Galapagos Diving Adventure

Board your independent flight to Ecuador. Upon arrival in Guayaquíl, transfer to your hotel for a welcome dinner and overnight.  

After breakfast, transfer to the airport for your flight to San Cristóbal. Upon arrival, embark the Galapagos Sky. After settling in and getting acquainted with the ship, cruise to Los Lobos for a check-out dive. This site offers your first underwater introduction to Galápagos sea lions and fur seals - their acrobatic antics make for a thrilling and entertaining experience. Return to the ship for a welcome reception and dinner. 

While diving at Pinzón you have opportunities for encounters with a variety of species of sharks, sea lions, mantas, eagle rays, and moray eels. Some of the tropical species found here include yellow-tailed surgeonfish, king angelfish, Moorish idols, steel pompanos, snappers, grunts, creole fish, and barracuda. Your second dive of the day is around Cousins Rock, a beautiful wall that offers great viewing of  corals, frogfish, seahorses, scorpionfish, and octopus. The area is also frequented by large schools of barracuda and occasionally hammerhead sharks. Sea lions are your comical companions upon entry and on the safety stops. This evening, cruise toward the most isolated islands of the Galápagos—the uninhabited, untouched, twin cathedrals of world class-diving—Wolf and Darwin Islands.

Spend the next three days diving (up to four dives per day plus a night dive) around the legendary islands of Wolf and Darwin. Once you see Wolf and Darwin, you immediately understand why there are no shore excursions on this part of the cruise—there is no way up those dramatic vertical cliffs!
 
Wolf Island – This magical island has several dive sites to choose from. This is the place to find schooling hammerhead sharks, large aggregations of Galápagos sharks, dolphins, large schools of tuna, spotted eagle rays, barracudas, sea lions, and sea turtles. The bottom is covered with hundreds of moray eels, many of them free swimming. Being several degrees warmer than the central islands, you can look for many representatives of the Indo-Pacific underwater fauna. On a night dive here, you may also spot the unusual red-lipped batfish as it “walks” along the seafloor.

Darwin Island – Considered by many experienced divers as the very best dive site in the world, the water here is warmer by a few degrees than the central islands. In one single dive you can find schooling hammerhead sharks, Galápagos sharks, silky sharks, large pods of dolphins, thick schools of skipjack and yellow fin tuna, big eye jacks, and mobula rays. From June to November, it is not uncommon to encounter whale sharks in multiple numbers. The presence of occasional tiger sharks, black and blue marlin, and killer whales adds on to this amazing diving experience. If you still have time to look for smaller species, you can find octopus, flounders, and an enormous variety and abundance of tropical fish.

Join a morning dive at Cape (Cabo) Douglas, on the western side of Fernandina Island, where you can expect to see Galápagos penguins, marine iguanas, flightless cormorants, sea lions, seahorses, sea turtles, horn sharks, and occasional hammerhead and white tip sharks. Other species commonly encountered include chevron barracuda, snappers, yellowfin tuna, rainbow runners, and wahoo. Smaller species include creole fish, parrotfish, scrawled filefish, Pacific boxfish, and tiger snake eels.

At Punta Vicente Roca, on Isabela Island, there may be an opportunity for two dives. This is your coldest dive yet as you descend along a steep vertical wall covered in soft coral, sponges, and endemic black coral. Here you can expect to find sea horses, bullhead sharks, red-lipped batfish, various shrimp and many other marine invertebrates, and with luck, the amazing mola mola. Keep your eyes open for flightless cormorants, penguins, and maybe even a marine iguana. An after-dive panga ride offers great topside photo ops for penguins, flightless cormorants, marine iguanas, sea lions, blue-footed and Nazca boobies, magnificent frigatebirds, and noddy terns. 

Go ashore on Bartolomé for an invigorating hike to a panoramic viewpoint where breathtaking views abound. Conditions permitting, go diving in an area where Galápagos penguins are often found. After your dive, disembark in Puerto Ayora and take a scenic drive into the highlands. Here you can see giant Galápagos tortoises in their natural environment. Return to Puerto Ayora where there is free time to explore on your own. Return to the Galapagos Sky for a farewell dinner and overnight.

This morning disembark in San Cristóbal and visit the Interpretation Center where an interesting human history of the Galápagos is presented. There is free time to stroll around town before transferring to the airport for your late-morning flight to Guayaquíl. Check in to your hotel for dinner and overnight. 

Board your independent homeward flight.