Galapagos or Cocos?

[lee3]

Having enjoyed ourselves on both the palau aggressor and tahiti aggressor in the past 8 months, we are trying to plan out '06. Unfortunately, the galapagos aggressor is booked solid from july through september which is when we most wanted to go. Interestingly enough i asked the same question of the other guests on our past 2 trips (one couple had been on all the agressor boats and commented that coco's was by far their favorite and that they had been there over 10 times!).

So, we still have never seen a whale shark and the guarantee of that in the Galapagos between July and September was the big draw. We both prefer the pelagics to the macro stuff, so what exactly does Coco's offer that the Galapagos does not? Are there other species of sharks common to Coco's that are not in the Galapagos? To date, we've been fortunate enough to see all of the reef sharks, silvertips, lemons, nurse, galapagos, blues, and great hammerheads. We both want depserately to see the schooling scalloped hammers which it sounds like are plentiful at both destinations and whale sharks. To those that have been to both, what are your thoughts and why and is their a best time of year to go to Cocos if that is indeed our choice? Also, if their happen to be anyone in any dive clubs that have the Galapagos Aggressors booked between July and September and looking to get rid of spaces please let me know. Thanks in advance for any opinions.

 

[Taxgeek]

Hi Lee. Check with Hollywoodivers.com (maybe two d's in that, can't remember). They've got a Galapagos trip planning, but I think it is in 2007. You'll probably find it's too late for Cocos in 06 as well - they book over a year in advance. I've never been to either, but am slated for Cocos and Malpelo on the Sea Hunter in April of 06 - I took the last slot when I signed up last april.

Many people like the Okeanos Aggressor, which goes to Cocos, but the majority seem to put the Sea Hunter and the Undersea Hunter (same company, smaller boat) in a higher class, so you might want to consider those boats as well.

I'm interested in the comparisons of Cocos v. Galapagos as well - obviously the land excursions are a difference. Cocos has the feeding white tips at night, I don't know if you can see that out at Wolf and Darwin or not. Galapagos has sea lions, but you're from SFO, you have sea lions at home.

Those are all the differences I know off the top of my head - my impressions were that there are more whale sharks at Galapagos if you hit the season right. I'm sure you'll get lots of responses to this thread. ;-)

Taxgeek

 

[cyklon_300]

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=112420

If you haven't seen some of the previous threads on this topic...

 

[erichK]

We recently returned from eight days in the Galapagos and three in Quito, as arranged through Scuba Iguana. Our previous dive trips include a live-aboard up Canada's west coast, Cuba's Isla de la Juventud (where a whale shark cruised right by us on the first dive), Dominica and Saba, and many land trips, but this was by far the best trip--virtually expedition-- we've ever taken

Scuba Iguana has a well-deserved reputation for safety and environmental consciousness and all the dives were extremely well-run, at excellent sites. Because I was sick for the initial check out dives, I got to dive Islas Rocas on two separate days, and saw hammerheads on three of the four dives there--as well as a passing school and several sleeping individual white tips. As was the case with other sites, there were also several rays including a huge passing manta, and numerous turtles, huge swarms of Barracuda and an incredibly rich density of fish of all types.

You may want to check out such land options. We did encounter and sometimes dive with peope from yachts and live aboards from time to time, and they rather reminded us of the time my wife's sisters met us in Europe on one of these 20 copuntries in eight day specials: they seemed in a bit of a daze and a bit of a hurry. There is a great deal to see and experience on land, and also the opportunity to get to know the local community and people of Puerto Ayoro. We also enjoyed our days at Quito's incredible Cafe Cultura, which Scuba Ig managed to arrange for us.

erichK
saskatoon, canada

Having enjoyed ourselves on both the palau aggressor and tahiti aggressor in the past 8 months, we are trying to plan out '06. Unfortunately, the galapagos aggressor is booked solid from july through september which is when we most wanted to go. Interestingly enough i asked the same question of the other guests on our past 2 trips (one couple had been on all the agressor boats and commented that coco's was by far their favorite and that they had been there over 10 times!).

So, we still have never seen a whale shark and the guarantee of that in the Galapagos between July and September was the big draw. We both prefer the pelagics to the macro stuff, so what exactly does Coco's offer that the Galapagos does not? Are there other species of sharks common to Coco's that are not in the Galapagos? To date, we've been fortunate enough to see all of the reef sharks, silvertips, lemons, nurse, galapagos, blues, and great hammerheads. We both want depserately to see the schooling scalloped hammers which it sounds like are plentiful at both destinations and whale sharks. To those that have been to both, what are your thoughts and why and is their a best time of year to go to Cocos if that is indeed our choice? Also, if their happen to be anyone in any dive clubs that have the Galapagos Aggressors booked between July and September and looking to get rid of spaces please let me know. Thanks in advance for any opinions.