Galapagos Sky – 8 Days

Sunday

When you arrive at the airport at San Cristobal on Sunday (aboard the Aerogal 2K36 group flights), the crew of the Galapagos Sky will personally meet you, collect your luggage, and escort you to the Galapagos Sky. Your dive bags will be delivered to the dive deck , and personal luggage to your cabins. After everyone is on board, we will introduce you to the boat and do our mandatory safety briefings and drill. Then, we cruise to the area of Los Lobos for your check-out dive.

This will be your first underwater introduction to Galapagos sea lions and fur seals! Watch them Zoom in and out and dance playfully for you!

As the sun sets, you’ll enjoy cocktails and appetizers on our shaded, open air, upper deck as “Sky” circumnavigates the amazing twin-rock formation of Kicker Rock (Leon Dormido). Two inspiring towers of volcanic rock soar 500 ft. above the ocean and point directly to the sky. Blue-footed boobies, masked boobies, and magnificent frigate birds nest here on the vertical cliffs.

Even on the first day of your live-aboard cruise – you begin to see the myriad and diverse land formations which comprise the Galapagos Islands topside. It is then you realize you will see nothing like it in your lifetime.

Monday – Cape Marshall & Punta Vincente Roca
At Cape Marshall, on the north-eastern side of Isabela island, we will do 1 dive Monday morning and encounter rocky volcanic cliffs which drop down to the ocean’s surface and then slope into the blue. This is our best opportunity to see manta rays and mobula rays, occasional hammerhead sharks, turtles, and white tip sharks.  We also see huge (HUGE) schools of the endemic salemas, and feeding sea lions. Also keep an eye out for chevron barracuda, snappers, yellow fin tuna, rainbow runners, and wahoo. There are also a lot of smaller fishes like creole fishes, parrot fishes, scrawled filefishes, pacific box fishes, and tiger snake eels.

Monday PM:
We visit  Punta Vincente Roca  for 2 dives.  Our coldest dive – steep, deep  vertical wall covered in soft coral, sponges, and endemic black coral. Regular sightings  of mola mola (oceanic sun fish,) sea horses, horn shark, red lipped bat fish, various shrimp and many other marine invertebrates. Our after-dive panga ride offers great photo ops  for penguins, flightless cormorants, marine iguanas, sea lions, blue footed & nazca booby Birds, magnificent  frigates and noddy terns.  The diving here is chilly (particularly below the thermocline –  but not to be missed!).

By definition, the entire Galapagos Archipelago is geographically remote. But after this second day of your live-aboard cruise finds you heading toward the most isolated, northernmost part of the Galapagos Islands – the uninhabited, untouched, twin cathedrals of world class diving – Wolf and Darwin Islands.

Tuesday to Thursday – Diving Wolf and Darwin

You’ll spend the next three days diving (up to three dives per day) the legendary islands of WOLF & DARWIN.

Most experienced divers will agree, Wolf and Darwin are the best diving sites in the world! Whale sharks are common here from Mid May through November. At The Arch at Darwin, you will see hammerhead sharks either individually, in small groups, or large schools. Bottlenose dolphins are common. The reef contains many warm water varieties of fish found nowhere else in the Islands.

Once you see Wolf and Darwin – you’ll immediately understand why there are no shore excursions on this part of the cruise – there is no way up the vertical cliffs!

Darwin Island: Considered by many experienced divers as the very best dive site in the world, The Arch at Darwin island (actually several dive sites depending on where you enter, currents, etc) honors its reputation. It is warmer by a few degrees than the central islands. In one single dive you can find schooling hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, large pods of dolphins, thick schools of skipjack and yellow fin tuna, big eye jacks, mobula rays, and silky sharks. From June to November, it is not uncommon to encounter whale sharks in numbers of up to 8 different individuals in one single dive. The presence of occasional tiger sharks, black and blue marlin, and killer whales adds on to this amazing diving experience. If you still have time to look for smaller stuff, you’ll find octopus, flounders, and an enormous variety and abundance of tropical fish. Darwin Island is the biggest jewel on the Galapagos Crown.

Wolf Island: One of those magical islands, with several dive sites to choose from. If you want to see sharks, you are at the right spot. This is a place for schooling hammerhead sharks, large aggregations of Galapagos sharks, and occasionally whale sharks. Seeing dolphins, large schools of tuna, spotted eagle rays, barracudas, sea lions and sea turtles is common. The bottom is littered with hundreds of moray eels, many of them free swimming. Being several degrees warmer than the central islands, you can look for many representatives of the Indo-Pacific underwater fauna.

Friday- Cape Marshall & Roca Blanca
Friday AM:  provides 1 more dive at Cape Marshall, again at Isabela Island, the largest of the Galapagos Islands.  We see manta, mobula, and eagle rays, hammerhead sharks, and turtles.  Also keep an eye out for chevron barracuda, snappers, yellow fin tuna, rainbow runners, and wahoo. Great macro opportunities as well.

Friday PM:  We will arrive at ROCA BLANCA – NEW TO THE ITINERARY- for 2012. We will do 2 exciting dives here.  This site provides opportunities for encounters with  up to 6 species of sharks,  sea lions, mantas, eagle rays, and moray eels.  There is always an abundance of yellow tailed surgeonfish, king angelfish, moorish idols, steel pompanos, snappers, grunts, creole fish, and barracuda.

Saturday- Cousins Rock and Land Tours

Saturday AM: Cousins Rocks (1 dive)-this dive is done along a beautiful wall and allows for great viewing opportunities for coral, frog fish, sea horses, and octopus. Sea lions will be your companions on the safety stops. This dive is then followed by a Land Visit to the Highlands of Santa Cruz to see the Galapagos Tortoises in their natural environment. A visit to the very special “Scalecias Forest”, the Twins, and the Lava Tube are also included during the morning ashore.

Saturday  PM: Land Tours continue in Puerto Ayora to the Charles Darwin Research Center. This is where we will also disembark guests who have chosen to extend their holiday in Pto. Ayora, prior to returning to San Cristobal for Sunday morning cruise completion.

Sunday – Tour and Day of Departure
Arrive San Cristobal—(Land Excursion) visit the Interpretation Center where an interesting human history of Galapagos is presented, town walk (last chance for shopping). Late morning departure.

Departure	Arrival