Question Galapagos Land-based Operator - Scuba Iguana or Academy Bay Diving?

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jdevic

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I booked a week to GPS in mid to late May. I couldn't find a liveaboard that fit my schedule and my recent poor experience to Cocos with Aggressor (both in terms of diving and onboard experience) made me decided to do land-based this time. I know I will miss out Darwin and Wolf but I can live with that. I've been there before on a snorkel boat back in 2009.

I have narrowed down to Scuba Iguana (mentioned many times here on SB) and Academy Bay Diving.
I emailed Scuba Iguana through their website about a month ago but never heard back. That did not inspire a lot of confidence...
Academy Bay has an online booking portal that asks for payment immediately. But if they operates at the same level as Scuba Iguana, I don't think I want to give them my CC yet.

Appreciate your recommendations.
 
Hi jdevic, in case you haven't sorted this out yet, here are my impressions.

I was there in March 2019 mostly for land tours, but did 1 week of diving. I booked through Academy Bay, but I dived with them (5 days), Macarron (1 day) as well as Iguana (1 day). I did not find much difference in their actual diving operations. I had to dive with Macarron on the first day due to a scheduling mistake on my part. Academy Bay had boat problems on the last two days (so they said, but they also had only 3 divers on those days). They refunded my money promptly and without issue. So I finished my diving with Iguana.
My vague memory is Iguana seemed the most professional in the shop, but that may have been because the manager at Academy was not there for those days. I think Iguana was also a bit more expensive. I forget why I had chosen Academy in the first place, but they were good in replying to my emails. (And so was Iguana. Maybe you could try emailing Iguana again?) I had booked before I went there, and paid a 40% deposit.

If I remember correctly, most of the dive shops are closer together in one direction, but Iguana is off on it's own, in another direction on the main street. I had no problem walking up and getting a place on the boat on the spot with any of the shops. That may have changed. Also, I think most of the shops have a set itinerary for the week - diving there seems to be well regulated.

If I had to do this again, I would have no real preference. But I probably would not dive from land there again. Out of curiosity, are you combining this with a land tour, or is this just one week of diving, and then out?

Hope this helps.
 
Thank you so much! I did get a copy & paste email from Iguana after posting here, but she didn't answer any of the questions I submitted in the lengthy booking form... what a waste of my time. I ended up booking with Academy Bay online and paid 1 day deposit two weeks ago. I think I will just dive 5 days and maybe do some land based tours for a day or two. It helps that I've gone to most islands before and I do not plan to drag both my diving and heavy duty photo gear this time. :)
 
Hi, iv just seen the post, hopefully you have a great experience with the land based dives you have. I dived Galapagos with the aggressor in 2019 then did 3 days of land based with nautidiving. The land based dives were amazing- all the sites they took us to were great. Gordon rocks is particularly good.
Iv been to cocos before but with undersea hunter. I spoke recently to a diver who agreed she had a bad time diving cocos with aggressor. Can you tell me what the main complaints were with the boat and the diving? I’d definitely go back to cocos one day as I had a great trip. Just be nice to hear the feedback of what wasn’t so good etc.

Thanks,
Kris
 
Hi, iv just seen the post, hopefully you have a great experience with the land based dives you have. I dived Galapagos with the aggressor in 2019 then did 3 days of land based with nautidiving. The land based dives were amazing- all the sites they took us to were great. Gordon rocks is particularly good.
Iv been to cocos before but with undersea hunter. I spoke recently to a diver who agreed she had a bad time diving cocos with aggressor. Can you tell me what the main complaints were with the boat and the diving? I’d definitely go back to cocos one day as I had a great trip. Just be nice to hear the feedback of what wasn’t so good etc.

Thanks,
Kris
The crew were great, but the Okeanos 1 we were on was a dump. Hope they will retire it soon. For similar cost (after all the extra charges), it was a lot worse compared to Argo according to my dive buddy who's been on both last year. We were there during xmas, and we only saw a few lonely hammerheads and a shadow of a tiger. :shakehead:
 
Back in March 2014 I stayed in Puerto Ayora for about three weeks.

I did a liveaboard land trip, and day diving out of Puerto Ayora.

All of the scuba operators in Puerto Ayora were about the same price. Their dive schedules and destinations changed daily, so I just went with which ever operator was going to a place that interested me that day.

The water was very cold. I was shivering in a 7mm wetsuit.

My trip report might be a bit dated at this time, but here it is:

 
Back in March 2014 I stayed in Puerto Ayora for about three weeks.

I did a liveaboard land trip, and day diving out of Puerto Ayora.

All of the scuba operators in Puerto Ayora were about the same price. Their dive schedules and desstinations changed daily, so I just went with which ever operator was going to a place that interested me that day.

The water was very cold. I was shivering in a 7mm wetsuit.

My trip report might be a bit dated at this time, but here it is:

Thank you very much. This is very helpful.
 
BTW, there are a million hammerhead sharks, white tips and black tips in the Galapagos.
You will still see plenty of sharks diving out of Puerto Ayora. Maybe not the big schools of hammerheads, but there were always 10-15 hammerheads within view on every dive.
 
BTW, there are a million hammerhead sharks, white tips and black tips in the Galapagos.
You will still see plenty of sharks diving out of Puerto Ayora. Maybe not the big schools of hammerheads, but there were always 10-15 hammerheads within view on every dive.
Fingers crossed!
 
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