galapagos trip report as promised from stew

[samui13]

Ive only been back in the Uk for a few hours and have just had the most amazing 10 days on the Deep Blue, Galapagos liveaboard. I booked the trip through Maldives Scuba Tours who are based in the UK.

We were soon at San Cristobel airport and were met by a guy from the Deep Blue. After a very short bus ride from the airport we were at the little peaceful harbour. One of the women on the trip had had all of her luggage and camera gear go missing, so whilst she was frantically trying to get together what she could, the rest of us took the opportunity to photograph the friendly sea lions and blue footed boobies that were in the little bay. After an hour and a half we were taken by rib (panga) to the Deep Blue.

We were met by Jeff who was to be our tour guide for the next 10 days. After a brief intro we were climbing into our dive gear and taking a giant stride off of the stern of the Deep Blue. This was to be our check out dive to get our weights sorted. I took the opportunity to video a couple of playful sea lions that were enjoying eating my exhausted nitrox bubbles.

The next day we were woken at 6am for a 3 hour land visit to Espanola. What an amazing place this is. We see hundreds of marine iguanas, blue footed boobies, frigate birds, albatross's amusing us with their very unique mating dance. Jeff was full of knowledge and was always keen to inform the group of everything that he knew. After returning to the DB it was 11am and time for our first dive. This wasn't the kind of diving I had travelled to the Galapagos for, instead it was quite an easy dive over a sandy area. A small group of resting white tips saved the dive from being a total waste of time. The 2nd dive was done a bit further along the coast and the highlight of the dive was 4-5 grey reef sharks, the famous red lipped batfish and a few turtles.

The next day we were at Santa Cruz and were taken by rib to a mangrove area where we could see young sharks and eagle rays. Blue footed boobies had gathered in their hundreds and what we were about to witness will live with me for the rest of my life. tThere was a gathering of approxamately 1000 boobies and they were flying around this lagoon and dropping from the sky with such speed and taking out the schooling sardines. I was so glad I had taken my video camera with me. They were chasing the sardines all over the show. They were diving righ in front of our panga. The all of a sudden the sardines would change direction and the boobies would chase them and dive at them again. This is the kind of stuff that Sir David Attenbourgh usually has the fortune of experiencing. Today it was us!!!!!
After all this excitement we dived at 8am at North Seymour. This dive also didnt turn out to be very good, the viz was very bad 5 metres at best. We were supposed to do another dive here but all agreed to move up to Wolf, and forego the bad viz.

It was a very long journey north to the island of Wolf. But boy was it worth it. This was what we had travelled thousands of miles to do, dive with sharks. We donr four dives at Wolf the following day and every dive was amazing. We were literally back rolling off of the panga into sharks fins. This was shark infestation and we loved it. Hundreds of scalloped hammerheads were being escorted around the island by the meaty hard looking Galapagos sharks in their dozens. This was the first time my wife and I had experienced anything like this and was amazed at how close and how fast the sharks would move. Some of the Galapagos sharks were very thick set and they were getting close enough to make eye contact with. Most of the other guys and girls on the trip had dived The Cocos before so they were already primed for this. Well we spent the dasy and another 3 dives at Wolf all producing the same results. Dolphins were present for a lot of the time as well.

The next day the site was to be Darwin Arch. I had read so much and heard so much about this dive site, that I almost felt humble to be there. The diving here was also fast and furious. Get down hold on to the barnacle encrusted volcanic boulders and wait for the show to begin. This place did NOT dissappoint. Hammerheads in there hundreds for the whole of the dive. The grin on my face was getting bigger after every dive. It was quite tricky at times videoing the action and trying to clamp my legs around the boulders. None the less the footage I have is certainly something that I will be showing to my friends for many years to come.
The moon was at the end of its cycle and the swell was getting big on day 2 at Darwin. I would guess that the surf was 20ft high, and this made climbing into the panga a challenge, especially if you had the little silky sharks circling you.
One of the guys went missing for 45 minutes whilst on the surface, which had all of us in a bit of a panic. He had seperaed from the main group and ended up the wrong side of the arch and was being taken north. Not something that I would have liked myself. Especially as he had a school of silkys bumping him. For some reason he didnt activate his EPIRB. He was found by the Agressor though. I think this gave us all a scare and made us realize that you do not mess with nature when you are at Darwin Arch.

Over the 3 days and 11 dives we spent at Darwin, 5 whalesharks were seen, nothing bigger than 12mtrs but all the same very nice to see. Especially if like my wife and I this was our first time we had made an appointment with MR BIG.
Our last dive there was very special in that a whaleshark turned up to say goodbye whilst we were on our safety stop. The fish life, currents, shark life, topography confirmed to me why it is one of the best dives on the planet. The are that is called the platform, that is what it is, a viewing platform. get to it and you can hold on there avoiding the current and witness a mass of life. Again dolphins were present on most dives.

Our trip back to the southern islands come and went and we were now diving at Isobella. The viz here was bad as well so we decided to move to cousins rock where we had great fun with a few sea lions, mantas, and found the biggest scorpionfish I have ever seen. The sea lions would chase the mantas and try to bite their tales. Very funny to watch. We did try to fing the Galapagos seahorse amongst the black coral but had no luck. The scools of striped salima were humungus. 40 mtrs deep x 13 mtrs wide x 70 mtrs long. It was great to get inside of the fish and be no more than 5 ft away from my buddy but have no idea where she was. There was quite a few longnose hawkfish there that obliged for the camera.

The last day was to be at Gordons Rock where we had eagle rays, hammerheads and a manta ray. Not forgetting the 12 or so turtles.

It was very sad to be leaving this unspoilt land that had no human detriment visible. It was so great to go ashore for land visits and not see cigarette ends all over the place. No litter to be seen. We headed back to San Cristobel just in time to join in the celebrations of Ecuador progressing to the next stage of the world cup. The whole of the island were out in there cars, vans, trucks waving the Ecuador flag and beeping their horns. Even the police cars were part of it. It was good to see such a happy community. We just cant wait to return.

I know there is a gang of you guys booked for next year. I will send a copy of my DVD when its finished to one of you and you can send it around amongst yourselves. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Louise will also be doing a trip report so keep your eyes peeled. All the best and safe diving, Stew

[Fiona]

Thanks for posting Stew, sounds like you have a fantastic time. I can't wait for our trip even though it is still 15 months away.

Oh and you must have been really disappointed with the biggest whaleshark being only 12 mtrs

Roll on October 2007, as long as we see whalesharks and schooling hammerheads I will be a very happy diver

[Lou]

Whhoooooo-hoooo!!!

Cheers Stew! It sounds like it was everything that I am hoping for. Fantastic. Can you give us more info on how you found Deep Blue, please? Be interested in your thoughts on the boat.

Thanks again

Lou

[Chardy]

Great report, I'm salivating just reading it, you lucky person you!!!

Well, that's me sorted for my next big trip, time to get the air miles calculator out and call the tour operator,

[samui13]

We found the Deep Blue as we went to a dive show and went to listen to Maldives scuba tours half hour talk on Galapagos and Cocos.

The boat IMHO is very clean and tidy. The food is good, considering where you are in the world. I know food is a big thing to divers and i am as fussy as they come. But there was always something there to eat. We did run out of coke on day 3 which was not so good, but if that is all there is to complain about reagarding food then it isnt that bad.

The itinery was not as we had been led to believe though. we were told that we would get a minimum of 3 dives per day when we done land visits and 4 when we were at Darwin and Wolf. We were only offered 1 night dive as well, which I wasnt pleased with as i was hoping for at least 4 in 10 days.
The boats sun decks are very good though for you sun worshippers. The ribs "pangas" are very high out of the water and are quite hard work in big swell. But as a score out of ten i would give it 7 1/2. would i book again on the Deep Blue, of course.

[SCUBA Chick]

Oooooo,ooooo,oooooo sounds fantastic just as suspected

Thanks for sharing your experience with us all...and thanks for you very kind offer of the DVD...we will look forward to it

By the way how did you find the flights over there? Who did you fly with and via and were there any problems with things such as luggage allowance, transfers etc

Thanks once again

Kathy

[Lou]

And who did the lady who lost her luggage fly with, more importantly!?!

[DanE]

Sounds absolutely blinkin' fantastic.

Roll on November...2006

(4 spaces available!)

dan

[samui13]

THIS HAS BEEN EDITED

We flew with AA which had good leg room and luggage allowances.
The food was crap and so was the movies.
We had stop a connecting flight in Miami, which we only just managed to get. When we landed in Miami it was during a lightening storm and no one works in lightening storms in Miami airport so we had to wait on the runway for 2 1/2 hours after landing for the lightening to stop.
The flights in Ecuador were excellent and all the luggage was taken care by people from the Deep Blue agency. No one had to pay any excess even though we were all well over the limit.
The women who had her cases lost flew with CONTINENTAL Some guys who were on the Deep Blue with us actually see her bags being removed from the plane before take off. The noticed the Maldives Scuba Tours luggage labels on them and knew it would be one of our group.
Some of the group had there security locks cut from their luggage, not just the locks were being cut though. Zips were being cut so you would not be able to use them for padlocking again.
When we go back we will not fly through the US we will go via Madrid and pay the extra for excess luggage. To be honest the airport at Miami is a total joke. No one speaks English, nor American. ( if thats a language)
Immigration is a joke, and very long winded. I would suggest that you do not do a stop over im Miami either. We had 2 nights in Miami at the end of the holiday to chill out. We stayed at south beach Miami which is the posers capital of the world. We were on ocean drive and all you had all night was the sound of £100,000 cars going past with their stereos full pout. Drinks were expensive as well. $9 for a small bottle of bud and $9 for a very small rose wine. If you do have to stop, stop at Quito.
Apart from the airport crap you are in for a wonderful time. I am saving already for our return.

[Fiona]