Deep Blue

Scuba Diving Vessel

Detailed Itinerary

Monday: Arrive San Cristóbal Island - Interpretation Center
This morning Andean Discovery staff will transfer you to the airport in time for your flight to Galápagos. Upon arrival at the San Cristóbal Island Airport, you will be met by your Galápagos Naturalist Guide and proceed to the dock to board the Deep Blue. Enjoy a delicious lunch on board and proceed to the port town on San Cristobal Island, Baquerizo Moreno. This small attractive port is located along a crescent-shaped bay and is the provincial capital of the Galápagos Islands (population 4,000). It was this very same island that Charles Darwin first visited, back in September 1835. Visit the San Cristóbal Interpretation Center, located in a natural setting, where you can obtain information that helps to understand the natural history of the Galápagos, with a great emphasis on human history and conservation. Return to the boat for dinner and a briefing by your Galapagos Naturalist Guide and Divemaster about tomorrow’s activities.

Tuesday: North Seymour Island
This morning wake up early and gear up for your first dive at 6:00am (passengers may opt to take the first dive after breakfast). At 6:30am, begin your first dive off the coast of North Seymour Island. Located just north of Baltra Island, North Seymour boasts five dive sites and you will visit two of them this morning. Here it is possible to observe whitetip reef sharks, numerous tropical fish, sea turtles, and various other sea creatures. After lunch, visit North Seymour Island. North Seymour’s topography is flat and strewn with boulders due to its origins as an uplifted, not volcanic, island. Here there are large populations of magnificent Frigate birds due to the ideal nesting sites. Blue-footed Boobies perform their courtship dance in the more open areas and swallow-tailed gulls perch on the outer shore. Sea lions and marine iguanas can also be seen hauled out on the beach. Dinner and briefing on board.

Wednesday: Wolf Island
This morning you will reach the far northwest side of the archipelago, one of the least visited areas in Galápagos. Prepare for an exciting day with four dives around Wolf Island. The schedule may vary, but typically the first dive begins at 6:30am before breakfast. After breakfast at 8:30am, prepare for second dive at approximately 10:00am. After lunch, your third dive will start around 2:00pm and your last dive of the day will begin at 4:15pm. After each dive, the boat will navigate to a various dive sites so that you can explore different ecosystems and habitats. Wolf and Darwin Island are considered to be among the best dive sites in Galápagos and in the world! Here you may see several species of rays including the manta ray, sting ray, and spotted eagle ray. Inevitably you will see lots of tropical fish and with a little luck you may swim with bottlenose dolphins.

Thursday: Darwin Island
Enjoy four dives today around Darwin Island. Darwin Island offers the greatest possibility of seeing whale sharks. With a little luck, you will dive with the largest living fish species that can grow up to 40 feet long.

Friday: Darwin Island
Enjoy four more dives today around Darwin Island.

Saturday: Cape Marshall / Isabela Island
Enjoy four dives today at Cape Marshall, located on the eastern side of Isabela island. Here you encounter rocky volcanic cliffs that drop down to the ocean floor forming an almost vertical wall. You might see large animals like manta rays, marbled rays, hammerhead sharks, mola mola (sun fish) and marine turtles, but also Chevron barracuda, snappers, yellow fin tuna, rainbow runners, wahoo and groupers. There are many smaller fish like creole fish, parrot fish, scrawled file fish, pacific box fish and tiger snake eels.

Sunday: Cousin's Rock / Sullivan Bay
To the North of Bartolome, Cousin’s Rock is an interesting wall dive. Although visibility is just fair most of the year, you can find white tipped reef sharks, hammerhead sharks, sea lions hunting, fur seals, and many sleeping sea turtles. A highlight is a resident school of up to 30 spotted eagle rays. If you are interested in macro photography, look for sea horses, frogfish, lobster, arrow crabs, cup coral, long nose hawk fish, and nudibranchs, etc. This afternoon enjoy a Panga ride (zodiac boat) around Pinnacle Rock and Sullivan Bay to observe penguins. The Sullivan Bay lava field consists of a variety of interesting patterns and it is known a Panoehoe (Hawaiian for Rope). This thin-skinned lava's molten material cools down after an eruption causing the surface materials to buckle creating a rope like appearance. Panoehoe Lava is rare to the rest of the world, but is common to the volcanoes of Hawaii and the Galapagos Islands. This is not a dive site, but you may enjoy snorkleing with Galapagos Penguins. Evening briefing with your naturalist and dinner.

Monday: San Cristóbal Island - Depart
This morning return to San Cristóbal and oberve Galapagos land turtles at La Galapaguera in the highlands of the island. Later this morning transfer to the airport in time for your flight back to Quito. A light lunch is served on the flight. Upon arrival in Quito, transfer on your own to your hotel.

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