Galapagos Dive Trip April 11-18 2011


Galapagos Diving

Your underwater adventures in the Galapagos will encompass everything from sharks to nudibranchs, and more. The islands are best known for amazing shark diving around Wolf and Darwin Islands. These small and remote islands are best reached by liveaboard vessels for divers. Your diving experience here will generally include Galapagos sharks, silky sharks and lots of schooling hammerheads being cleaned by king angelfish. Seeing marine turtles, schools of tuna, eagle rays, and sea lions is very common and seeing a whale shark is very possible from June through November. All the islands you travel to are amazing sites for underwater photography.

Macro photographers will have their fill of sea horses, barnacle blennies, coral hawk fish, and many others. An abundance of rays are at many of the dive sites (including spotted rays, marble rays, golden rays and stingrays) along with sea lions, sea turtles, schools of grunts and snappers. The variety of life in these water is unlike any other place, with thick schools of the native brown stripped salema, snappers, groupers, Chevron barracuda and huge sea turtles.


There are also many unique things to view on land. Consider adding on some time to your trip to experience the land animals as well. And of course, a trip to the Galapagos would not be complete without taking time to watch their most famous inhabitants - the giant tortoise!

Make your reservation today for a once in a lifetime experience in the "Enchanted Islands."

Itinerary


Days aboard the M/V Humboldt Explorer generally involve a 6:30 a.m. dive followed by breakfast, a dive at 9:30, lunch at 12:00, and afternoon dives at dive at 1:30 and 4:00 p.m. Dinner is served at approximately 7:00 p.m. Under current National Parks guidelines, no night dives are allowed by any vessels within the Galapagos National Park.

Please note that these itineraries are examples only, and will change depending on local regulation, weather and logistics at the Captain’s discretion. Currently, each week the itinerary includes the same islands. The number of dives and the dive sites may vary depending on sea conditions, crossing times and currents. The order of the island visits, however, is dictated by the Galapagos National Park and may vary weekly.

San Cristobal Departures

All departures for 2010 and onwards will be from San Cristobal for 2010.
For those flying to and from the Galapagos on Mondays to join the vessel, a guide will meet you upon exiting the baggage claim area for transfer to the vessel. If the departure island changes, your airlines tickets from mainland Ecuador to the Galapagos Islands will automatically be changed (so long as the tickets have been purchased through our partners).

Monday: San Cristobal
Guests fly to the Galapagos Islands from Mainland Ecuador, arriving in theGalapagos islands mid-day. Guests are met at the airport and taken to the vessel.
Boarding the vessel after 12:00 noon, guests will depart for a short crossing to the a calm site for a check out dive and safety briefing. Lunch will be served before the dive and dinner will be served after the check out dive. The vessel will make a late day departure to the next destination.

Tuesday: North Seymour - North Syemour Canal, North Seymour Point
6:30, 9:30, dives. Sightings include turtles, hammerheads, sea lions.
Afternoon/overnight transit to Darwin (20 hours).

Wednesday: Darwin - Darwin's Arch
6:30, 9:30, 1:30 and 4:00 dives. Sightings often include hammerheads, whale sharks, eagle rays, Galapagos sharks, and silky sharks. Night at anchor.

Thursday: Darwin - Darwin's Arch
6:30, 9:30, 1:30 and 4:00 dives. Sightings often include hammerheads, whale sharks, eagle rays, Galapagos sharks, and silky sharks. Evening crossing to Wolf Island (2.5 hrs).

Friday: Wolf Island - Landslide, Shark Bay, Pinaculo
6:30, 9:30, 1:30 and 4:00 dives. Sightings often include hammerheads, eagle rays, Galapagos sharks, turtles and silky sharks. Overnight transit to Isabela Island (15 hours).

Saturday: Isabela Island – Cabo Marshall
6:30 and 9:30 dives. Sightings include giant manta rays, mobula rays, turtles, hammerheads, black-striped salema. Overnight transit Cousins Rock (8 hours).

Sunday: Cousin’s Rock
6:30, 8:30 dives – wall and macro diving with excellent chance of seeing sea horses, sea lions, eagle rays. Breakfast and transit back to Santa Cruz (3 hrs). Land trip to see the giant tortoises in the highlands of Santa Cruz, traditional Ecuadorian BBQ lunch at a farm in the highlands (cost is $15 per person), and transit to Puerto Ayora for shopping and possible visit to Darwin Center on your own. 7 p.m. return to the boat, dinner and crossing to San Cristobal.

Monday: Baltra/San Cristobal
Breakfast; depart the vessel by 8:30 am . Trip to the interpretive center and time to visit the beach in town to see sea lions and marine iguanas. Transfer back to the airport for flight back to Quito or Guayaquil.


$3000 Per Person Double Occ.
Packages Include:

•7 nights/8 days aboard the vessel
•3 meals daily, plus between-dive snacks
•Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages
•2-4 dives a day (days vary)
•Use of tanks, weights and belts
Packages Do Not Include:
•Airport transfers (except same-day Galapagos arrivals)
•Hotel accommodations
•Flights to/from Galapagos
•Last evening meal
•Rental, instruction, nitrox and retail charges
•Crew gratuities
•Trip cancellation insurance
•Departure taxes - up to US$41 pp
•Premium alcoholic beverages
•National Marine Park fees - $100 pp, cash only. Paid on arrival in Galapagos.
•TCT Tourist card - ($10 pp, cash only) Paid at Ecuador airport of departure for Galapagos. Cash only.
•Hyperbaric chamber fee ($35 pp)
•Temporary fuel surcharge - if applicable

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