
When we arrived back to the boat there was 2 envelopes for tips - one for crew and 1 for guides. The recommended amount for tips (printed on the envelope) were 30-40 $ pr day divided amongst the staff/guides.

Day 8:
Wake-up call at 5.45, breakfast at 6. First boat at 7. We were on the last boat at 8 for our 10.30 flight with ESAV to San Cristobal.

If you're looking for a good, budget LOB in Galapagos I'd recommend Aqua - service was excellent, guides were great and we found the boat to be everything we wanted.

Diving wise I would choose a different time of year/month - this was beginning of April during full moon.
On the + side: the weather was good and mostly sunny, seas were calm and water was warm - lowest was Punta Vicente Roca at 22,6 C and warmest was Cabo Marshall 27,4 C and Darwin's Arch 26,8 C.

Down side: no sharks! It hurts to say we travelled all the way to Darwin/Wolf and saw almost no sharks (any type) there. I knew we would not see whale sharks this time of year, but to go all the way out there and not see hammers, sliky or galapagos sharks was so, so disappointing.

In San Cristobal we went on a day dive trip with Wreck Bay Divers (can't recommend them enough) and saw a school of about 30-50 hammers, so we did get to se a school of hammers:)

We loved our land based part of the trip. Galapagos is amazing and I wish we could go back another time of year, but with the current prices I don't think it'll happen.
 
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