My Research Notes from Planning Galapagos Trip

[KathyV]

All done, and hopefully without screwing it up too much. I've been to the Galapagos once, never to the Socorros, Cocos Island or Malpelo, and tried to cite plenty of sources for the info. and observations I found in online discussions. I figure people interested in the Galapagos will be interested in the others, and vice versa.

If anyone has more observations about these destinations and how they compare, trip tips for any of them, spots errors in my notes or can offer good advice, please post. Others' efforts help me, and I'm trying to 'pay it forward.'

Amazing work as always @drrich2! You really provide a wealth of information and I think you should gather it all up and write a book titled:

"Dr Rich's Comprehensive Guide to the World's Best Dive Sites - Take the Guesswork Out of Planning and Choosing Fabulous Dive Vacations!"

That way you can "write off" your dive vacations as research!

Your information truly is invaluable, thank you.

 

[Esprise Me]

Thanks for compiling all this information! I'm interested in diving the Galapagos, and my mom recently mentioned wanting to do a family trip there. My preliminary research indicated that LOB diving is the way to go, but I was thinking of trying to arrange a LOB for me followed by a land-based week with family. (They of course can stay longer, but it would be hard for me to be gone from work for more than two weeks.) My initial impression is that there's no way I'll be satisfied with just one trip there before I die, so the question is not so much when I want to go as which season I want to see first.

I've also had great experiences using travel agents; I think they provide a service that's really underrated these days. Anyway, you've given me a lot to look over!

 

[drk5036]

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Amazing work as always @drrich2! You really provide a wealth of information and I think you should gather it all up and write a book titled:

"Dr Rich's Comprehensive Guide to the World's Best Dive Sites - Take the Guesswork Out of Planning and Choosing Fabulous Dive Vacations!"

That way you can "write off" your dive vacations as research!

Your information truly is invaluable, thank you.

Honestly, I was thinking the same thing. All of your research threads could be bound together into a book...

 

[drrich2]

I pulled this map off GoogleMaps.com and edited it to show geographical relationships between these 4 destinations.

 

[FettSolo]

As always, I greatly appreciate the time and effort you put into these posts.

I have to say, while the Galapagos sounds great, the cost still puts me off. I went to Socorro in December and my entire trip cost roughly half of yours. Was your trip amazing? Seems like it! Was your experience twice as amazing as mine? I kind of doubt it.

I don't mean to cast shade on the Galapagos, or say it should be cheaper, etc. It's a fair price for the experience one can have there. I just find it hard to justify when there are other great wildlife experiences to be had elsewhere for significantly cheaper.

 

[drrich2]

Was your trip amazing? Seems like it! Was your experience twice as amazing as mine? I kind of doubt it.

Good points and that's why I go into detail laying out the costs of trips. I hear the Aqua is a good budget option, and others can check on how their air fare costs differ from mine, but there's not a whole lot more room for trimming the fat from a live-aboard trip. My 2 nights in hotels with breakfast all told came to what, around $250?

I don't see me ever doing all the big name sites. Whether Socorros will ever come in I don't know. Getting older, and hoping to be blessed with retirement sometime!

If you are very flexible on scheduling, you can swing better deals. I saved $700, but the week before mine was a Black Friday special for $2,000 off.

 

[Dan]

Thanks for the reference info on Malpelo. That would be helpful for preparing my trip there in July 2021.

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

Wow. Great job. This should be an e-book with perhaps the addition of all boat options in one place with their prices, rack rates and a few other comparison details.

Corrections & Additions:

1. I, Dive The Galapagos, am a she, not a he. I have worked exclusively in Galapagos diving since 2007 as an operator in Galapagos, as an agency that only worked in the one destination and now with one Galapagos liveaboard.
2. The link to the PADI page of what you can see only lists rays for a few months. Those are year round. So called manta season is about visibility. Mantas are around Isabela year round, not seasonally. Also a slight correction on the PADI page: We have no seals in Galapagos. They are all sea lions, including what is called a fur seal.
3. I might add that all flights from Quito to Galapagos route through Guayaquil and that if you have any predisposition to altitude sickness, Guayaquil would be the better option. Note: From the US, only Delta does not fly into GYE.
4. Another point missed by many is that the Quito airport is 70 minutes outside Quito with only 1 hotel option (Wyndham) at the airport and a few other local hotels within 20 minutes. Guayaquil has a large number of hotels within 10 minutes. The Holiday Inn is at the airport.
5. Calipso is based out of San Cristobal.
6. I would like to correct something else I wrote that you included. For many years, hammerhead populations were drastically diminished between late Feb and April as they migrated to Cocos and Malpelo before coming back to Galapagos. That was the norm. I do not know if it's due to oceans changing or what, but the last couple of years, that has not been the case. Hammerhead populations have been huge during that time and with the increased visibility of low season, you can sometimes see more hammerheads than in high season. Tim Yeo's photos from the March 2019 BlueWater trip you included show exactly what I mean. Also, we now seem to have some juvenile whale sharks around Darwin & Wolf in March. Things change.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I just returned from a ten day trip aboard the Galapagos Master boat Deep Blue. There were five of us in drysuits, although the water was very warm. Wolf and Darwin were 81F with the coldest dive being 68F. We didn't notice the water temperature in our drysuits. I think the drysuit divers were a bit more careful than a few of the wetsuit divers, especially those looking for nudibranchs. Several wetsuits were missing knee pads by the end of the trip.

We flew into Guayaquil and stayed at the Holiday Inn, just a five minute walk or ten minute taxi ride from the airport. We used the hotel shuttle for our return to the airport.

Currency in Ecuador is the U.S. Dollar, so there is no need to exchange money before the trip. Sales tax is 22%, so plan accordingly.

 

[<*)))><]

Drrich2 thank very much! This is greatly appreciated.