We boarded the Sky on Sunday afternoon after a swift check in procedure assisted by the Ecoventura operator and a flight that from Quito stopped at Guayaquil to then proceed to San Cristobal.
As soon as we got on board we received a number of briefings, with the safety one being the most detailed I have ever seen on a boat. Due to challenging conditions each diver is equipped with a surface marker buoy (pretty tiny and smaller than my AP Valves 6 feet DSMB) a dive horn (reduced dramatically the inflation power of my BCD so I abandoned after a few dives) and the Nautilus safety device, this one very interesting with a walk talk function and integrated GPS. We were told water temperature had been unusually high for the last weeks reaching 27C which we did not take as a good sign.
We then jumped in the water for a check dive with visibility close to 0 at least the sea lions were at play though you could barely see them.
The day after we went for a land walk on Bartolome which was brilliant.
From here you can have a view of the landscape from the top point
https://www.flickr.com/photos/interceptor121/14255626665/in/set-72157644403759400
We then proceeded to two dives at Cousin Rocks that were pretty green and dark and had average visibility of 10 meters
I took some decent close video of turtles and schooling barracudas but nothing too great.
Overnight we moved to Wolf but there was strong current against us so the next day we could only do 3 day dives and one night dive.
The dives were good but we only saw single sharks no schools until the 3rd day dive where I was surrounded by around 20 galapagos sharks (none of them came to close except this one)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/interceptor121/14027833128/in/set-72157644719557612
On the way to the safety stop we saw schooling hammerheads at depth in the blue. The night dive that followed was not memorable.
So we set towards Darwin expecting the schools of sharks but there weren't any to be seen in fact we decided to go back to Wolf after the first dive in Darwin confirmed the schools of hammerheads were not there. We did entertain the surge and hanging onto the rocks
https://www.flickr.com/photos/interceptor121/14212109532/in/set-72157644719557612
Back at Wolf conditions were better but again mostly Galapagos sharks and no signs of hammerhead schools close to the reef, this is the only decent shot I could take sadly a tail in the blue below our group at safety stop
https://www.flickr.com/photos/interceptor121/14027852248/in/set-72157644719557612
The day after we headed back to Cape Marshall and Punta Vicente Roca where the water was green
https://www.flickr.com/photos/interceptor121/14028406758/in/set-72157644719557612
Sea lions were hunting Salemas
https://www.flickr.com/photos/interceptor121/14213998304/in/set-72157644317011237
And there were also some large sea horses
https://www.flickr.com/photos/interceptor121/14215197742/in/set-72157644719557612
our last dive in Pinzon was to find the Red lipped batfish but no signs of Mantas or Mola Mola
https://www.flickr.com/photos/interceptor121/14027568328/in/set-72157644317011237
Apparently El Nino is coming and this is not going to be good news for Wildlife in Galapagos better hurry up to see the animals before they get decimated
So despite a good boat (but not exceptional and definitely not very stable boat) a great crew (the guides Santiago and Max tried their very best and the rest of the crew was excellent and helpful at all times) the trip was a bit of a sweet and sour with Darwin being a great disappointment
Luckily we decided to spend time on Land and the snorkeling at Las Tuneles (Isabela) and Santa Fe (from Santa Cruz) were brilliant
https://www.flickr.com/photos/interceptor121/sets/72157644403759400/
Our last days were spent in Quito a dramatic scenery and very interesting Old Town which we followed with an ascent to Cotapaxi at 5000 meters followed by a treacherous descent by mountain bike
https://www.flickr.com/photos/interceptor121/sets/72157644834881902/
I would definitely recommend Galapagos and also Quito and what we could see of Ecuador although I now need to look at another trip for schooling hammerheads and with El Nino coming the hammerheads seems to be far from the reef and deeper in all of Galapagos, Cocos and Malpelo!
