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First and foremost - I can't say enough good things about the captain and crew of the Nautilus Explorer - The boat is so comfortable, I really hated leaving it for the hotel in Cabo - it was that nice. The food is easily 5 star quality (Thanks Enrique!!) The DMs were spectacular at being there...

I (and several hundred other disappointed divers) would be very interested in how you are handled during the refund process. I'm interested too! I will definitely keep you up to date.

My trip was officially canceled yesterday. I am at the point where I'm actually relieved. I am so tired of dealing with this, its a relief to get it over with. Thanks for the comeraderie.

I hear you. This is something I hadn't seen before this morning, also: http://www.explorerventures.com/pdf/GalapagosLetter072007.pdf I kind of feel like this is the most likely outcome. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I imagine this one, full of facts and lessons for us to all learn about the marine environment and diver's impacts: In any case, if I do make it up there and the rest of the boats stay canceled, I can't say I'll miss the 40 or so divers that would otherwise be chasing down my whale shark.

I heard this from my LDS just now from Ken from Galapagos Adventures. I just got word from Ecuador the apparently the president has agreed to the moratorium on the ban on diving. On monday the minister of environment will meet with the yacht owners and the GNP to give them the...

Well, they don't effectively regulate fishing, so its very difficult to believe that they are so concerned about 17 boats diving Darwin. Maybe if they were concerned about the driftnets and longlines that are out there, I would believe it, but they aren't. Apparently, as well, a Celebrity...

I read that Mossman, but it just says they have boats are set up to dive and land tour - and then that they got their permits for this type of operation. So then I looked at PH's permit to see what language looked like, and it doesn't say what type of operation, except the crucero navegable A -...

They are all called crucero navegable in the list of tour boats - so, that still doesn't seem to answer the question: http://www.galapagospark.org/png/interna.php?IDPAGINA=296&SECCIONPAS=Manejo%20Turístico&IDTIPOPAS=1&TIPOPAS=Galápagos

The Galapagos Park Service website has a listing of tourist vessels operating in the park, though - and the Deep Blue and 80 others are listed on it. I checked the website a few days ago when I heard about this situation and all the itineraries of each boat were listed. I noticed that PH did...

I don't see anything on the license that PH linked to that actually mentions the word diving "buceo" - anyone else?

The Galapagos National Park Service is a subsection of the Ministry of the Environment. Patricio Tamariz is the Executive Director of Fondo Mixto de Promoción Turística del Ecuador - an Ecuadoran tourism promotion organization, related to, but not in the Ministry of Tourism. Unless I am...

I am not Patricio. That was his response to my inquiry.

Fully understand your problem. There is now a process being done by the Minister of Tourism towards the Minister of Environment who is is in charge of the National Park, on the banning of the permits, she is asking to give a moratorium to help all the operators involved. So we have to wait, just...

I'm very sensitive to my buddies' distinguishability at night after losing two of them in my own crowd of divers on the white tip shark feeding dive in Cocos. Its amazing how easily it is to lose track of black clad divers all with either green or red tank lights in a crowd of about 10 at...

I've had the same experience others have discussed - I have a really hard time getting my dry friends interested in diving, despite my non-stop chatter about it and endless slideshows. They usually say they are too claustrophobic or that they don't mind swimming on the surface but don't want to...

I had the exact same experience - nausea - I think it's dizziness from constriction of the neck arteries/restricted blood flow, but it felt like I had the flu or something. I trimmed the neck seal and its gone.

I live in Silver Spring and have been with Splash in Alexandria for all my training/diving/ travel. I absolutely love them - they have great staff and affiliated instructors/DMs. They do a great job, I'm a very faithful and happy customer :)

A 7mm wetsuit that is so tight on my hands it makes them swell up to twice their normal size for a couple days after diving. No, the suit will not relax THAT much. I'm going to try for a Henderson this time. Same with gloves - if they are tight in the store, think how much trouble they'll...

I haven't had many insta buddies, but the best one was my buddy in Palau last month. He and I had the exact same diving style and despite him being on air and my being on nitrox, we managed to find the happy middle and have some spectacular dives. At first he didn't understand my hand signals...