ElEstratega
Registered
My wife and I went diving with Exploramar in Isla de la Plata, off the coast of mainland Ecuador. I'm a novice diver with less than 30 dives in my logbook, but I did get to see some wonderful places last year in Thailand and Malaysia and I recently went diving at the Illes Medes close to Barcelona, where I live. I wasn't expecting much from Isla de la Plata as you hear so little about it in terms of diving. That probably helped in making this trip so great.
We went on four dives with Exploramar; the first two on one side of the island were "Roca Honda" (Deep Rock) and "Punta del Faro" (Lighthouse Point?). Depth was almost 30m for most of these dives. Water temperature was around 20C but thermoclines brought it down to 12-14C at times! It was pretty chilly down there so that wasn't very enjoyable, even with a 7mm. Still, first thing we see after coming down the line is a turtle swimming by! We got a look at some pretty gorgonians and plenty of marine life. Unfortunately most of us couldn't resist the temperatures for too long and the dives were short, around 30 mins. The third and fourth dives at "Arrecife del Faro" (Lighthouse reef) and "Drake's Bay" were much more pleasant as there were no thermoclines and depth was around 15m, so we managed to stay there for 50-60 minutes. The amount of fish there was incredible, and we saw more turtles and even a lobster.
Just before this trip and thanks to the recommendations from many on this board we bought a Canon Powershot A570 IS with waterproof case. It worked wonderfully. It was a bit hard taking pictures and focusing on the dive at the beginning, especially with the cold currents, but our pictures got better and better. You can take a look at the results at our website. You may also find it interesting to see the pictures from Puerto López and Isla de la Plata, as on the trips between the two places we got to see humpback whales and dolphins every time (not diving!). They put on a wonderful show.
My only complaint would be the price. Exploramar charged us $90 per day. That may not sound like much considering the trip from Puerto López to Isla de la Plata takes one and a half hours and it includes lunch. They also provide you with all the dive equipment you need (except booties, we had to go with socks) and there is the whale watching. However a walking tour to Isla de la Plata costs $30, which means the markup for diving is $60, much more than what I've paid before in Thailand and close to what I've paid in Spain.
In any case, it was worth it and the Exploramar team does a good job. If you visit Ecuador and a trip to the Galapagos is too expensive or you just want some more diving after you've been there, I think Isla de la Plata is definitely worth a visit.
Diego
We went on four dives with Exploramar; the first two on one side of the island were "Roca Honda" (Deep Rock) and "Punta del Faro" (Lighthouse Point?). Depth was almost 30m for most of these dives. Water temperature was around 20C but thermoclines brought it down to 12-14C at times! It was pretty chilly down there so that wasn't very enjoyable, even with a 7mm. Still, first thing we see after coming down the line is a turtle swimming by! We got a look at some pretty gorgonians and plenty of marine life. Unfortunately most of us couldn't resist the temperatures for too long and the dives were short, around 30 mins. The third and fourth dives at "Arrecife del Faro" (Lighthouse reef) and "Drake's Bay" were much more pleasant as there were no thermoclines and depth was around 15m, so we managed to stay there for 50-60 minutes. The amount of fish there was incredible, and we saw more turtles and even a lobster.
Just before this trip and thanks to the recommendations from many on this board we bought a Canon Powershot A570 IS with waterproof case. It worked wonderfully. It was a bit hard taking pictures and focusing on the dive at the beginning, especially with the cold currents, but our pictures got better and better. You can take a look at the results at our website. You may also find it interesting to see the pictures from Puerto López and Isla de la Plata, as on the trips between the two places we got to see humpback whales and dolphins every time (not diving!). They put on a wonderful show.
My only complaint would be the price. Exploramar charged us $90 per day. That may not sound like much considering the trip from Puerto López to Isla de la Plata takes one and a half hours and it includes lunch. They also provide you with all the dive equipment you need (except booties, we had to go with socks) and there is the whale watching. However a walking tour to Isla de la Plata costs $30, which means the markup for diving is $60, much more than what I've paid before in Thailand and close to what I've paid in Spain.
In any case, it was worth it and the Exploramar team does a good job. If you visit Ecuador and a trip to the Galapagos is too expensive or you just want some more diving after you've been there, I think Isla de la Plata is definitely worth a visit.
Diego
