ECUADOR

 

 

 

 

This trip took place in march 2007. 10 days of diving cruise followed by 6 days to visit the amazonian forest and the Cotopaxi volcano... That sounds great isnt'it ?

Galapagos

Comments

It was a 10 days cruise aboard the Sky Dancer. This is one of the best boats of Peter Hughes fleet, with very professional crew members, large cabins and lots of space for the camera gears. Unfortunately, I am disappointed by the diving guide behaviour. Peter Hughes offers "high level" diving cruises and as client, we can expect to have excellent diving guides. While the second one was cool and professional, what can we say of the main diving guide who:

  • forces the 17 divers to dive at the same time on the same site? At the beginning of the cruise, I saw more divers than sharks and hopefully, in the middle of the cruise after we start complaining about this, the 2 pangas start to go diving with 15min delay between them, in order to avoid one group of divers to meet the other one.

  • does not propose to snorkel with dolphins when more than 100 dolphins start playing around the boat

  • does not propose to snorkel near a bait-balls

  • does not even explain what is a bait-balls... This kind of events are exceptional and I am afraid I will not have the chance to see them anymore... I still cannot believe I miss it because of a lazy guide! So thanks a lot Peter for your "high end dive experience" but I would rather exchange the "dry towel after each dive" by an experienced and passionate dive guide such as the ones of the Sea Hunter team for example...

Hopefully, the Galapagos sealife is so exceptional and amazing that even with these kinds of problems, I could see lots of beautiful things. Compare to my last experience in Cocos, I would say that:

  • I saw there the school of hammerheads

  • The hammerheads were as shy as in Cocos: they do not approach more then 3m from us; sometimes they came closer but only if we did not move

  • The visibility was not as good as in Cocos: the water had lots of particles.

  • There were much more current there: do not forget to bring some gloves to grab on the rocks!

  • I saw there many more eagles rays than in Cocos, but less marble rays

  • I did not saw there big schools of jacks like in Cocos

  • I did not saw there as many white tips reef sharks as in Cocos

  • I did not saw there any Mobula nor Manta rays

  • The water was quite cold inside and below the thermocline (17°C)

As a conclusion, even if these 2 destinations were exceptional diving spots, on one hand I was in Cocos a witness of the wildlife beauty, while on the other hand, in the Galapagos, I just felt to be like a tourist... If I had the choice, I will definitively go back to Cocos

Pictures

All the pictures proposed in this section are made by a Canon EOS 20D digital SLR camera.

Amazonia

Comments

We spent 2 nights at the Liana Lodge situated near the Rio Arajuno. I had excellent souvenir of this stay, with 2 walks in the forest and 2 rides on the river. I saw there plenty of different birds and lots of strange insects... But if you want to go there, be aware of the mosquitos: do not forget to bring you repellant :-).

Pictures

No pictures to show there because I lost them (with all my camera gear) just before quitting Quito (there were stolen in a restaurant :-( ...

Cotopaxi Volcano

Comments

The most surprising thing I saw in travelling through the Ecuador, is that the landscape changes a lot. For example, from the Cotopaxi volcano where we had some snow at 4800m high, the landscape changes after 30min drive into a small jungle with cascades and hummingbirds flying all around us... This is really amazing and beautiful ! I was quite sad when leaving this country, because I could only stay 6 nights there... Maybe one day I hope I could come back :-)

Pictures

No pictures to show there because I lost them (with all my camera gear) just before quitting Quito (there were stolen in a restaurant :-( ...

Management

My cruise in the Galapagos was prepared by the travel agency KeyLargo.

 

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