Galápagos

Schools of hammerheads, millions of fish, frisky seals, marine iguanas, even penguins – our readers give their verdicts on some unique, adrenalin diving... Interviews by Kate Quarry. Photographs by Matt Bailey


Cocoa and doughnuts - Alex Panayides

Alex Panayides, 30, lives and works in London. He is a solicitor, and has been a diver for ten years. He has dived in Tanzania, Kenya, Layang Layang in the South China Sea, the Red Sea, all over the Caribbean, and, most recently, the Galápagos, which he travelled to with Divequest.

I’ve been on quite a few diving holidays with Divequest, and normally travel with a group of ten people. This time we chose the Galápagos islands. It is a struggle getting there from the UK, but it’s a well-known destination for phenomenal diving and it lived up to our expectations – and more. The trip took ten days, with one week’s diving on board the Galápagos Aggressor – a plush boat, where we were very well looked after.

The diving conditions were challenging – the water would be lovely and warm one moment, then become freezing, and the currents were really quite strong. At certain points, you’d have to hang on to a rock for dear life, and watch the action go by. Because you’re holding on to something and not finning all the time to keep warm, I would recommend that you wear a thicker wetsuit than you might think you may need. I had a one-piece 5mm suit with a hood and was fairly comfortable, but I did get chilly towards the end of dives. The dive guides were excellent, and even when the group had drifted half or a quarter of a mile on a dive the RIBs were right there to pick us up. The Galápagos Aggressor was very comfortable, and the food was good and plentiful. They did go that extra yard, such as handing you a fluffy towel after each dive, and serving cocoa and freshly made doughnuts. We were barely allowed to touch our equipment, and the crew was very accommodating: every evening they’d sit down with everyone and ask what we’d like to see the next day.

There was one dive in particular that I’ll never forget; the visibility was good, about 20–25m, and we saw 300–400 hammerheads, stretching as far as the eye could see. On the safety stop we were surrounded by sea lions and sharks, and once we were in the little RIB, a pilot whale suddenly jumped out of the water about three yards away. This was around the northern islands, and I would recommend divers went for there rather than southern itineraries, as you’re more likely to get exciting dives. However, heading north is weather dependent and the trip takes about 15 hours.

You shouldn’t go to the Galápagos for macro life and coral: it’s mainly bare lava but, on most dives we saw everything we’d hoped to see – sea lions, large shoals of fish such as tuna, trevally and snapper – fish as far as you could see. We made a special detour to one of the sites in the islands to look for seahorses and even though the water temperature was cold at 9–10ºC, luckily we saw some which was fantastic.


A swell time - John Weinberg

John Weinberg, 43, has been diving for 24 years and runs a training school and dive shop, Scuba Training in Fulham, London. He has taken two groups to the Galápagos Islands. Among other qualifications he is a BSAC advanced instructor.

I’ve taken two groups to the Galápagos Islands, one of 14 and one of 18. I booked both trips directly with the boat – the trimaran, Lammer Law, although now, Regal is the boat’s agent. Although all the boats were expensive, the quality varied an lot, and I thought it was worth paying that little bit more to get what I saw as the best boat.

The first time we flew via Miami to Quito in Ecuador, and then on to the Galápagos, and the second time with KLM via Curaçao to Quito. You can also use Guayaquil airport in Ecuador where a bus will pick you up to take you to the boat, but you need extra vaccinations to take that route – via Quito, you don’t need any malaria medication. For our first dive we went to a shallow area just to check that all the equipment was working and when we had a look around we saw 12 hammerheads just cruising by.

Seven major oceanic currents converge on the Galápagos, so most sites are difficult to dive, with strong currents or a big swell. The water temperature can vary from 19°C to 29°C on a single dive, although some sites are colder than others. The Galápagos sharks can be more inquisitive than some divers like – they’ll come fairly close while you’re underwater, but then realize that you’re bigger than they are and see you as a bit of a threat. Once you’re on the surface waiting to be picked up they’ll come very close and sometimes even bump you.

We saw lots of seals and sea lions, marine iguanas and penguins underwater. There are also giant seahorses, and many endemic species such as the giant blenny and the red-lipped batfish, which looks more like a toadfish. On one dive, we were about to get into the water with cameras poised, when some killer whales went past the end of the inflatable. I really was wondering if this was such a good idea, but then the bubbles cleared and they were gone.
The northernmost islands of Darwin and Wolf are where the schools of hammerheads tend to congregate. Although in a one-week trip, you probably won’t have time to get there, so, for the best chance of seeing the hammerheads, go for a longer trip.

A typical day out with the Lammer Law includes three dives and two island walks, during which you can learn all about the wildlife from a naturalist who travels with each group. I did a couple of night dives but because the islands are, essentially, mid-ocean, and the currents can be dangerous, the fear is that if divers drift away they will never be spotted, so night dives aren’t usual. In the Galápagos, there are threats to the wildlife: humans have introduced colonies of wasps, dogs, cats and goats that are wiping out indigenous vegetation and animals. Also, although all fishing is prohibited, sea horses, sea cucumbers, lobsters and sharks are still caught, because there isn’t enough money to employ enough people to protect the area.

The Galápagos isn’t a place to go if you want to see coral, there is some but because conditions are so changeable with different currents, the coral continually dies and recovers, so doesn’t always look particularly pretty. But I’d say that the Galápagos has some of the most interesting and challenging diving I’ve ever done: the life underwater is fantastic, as is the life on the islands.


Somersaulting sea lions - David Hepworth

David Hepworth, 31, is from Leeds, and works as a diving instructor. He took a group of six people from Leeds-based Bear Divers to the Galápagos with Hayes and Jarvis. They dived from the Galápagos Aggressor.

Visiting the Galápagos was a dream trip, and was spectacularly wonderful. It was a 12-day trip that included one week’s diving – the other days were spent travelling. The journey is a bit of a pig, and it is tiring, but we were filled with anticipation. We flew from Gatwick to Quito via Curaçao, and spent a day looking at downtown Quito and the surrounding area. From Quito we flew to the Galápagos, stopping at another airport on the Ecuadorian coast to pick up passengers. Once we got there, I’d say there are simply no adequate words to describe the trip – it was everything we’d hoped for, and more.

I have never before seen so many fish in one location – in some shoals there were, truly, millions of fish. Just one example was a shoal of banded jacks that was 15m high and so dense you couldn’t see through it. There were so many fish that the shoal took five minutes to swim past us, and I’ve got the whole thing on video. We also saw some barracuda, mantas and lots of scalloped hammerheads, which we got very close to, and some very large Galápagos sharks.
The diving isn’t for the faint-hearted. The visibility varies a lot, from 10m to 25m and the currents, surge and wave action were all extremely strong. We weren’t really prepared for this – none of us had brought gloves, thinking that there would be coral there. But there isn’t really any, and on many dives we had to cling to the volcanic rocks, fighting a losing battle with the surge or current, getting quite serious cuts on our hands. I recommend anyone going there to take light gloves. Because of the conditions, staying in a large group on a dive isn’t possible, so you dive as independent buddy pairs.

Although the sharks were great, the most fun dives we had were with the sea lions. We smuggled a few pieces of rope – about a metre long – down in our BC pockets and played games, with the sea lions grabbing the ropes and tugging them. They sped up to us at top speed and would then laugh in our faces, blowing bubble, then trying to chew our hoses and play with our fins. I’ve got video of one of our group, Janice, doing somersaults with a sea lion copying her. I didn’t realize until I replayed the video that it was also mimicking her breathing, and breathing out exactly when she did. We also did two night dives, which were unbelievable. There was the brightest bioluminescence I’ve ever seen, and I had to turn my flashlight off in the end as there were so many creatures crawling round it that the light was only illuminating them, and nothing beyond.

The trip cost about £2,800 per person, and I’d rob a bank to go again. The boat was superb; it really made the trip, as there was somewhere nice to relax after each strenuous dive. The crew was excellent and the food stunningly good. It was the little things that made all the difference. For example, after each dive you were handed a hot cup of tea or coffee and a warm towel.

The weather was mostly good while we were diving around the Galápagos Islands – it wasn’t too windy and the swell was, on average, 2m. I wouldn’t like to be there in bad weather: I got the impression that it was a harsh place – although it’s always full of wonder – and that humans can only survive there by bringing all the comforts of civilisation with them.


Eat, sleep, dive - Gaenor Power

Gaenor Power, 57, runs a restaurant in Folkingham, Lincolnshire. She has been a diver for 22 years and has been heavily involved with both Grantham BSAC and the Lincolnshire Association of Sub-Aqua Clubs. She takes diving holidays three or four times a year, but still finds time to dive at Stoney Cove. Her husband and two sons are non-divers.

Diving in the Galápagos is one of the best experiences for a diver – if you can afford it. Because of the cost, I realized that there would never be a great big group going, but five of us – all people that I met on other diving holidays – went there for 28 days with Regal. It really was the trip of a lifetime for all of us: I have dived all over the world, and this is the one place that stands out as being quite unique in its diversity.

We chose to go on the Lammer Law because I’d heard it mentioned several times before in connection with the Galápagos. The boat itself is superb, and the standards are something else compared with the usual Red Sea liveaboards. Our group were all quite experienced divers, and I’d say that you need at least 100 dives of varying shades of difficulty to enjoy the diving here, as it is a challenging area. You do need to have a degree of self-reliance in order not to be intimidated by the conditions. If you’re experienced at diving in British waters, that’s the kind of diving on offer.

The diving programme was packed: we were offered four dives a day, and all we did was eat, sleep and dive – even for the best divers, it was quite exhausting. With so much diving, it’s not a good trip to take a non-diving partner on. After the last dive of the day the boat travelled overnight to the first site for the next day, and as we got further north it got rougher, so I’d recommend taking medication if you suffer from seasickness. Wolf and Darwin islands in particular are quite extreme, as there’s nowhere to anchor. The pangas [RIBs] would run full belt at the stern and you would jump on, already fully kitted-up. You have to develop quite a ‘Galápagos handshake’ for this manoeuvre! Safety is also paramount as some of the islands, such as Wolf, Darwin, Roca Redonda and Nameless Rock, are extremely isolated. Dive boats have been known to lose a few divers in the past.

We saw seals on every dive, and they have no fear of humans so they came up very close, which was memorable. There were dense shoals of fish: the sardines and anchovies would form themselves into the shape of a fish, and we watched the seals diving among them. When we were diving at Wolf and Darwin, we saw 400 to 500 hammerheads at a time – so many, they looked like black clouds in the water. We snorkelled with penguins at Bartholomé Island, which was wonderful. I could sell the trip to anybody! I had hoped to see a whale shark, as it was the right time of year, but unfortunately was disappointed there.

The diving trip was for two weeks, and we then went back to Quito in Ecuador and spent the rest of the time travelling around the country, visiting places such as a market in Latacunga, and the rainforest. We stayed in a jungle lodge reached by motorized canoe, and climbed a 40m-high tree at dawn to watch the parrots leaving the tree canopy for the day. We also went white-water rafting, and stayed in haciendas full of antiques. The divide between rich and poor people in Ecuador is very obvious – you can’t help but see it. We did realize how privileged we were from the West. We wanted to make the best of our time there, and also climbed Cotopaxi in the Avenue of the Volcanoes, realizing we might never have the opportunity to go back there.