Hi,
We're trying to plan our first trip to the Galapagos and need some advice.
I have narrowed down our timing to the months of Feb - April as I understand that's when the water is at the warmest. I get cold easily but am seeing online that temperatures are 25-28 degree during that time frame, which is doable. However I've read that some sites with thermocline get a lot colder than others - will it be even colder than 25 at those sites? How cold are we talking - less than 20? I am planning to bring my new 5mm + layer a 3mm shorty on top + 3mm beanie (can't stand hoods) - is that sufficient?
We're going to go on a liveaboard and I notice Galapagos Master is the only boat that offers 10 night trips, everyone else is 7 nights only. Unfortunately they are fully booked between Feb and April for those 10 night trips in both 2020 and 2021. Earliest trip available is Feb 2022 - but the price is quite steep ($8800 - a whopping $1000 increase from 2021 rate, whereas 7 night rate only increased $10??). For those who have done either the 7 night or 10 night trip before, do you think the extra 3 nights is worth the price, or is 7 nights enough? It seems the main difference is there are 4 days at Wolf / Darwin (which I understand to be the best diving), vs. only 3 days for the 7 night trips, plus there are 3 land excursions instead of 1.
Galapagos is a long way from HK and we will have ~2 weeks give or take so we do want to maximize our experience. The main highlights we want to see are the schooling hammerheads, sea lions, marine iguanas, penguins, dolphins, and some big sharks like galapagos shark, bull shark, or tiger shark. Schooling eagle rays and mola mola would be nice too. Given that wish list, will we have a substantially better experience / chance with the 10 night trip?
The other option we're considering is the 7 night dive trip on AQUA plus a 3 or 4 night naturalist trip to get us to 10-11 nights. Their B5 itinerary (which has lots of seals sea lions and penguins) looks more interesting than the B4 (which seems to be more focused on birdlife and iguanas) - do you think a 7 night dive trip + a 4 night naturalist trip is a better combo than the 10 night dive trip? The B5 naturalist trip seems to be mostly snorkeling with some hiking, so I wonder if we will end up seeing the same stuff anyway. Aqua combo works out to be ~$2000 cheaper than 10 night trip on Galapagos Master. We're not picky and Aqua boat looks pretty nice to me. Seems both have 16 divers and 2 dive guides. Aqua is smaller but space is not that important to us. But Aqua does have a lower rating than the Master on liveaboard.com. I would be interested to hear any first hand experience with that boat.
Also some random questions-
-Are strobes not allowed? I saw this on the Aqua website but not anywhere else. What about lights?
-It seems most people wear gloves instead of using reef hooks - any reason why? I was just in the Maldives where reef hooks were used on all the channel dives and I liked it a lot. I want to keep my hands free for the camera- will I be ok with just a reef hook and no gloves?
-Are negative entries actually necessary? I prefer the crew pass me my camera after I jump as it's a bulky DSLR. During my last Maldives trip there were 2 groups that insisted on doing negative entry for all the channel dives and our group didn't do any. The current wasn't even that strong and we were perfectly fine. When I was in French Polynesia I also didn't do any negative entries, despite reading beforehand that negative entries were the norm in the pass dives.
Thanks!
We're trying to plan our first trip to the Galapagos and need some advice.
I have narrowed down our timing to the months of Feb - April as I understand that's when the water is at the warmest. I get cold easily but am seeing online that temperatures are 25-28 degree during that time frame, which is doable. However I've read that some sites with thermocline get a lot colder than others - will it be even colder than 25 at those sites? How cold are we talking - less than 20? I am planning to bring my new 5mm + layer a 3mm shorty on top + 3mm beanie (can't stand hoods) - is that sufficient?
We're going to go on a liveaboard and I notice Galapagos Master is the only boat that offers 10 night trips, everyone else is 7 nights only. Unfortunately they are fully booked between Feb and April for those 10 night trips in both 2020 and 2021. Earliest trip available is Feb 2022 - but the price is quite steep ($8800 - a whopping $1000 increase from 2021 rate, whereas 7 night rate only increased $10??). For those who have done either the 7 night or 10 night trip before, do you think the extra 3 nights is worth the price, or is 7 nights enough? It seems the main difference is there are 4 days at Wolf / Darwin (which I understand to be the best diving), vs. only 3 days for the 7 night trips, plus there are 3 land excursions instead of 1.
Galapagos is a long way from HK and we will have ~2 weeks give or take so we do want to maximize our experience. The main highlights we want to see are the schooling hammerheads, sea lions, marine iguanas, penguins, dolphins, and some big sharks like galapagos shark, bull shark, or tiger shark. Schooling eagle rays and mola mola would be nice too. Given that wish list, will we have a substantially better experience / chance with the 10 night trip?
The other option we're considering is the 7 night dive trip on AQUA plus a 3 or 4 night naturalist trip to get us to 10-11 nights. Their B5 itinerary (which has lots of seals sea lions and penguins) looks more interesting than the B4 (which seems to be more focused on birdlife and iguanas) - do you think a 7 night dive trip + a 4 night naturalist trip is a better combo than the 10 night dive trip? The B5 naturalist trip seems to be mostly snorkeling with some hiking, so I wonder if we will end up seeing the same stuff anyway. Aqua combo works out to be ~$2000 cheaper than 10 night trip on Galapagos Master. We're not picky and Aqua boat looks pretty nice to me. Seems both have 16 divers and 2 dive guides. Aqua is smaller but space is not that important to us. But Aqua does have a lower rating than the Master on liveaboard.com. I would be interested to hear any first hand experience with that boat.
Also some random questions-
-Are strobes not allowed? I saw this on the Aqua website but not anywhere else. What about lights?
-It seems most people wear gloves instead of using reef hooks - any reason why? I was just in the Maldives where reef hooks were used on all the channel dives and I liked it a lot. I want to keep my hands free for the camera- will I be ok with just a reef hook and no gloves?
-Are negative entries actually necessary? I prefer the crew pass me my camera after I jump as it's a bulky DSLR. During my last Maldives trip there were 2 groups that insisted on doing negative entry for all the channel dives and our group didn't do any. The current wasn't even that strong and we were perfectly fine. When I was in French Polynesia I also didn't do any negative entries, despite reading beforehand that negative entries were the norm in the pass dives.
Thanks!