Malpelo, when to go ... ?

[Jafo19D]

July is a good time to go there, I think.

Beautiful video. Curious on how you packed your gear. Did you have it all on a carry on? I live in Colombia and when I go on a diving trip I always put the expensive stuff in my carry on.

 

[Dan]

Absolutely gorgeous video @Dan, the great memories came flooding back

I’m glad you like it.

When you post your trip report, I’ll post some of pictures that are not included in the trip video.

 

[Dan]

Beautiful video. Curious on how you packed your gear. Did you have it all on a carry on? I live in Colombia and when I go on a diving trip I always put the expensive stuff in my carry on.

Thanks. I’m glad you like it.

I put the camera bracket in my check-in bag and put all the camera & batteries in a carry on.

 

[Jafo19D]

I put the camera bracket in my check-in bag and carry all the camera & batteries in a carry on.

Dive gear too?

 

[Dan]

Dive gear too?

All of my dive gears are in check-in bag, except for my Spare Air & Dive Computers.

1 check-in bag & 1 carry-on bag pack, as shown, below.

 

[funscuba]

Just stupid thinking but question to save time and to be more convenient, wouldn't it be possible for the cusomers to fly by helicopter from A to B ?

 

[Dan]

Just stupid thinking but question to save time and to be more convenient, wouldn't it be possible for the cusomers to fly by helicopter from A to B ?

Malpelo is now closed for public. Only a few Navy officers station on the Island.

 

[Jafo19D]

All of my dive gears are in check-in bag, except for my Spare Air & Dive Computers.

1 check-in bag & 1 carry-on bag pack, as shown, below.

View attachment 673208

I’m glad you had a good experience and that nothing got lost but I wrong check my dive gear especially going they Cali. Before COVID I did a lot of international and national travel from my home base in Bogota. I rarely checked bags but in one case I did from Cali-Costa Rica and someone busted up the lock and suitcase to go thru it. Just posting this for anyone flying to Colombia.

 

[Satrekker]

I’m glad you had a good experience and that nothing got lost but I wrong check my dive gear especially going they Cali. Before COVID I did a lot of international and national travel from my home base in Bogota. I rarely checked bags but in one case I did from Cali-Costa Rica and someone busted up the lock and suitcase to go thru it. Just posting this for anyone flying to Colombia.

I always carry regulators, dive computers, cameras, bpw, plb, nautilus, and mask in carry on. Fins, wetsuits, reel w dsmb and other gear are pretty much the only thing I check. Oh, check dive tools, also. It's amazing how much grief security will give you over a 6-inch crescent wrench. SMH

 

[Dan]

Sorry to hear someone busting through your checked bag. Wow! I consider myself lucky, I guess. I just have a plain checked bag with TSA lock, as shown, below. Nothing happened to us. I flew from Miami to Cali and back to Miami with American Airlines. I was actually able to monitor the checked bag status along the way, especially during the short layover (90 minutes) in Miami, coming to & back to Houston.

I have travelled to many places all over the world with my checked bag and never lost anything. Knock on wood.

There were occasional Immigration inspections with or without my presence. A few times US immigration inspected the contents on my checked bag and put a note inside about the inspection. That’s why I prefer to carry my Spare Air (SA) on my backpack so TSA can inspect it with my presence and I can open the SA head (regulator) and show the officer that the bottle is empty.

One time in Jakarta airport (Indonesia) my checked bag was chalk mark after going through their X-ray. I was stopped by their immigration officer and asked to open my luggage. They noticed that I had a brand-new big DSLR underwater camera case that I bought in USA for my Indonesian dive buddy. I had to pay a hefty ($150) import duty.

In Sharm-El Sheikh (Egypt) my soft-case checked-bag’s zipper holder was clip off by one of Egyptian Immigration officer for inspection (I guess they didn’t have the key for my TSA luggage pad lock). Luckily there was nothing illegal or requiring import duty in my checked bag and none was confiscated, including my regulator set. I got rid of the soft-case checked-bag since then and got that hard case.

So far so good. Fingers crossed!