OUR OTHER DAY DIVE SITES
World class diving with an evolutionary edge!
Go directly to Our long-range, daytrip, dive locations set out below
Introduction
When Galapagos Dive Academy clients hold a PADI Advanced Open Water qualification or higher and have at minimum 25 logged dives, (or have amassed a comparable level of knowledge and experience) we collaborate with the best of the other scuba operators in town to widen the variety of sites that can be visited. This ensures that our customers can experience the full breadth of the underwater world in the Galapagos as they explore our legendary archipelago.
If you were to dive with any one third party operator you would be tied to their weekly dive itinerary, as laid down by the National Park Authority. However, by having us organize your schedule across a combination of the best operators, you get the best of dive experiences tailored to meet your personal dive aspirations.
Please be aware that diving the island’s more remote sites requires longer travel times. The two model itineraries set out below highlight the basics involved:
Model 1
Between 07.00 and 08.00, you take a 45-minute car ride north from Puerto Ayora to the ‘Itabaca Channel’ close to Baltra Island. From here the boat will depart to your selected destination/s (for example, Bartolome/Cousins, North Seymour/Mosquera, Mosquera/Daphne, Gordon Rocks). The boat run time will varying between 25 minutes and 1 hour and 30 minutes in each direction, depending on the site/s you have nominated.
Model 2
Your chosen destination/s is located to the south or east of Santa Cruz Island, (for example, Gordon Rocks, Santa Fe and Floreana), in which case, between 07.00 and 08.00, your boat will depart directly from the harbour in Puerto Ayora and the run time will be between 1 and 2 hours in each direction.
In either circumstance, participants complete two dives during the trip and enjoy snacks during the dive interval and lunch at the end of the second dive. You are generally returned to your accommodation between 15.30 and 16.00 hrs., depending on the destination and vessel involved.
For further detail about individual trips/trip combinations, please Contact Us.
Notes
Young divers: It is mandatory in the Galapagos that 10- to 11-year-old Open Water certified children require a private guide on day trips, because they are certified to a maximum depth of 12 m/40feet, while the rest of the group will be diving to a minimum of 18 m/60feet.
For 12- to 14-year-old certified children we still recommend booking a private guide, but this is optional. In the case that a private guide is not contracted, such children must be accompanied by a dive qualified adult family member. For the advanced diving location Gordon Rocks [ANCHOR TO: Gordon Rocks, below] special regulations apply. If further detail is required, ask us.Gordon Rocks: This dive site is very popular but can have strong currents. If your dive experience is limited, please arrange your dates so that you dive Gordon Rocks at the end of your trip rather than on your first day.
We reserve the right to cancel your diving at Gordon Rocks if our guides feel that your experience level is insufficient and that the trip would therefore be unsafe.Non-Divers: For members of your group who are not undertaking SCUBA, we can arrange non-diving tours and activities that will allow them to experience the extraordinarily diverse land animals and and magical places of our enchanted islands.
With the above points in mind, please plan your diving tours considering both your own experience and that of your accompanying friends/family.
All our long-range day diving trips include:
• Local travel relating to your departure and return locations
• Experienced bilingual guides/instructors
• Check dives, when required, to assess weight and gear (duration, 5-10 minutes)
• 2 full dives
• All dive equipment: wetsuit (5 or 7mm), BCD, regulator, booties, fins, hood, tanks
• Snacks, lunch and drinking water
• Towels
Our long-range, daytrip, dive locations
BARTOLOME
Travel duration: Approx. 90-120 mins from Puerto Ayora, depending upon sea conditions.
Dive Difficulty: Qualification required, Open Water Diver. This sites often has weak to moderate currents, but conditions can be more challenging. Generally, an excellent place for the novice and seasoned diver alike.
Location: To the north of Santa Cruz Island and the east of Santiago Island.
Description: A relatively small island with the famous Bartholomew pinnacle. Entry is to a shallow area. Thereafter, the dive offers a series rocky platforms surrounded by a sandy bottom with a depth of 18-20 m.
Sealions, turtles, white tip reef sharks, barracudas, sting rays, reef fishes, and a variety of invertebrates are commonly found. Large mantas, squadrons of mobula rays and hunting sealions are sometimes seen.
During the surface interval, it is common for penguins to be observed close to the Bartolome pinnacle.
BEAGLE ROCKS
Travel duration: Approx. 80-100 mins from Puerto Ayora, depending upon sea conditions.
Dive Difficulty: Qualification required, Open Water Diver. This dive site has medium current and is suitable for both novice and intermediate divers.
Location: To the northwest of Santa Cruz Island and the south of Santiago Island.
Description: Named after the ship that carried Charles Darwin to the Galapagos, the site consists of 3 rocks, the remains of a tuff cone. Diving generally begins over a 12-meter platform and proceeds to a drop-off wall that descends to approx. 60 meters. The face of the wall is covered with black coral, sea fans, and a wide variety of colourful reef fishes. Rays, green sea turtles, and sea lions are commonly found close to the wall and, during the hot season, (January to May) manta rays are a special treat. Galapagos and hammerhead sharks are sometimes to be spotted away from the wall, passing in the blue.
COUSINS
Travel duration: Approx. 90-120 mins from Puerto Ayora, depending upon sea conditions.
Dive Difficulty: Qualification required, Open Water Diver. There are often no strong currents at this site, making it ideal for beginners, and an attractive place for the experienced diver to relax, but current can sometimes be more significant.
Location: To the northeast of Santiago Island.
Description: Much of the wall is covered in soft black coral which provides the opportunity to hunt for the Pacific seahorse.
Expect to also see some of the following, sealions, green sea turtles, cleaning stations and white tip reef sharks, Galapagos sharks, barracuda, manta, mobula, eagle and sting rays, reef fishes, and a variety of invertebrates.
DAPHNE MINOR
Travel duration: Approx. 50-60 mins from Puerto Ayora.
Dive Difficulty: Qualification required, Open Water Diver. There are normally no strong currents at this site which has a rocky and sandy bottom.
Location: To the north of Santa Cruz Island
Description: An exposed rock providing for a single dive site, with a small cavern housing resting white tip reef sharks. Offset, there is a pinnacle around which can be seen turtles, a diversity of rays, Galápagos sharks, barracudas, coral reef fishes, and black coral walls with a variety of invertebrates.
FLOREANA
Travel duration: 1.5 – 2 hours from Puerto Ayora, depending on sea conditions.
Dive Difficulty: Qualification required, Open Water Diver. This site does not normally present strong currents and has a mean depth of 18 m, making it ideal for beginners, and an attractive place for the experienced diver to relax.
Location: To the south of Santa Cruz Island.
Description: Floreana offers 3 dive sites, Punta Cormorant, Champion, and Enderby. Between them, these provide for an interesting topography sporting rocky outcrops, small caves, and areas of sand, each providing resting/hiding places for the varied marine animals present. These include large schools of black striped salema, which envelop the diver, the red-lipped batfish, with leg-like fins and cherry-red lips, white and blacktip reef sharks, green sea turtles, stingrays, eagle rays, and hammerhead sharks. Floreana is a special place to snorkel and dive with the baby sea lions, who often appear to stick themselves to the tips of your fins!
GORDON ROCKS
Travel duration: Approx. 60-70 mins from Puerto Ayora.
Dive Difficulty: Qualification required - Advanced Diver recommended. Gordon Rocks can sometimes be a quiet and easy dive, but it is known for strong currents and surge. Please seek our advice if you have fewer than 25 dives.
Location: To the northeast of Santa Cruz Island.
Description: An extinct volcanic crater with a sandy bottom at 32 meters, the wall around the outside of Gordon Rocks drops to more than 65 meters.
The site has three exposed pinnacles surrounding the crater, a further three submerged beneath the surface, these rising to between 6 and 8 m at the northern edge of the crater, and a large central pinnacle, approximately 21 m below the surface.
The conditions at Gordon Rocks attract schools of hammerhead sharks and it’s not unusual to see 50 such animals, maybe even more if you’re lucky! White and blacktip reef sharks, and Galapagos sharks also frequent the area, as do sea lions, green sea turtles, stingrays, eagle and mobula rays, large schools of barracuda and snapper, and a variety of invertebrates. Occasionally, manta ray and the ocean sun fish (Mola mola) are also spotted.
MOSQUERA (NORTH AND SOUTH)
Travel duration: Approx. 60-70 mins from Puerto Ayora.
Dive Difficulty: Qualification required, Open Water Diver. Site generally has mild to moderate currents.
Location: To the north of Santa Cruz Island.
Description: An islet (sand bar) emerging from the sea between north Seymour and Baltra islands, popular with sea lions which regularly follow divers when they visit. The site offers gentle drift diving over broken sandy areas with rocky promontories, good for black coral and invertebrates, until, at approx. 21 m, the seafloor opens to full sand, where a large Galapagos garden-eel population is found.
Diving at Mosquera is relaxed and frequently geared to viewing the many eagle rays, mobulas, golden rays, hammerhead sharks, blacktip reef sharks, and occasional Galapagos sharks and manta rays that pass in the blue.
The more northerly site presents a rocky area that connects with Seymour channel. This can sometimes provide very good shark viewing.
PLAZAS
Travel duration: Approx. 60-70 mins from Puerto Ayora.
Dive Difficulty: Qualification required, Open Water Diver. Easy relaxing diving, with relatively little current or surge.
Location: To the northeast of Santa Cruz Island.
Description: Visitors have for some time been forbidden to go ashore on North Plaza but diving to the back of the site is permitted. Entry is usually along the centre of the north shore, where a boulder-laden slope inclines gradually to a sand bottom at about 24m (80 ft).
White tipped reef sharks, marble and diamond rays, and waving fields of Galapagos garden-eels are found in sandy patches throughout this area.
Huge schools of yellowtail surgeonfish, yellow tailed mullet and lots of parrotfish are generally present in the shallows. Pelagic fish, including hammerheads and Galápagos sharks, are most often at the eastern end of the islet. During the warm season (January- May in particular) this point can also be very good for manta rays, which are attracted to the local cross current.
Sea lions at this site are almost constant ‘buddies’ and during the hot season solitary whale sharks are occasional visitors.
SANTE FE
Travel duration: Approx. 55 mins from Puerto Ayora.
Dive Difficulty: Qualification required, Open Water Diver. Easy shallow diving suitable for novices and attractive to all.
Location: To the southeast of Santa Cruz Island.
Description: With a mean depth of 18 m, Santa Fe is renowned for offering some of the easiest diving in the Galapagos Islands. But the location’s easily negotiated dive sites do not diminish the beauty on offer at La Bahia and El Arco, the two main dive sites. Sea lions, turtles, whitetip reef sharks, rays, and large assemblies of schooling fish are ever present, along with corals and sponges. An easily negotiated cavern/cave dive, at 16 meters, also makes for a pleasant experience for both novice and experienced divers alike.
NORTH SEYMOUR (CHANNEL)
Travel duration: 45 – 60 mins from Puerto Ayora.
Dive Difficulty: Qualification required, Open Water Diver. Although currents can be moderate to strong upon occasion, Seymour Channel is an excellent location for both novice and experienced divers and is well known for its drift diving potential.
Location: To the north of Santa Cruz Island.
Description: The topography at North Seymour Point is characterized by gradually descending steps from the shoreline to a rocky reef at about 8 m which descends to a sandy bottom at 16–18 m.
With reefs over a sandy bottom. The site has a lot of fish cleaning stations, these attracting Galapagos sharks, white and black tip reef sharks, and hammerhead sharks. Also seen regularly are, sea lions, turtles, mobulas, sting rays, eagle rays, Galapagos eels, barracuda, reef fishes, and a variety of invertebrates.
NORTH SEYMOUR POINT
Travel duration: 45 – 60 mins from Puerto Ayora.
Dive Difficulty: Qualification required, Open Water Diver. Although currents can be moderate to strong upon occasion, North Seymour Point is an excellent location for both novice and experienced divers and is well known for its drift diving potential.
Location: To the north of Santa Cruz Island.
Description: The site can experience fairly strong currents. The nearshore area is with a rocky bottom and small caves at approx. 12 m. Here you can find turtles and sharks resting. Out in the blue large pelagic fish are frequently found. Because of these characteristics, diving is often split between the two areas.
The site regularly delivers turtles, Galapagos, white tip reef, and hammerhead sharks, mobulas, sting rays, eagle rays, Galapagos eel, barracudas, turtles, reef fishes, and a variety of invertebrates.
Prices for long range day diving trips:
Our 2023 price list for longer range day diving varies from $230 to $28 0 per person/per day, depending on the destination you select, the dive operator you’re booked you, and whether you bring your own dive gear.
Please note that we can likely find you better priced last-minute deals, at between $180 and $200 per person/per day, if you are prepared to accept that there will sometimes be no spaces left on your preferred trip and that you will then need to book an alternative location/tour.
When you are ready to start the booking process, please complete the fields in the Contact Us form and set out your personal requirements in the text box provided. One of our team will be in contact soon after we receive your details.
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