Dive areas you may visit on this itinerary:
Punta Carrion: This is a fantastic introduction to the rich waters that bless these islands. Here you canencounter your first sharks, sea lions and rays on great boulder strewn reefs. Punta Carrión's dive sites are in the Itabacca channel between Santa Cruz and Baltra islands. The coastline is barren and rocky with a few scattered trees like many of the Galápagos Islands, but Sally Lightfoot crabs brighten the rocks up with their bright red backs and blue and yellow faces. There are also sea lions sleeping on the rocks, red kites and pelicans all around the Itabacca channel, giving you a taste of the amazing wildlife that covers the Galapagos National Park.
Wolf Island: One of those magical islands, with several dive sites to choose from. If you want to see sharks, you are at the right spot. This is a place for schooling scalloped hammerhead sharks, large aggregations of Galapagos sharks, and occasionally whale sharks. Seeing dolphins, large schools of tuna, spotted eagle rays, barracudas, sea lions and sea turtles is common. The bottom is littered 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 will also enjoy spotting and watching the Red Lipped bat fish walk along the bottom of the sea!
Darwin Island: Considered by many experienced divers as the very best dive location in the world, Darwin Island honours its reputation. It's warmer by a few degrees than the central islands. In one single dive you can find schooling scalloped hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, large pods of dolphins, thick schools of skipjack and yellow fin tuna, big eye jacks, mobula rays, and silky sharks.
From June to November, it's not uncommon to encounter whale sharks in multiple numbers on one single dive. 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 stuff, you’ll find octopus, flounders, and an enormous variety and abundance of tropical fish. Darwin Island is the biggest jewel on the Galapagos Crown.
Cabo Douglas: On the western side of Fernandina Island, we will do one dive Friday morning. Here you can expect to see Galapagos penguins, marine iguanas, flightless cormorants, sea lions, seahorse, sea turtles, horn sharks, red-lipped batfish, and occasional hammerhead sharks and white tip sharks. Also keep an eye out for chevron barracuda, snappers, yellow fin tuna, rainbow runners, and wahoo. There are also a lot of smaller fishes like creole fishes, parrot fishes, scrawled filefishes, pacific box fishes, and tiger snake eels.
Punta Vincente Roca: This site brings cooler waters, but remains a firm favourite. The site is characterised by a steep, deep vertical wall covered in soft coral, sponges, and endemic black coral. Regular sightings of mola mola (oceanic sun fish), sea horses, bullhead sharks, red lipped bat fish, various shrimp and many other marine invertebrates. Keep your eyes open for fly bys from the flightless cormorants, penguins and maybe even a marine iguana.
Cousin’s Rock: One of the most photographically productive dives of the region, Cousin’s Rock is formed of coral covered rock and lava flow. Sea fans, hydroid bushes, red sponges and small hard corals encrust ledges and overhangs, sheltering hawkfish, nudibranchs, frogfish and seahorses. Plenty of larger visitors are also seen including giant manta and mobula rays, spotted eagle rays and hammerhead sharks. The wall drops beyond 30m (100ft) but rises up shallow to just 3m (10ft) providing an ideal spot to end your dive playing with the sea lions.
EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: You must be an Advanced Open Water diver or equivalent and have logged a minimum of 100 dives to join this safari.
