Preliminary Galapagos Questions

[Will Rogers]

Ah the fun of commencing planning a new trip.

We are looking at visiting Ecuador and the Galapagos next summer with two teens who will be 14 & 16.

My wife and I have dived all over the world - but not the Galapagos. Strong currents are not an issue, though the colder water might be. Brrr.

But our children were just certified last summer and have together barely 10 dives. They are absolute beginners having played around in a Bahamian bathtub. Keen, but not likely ready for a liveaboard. May not even be welcome or fair to others.

So, how to craft such a trip.

1) Timing. It sounds as if June - August is not such a bad time to go. That is really our window with kids in school. July might be better from a diving standpoint. Any other timing considerations?

2) Liveaboard. Darwin and Wolf look to be the places to try and get to, but only by dive liveaboard. And this is where the hammerheads most reliably school and in the greatest numbers. True? These islands are some distance away, so visited only on week long cruises?

3) Other options. Naturalist cruises? Land based destinations? I have much research to do, but any suggestions to get me going?

4) Amount of time. We could like take three weeks, but would want to explore mainland Ecuador (about which I know very little) and possible the Amazon. Doable?

Many thanks. I thought I would start my search with my fellow divers on the Scuba Board!

Will

 

[sunshower]

For myself, I wouldn't take kids with the dive experience you described. Our boat was usually four or five dives a day; there were negative entries, fairly cool water, gearing up in cold wet suits, ascents in the blue. Boats today are much more expensive than then I went ten years ago. I'd wait and get the kids more experience before spending the big bucks. Regarding Wolf and Darwin, they are the bomb.

 

[Azbuceadora]

June-August in Galapagos and the mainland coast are the "garua" season, a time of cooler air and water temps; there will be a mix of sunny mornings with occasional showers or mist. Warmer waters and air temps will be January-March.

You're absolutely right about the liveaboards--they are generally for 7-8 days, and they are the only way to get to Wolf and Darwin. I agree with above, don't take the kids with so little experience. They would go stir crazy.

The naturalist cruises are great; the Ecoventura boats especially cater to families, with a guide just for the kids, with kids' interests and activity levels in mind. The adults get their own guide. The general routine on a good boat is to rise early, eat breakfast, take a shore excursion followed by snorkeling, back to the boat for lunch and the next destination, another shore excursion, maybe a second snorkel, then dinner and a briefing for the next day.

You can arrange for day diving with a shop on Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, or Isabela island. Hammerheads are often spotted around Gordon Rocks. There is also diving on the mainland from Puerto Lopez; humpback whales will be in residence there during the summer.

Come over to TripAdvisor's Ecuador forum and we can help you plan a great trip to Ecuador.

 

[blatter]

Hi sunshower - what boat did you go with? Am planning trip sometime in next year or so and looking at different options.

 

[sunshower]

It was the Deep Blue. A very nice boat; spent ten days on it; good crew, warm towels, and hot chocolate after every dive. Not sure if it's still operating; pretty sure things have changed a bit since 2007.

 

[blatter]

Thanks for that - will look it up.

 

[Dom@DiveAdvice]

Hi guys - just a word on this - the Deep Blue that we represented for more than ten years was taken over by the folks from the Siren/Master Fleets, who completely rebuilt her from keel upwards and is now known as the Galapagos Master - you can see images of her on our website at Galapagos Liveaboards
Until I just read the above report of the state of the Aggressor, I would have put her alongside the GPS Sky as the top live-boards in the islands - I have been on all of them and she certainly used to be really tops. But the destination has grown extremely expensive and seems to continue to increase in price every year. I would now rate the Galapagos Master and Humboldt Explorer as the two best options taking into consideration comfort, space, crew and guides, but most of all they are far less expensive. My preferred period to be there is August thru October and if you can go this year then there are all sorts of amazing deals being offered, including the last two spaces on our charter aboard the Master for July 31 at 50% discount and $1500 off several of our charters aboard the Master and Humboldt in September. Strange year, September is usually full from year to year but we had a lot of cancellations and Galapagos seems to have fallen out of fashion - so maybe ideal time to take advantage. You can contact me from the website if you have any questions. As the man above says - its as good as it gets in terms of high action marine life. Hope you can make it.

 

[Dom@DiveAdvice]

Apologies - I was referring to another post right next to this on the Galapagos Aggressor trip report.

 

[hilljo88]

I have done naturalist cruise with teenagers and liveaboard to Wolf/Darwin. While the liveaboard is a bucket list trip for divers, kids with limited experience would be bored and most of the dives would be very challenging for their level of experience. The week long naturalist trips are great. Most have snorkeling almost every day. There is also an opportunity for a scuba dive or two on San Cristobal and Santa Cruz.

 

[Dom@DiveAdvice]

I think that you could plan an excellent naturalist trip with every day snorkeling and a few days of diving but as the diving excursions work out very expensive and mean you lose out on the land trip, you maybe best to plan just the naturalist trip and then add a few more days on Santa Cruz or Isabela and add some dive days. One can easily set those up so that the diving would not be too challenging for your kids but they would still get a kick out of it and it would not break the bank !