fosterscik
Full time employment: Posting here.
Late last year I posted about a planned trip to the Galapagos Islands and was asked to post a report after we returned. So...
We flew via Miami to Quito, Ecuador and spent three days exploring the city and its surroundings. Our hotel in Quito was the Patio Andaluz (Patio Andaluz Hotel Boutique | Hotel en Quito, Ecuador), a colonial-era mansion converted into a hotel in the old town on Seven Crosses Street. The included breakfast buffet was OK, not great, but the rest of the stay was excellent. We hired a private guide to help us explore on two of the three days ($200/day/person). He was excellent. We started by taking a cable car to the top of the volcano adjacent to Quito (Pichincha) and making a short hike. Great views of Quito nestled around the eastern base of the volcano. It was also amazing to see Caracara eagles hopping around looking for discarded food near footpaths. We then walked around the old town, stopping for snacks and drinks, visited some of the old churches, and the cathedral, went to the iconic Book of Revelations statue of the Virgin Mary defeating the devil (The Virgen de El Panecillo) and finished nearby with a splendid meal at a restaurant overlooking the city (this was our only additional cost that day).
On the next day our guide drove us to the cloud forest and we took a cable car (Tarabita de Mindo) across a deep gorge to hike a beautiful waterfall trail in the forest. On our way there we stopped at a hummingbird sanctuary and saw an amazing variety of hummingbirds which would feed from hand-held nectar feeders (I especially liked the booted racket-tail hummingbird), yellow and blue tanagers, a quetzal bird and a crimson-rumped toucanette. On the way home we stopped at the equator center for a brief tour. Another special day!
On our last day we explored on our own and really enjoyed the museum dedicated to the Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamín, and shopped for souvenirs and had a relaxed day. Uber was our friend getting around Quito on our own.
The following day we flew to Baltra in the Galapagos islands. We were taken directly to the diving boat (Galaxy diver II, Galaxy Diver II - Galapagos Islands ). The boat is very comfortable with large cabins and had great air conditioning. It held 16 divers in 8 cabins, 2 dive guides, 2 chefs, 2 mechanics, a bartender, a stewart, 2 RIB drivers/deckhands and the captain. It was officially the rainy season in Ecuador, but we did not see any rain during our visit and had a great time. The food was excellent.
We typically got up around 6 am, had a short briefing and a light snack before diving (fruit, cereal and/or toast with coffee from a cappuccino machine), then a 50 min dive. On return from each dive, there were hot showers and hot towels on the dive deck. After drying we went into the main cabin for a cooked breakfast - some kind of eggs (including omelets to order, protein (sausages, bacon, shrimp and vegetarian sides). After an hour or so, we had a second dive, then lunch (very varied offerings), a 3rd dive, a snack, a surface interval, a 4th dive, then dinner (again very varied, but always included salads and a tasty desert). While waiting for dinner, most people gathered in the main cabin for predinner drinks. They served local Galapagos beers which were really good ($6), big Ecuadorian brewery beers (Club and Pilsner brand, $5), wine and cocktails (can't tell you the prices - didn't have any, but they would sell by the bottle or by the glass. Bottles were stored for your daily use).
The diving was quite different from what we were used to. It was the warm season in the Galapagos: most dives had cold zones, because of the currents and thermoclines, in the low 70's, but mostly high 70's for most of a given dive. The southern-most islands were coldest with lows near 60 F. We used Bare 5-mm wetsuits, supplemented with hoods, gloves and 4-th element "thermocline" neutral buoyancy suits underneath for those colder dives. We didn't feel cold during our dives. We had some really strong currents up north (Darwin and Wolf islands) but they don't use reef hooks - it's accepted practice to use gloves to hold onto mostly volcanic rocks. It was quite strange to effectively crawl between rocks to reach viewing points! We had 8 divers, a guide and a driver on each RIB. It was a bit crowded, but given our focus on large critters the guide led more than pointed out things to see. Each diver was given an integrated air horn and a Nautilus gps (and an SMB if you didn't have your own). You could be swept quite a long way from your group if caught in a current. Nitrox was included (typically 32 - 34% O2) and a large 100 cuft tank for people who like oxygen too much
was only $60 for a week. You did your own O2 analysis between dives and tank fills were consistently good (I did have one low tank during the week, but it was quickly topped up when I asked).
We saw schools of hammerhead sharks (maybe as many as 50 at a time), with some directly overhead as few as 10 feet away. There were lots of turtles (green and hawksbill), eels (including a zebra moray I hadn't seen before), Galapagos sharks, Galapagos bullhead sharks, white tip and black tip sharks. Schools of eagle rays, Mobula and cownose rays. There isn't much coral in the area. Some hard coral and small pockets of soft corals. Lots of Parrot fish, etc. But the big stuff is the focus of any diving adventure here. We saw 5 Mola-Mola on one dive - It was a highlight for me! There were lots of seals and sealions who were happy to swim all around us and put on quite a show. One dive was centered on Marine Iguanas. We saw flightless cormorants and Galapagos penguins above the water, along with red-footed and blue-footed boobies. We were often escorted by frigate birds as we sailed between islands.
We did not spend any time on land except for our last day: we had one early morning dive, then early lunch before touring a Giant tortoise sanctuary, and a visit to the main town on Baltra.
Overall a great experience. We did not see any whale sharks (wrong season) but everything else went really well. I'd recommend this operation to any interested divers!
We flew via Miami to Quito, Ecuador and spent three days exploring the city and its surroundings. Our hotel in Quito was the Patio Andaluz (Patio Andaluz Hotel Boutique | Hotel en Quito, Ecuador), a colonial-era mansion converted into a hotel in the old town on Seven Crosses Street. The included breakfast buffet was OK, not great, but the rest of the stay was excellent. We hired a private guide to help us explore on two of the three days ($200/day/person). He was excellent. We started by taking a cable car to the top of the volcano adjacent to Quito (Pichincha) and making a short hike. Great views of Quito nestled around the eastern base of the volcano. It was also amazing to see Caracara eagles hopping around looking for discarded food near footpaths. We then walked around the old town, stopping for snacks and drinks, visited some of the old churches, and the cathedral, went to the iconic Book of Revelations statue of the Virgin Mary defeating the devil (The Virgen de El Panecillo) and finished nearby with a splendid meal at a restaurant overlooking the city (this was our only additional cost that day).
On the next day our guide drove us to the cloud forest and we took a cable car (Tarabita de Mindo) across a deep gorge to hike a beautiful waterfall trail in the forest. On our way there we stopped at a hummingbird sanctuary and saw an amazing variety of hummingbirds which would feed from hand-held nectar feeders (I especially liked the booted racket-tail hummingbird), yellow and blue tanagers, a quetzal bird and a crimson-rumped toucanette. On the way home we stopped at the equator center for a brief tour. Another special day!
On our last day we explored on our own and really enjoyed the museum dedicated to the Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamín, and shopped for souvenirs and had a relaxed day. Uber was our friend getting around Quito on our own.
The following day we flew to Baltra in the Galapagos islands. We were taken directly to the diving boat (Galaxy diver II, Galaxy Diver II - Galapagos Islands ). The boat is very comfortable with large cabins and had great air conditioning. It held 16 divers in 8 cabins, 2 dive guides, 2 chefs, 2 mechanics, a bartender, a stewart, 2 RIB drivers/deckhands and the captain. It was officially the rainy season in Ecuador, but we did not see any rain during our visit and had a great time. The food was excellent.
We typically got up around 6 am, had a short briefing and a light snack before diving (fruit, cereal and/or toast with coffee from a cappuccino machine), then a 50 min dive. On return from each dive, there were hot showers and hot towels on the dive deck. After drying we went into the main cabin for a cooked breakfast - some kind of eggs (including omelets to order, protein (sausages, bacon, shrimp and vegetarian sides). After an hour or so, we had a second dive, then lunch (very varied offerings), a 3rd dive, a snack, a surface interval, a 4th dive, then dinner (again very varied, but always included salads and a tasty desert). While waiting for dinner, most people gathered in the main cabin for predinner drinks. They served local Galapagos beers which were really good ($6), big Ecuadorian brewery beers (Club and Pilsner brand, $5), wine and cocktails (can't tell you the prices - didn't have any, but they would sell by the bottle or by the glass. Bottles were stored for your daily use).
The diving was quite different from what we were used to. It was the warm season in the Galapagos: most dives had cold zones, because of the currents and thermoclines, in the low 70's, but mostly high 70's for most of a given dive. The southern-most islands were coldest with lows near 60 F. We used Bare 5-mm wetsuits, supplemented with hoods, gloves and 4-th element "thermocline" neutral buoyancy suits underneath for those colder dives. We didn't feel cold during our dives. We had some really strong currents up north (Darwin and Wolf islands) but they don't use reef hooks - it's accepted practice to use gloves to hold onto mostly volcanic rocks. It was quite strange to effectively crawl between rocks to reach viewing points! We had 8 divers, a guide and a driver on each RIB. It was a bit crowded, but given our focus on large critters the guide led more than pointed out things to see. Each diver was given an integrated air horn and a Nautilus gps (and an SMB if you didn't have your own). You could be swept quite a long way from your group if caught in a current. Nitrox was included (typically 32 - 34% O2) and a large 100 cuft tank for people who like oxygen too much
was only $60 for a week. You did your own O2 analysis between dives and tank fills were consistently good (I did have one low tank during the week, but it was quickly topped up when I asked).We saw schools of hammerhead sharks (maybe as many as 50 at a time), with some directly overhead as few as 10 feet away. There were lots of turtles (green and hawksbill), eels (including a zebra moray I hadn't seen before), Galapagos sharks, Galapagos bullhead sharks, white tip and black tip sharks. Schools of eagle rays, Mobula and cownose rays. There isn't much coral in the area. Some hard coral and small pockets of soft corals. Lots of Parrot fish, etc. But the big stuff is the focus of any diving adventure here. We saw 5 Mola-Mola on one dive - It was a highlight for me! There were lots of seals and sealions who were happy to swim all around us and put on quite a show. One dive was centered on Marine Iguanas. We saw flightless cormorants and Galapagos penguins above the water, along with red-footed and blue-footed boobies. We were often escorted by frigate birds as we sailed between islands.
We did not spend any time on land except for our last day: we had one early morning dive, then early lunch before touring a Giant tortoise sanctuary, and a visit to the main town on Baltra.
Overall a great experience. We did not see any whale sharks (wrong season) but everything else went really well. I'd recommend this operation to any interested divers!
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