www.galapagostourist.org

[Bajnok]

Hey All,

Went on the Galapagos Aggressor 12/01/07. Outstanding trip.

Diving: Excellent. We did 7 dives at Darwin and 3 at Wolf. 16 in total. Saw a whale shark, hundreds of hammerheads, dozens of Galapagos sharks and incredibly thick schools of fish. At times, I could not see a diver next to me because of the fish. They were that thick.

Conditions were not as bad as I anticipated. In fact, my girlfried only had 30 previous dives and she did just fine. Biggest surprise was the water temps in the southern islands. Max 68 with 61 below the thermocline. Bring a 7mm with hood and gloves. I wore a semi-dry and was comfortable. Northern islands were 74-77.

Crew & Boat: Boat was very nice. I would highly recommend the cabins on the top deck. Big windows that open. The crew was amazing. Great DMs, cooks, etc. Went out of there way to be helpful. They even cleaned our gear at the end of the trip including flushing the inside of the BCDs with a hose.

Land Tours: Let's put it this way... I don't think I will ever be able to go to a zoo again. In the Galapagos, you are right there next to the animals. They are completely unafraid of us. Really is a special place.

Let me know if I can answer any questions.

[Latimer]

My wife and I have been considering taking the trip ourselves, but we have some concerns and questions we were hoping to have answered before making our final decision. So you'll know what type of divers we are, we both hold NAUI advanced and drysuit certifications. We would consider ourselves intermediate skill level divers, and have done most of them here in southern California, with diving trips to Hawaii and Cozumel as well. I have about 135 dives, and my wife has about 100.

First off, my wife is concerned about getting seasick and feeling cramped in on a boat for a week. She's done her share of boat diving here in southern California, but she's not overly fond of boats and the cramped spaces found within. She does all right on our favorite 80' dive boat, and she's hoping the Galapagos Aggressor is spacious enough to keep her from feeling cramped. Did it have enough elbow room to suit you and your girlfriend?

And how was it stability-wise as far as rocking and rolling was concerned? We don't want to spend all kinds of money for this trip only to spend half of it leaning over the railing feeding the fish. Did you notice anyone on the boat getting seasick, and if so, were the affected individuals able to get used to it?

We're very interested in the land tours as well. How many of them were there? When during the day did they do them, and how did they work them around the diving?

How harsh were the currents? We've done some drift dives in Cozumel last year, so we have some experience with strong currents. We can safely cope with them, but we don't care for dives where you get whipped past the scenery so fast that you don't have time to stop and smell the roses, so to speak. Were the Galapagos currents manageable enough to let you check out the sights and stop for a moment if you come across something good?

Sorry about all the questions, but we'd rather hear the answers from someone like you who's actually been there, done that. Thanks for your time.