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Galapagos = big action! |
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Galapagos moments |
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Some land tours included |
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The name of a destination like this bears repeating, after all. Galapagos will lead off our 2000 dive tour season, and we've scheduled three two-week trips in April and May to satisfy our action addicted guests. Satisfy? Did I say satisfy? Frankly, this is the type of diving that you can't ever get enough of, and we've designed a program specifically to take advantage of the best the Galapagos offers the underwater photographer or the non-photographer who simply wants to witness the greatest underwater wildlife spectacle nature has to offer in any ocean. |
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Our program will target those islands which traditionally produce the best opportunity to see whale sharks, the biggest hammerhead schools, the most dramatic Galapagos shark action, the spots where enormous schools of rays regularly gather, and those places where the playful sea lions abound. We'll concentrate on action diving where the schools of fish can |
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become so thick, they block the sun and divers can disappear entirely within the school. Or reefs where over one hundred turtles have often been seen on a single dive, while the blue water off the reef is filled with tuna, wahoo, jacks, sharks, dolphin, even marlin and sailfish.We'll spend our time on reefs that frequently explode with so much marine life at a given time that we call such dazzling eruptions ``Galapagos Moments". During these Galapagos Moments, we simply drop our cameras from our eye and stare in disbelief, trying vainly to absorb the experience in its fullest splendor. |
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We concentrate on this staggering action at a price, however. Our Galapagos programs are designated Photo Pro Tours, and the underlying philosophy is that we will seek out only the best underwater photographic situations and spend whatever time necessary at these special sites to get great photos. A photo pro knows that those |
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magazine cover shots are the result of patience and dedication, and to get them, it often takes time. Our Photo Pro Tour itinerary is designed to allow that time at those sites most likely to produce the very action divers came to Galapagos for in the first place. Other tours attempt to cover as much territory as possible, often leaving a productive site after just a dive or two, simply for the sake of adding another reef to the dive log. We make our decisions based on knowledge and experience, and in that regard, we not only have more direct, personal experience diving the Galapagos than any other dive tour company owners, we even have more diving experience in the Galapagos than the dive guides! That's right, for we started diving Galapagos in 1980, and that's 20 years worth of experience we draw upon in our decision making process. |
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Do we do land tours as well? |
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Some. But we'll do land tours only when convenient to our diving and when the quality of the land tour warrants it. However, quality diving will never be sacrificed for any land tour. Typically, our guests can expect three or four land excursions during the course of our two week trip. But no one should sign up for one of our Galapagos programs expecting extensive land tour opportunities. Ours are serious dive programs for serious divers, plain and simple. |
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Dive Boat |
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The Galapagos Aggressor has served us well since 1996, and will again be our choice to start the new millennium. At
85 ft. and well laid out with seven double cabins, she offers ample space for our ten diving guests and their camera equipment. E-6 processing and Nitrox by special request are bonus features not offered by competing Galapagos dive boats. Two 20 ft. inflatable ``pangas" follow the divers' bubbles on the surface, so divers never need fight any current as each dive effectively becomes a drift dive. The crew includes two experienced underwater guides, and divers are welcome to follow them or choose their own pace. And while we charter the Galapagos Aggressor, ours are 100% Rainbowed Sea Tour programs, designed by us and operated by us specifically to meet the special interests of our photo oriented guests. |
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Galapagos diving can be more challenging than many tropical reef destinations. Currents can be strong, surge is not uncommon, and in spite of the equatorial location, cold water currents can reduce visibility in addition to requiring more substantial wetsuits, even drysuits. Yet, it is this very mix of currents, both warm and cold, that make Galapagos diving so unique. Imagine a dive site that mixes penguins with tropical fish, fur seals with manta rays! By the same token, Galapagos diving can be warm, clear and calm, depending on the particular island, day and season. It is not recommended as a beginner's destination, but any solid intermediate diver in decent physical condition will find Galapagos diving well within their capabilities. Our guests to Galapagos have ranged in age from 18 to 75. |
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So don't find yourself years from now in a nursing home rocker wishing you had taken advantage of your chance to dive the Galapagos. Call us today! |
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Dates for our year 2000 Galapagos Photo Pro Tours |
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Trip #1 April 12 through April 28 |
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Trip #2 April 26 through May 12 |
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Trip #3 May 10 through May 26 |
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