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Cal from a P.M.:
So many North Americans only see the Galapagos as a liveaboard destination. This is due to marketing and advertising in the SCUBA mags that we read. Land based dive ops can not afford the advertising rates. You never hear of them.
Many Europeans travel to the Ecuadorian islands and never set foot on a liveaboard... yet dive all week long. True, most non-North Americans (Europeans, not so much Asians) want to take their diving a little less intesely, but it is entirely possible to do 4 dives per day on a land based dive trip to the Islands. You will see Hammerheads, maybe even a Whale Shark.
You will not enjoy the many long hours crossing to Wolf and Darwin Islands in a small pitching boat. This challenge is truly probably your single best opportunity for hundreds of Hammerheads (vs. three or two dozen that you would likely see on a land based) and the slight, ever-so slight chance of a Whale Shark. But, if you opt out of the liveaboard- every night you will get to enjoy a different restaurant or stroll through the Darwin Research Center at dusk.
By this point, 90% of the people that began reading this have dismissed this as BS. They are now off to dreaming of booking (and affording) the liveaboard "trip of a lifetime".
I've been on- I can't tell you how many liveaboards in the Galapagos. Here's how we do it nowadays: http://www.geocities.com/johnofrancis/galapagos.htm
First, you can't beat the dollar value for bennefit returned. Do a cost comparison. If you cant bring a land based trip in for 1/3 of a liveaboard, you aint trying.
Quality of liveaboards varies, as do qualities of land based operators. I don't have the time or bandwidth here to go into side by side comparisons of each land based dive op. My singular recommendation for Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz island: http://www.scubaiguana.com/
I say this after careful observation of the other operators- their shops, their staff, their presentation to me as a "shopper", their boats, their rental gear, their professionalism.
It is no mistake that SCUBA Iguana was chosen to host the Galapagos IMAX 3d film by Giddings. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=11847231323185&q=galapagos+imax&pl=true In this IMAX movie, you will see two people. One is the female star/exploring Doctor, the other diver is the guy that owns Scuba Iguana, Mathias Espinosa. He is the director of Diving Guides for the Darwin Station.
He runs a first class operation. You can book when you get there, sometimes you run the risk of his operation being busy, though. Advise him of your desires for diving. If you want 4 a day, it will happen. He or his DM's will assess your style and abilities with a very logical progression of dives that increase in "degree of difficulty".
The first dives at Academy Bay are fairly simple, but you may find them the most memorable. the Seals are used to divers and are not shy. They will put on an underwater ballet. I have seen the same huge female Stingray there for 8 years. Here you will feel some lateral currents.
Later, maybe a trip to Gordon Rocks, a test of your abilities to deal with currents plus downwellings. (See the website Trip report noted below) This submerged remnant of a volcano cone is attractive to Hammerheads and giant Mobula Rays. You will learn that it's okay to "hand over hand" your way through the volcanic underater flows.
The week gets better as the boat is left for you on the North side near the airport. A quick (included) cab ride (I suggest riding in the back of one of the pick up trucks) will deposit you at the waiting dive boat.
The Hotels? I like the Hotel Galapagos just attached to the dive op. It may be down for renovations. Ask their advice at Iguana. You can walk from SCUBA Iguana, which is literaly at the edge of Darwin Research station (The end of the road) all the way to the other end of the road- the "bustling" city center of Puerto Ayora... in ten minutes- if you dawdle. You will walk by 15 small hotels and ten restaurants- lots more on a side street. This is the "main drag" that every liveaboard diver walks down when they drop you off to see the Darwin Station and its collection of land turtles.
We eat at a different restauarnt every night, we had access to the grocery store daily, our beds were warm and dry... and did not rock. We took time to crawl in the mud on our bellies 150' underground through lava tubes.
And we dove our butts off.
So, maybe you saw the website about our Land Based trip to the Galloping Pogos? http://www.geocities.com/johnofrancis/galapagos.htm (sometimes Yahoo is actually up and working)
