Travel
Departure of Geneva by Amsterdam, Bonaire and arrival at Guayaquil, with by KLM (not really good).
Then I spent a full day and a night at Guayaquil.
The hotel that was booked for me was bad, so try to avoid The California if you can.
On the other hand, as soon as I've been picked up by Peter Hugues team, the trip was managed in a very professional way.
The crew was equatorian and everyone was very sympatic. Most of divers were english speakers.
Many land visits have been scheduled, with the result that it was never boring.
Diving
Not for beginner because of clouded weather, strong currents and visibility never more than 15 meters.
The water was sometimes cold, therefore all dives are done with hood and gloves. I wear one 5 mm wetsuit and for some dives, I enjoyed an extra oversuit of 5mm.
Almost all dives were quite good: many fish, from the small stuff, for example the georgous creolfish, a lot of of tortoises,
on approximately 60% of dives, we saw the funny sealions.
4 molas-molas at Vicente Roca. I saw personally 5 whale-sharks at Wolf and Darwin.
Dolphins seen has the surface but under water they are distant.
whale-pilots seen luckily right before a dive at Wolf.
A lot of hammerheads but less Galapagos sharks.
Summary
The great fun by seeing all this big stuff !
I recommend this fabulous destination for lovers of virgin nature.
It's still one of the only places of our world where Nature preceeds Man.
Have a look at my pictures :
http://www.fivaz.com/Galapagos2005
Pascal, September 2005
+++ PLUS
- Variety of fauna both on the islands and under water.
The very special location of Galapagos archipel makes possible to see both cold water species and warm water species.
- Punta Vicenta Roca: A dramatic site where we've seen four mola-molas at once !!!
- Wolf and Darwin, probability to see whale-shark seems high end june - beginning july.
- visits of the islands.
--- LESS
- sometimes and in particular has Darwin, I would have like more dive witih currents and perhaps deeper
to be able to see hammerhead school by below.
- Weather. Most of the time covered in the morning and sunny beetween 10AM to 5PM.
