As we mentioned on the home page, we have a "bucket list" of places that we
want to visit. Galapagos was at the top of this list and we finally made this
dream come true in March of 2007. We spent 10 days on board the Peter Hughes
live-aboard dive boat - Sky Dancer.
At that time, this boat was part of the Peter Hughes Dancer Fleet. Subsequently, the Dancer Fleet was sold to the owners of the Aggressor Fleet. We understand that most boats in the fleet are privately owned and contracted to the Dancer (Aggressor) fleet. Some time after the sale, the owners of the Sky Dancer ceased their relationship with the Aggressor fleet, renamed the boat Galapagos Sky and contracted it to a new company owned by Peter Hughes. Regardless of ownership, this boat was "top notch". The staff, the service and the food were as good as anything that you'd expect on a luxury cruise. Our dive boat was manned by a very experienced and helpful crew that included a Naturalist employed by the Galapagos Park service. It is his job to protect the fragile natural environment as well as to lead tours above and below the water. He was outstanding! Galapagos is the island group made famous by the work of Charles Darwin and his development of the theory of evolution. His theory was motivated by his discovery of many species of plants and animals that are either endemic to Galapagos or have developed specialized physiology to deal with the unique climate. This is what most visitors to Galapagos want to experience. Galapagos is at the confluence of five ocean currents. These currents control the weather on the islands as well as the wildlife and diving conditions below the water. These currents vary significantly in water temperature and the amount of suspended planktonic material. Water temperature can vary from 60F to 82F, frequently on the same dive! One of the main attractions for divers are sharks - especially Hammerhead sharks. They school in the hundreds near Wolfe and Darwin Islands. I hope that you'll excuse the poor quality of some of the underwater pictures. This was the beginning of my underwater still photography hobby. I began the trip with a borrowed inexpensive waterproof 35mm film camera. On my first dive, I shot the entire roll of film in less than 5 minutes. This obviously wasn't going to work. Then I rented an older basic level housed digital camera. It worked much better but the basic nature of the camera and my limited skill produced a lot of poor pictures. Nonetheless, please share our experience in the following pictures: |
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Below are thumbnails of each of the photos. Click on any image to enlarge it. The enlarged image will open in a new window. From there, you can either close the window and choose another to enlarge or simply click the "Next" or "Previous" button to scan through all pictures. |
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© copyright Gary & Nancy