We flew to Ecuador and spent two days in Quito. Then we went to the Galapagos and spent 10 days on the Sky Dancer. I made 27 dives, 2 snorks, 6 land tours, and 1 run ashore. Patti got an ear infection and missed the last 3 days of diving. It was fun.
American Airlines, Hotel Río Amazonas, TAME Airlines, Peter Hughes Diving Ecoventura Tours.
For the most part, the travelling was uneventful, as it should be. Anything remotely interesting happened in Ecuador.
Our trip from the boat to the airport to fly to the mainland was fun. Since the crew had a day off before the next cruise, they kept the boat in Puerto Ayora and sent us to the airport from there. The town and the airport, of course, are on different islands. So, the crew loaded our luggage onto the roof of a bus and we got on it and started driving. We stopped for a tour of a couple of volcanos, and then drove to a small dock. Then, the luggage was put on the roof of a ferry boat, and we sailed across a small strait to Baltra Island. Then we got off the boat, our luggage was taken off, and there we sat. Then some more people came. Eventually, a TAME bus came. It had room for the people, but not the luggage, so we left it there.
Then, we got to the airport and got our boarding passes. Still no luggage. Fortunately, we had 3 crew members with us, who were arranging two things - for our luggage to arrive at the airport and for it to be checked onto the airplane. Eventually it did arrive, and one of the crew checked everyone's bags and gave me the luggage tags so we could sort things out in Quito. The people who were likely to be over the 45 pound weight limit (I was not one of them) were quite relieved because this set of circumstances meant that they did not have to pay extra baggage.
The staff at the hotel did something quite nice for me. When I checked out, I forgot my credit card. They delivered it to me at the airport.
Quito was sort of interesting. You can tell that tourism is a major industry from walking around town, which is basically what we did for our two days there. One thing that was really noticeable was how inexpensive it was to eat. For example, we went to one place and had dinner for two, including beer, dessert, and spiked tea, for $16, including tax and service charge.
This was my 5th cruise on a Dancer and I have come to expect excellence from Peter Hughes. For the most part, that is what we got. The only negative is that sometimes, the guy that filled the tanks left the dust cover off the 1st stage.
On the positive side, the Sky Dancer is a very nice boat. It is spacious and comfortable. One day we were co-located with the Aggressor II, and noticed how much larger the Sky Dancer was.
No surprise to anyone who has been on a liveaboard, but the food was great. There was also lots of it. One thing that was different than my other cruises is that we had two afternoon snacks, one after each dive. Also, we had dinner after the night dive, not before. Nice to take these trips when you are not on a diet.
Unlike other Peter Hughes boats that have a fashion show to try and get you to buy Dancer togs, we had a crossing the equator party. It was great fun.
Diving was done from zodiacs. There was a 60 minute time limit per dive. We were asked to carry safety sausages (provided by boat), dive alerts (provided by boat), and those EP-somethings. I forget the acronym, but they are the radio transmitters that you are supposed to activate if you need to be rescued. These were also supplied by the boat.
We were expecting the water temperature to be about 70 F and the visibility to be about 50 ft and the currents to be significant. That is what we got - on one day. The rest of the trip, the water temperature was about 80 F. Apparently this was Week 1 of an El Nino. On our last day, I went with just a shorty. I could have done it the entire trip (except for that one day), but I wore a farmer john to protect myself from underwater mosquito bites.
The diving itself was fantastic. Not many corals or sponges or things like that. The bottom was usually rocks covered with barnacles. The attractions though, were the fish and the sea lions
Some fish were identical to what I have seen elsewhere. However, I sure saw more seahorses on this trip than any other, and more scorpionfish, and more morays. You like turtles, on one dive I probably saw over 30 of them. No shortage of sharks either.
Other fish were similar to what I have seen elsewhere, but different. For example, the garden eels were bigger than in the Caribbean, plus they were striped. The redtailed triggerfish looks just like a black durgeon, but it is golden. Very pretty fish. Another very pretty fish was the sunset wrasse. It's a wrasse with an aquamarine body and red head.
Then there were fish I have not seen anywhere else. This would include the Mexican Hogfish for sure. I can't remember if I have seen yellowtailed surgeonfish before. Don't think so.
The fish also seemed to be a lot less skittish. I have never been so close to Eagle Rays before. Also, I have never noticed fish swimming between my arm and my body before.
Remember being taught to never touch the reef? That does not apply to some dive sites in the Galapagos. At Wolf Island, where the current was reasonable strong, the strategy was to nestle youself into a good spot and watch all the sharks go by. They would come reasonably close if we did this. We would also hang on the the barnacles to steady ourselves. I was not wearing gloves and a couple of times a crap inside the barnacle would give my finger a poke as it tried to stick its leg out. Now that gets your attention in a hurry.
At Darwin Island, we were victimized by the warm water. The attraction was supposed to feature schooling hammerheads, but there were none close to the reef. We could have done reef dives here, but we can do those anywhere so we did blue water dives hoping to see the sharks. I saw a few, and others said they saw large schools. The sharks were deeper than we were though. Turned out to be an interesting exercise in buoyancy control though.
The objective of the snorks was to see penguins & inguanas feeding. One person saw one penguin, but as far as I was concerned, it was worth the effort.
There was this octopus out in the open, and a Mexican Hogfish was swimming a bit too close, so the octopus reached out and smacked him.
There were 5 sea lions frolicking about. We watched them for about 10 minutes and then decided to move on. One of them then, came up behind Patti and started biting her fin. Then it started yanking her finstrap. Then it looked her straight in the eye. At first I laughed, which caused my mask to flood. After clearing it, I thought, oh yeah, take a picture dummy. I got one shot off at the very end.
We finished our dive and and had climbed back into the zodiac. We were about 30 feet from shore and right there on the ledge were a pair of potentially pugilistic pinnipeds. One was a sea lion and one was a fur seal. Our guide said that they were both males. They were about a meter apart and just roaring at each other. Finally, the sea lion gave one last mighty roar and flopped down for a nap.
One one of the cold dives, there were red lipped batfish on the bottom. One of the other divers was videotaping one, and had it illuminated with a light (depth was about 110 ft). Then, a sea lion approached. I thought for sure the batfish was toast. However, the sea lion just came right up to it, gave it a sniff, and kept going. Reminded me of a dog.
On our first land tour, we saw a masked booby bird hatch. Mommy bird actually stomped on the egg to break it faster. We thought she was killing the chick. But no, this is how they do it. Then, with her bill, she peeled back some egg shell and then gently poked the chick. Soon afterwards, while sitting on the chick, she started picking up small rocks and arranging them in a line. We were about 5 feet away from all this. Five feet in the other direction was another booby sitting on her egg.
We were drifting along the wall, about 5 feet below the top of the reef. The current was just howling. Then, on top of the reef we noticed some white tipped reef sharks so we grabbed the barnacles and hung on to watch. There were well over 20 sharks who were sort of hovering in formation, but at the same time, some of them were coming from the middle of the pack to the outside and then drifting back in. Our guide thinks they may have been mating.
I was down at about 70 feet along the wall when I looked up and saw a small shark come off the top of the reef into open water. Then a sea lion came up behind it. The shark did not react, but the sea lion was certainly close enough to bite that shark's tail. And, as I mentioned to the other divers, this happened just after we saw the manta ray
We were in the zodiac and there was this bird in the water that just sat there and let us run over it. He appeared to be ok. Later, the big boat was on the move with the zodiacs in tow. One bird (same type), was swimming beside the big boat, but then flew behind it and got run over by the zodiac. He also appeared to be ok.
I mention this in case anyone is wondering why they are called booby birds.
Think carefully about what film to bring for the land tours. Ours were all late in the day to avoid the heat. This also resulted in less available light. Also, you are not allowed to use a flash. I used ISO 100 and missed a few shots due to insufficient light.
If you are returning through Miami, schedule a sufficiently long layover. Two other Toronto couples had a slightly different plan than us. Their scheduled layover was 80 minutes, but they spent 90 in the line at immigration so they missed their connecting flight.
Taxis in Quito were less expensive than our hotel van, but they are also quite small. Two divers with loads of gear might not fit.
Climbing from a boat into a zodiac while wearing diving gear can present problems. If you ask, the crew will put your gear on the zodiac and help you put it on there. Two of our shipmates, who had previous injuries, suffered needlessly for the first three days because they were too shy to ask for help.
The departure tax from Quito is cash only.
When meeting your tour rep, who will have your TAME tickets, at the Quito airport, don't worry about the to the check in area. He will let you in, even though you don't have tickets. Our tour rep was on the other side of the guard, and we got fooled by his presence.
Wine and beer is free on TAME. Your first dive is the same day as this flight.
The Lonely Planet guide book was very useful for this trip - especially the Quito part.
| Trip Dates2002-03-04 to 2002-03-17 | Trip Report Index |