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The Galapagos Sky, a 16-passenger luxury dive-live-aboard, caters to active divers cruising the Galapagos Islands looking for “exceptional underwater adventure”. Guests depart from San Cristobal Every Sunday on comprehensive 7-night itineraries including outer, most spectacular islands in the archipelago. Small guide-to-passenger ratios ensure highly personalized service and intimate visits underwater and shore. Galapagos Sky offers a rare opportunity for divers to visit the northern islands of wolf and Darwin where they can encounter a range of ocean life including Hammerheads, Galapagos Sharks, seasonal Whale Shark Sightings, Sea Lions, Dolphins, Eels, and various fish and Critters in the marine reserve surrounding these extraordinary islands.
SPECIAL RATE: $4,290
Your Galapagos Cruise Itinerary
Sunday
When you arrive at the airport at San Cristobal, the crew of the live-aboard Galapagos Sky will personally meet you, help with your luggage, and escort you to the Galapagos Sky. Your dive bags will be delivered to the dive deck on SKY, 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 our check-out dives.
This will be your first underwater introduction to Galapagos sea lions and fur seals! Watch them Zoom in and Zoom out!
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 – Seymour Island, Northern Channel, and Bartolome Island
M/V Galapagos Sky motors to Seymour Island and we explore the northern channel, only 50 feet deep, and “once in a lifetime of diving” wide! It features an enormous “field” of garden eels, stingrays, schools of spotted eagle rays, white tipped reef sharks, and thick schools of grunts, snappers & goatfish. When Dr. Silvia Earle described Galapagos as “the fishiest place in the world”, she may have been speaking about the Northern Channel! After diving, the next stop is Bartolome Island, a stark, lunar landscape inhospitable to most plants and animals.
You’ll pass in Darwin’s footsteps for the first time on your live-aboard cruise as you make your first of 3 shore excursions. Sky’s tenders will deliver you to a small stone pier (you don’t have to wade ashore), and you’ll walk 30-minutes up a steep, but very well maintained, trail to the summit of a dormant volcano.
From the top, marvel at the 360 degree, multi-island views – including the famous “Pinnacle Rock”, a huge, tilting rock obelisk that is one of the most photographed landmarks in the Galapagos Islands. This is not the time to leave your camera back aboard the Galapagos Sky!
You’ll also have the opportunity to snorkel with Galapagos penguins, and possibly see a “flightless” comorant underwater as well!
Overnight, the Captain and crew motor Galapagos Sky north…
By definition, the entire Galapagos Archipelago is geographically remote. But the 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 four 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, particularly from Mid May through November. At the Northern Arch at Darwin, you will see Hammerhead sharks either individually, in small groups, or large schools. Bottlenose dolphins are not uncommon. The reef contains many warm water varieties of fish found nowhere else in the Islands and is the most consistent place to see Hammerheads.
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 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, we can almost guarantee 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
At Cape Marshall, on the eastern side of Isabela island, we encounter rocky volcanic cliffs which drop down to the ocean floor as an almost vertical wall. You might see large animals like manta rays, marble rays, hammerhead sharks, mola mola (oceanic sun fish) and marine turtles. Also keep an eye out for Chevron barracuda, snappers, yellow fin tuna, rainbow runners, wahoo and groupers. There are also a lot of smaller fishes like creole fishes, parrot fishes, scrawled filefishes, pacific box fishes and tiger snake eels. This afternoon, we disembark for a land visit along the shore at Puerto Egas, looking for octopus, starfish and other sea life caught in the tide pools. At low tide, catch a glimpse of marine iguanas as they feed on exposed green algae. Watch for great blue herons, lava herons, American oystercatchers and yellow-crowned night herons. Our walk ends at the grottos, deep pools of clear water where we encounter Galapagos Fur Seals. Once on the edge of extinction – their numbers today nearly match that of the very common Sea Lion population!
Saturday
Gordon Rocks, off South Plaza Island, an advanced dive, is famous for white-tipped, hammerhead and the Galapagos shark, large moray eels, spotted eagle rays, golden rays, sting rays, fur sea lions, sea turtles, Amberjacks, reef fish, sponges and black coral. Dive with Wahoo, tuna, sailfish and other big pelagic fish. Divers consider the wall at Gordon Rocks one of the best dive sites in the Central Islands. The current is strong and the maximum depth is 100 feet.
Plus, you’ll visit the Charles Darwin Research Station on the Island of Santa Cruz. Scientists from all over the globe work at the station and conduct biological research from anatomy to zoology. Get your picture taken with the 100 + year old giant tortoises, and learn about the captive breeding program. Stroll through the town of Puerto Ayora (population: 20,000) – the largest town in the Galapagos. Buy souvenirs, mail postcards, and absorb local charm in the social heart of the Islands.
Sunday
This morning, we visit the Interpretation Center to learn more about the natural history of the Islands before returning to town to connect with your flight back to the mainland.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
- Class: Luxury
- Capacity: 16 Passengers
- Cabins: 8
- Length: 100 feet
- Beam: 24 feet
- Year of Construction: 2000
- Hull: Mono hull2
- Speed: 12 knots
Description Hotels:
Hotel Patio Andaluz:
A Colonial first class boutique hotel in the heart of the Old Town which will offer you traditional Ecuadorian and international cuisine and will make you feel enchanted by the history surrounding you.
Hotel Oro Verde:
A Boutique hotel located in near all touristic attractions of the city and only 8 minutes away from the international airport José Joaquín de Olmedo. You will enjoy the comfort and service of this first class hotel in the beautiful city of Guayaquil.
