Galapagos trip review / reflection

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HJ

Registered
Messages
46
Reaction score
12
Location
Bermuda
# of dives
200 - 499
We recently came back from two weeks in Galapagos. Our trip was as follows:
Naturist cruise (no diving) from Isabella (we were catching up with the boat that had left Santa Cruz) - flying into Santa Cruz and catching the ferry to Isabella. This cruise finished in Baltra island and we stayed in Santa Cruz for a few nights.
This was then followed by liveaboard diving on Humboldt Explorer. Humboldt leaves from San Cristobal.

Naturist cruise - our route was around Isabella, Fernandina and Santiago. This route allowed us to see flightless cormorant and Galapagos penguins. We also did North Seymour where you can see blue footed boobies and frigate birds which Humboldt also visits as part of their cruise. This was the only overlap of the trip.

The water was COLD for snorkeling but it was very interesting. Lots of turtles - you see many diving but we saw far more on this cruise. We also saw marine iguanas eating in the water. While riding panga we saw mola mola quite up close... during the cruise some people saw manta rays, whales and more molas. Most of these were from the boat while cruising so quite fleeting.

We spent three days in Santa Cruz afterwards. It's a bit of a trek from Baltra to Puerto Ayora where most of the hotels are. If we were to do this again I would have flown out of Baltra where we were dropped off to San Cristobal and stay there until Humboldt cruise started as ferries between the islands take 2 to 3 hours in a small speedboat. My advice would be to try and minimise the trips between the islands! You have to get the bags checked and sealed every time you hop islands as well.

Then the dive trip started from San Cristobal. check out dive is in the port so nothing to see and most people got out as soon as we got our buoyancy right. the next day was two dives in Punta Carrion where we saw a distant mola mola and some (not me!) saw a manta ray. Then the boat headed out to Darwin and Wolf - Humboldt is really all about Darwin and Wolf where hammerhead sharks and the whale sharks are the headliners.

The condition was pretty challenging. We had a group with the least experienced person had 150 dives but ended up with two occasions where octopus was needed. although the dives were capped at 45 mins because of the swimming against current many people ended up with not much spare air. Current was super strong - I can believe how people can lose masks in this situation! Both my husband and I had occasions when we were slightly panicked and we have 300-400 dives. experience in drift diving is crucial in my view.

The dives went mostly as follows: dropped off near the platform where we can hold on and group after negative entry, then drift and swim down to a certain depth at a hopefully good spot to watch what goes past. This would often be finished by drifting and swimming out to the blue together. Almost everyone wore gloves as you have to hold on to the rock pretty hard. Ours were kevlar lined but my husband still managed to rip one.

There are also lots of eels which you have to watch out that you don't kick or upset. Also some scorpion fish are around so I must admit I was a bit nervous about accidentally kicking them while being thrown around by the current. Fortunately no such accident occurred.

We were provided with radio, dive alert and SMB. Again, no one ended up away from the group but I can see how that might happen. Computer was mandatory and all but one diver was on nitrox. No night dive is done.

Dare I say it - the diversity of the first cruise was fun though seeing the whale shark was pretty awesome. Conditions varied greatly so out of our two days in Darwin the first was great and we saw whale shark every dive, and the 2nd day brought colder water and no whale shark. visibility was generally poor so I'm sure there were a lot of hammerheads but some of the dives we didn't see many. Water temperature varied between around 16C to low 20s. I was in 7mm with hoodie but after 3 days brought out my thermalution heated vest and was comfortable. Husband dove dry.

The boat itself - food was great - probably the best we had on liveaboard so far. the boat is a bit old and we had sewage smell coming through after the rougher crossings. We were told that the engine was refitted so it should be a bit more reliable now. Many people rented the gear and they looked in good condition. The panga drivers were very good - finding us before we surfaced from the bubbles most of the time (we were told not to deploy SMB from the depth because of the current). Air and nitrox mix were reasonably consistent. Larger tanks were available on request.

On the whole, the trip was great. I feel a bit mixed about the diving though as I'm more of a macro person. In Galapagos and particularly on Humboldt you are going to get fast drift diving (which was kind of fun) watching hammerheads and whale shark at Darwin.

Some of the people on the boat had dived Gordon Rock and said it's a great dive. If we go back I think we would go during the warmer time for better visibility and perhaps do dives from land for some diversity. I also would recommend naturalist cruise (take your wetsuit!).
 
HJ:
We recently came back from two weeks in Galapagos. Our trip was as follows:
Naturist cruise (no diving) from Isabella (we were catching up with the boat that had left Santa Cruz) - flying into Santa Cruz and catching the ferry to Isabella. This cruise finished in Baltra island and we stayed in Santa Cruz for a few nights.
This was then followed by liveaboard diving on Humboldt Explorer. Humboldt leaves from San Cristobal.

Naturist cruise - our route was around Isabella, Fernandina and Santiago. This route allowed us to see flightless cormorant and Galapagos penguins. We also did North Seymour where you can see blue footed boobies and frigate birds which Humboldt also visits as part of their cruise. This was the only overlap of the trip.

The water was COLD for snorkeling but it was very interesting. Lots of turtles - you see many diving but we saw far more on this cruise. We also saw marine iguanas eating in the water. While riding panga we saw mola mola quite up close... during the cruise some people saw manta rays, whales and more molas. Most of these were from the boat while cruising so quite fleeting.

We spent three days in Santa Cruz afterwards. It's a bit of a trek from Baltra to Puerto Ayora where most of the hotels are. If we were to do this again I would have flown out of Baltra where we were dropped off to San Cristobal and stay there until Humboldt cruise started as ferries between the islands take 2 to 3 hours in a small speedboat. My advice would be to try and minimise the trips between the islands! You have to get the bags checked and sealed every time you hop islands as well.

Then the dive trip started from San Cristobal. check out dive is in the port so nothing to see and most people got out as soon as we got our buoyancy right. the next day was two dives in Punta Carrion where we saw a distant mola mola and some (not me!) saw a manta ray. Then the boat headed out to Darwin and Wolf - Humboldt is really all about Darwin and Wolf where hammerhead sharks and the whale sharks are the headliners.

The condition was pretty challenging. We had a group with the least experienced person had 150 dives but ended up with two occasions where octopus was needed. although the dives were capped at 45 mins because of the swimming against current many people ended up with not much spare air. Current was super strong - I can believe how people can lose masks in this situation! Both my husband and I had occasions when we were slightly panicked and we have 300-400 dives. experience in drift diving is crucial in my view.

The dives went mostly as follows: dropped off near the platform where we can hold on and group after negative entry, then drift and swim down to a certain depth at a hopefully good spot to watch what goes past. This would often be finished by drifting and swimming out to the blue together. Almost everyone wore gloves as you have to hold on to the rock pretty hard. Ours were kevlar lined but my husband still managed to rip one.

There are also lots of eels which you have to watch out that you don't kick or upset. Also some scorpion fish are around so I must admit I was a bit nervous about accidentally kicking them while being thrown around by the current. Fortunately no such accident occurred.

We were provided with radio, dive alert and SMB. Again, no one ended up away from the group but I can see how that might happen. Computer was mandatory and all but one diver was on nitrox. No night dive is done.

Dare I say it - the diversity of the first cruise was fun though seeing the whale shark was pretty awesome. Conditions varied greatly so out of our two days in Darwin the first was great and we saw whale shark every dive, and the 2nd day brought colder water and no whale shark. visibility was generally poor so I'm sure there were a lot of hammerheads but some of the dives we didn't see many. Water temperature varied between around 16C to low 20s. I was in 7mm with hoodie but after 3 days brought out my thermalution heated vest and was comfortable. Husband dove dry.

The boat itself - food was great - probably the best we had on liveaboard so far. the boat is a bit old and we had sewage smell coming through after the rougher crossings. We were told that the engine was refitted so it should be a bit more reliable now. Many people rented the gear and they looked in good condition. The panga drivers were very good - finding us before we surfaced from the bubbles most of the time (we were told not to deploy SMB from the depth because of the current). Air and nitrox mix were reasonably consistent. Larger tanks were available on request.

On the whole, the trip was great. I feel a bit mixed about the diving though as I'm more of a macro person. In Galapagos and particularly on Humboldt you are going to get fast drift diving (which was kind of fun) watching hammerheads and whale shark at Darwin.

Some of the people on the boat had dived Gordon Rock and said it's a great dive. If we go back I think we would go during the warmer time for better visibility and perhaps do dives from land for some diversity. I also would recommend naturalist cruise (take your wetsuit!).
Cool! Thanks for the review!
 

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