Famous for it's fearless wildlife, a dive trip to the Galapagos is a unique experience. The Galapagos is the meeting point of two great oceanic currents, the cold (c.10 degrees C) Humboldt current running from Antartica to the south and a warm equatorial current (c. 22 degrees C) coming from the north. It is this meeting of two great water masses that creates the perfect nutrient rich waters that support a fantastic array of life.When you combine the thrilling diving with the land tours, you come face to face with a truly remamarkable variety of wildlife and there's no doubt that these ingredients combine to make a wonderful holiday.
Liveaboard is the arguably the best way to see the Galapagos and if you are travelling all that way for the scuba diving, you should ensure that you visit the northern islands of Darwin and Wolf where you can expect to encounter large schools of hammerheads. Sealions, turtles, sharks and rays are common as well as the unique marine iguanas and Galapagos Penguins.
The Galapagos Islands are an isolated group of islands located 1000km from Ecuador. There are 13 large islands, 6 small islands and hosts of little rocky islets. The diving is good throughout the year but there are two distinct seasons. Each offers a good time for visiting but the character of each season is different. December to June is the warmer time of year when the water temperature can reach 25 C (77F) and the sea is usually at its calmest. Although this is the wetter of the two periods,there is plenty of sunshine and blue skies. From June to November is the dryer season with a lower air temperature and colder water temperature. The cool Humboldt current pushes from the south and currents can be a little stronger.
Most liveaboards depart from the central island of Santa Cruz. On the south of this island is Puerto Ayora which is the largest town in Galapagos and to the north of the island and separated by a narrow strait is Isla Baltra which is where the main airport is located. For travel from Europe, an overnight in either Guayaquil or Quito is required prior to joining the onward connection into the Galapagos Islands.
There are many liveaboards that operate in the islands. Some of them are dedicated to diving and others offer occasional diving so choose your vessel carefully. Lammer Law, Mistral, Deep Blue and the Galapagos Aggressor are some of the better known diving liveaboards. The standard of dive-guiding is high as all guides must be licenced and are usually extremely knowledgeable and often very passionate about their subject. I can understand why !
By Sam Harwood Scuba Tours Worldwide, UK
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