For those that just got back from Galapagos, were you able to snorkle with the penguins or was that off limits now?
Jeff
Jeff
Galapagos Penguin Snorkel
- Thread starter JRRKAR
- Start date
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cowjazz
Contributor
Our only penguin encounter was at Bartolome, and that was pestering them from the panga. We were not authorized to snorkel there.
ChrisM
Contributor
We were told this year that the skiffs couldn't even drive by that area at Bartolome. Seemed ridiculous
cowjazz
Contributor
Well, I assumed we pestered the critters. As we approached one took a dump, bowed and hollered at us.
That's what I do when someone is bothering me.
It could be my mistake for anthropomorphizing.
That's what I do when someone is bothering me.
It could be my mistake for anthropomorphizing.
Manuel Sam
Contributor
I don't know if the rules change from day to day or trip to trip but on our trip (Oct. 12-22) we were allowed to snorkel with them at Bartolome. Finding them, however, is a whole different story. I stayed near the Pinnacle and got skunked, but most of the others went north of the Pinnacle and across the next beach and were able to snorkel with maybe half a dozen of them. And when I got there, they had all hopped back onto the rocks. There were also a few people who saw them in the water at Pta Vicente Roca in Isabela at the end of a dive.
OP
Manuel Sam - What dive operator did you go with?
He posted a trip report about Deep Blue, so the same boat Cowjazz and I were on (different weeks). "Apparently" the boat have to submit an itinerary and then it gets either approved or not.
I think it sounds strange that on Jeff's trip and my trip we weren't denied that element but Manual Sam's trip they weren't.
I still think the Deep Blue crew do as much or as little as they want and it is nothing to do with the GMP or whoever approves the schedule.
ChrisM
Contributor
I agree - it's the whim of whoever is on the boat that week. We had a Deep Blue DM (Solon) that came over after DB was dry docked, he told us no snorkeling and can't even take the boat there, that was 9/4/07. Either he was lying, was misinformed, the rules changed, or DB was breaking the rules.... or all of the above. It's South America, so I'm thinking all of the above.
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