Galapagos Trip Report

[nomadic-brands]

Hi there,

After posting a thread on here a few weeks ago we were persuaded to do a liveaboard to Darwin and Wolf. We have just returned from one week on the Deep Blue and are keeping a blog as part of our travels. If anyone is interested you can follow the link to our blog to see our trip report and photos.

It seems that park regulations are confusing at the moment, our itinerary was changed twice and there are no more land visits, so nobody really knew what was happening on a day to day basis it seemed. Anyway, a successful trip. Hope you enjoy reading.

Dom and Kev

Into the Blue on the Deep Blue - Baltra, Ecuador Travel Blog

 

[k374]

terrific report and pictures, it looks to me like the viz was pretty good!

 

[drpepper]

Well here I was about to sit down and write a trip report, when I find that thanks to Dom & Kev a much more comprehensive one already exists!

As I was on the same dive trip as Dom & Kev, I'll sum up my thoughts in a few points:
1. Deep Blue was a nice boat - very spacious, delicious (and plentiful) food, and the staff were brilliant.
2. However, in two cabins, as well as some areas of the saloon, the AC wasn't working, which was surprising seeing as this was the first trip of the season. Hopefully they'll get this fixed soon, but it's something to bear in mind when enquiring about cabins.
3. April was a great time to go in terms of very calm seas and not too heavy currents, but the volume of marine life was less than I was expecting, and the viz actually wasn't that great (10-15m).
4. Weather was much warmer than I was expecting. We had planned for 20-25 oC air temps, and it was more like 30-35 oC... and humid. Sea was also surprisingly warm (26-28 oC), but I think this was unusual.
5. I can reiterate Dom & Kev's comments re the fluid itinerary on the boat. As mentioned, Deep Blue claimed they were at the mercy of the national park who dictated where they could go when. This meant we had no land trips during the week, and the dive sites (apart from Wolf, Darwin, and Cousin's Rock) were generally not as good as they would have been on the published itinerary. Also no penguin-viewing opportunities which was a great disappointment. However, the staff did absolutely maximise our dive time where possible (4 dives a day compared to 3 available on other boats and an extra dive on the last day).
6. If, like us, the liveaboard is the first thing you do upon arriving in the Galapagos, and you're planning on some land trips or island hopping afterwards, I wouldn't bother with the one remaining land trip at the end of the Deep Blue itinerary (Galapagos tortoise viewing), which takes place before taking people to the airport. We would have been better doing what some of our crowd did and leaving the boat on the penultimate day in Santa Cruz. When planning I thought a second day in San Cristobal would be good, but in actual fact we could have used the time better seeing another island - there isn't a huge amount on San Cristobal (apart from sea lions) and there are plenty of tortoises on Santa Cruz (which don't require the 90 min round trip or mozzies that accompany those on the San Cristobal trip).

Hope this is helpful to someone. Had a great week on Deep Blue in spite of the minor niggles above - the main thing for me on a liveaboard is helpful staff and a good crowd, and we had both in spades.

Tom

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

Excellent trip report! Thank you. And it is true, all liveaboard itineraries are regulated by the National Park with no freedom for flexibility at all.

 

[drdaddy]

You mentioned your small camera. What was it? Is this what you used in snorkeling with the penguins and seals at the end of your trip? Did you use it at all during your main dives? It sounds like your friend gave you lots of pictures from his/her fancier camera. What was it? What were the differences between your camera and theirs?

I'm asking this because I'm not really into pictures, just the experience, but I do take a small camera along.

Thanks.