MN Lakeman
Contributor
Last year, in mid November, my oldest daughter & I began discussion of where we would go diving in 2011. We decided to check out the popular liveaboard companies that we have enjoyed the last several years, & when I dialed into the Explorer website I happen to hit the home run of “specials”…2 for 1 aboard the Galapagos Humboldt Explorer. It didn’t take a second thought – we were going.
So on New Year’s Day @ 6am, we hopped on an AA flight from Mpls. to Quito. Per suggested by Jennifer @ Explorer, we allowed a full day in our schedule before meeting @ the airport again, to join others on our flight to San Cristobal. We wanted to do some exploring of this beautiful city in Ecuador on Sunday, so I did a search on TripAdvisor for top “things to do” in Quito. I discovered a mountain bike tour company that happened to meet just a few blocks from the hotel Jennifer booked for us. After meeting there, we happily discovered that two other folks biking with us were also joining us on the Humboldt the next day. Our incredible guide, Diego drove the 6 of us a little more than an hour out of town to the world’s highest active volcano, Cotopaxi. We began our bike @ nearly 15,000 ft (a tour NOT to done after a week of diving!) & spent much of the day getting our way through amazing countryside to the bottom.
The next morning we met several other divers @ the airport. After an Explorer rep gathered & checked in all our bags together (to avoid the overage wt. fees) we were off to the islands. We unfortunately encountered a 2 hour delay at our stop in Guayquil & so when boarding the Humboldt, the crew was extremely rushed to get us settled in (barely!) & off to the nearby dive site (by panga) for our checkout dive. I have to right away note what a fantastic crew we had on this boat. Peter, the head dive master, gave a brief but thorough briefing on general aspects of getting in & out of the pangas & basic dive operation procedures. Peter grew up on the islands & has been guiding both dive & land excursions for many years. He was easily the most experienced & knowledgeable dive master I’ve encounter in my nearly 10 years of diving. He not only facilitated as the “safety marshal” while diving, but served as the boat director & naturalist as well. The other DM William, although quite a jovial character, was also very good. These two guys were the ONLY ones of the entire crew that spoke English – this did not however, diminish the professional & courteous capabilities of the rest of the crew.
Just two dives on day one, the checkout dive (maybe 5’ vis?...barely saw a few sea lions playing) & North Seymour – both pretty chilly water temps: 72. Then off to Darwin all night. After a pretty tame crossing, we began #1 of 8 dives for the two days @ 8am. Let the show begin. Hammerheads everywhere, but on this first dive….divers everywhere. The Galapagos Sky was also moored nearby, & they happened to drop all their divers down to the same barnacle covered “theater” that we were at. Currents were strong, but I quickly discovered, if you dropped down the wall just a bit, & pulled away 6 to 8 ft the current diminished quite a bit (not always though!), & you could hover with some very light fining (much easier to operate a video rig). Per the advise of many on this forum I picked up some $20 XS Kevlar “bug grabbers” gloves & wow did they perform – hardly any wear @ all from a whole week of hangin’ on! My daughter & I each wore 5mm full wetsuits with 3mm hooded vests. With the 77 degree temps in the north islands, we were quite comfortable, in the southern islands, chilled. We spent nearly all of our dives @ around 60’. In fact there was so little variation in our depth that I regretfully assumed I didn’t need to manual white balance my video cam as often, so I had several unusable shots for my final video. Other sightings: Dolphins everywhere, Sea Horses, a few Galapagos & Silky sharks, several Spotted Eagle, Diamond, Marble, Mobula rays. We knew we were just out of whale shark season, so it was no surprise “Mr Big” eluded us.
After our two days @ Darwin, we motored off to Wolf for 4 dives. The vis was significantly worse – the DM’s even commented that it was pretty bad. Here we encountered lots of free swimming morays, HUGE schools of Bonitos, Green & Hawksbill turtles, & of course lots of schooling Hammers. My favorite dive was the “Caves”. After making our way in & out of 3 separate swim-thrus, we ventured out into the blue against a nasty current to make our way to the “washing machine” – a pinnacle rising up to 15’ below the surface. Here we clung to rocks with all our might while our bodies were flung around all over the place by chaotic currents from every direction. My daughter managed to snap a shot of me, with the exhaust bubbles going horizontal from my reg! What a blast – it reminded me of the final scene in the movie “Twister” when the 2 were strapped to some pipes getting pummeled by a tornado overhead. Our last dive @ Wolf took us down to 100 ft, where we encountered the bizarre red lipped batfish. Even though I froze my tail-end off (2 thermal clines – 66 degrees), I was glad to get some video & still shots. Next: the crossing to Isabela – an all night rollercoaster. Both my daughter & I are fortunate in that we don’t get seasick, but a few on board had a rough night even with their meds. We had a lower cabin nearest the bow & I swear I woke up a few times with air between me & the bed!
Back to colder water temps: 72 or so. The highlight of our 2 dives for the day – giant, dense schools of Black Striped Salemas. I literally was diving solo several times – lost sight of everybody within just 4 or 5 ft! ‘Saw several White Tipped sharks lingering off the sandy bottom through the walls of fish as well as many very active Diamond Stingrays & then finally as began to ascend, a nice big Manta overhead. After lunch, we all jumped into our respective assigned pangas, & the DM’s gave us a nice relaxing shore tour of the island, talking about the various birds, iguanas, sea & fur lions etc.
Our last day of diving brought us to Cousins Rock. The 1st dive began promptly @ 6am…too dark, too cold, & lousy visibility. My daughter actually took some nice still shots of the “small stuff” – colorful Nudibranchs & Starfish, various Hawkfish, & of course Sea Lions. I would suggest skipping the 1st morning dive & just doing the 2nd. We then disembarked for the land visit on Santa Cruz Island, where we were first bussed to a Galapagos Tortoise refuge site followed by a native style barbeque, & then bussed back to town. Here we visited the Darwin Research Center & then strolled the streets of this rather commercialized, yet eclectic town.
An unforgettable trip for both of us, a memory of diving scenes found nowhere on this planet. I give the crew very high marks, the chef above & beyond expectation (I love Latin style food – some do not), & the boat rather small, but efficiently laid out. The best feature of the Humboldt is no doubt the cabins – very spacious, excellent beds & a VERY spacious bathroom. I however did not care for the layout of the dive deck. I really felt sorry for the people on the lower stern area – very crowded, as this was where the showers were located as well as the general traffic path to board the pangas. I was dismayed too, (as had been reported on earlier reviews…
that there was NEVER a general safety briefing. I had to on my own, make a conscious mental note of where the nearest fire exit was & where the life boats were located. All in all I truly got well more than what I paid for with the Humboldt Explorer.
Galapagos Islands Diving 2011 on Vimeo
So on New Year’s Day @ 6am, we hopped on an AA flight from Mpls. to Quito. Per suggested by Jennifer @ Explorer, we allowed a full day in our schedule before meeting @ the airport again, to join others on our flight to San Cristobal. We wanted to do some exploring of this beautiful city in Ecuador on Sunday, so I did a search on TripAdvisor for top “things to do” in Quito. I discovered a mountain bike tour company that happened to meet just a few blocks from the hotel Jennifer booked for us. After meeting there, we happily discovered that two other folks biking with us were also joining us on the Humboldt the next day. Our incredible guide, Diego drove the 6 of us a little more than an hour out of town to the world’s highest active volcano, Cotopaxi. We began our bike @ nearly 15,000 ft (a tour NOT to done after a week of diving!) & spent much of the day getting our way through amazing countryside to the bottom.
The next morning we met several other divers @ the airport. After an Explorer rep gathered & checked in all our bags together (to avoid the overage wt. fees) we were off to the islands. We unfortunately encountered a 2 hour delay at our stop in Guayquil & so when boarding the Humboldt, the crew was extremely rushed to get us settled in (barely!) & off to the nearby dive site (by panga) for our checkout dive. I have to right away note what a fantastic crew we had on this boat. Peter, the head dive master, gave a brief but thorough briefing on general aspects of getting in & out of the pangas & basic dive operation procedures. Peter grew up on the islands & has been guiding both dive & land excursions for many years. He was easily the most experienced & knowledgeable dive master I’ve encounter in my nearly 10 years of diving. He not only facilitated as the “safety marshal” while diving, but served as the boat director & naturalist as well. The other DM William, although quite a jovial character, was also very good. These two guys were the ONLY ones of the entire crew that spoke English – this did not however, diminish the professional & courteous capabilities of the rest of the crew.
Just two dives on day one, the checkout dive (maybe 5’ vis?...barely saw a few sea lions playing) & North Seymour – both pretty chilly water temps: 72. Then off to Darwin all night. After a pretty tame crossing, we began #1 of 8 dives for the two days @ 8am. Let the show begin. Hammerheads everywhere, but on this first dive….divers everywhere. The Galapagos Sky was also moored nearby, & they happened to drop all their divers down to the same barnacle covered “theater” that we were at. Currents were strong, but I quickly discovered, if you dropped down the wall just a bit, & pulled away 6 to 8 ft the current diminished quite a bit (not always though!), & you could hover with some very light fining (much easier to operate a video rig). Per the advise of many on this forum I picked up some $20 XS Kevlar “bug grabbers” gloves & wow did they perform – hardly any wear @ all from a whole week of hangin’ on! My daughter & I each wore 5mm full wetsuits with 3mm hooded vests. With the 77 degree temps in the north islands, we were quite comfortable, in the southern islands, chilled. We spent nearly all of our dives @ around 60’. In fact there was so little variation in our depth that I regretfully assumed I didn’t need to manual white balance my video cam as often, so I had several unusable shots for my final video. Other sightings: Dolphins everywhere, Sea Horses, a few Galapagos & Silky sharks, several Spotted Eagle, Diamond, Marble, Mobula rays. We knew we were just out of whale shark season, so it was no surprise “Mr Big” eluded us.
After our two days @ Darwin, we motored off to Wolf for 4 dives. The vis was significantly worse – the DM’s even commented that it was pretty bad. Here we encountered lots of free swimming morays, HUGE schools of Bonitos, Green & Hawksbill turtles, & of course lots of schooling Hammers. My favorite dive was the “Caves”. After making our way in & out of 3 separate swim-thrus, we ventured out into the blue against a nasty current to make our way to the “washing machine” – a pinnacle rising up to 15’ below the surface. Here we clung to rocks with all our might while our bodies were flung around all over the place by chaotic currents from every direction. My daughter managed to snap a shot of me, with the exhaust bubbles going horizontal from my reg! What a blast – it reminded me of the final scene in the movie “Twister” when the 2 were strapped to some pipes getting pummeled by a tornado overhead. Our last dive @ Wolf took us down to 100 ft, where we encountered the bizarre red lipped batfish. Even though I froze my tail-end off (2 thermal clines – 66 degrees), I was glad to get some video & still shots. Next: the crossing to Isabela – an all night rollercoaster. Both my daughter & I are fortunate in that we don’t get seasick, but a few on board had a rough night even with their meds. We had a lower cabin nearest the bow & I swear I woke up a few times with air between me & the bed!
Back to colder water temps: 72 or so. The highlight of our 2 dives for the day – giant, dense schools of Black Striped Salemas. I literally was diving solo several times – lost sight of everybody within just 4 or 5 ft! ‘Saw several White Tipped sharks lingering off the sandy bottom through the walls of fish as well as many very active Diamond Stingrays & then finally as began to ascend, a nice big Manta overhead. After lunch, we all jumped into our respective assigned pangas, & the DM’s gave us a nice relaxing shore tour of the island, talking about the various birds, iguanas, sea & fur lions etc.
Our last day of diving brought us to Cousins Rock. The 1st dive began promptly @ 6am…too dark, too cold, & lousy visibility. My daughter actually took some nice still shots of the “small stuff” – colorful Nudibranchs & Starfish, various Hawkfish, & of course Sea Lions. I would suggest skipping the 1st morning dive & just doing the 2nd. We then disembarked for the land visit on Santa Cruz Island, where we were first bussed to a Galapagos Tortoise refuge site followed by a native style barbeque, & then bussed back to town. Here we visited the Darwin Research Center & then strolled the streets of this rather commercialized, yet eclectic town.
An unforgettable trip for both of us, a memory of diving scenes found nowhere on this planet. I give the crew very high marks, the chef above & beyond expectation (I love Latin style food – some do not), & the boat rather small, but efficiently laid out. The best feature of the Humboldt is no doubt the cabins – very spacious, excellent beds & a VERY spacious bathroom. I however did not care for the layout of the dive deck. I really felt sorry for the people on the lower stern area – very crowded, as this was where the showers were located as well as the general traffic path to board the pangas. I was dismayed too, (as had been reported on earlier reviews…
that there was NEVER a general safety briefing. I had to on my own, make a conscious mental note of where the nearest fire exit was & where the life boats were located. All in all I truly got well more than what I paid for with the Humboldt Explorer.Galapagos Islands Diving 2011 on Vimeo
