Landbased dive operator Galapagos (Santa Cruz) w/ Nitrox

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Dorit

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Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Location
Denmark
# of dives
50 - 99
Hi - can someone recommend a landbased dive operator on Galapagos/Santa Cruz Island who offers Nitrox?
We're going for 12-14 dives in May, and have emailed with Scuba Iguana (NO nitrox) and Nautidiving (with Nitrox).
Anyone has any experience with the latter?
Nautidiving say they don't have a set diving location schedule, so we're worried that we won't get to go to the best spots, and once we've booked and paid, they can just change schedule, so we'll go to the nearest dive sites and not get to go to the best (Gordon, N.Seymor and Cousins - as recommended here on the board :-)
Are there any other operators that you can recommend that offers nitrox? And has an email contact address?

By the way, anyone can tell us about the landbased diving situation as of 2009 (and May month which is supposed to be low season month)?
I mean do diving really have to be prebooked before going? Or is it stupid and risky to wait 'till you're there because landbased diving really does get 'soldout'?

Best Regards,
Dorit
 
Really, no one has any experience with landbased diving operators on Santa Cruz, Galapagos???
 
When I went with Iguana around this time last year, I booked about 2 weeks in advance and had no problems. Boat rides to Gordon, N. Seymour and Cousins were all on the menu. In fact we did seymour twice. I am not sure if local shops coordinate who goes to which site on a given day, but if you're there for any length of time, and the weather cooperates, I reckon you'll get to visit these sites. Even the boat ride to Cousins was only about an hour and a half from Puerto Ayora.

On the "sold out" issue, the boat was full every day apart for one for the six days I dived, so booking is probably advised.

Good luck

OCBB
 
Hi - How was the diving? Can you give examples of what you saw at the different locations, and which you thought was the best?

Jus am wondering what excactly to expect, since most "wauw" dive descriptions are from Wolf and Darwin, where we're not going...

PS. We decided to go with Nautidiving, because they offer Nitrox.
 
Seymour and Gordon rocks were the two sites where we encountered hammerheads. A whale shark was spotted at Gordon the day after I dove there. There are schooling tuna off Enderby along with galapagos, whitetip sharks and batfish onthe bottom. Cousins rocks was a good macro site with lots of sea horses. Beagle sucked due to bad viz + few critters. Bartolome was cool as galapagos penguins have a colony there. Don't think you can keep up with them swimming though. Other sites visited were Punto Cormorant in GI and Isla Plata on mainland. If you get the chance, there is also a fun altitude dive at Cuicocha (2,900 meters) on the mainland about an hour and a half north of Quito.
 
Due to the limitation of two and at most three dives per day, nitrox is really not an issue.

I prefer land based diving in the Galapagos, nevertheless. I have always selected Suba Iguana, looking over every competitor on each visit. We dive 3x a day and use air.

You run very close, and sometimes in excess of the MOD for EAN32. Air is the choice in this specific version of Galapagos diving.
 
Well, too late. Since leaving in less than two weeks have now booked nitrox diving with Nautidiving. Hope they don't have a bad reputation???
 
Well, too late. Since leaving in less than two weeks have now booked nitrox diving with Nautidiving. Hope they don't have a bad reputation???

Nauti are a good op, I dove with them in 2002, and we;re going back next month though on a seperate liveaboard, and doing some land based diving with Nauit.

Have fun,
Andy
 
Nauti Diving are a very good operation. You won't be disappointed. Bear in mind as well that there are not very many land-based dive spots that the day operations go to. They do go to the best spots on a regular basis.
You made a good choice - and yes, they are the only ones with Nitrox. You can request it through most of the other shops but they all get it from Nauti diving and charge you about $15 per tank.
 
Land-based dive shops in Puerto Ayora tend to work on a fixed schedule and require a minimum number of divers or the dive will not happen. Scuba Iguana has a good reputation as does Nautidiving and Macarron. Macarron worked at Scuba Iguana for 10 years before heading out on his own. He is pretty amazing. He was the only divemaster pictured with Pierre Constant in his book, "Marine Life of the Galapagos", was interviewed in "Sharkwater" and was (along with Mathias Espinosa) Paul Allen's (Bill Gates' partner in Microsoft) divemaster choice when he cruised through the Galapagos on his own yacht. Liked them so much, he also took them to the Cocos. He now works with Red Mangrove on booking dives in advance and will guarantee any accessible site you want rather than going on a schedule like everyone else. redmangrove.com

Nautidiving is probably the only nitrox you can easily find with land-based operators.

I love Seymour/Mosqueras and Daphe Menor for the 'ride', but overlooked are the 9 dive sites in Floreana. And Gordon Rocks is a must.
 

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