Galapagos animals

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Scubadiving in Galapagos

Scubadiving in the Galapagos trip is truly amazing, it is worth spending a few days in the island of Santa Cruz where most of the scubadiving companies are.

Since the diving centers don’t go to the same place on a daily basis, you definately need at least 3 – 4 days to plan your diving schedule.  Shop around and compare the prices, some diving centers resell the tour to a real center. It’s best to ask if they own the boat and who is the dive master, and if there is another other dive leader along with the dive. A lot of the dive spots have strong currents and incredible underwater surges, for a not so experience diver like me, it is best to team up with an experience dive leader.

In Santa Cruz, prices range from us$155 for 2 dives to us$175, standard lunch and some photos of you diving. The great thing about diving in Santa Cruz is that there are many more places to dive than the rest of the island, the most famous is Gordon Rock, Seymour, the Plazas.

In Isabela, price for the one and only dive spot in Isle de Tortuga is us$120 but since there isn’t many visitors, often you need to wait around as a min. of 4 divers is needed. In San Cristobal, only one dive spot as well in Leon Dormido, cost us$120 and you get on the same boat jammed packed with about 25 other snorkellers.

In summary, I swam with penguins, sea lions, blue foot boobies, marina turtles, marina iguanas, mantra rays, stingrays, hammerheads, 1 galapagos shark (apparently, according to the dive leader), white tip and black tip sharks, saw crazy boobies diving down to fish,  so close to me that it is almost an arm’s length. Unfortunately I don’t have a waterproof camera and have to rely on the kind diving folks for these photos. Maybe next time!

Meanwhile here’s me getting pounded by the currents while scubadiving.