Dive Galapagos with the Hammerhead Shark Diving Team!

The Galapagos Islands are located 600 miles west of Ecuador and offer some of the most spectacular wildlife found anywhere in the world. Nowhere else on this planet will you find penguins which live on the equator (The Galapagos Penguin) or iguanas which swim and feed in the ocean (The Marine Iguanas)! Because these islands have only recently been invaded by man, the literally 1000s of animals that inhabit these islands have never learned to fear us. This means that you can literally walk right up to hundreds of blue-footed boobie birds, red-footed boobie birds, masked boobie birds, albatrosses, penguins, land iguanas, marine iguanas, lava lizards, sea lions, fur seals, red-chested frigate birds, flamingos, finches, tropic birds, lava gulls, giant tortoises, and flightless cormorants.

Vessel: MV Deep blue
SPECIFICATIONS:
Length: 103 feet
Beam: 24.45 feet
Max. Passengers: 16
Double cabins: 9

All Photos by Eric Cheng

2009 prices
$3595 upper cabin or $3395 lower cabin per person
A fuel surcharge of $160.

2009 Itinerary - Monday to Monday
Monday - arrive San Cristobal - Check dive Isla Lobos, Land visit Interpretation Center
Tuesday - Dive N. Seymore, Land visit N. Seymore
Wednesday - Diving at Wolf Island
Thursday - Diving at Darwin Island
Friday - Diving at Darwin Island
Saturday - Diving at Cape Marshall
Sunday - Dive at Cousins Rock, land visit Sullivan Bay, panga ride and snorkel Bartolome
Monday - Land visit Galapaguera (Giant tortoises) - depart for the mainland.

NOT INCLUDED IN PRICE:

Airfare from your home city to Ecuador
Airfare from the mainland to Galapagos ($365-$415*)
Overnights and transfers on the mainland (between $95 to $175* per room per night depending on the hotel) Mainland Ecuador Hotel Information and prices
Galapagos National Park entrance fee ($100)
Fuel surcharges
Transit Control Card @$ 10.00 pp
Ecuador Departure tax ($27.75 from Guayaquil OR $40.80 from Quito)
Bar consumption on board
Crew and Guide tips - the recommended tip is 10% of the price of the actual cruise (not including airfare, park fees, etc).
Recompression chamber fee for divers ($35 pp)
Fuel surcharge ($160*)

Note: Air tickets, Ecuador Departure tax and National Park fee are subject to change without notice.
PLEASE NOTE - all of the above services are services you will require.

* subject to change if airfare or hotel rates increase.
** Group transfer are included in the mainland package. Individual transfer are not. A group is defined as 6 or more passengers all traveling on the same flight and going to / from the same hotel.

Single supplement - There is no single fees on the yacht as long as you are willing to share your cabin. There is a $95 single supplement fee for the mainland part of these packages.

The package can be modified to route you through Quito instead of Guayaquil, either one or both ways, for the cost of the additional airfare. The cost is $29 more per person one way or $49 per person round trip.

Additional nights in either Quito or Guayaquil are $95 more per room per night including the 22% tax.



Price: (8 day trip with 7 nights on Deep Blue)

$3,595 - Upper Cabin per person

$3,395 - Lower Cabin per person

Trip Includes: National Park Fee ($100.00), Chamber fee($30.00), diving, on board meals.

Not Included: International air to Guayaquil, Ecuador (GYE), R/T Guayaquil to Galapagos Domestic air, Guayaquil Hotel, Nitrox, O2, alcoholic beverages, equipment rentals, National Park Fee ($100.00), Chamber fee($30.00), fuel surcharge ($160.00), crew gratuities.

Schedule:

Deep Blue Aug 31- Sept 7, 2009

Deep Blue Sept 7 - 14, 2009

 

 

Galapagos Islands Story:
The marine life which inhabits the waters that surround the Galapagos Islands is just as fantastic as the wildlife found on shore making Galapagos one of the premier dive destination in the world. The sheer abundance of life is amazing. On most dives you will see several hundred large marine animals. On any given dive it is not uncommon to see sea lions, turtles, hammerhead sharks, white tip sharks, manta rays, Galapagos sharks, and huge schools of eagle and/or golden Rays, sometimes numbering between 50 -100 individuals. There is also the possibility of seeing whales, whale sharks, thousands of dolphins and large schools of hammerheads, sometimes numbering in the hundreds. Between dives you can snorkel with penguins or sea lions.


For the fourth year in a row, Galapagos is rated the #1 best overall dive destination in the world by Rodale's Scuba Diving Magazine's 2001 "Readers' Choice Awards"!! 100% of the survey respondents that had been to Galapagos said they would go back!

The diving all over Galapagos is world class and the land is as fantastic as the diving and every island is very different than every other island with different types of animals. The land animals evolved without predation so they have no fear of man. You can literally walk right up to any animal in Galapagos and it will not move away. The islands are all covered with thousands of animals so the land excursions are awesome.

Darwin/Wolf are probably the two best dive sites in the world but they are very far to the north (120 miles from the nearest other island) and no land excursions are possible up there. It takes approximately 15 - 20 hours of open ocean travel each way so any trip that includes them on the itinerary will spend at least 3 days up there. So our land excursions will take place at the start and end of our trips. At Darwin/Wolf you have time to make between 2 - 4 dives the first and last day up there depending on what time you arrive and what time you have to depart for the south. On days where you are there all day long you have time to make between 3 and 4. On a 7 night Darwin Wolf trip you will typically make between 14 - 16 dives.