Galapagos Islands - scuba liveaboard - Humboldt Explorer (30 Dec 2024 - 6 Jan 2025)
7 Dec 2024 (Fri) and 28 Dec 2024 (Sat)
Flight BA12 bound for London was not full, so I was able to secure a seat on the upper deck. The gate agent offered me a change from my selected seat to one whole row of empty seats. She was able to check in for all 3 segments for me and issued me the boarding passes. (including the last segment by AA). Hot meals were served twice, no wifi, selection of movies and tv were not really fantastic but adequate. I watched Beverly hill Cops and Snow White and the Huntsman. I tried to ask for an extra meal, not granted. Snack wise, I was happy that they have tortillas with salsa sauce. The twin sister flight plying the same route (BA16, from Sydney) took off 10 minutes earlier than us.
The crew told me the flight from London to Singapore couple of days ago were full, so they were pleasantly surprised that our flight was quite empty. Many people were able to catch some sleeps on one full row. Not much turbulence, smooth ride.
I reached London Heathrow T5 ahead of time, took train from Gate C to Gate A for security check, before finding a charging station that work near gate A7. All the charging poles in Gate A area were useless, only the one near Gate A7 where the water dispenser was were working. So I set up shop there, the area was quieter (away from the crowd in the central area) and has charging facility. Wifi was respectable. When I looked out of the window, it was already close to 8am, yet the sky was quite dark (winter). At least it was not raining/drizzling. I could not go to the gate in Gate C area for the onward flight to Miami as the information on the gate assignment will only be known at 820am, typical Heathrow.
Even though there was audio announcement of delay departure of BA207 bound for Miami but when i reached the gate, the boarding was proceeding as per normal and the plane even took off and arrived ahead of time. The plane was full. I watched Fly Me to the Moon and The Man from U.N.C.L.E by Henry Cavell. I managed to nap a bit between the hot meal service and the hot sandwich service. A bit of turbulence nearer to USA. This time i took some biscuits with me just in case.
Global entry in Miami Airport saved me some queuing time. I saw Burger King and bought sandwiches to be brought onboard cos there will be no free meals served on AA flight. I saw cuban sandwich and chinese food cooked by Latinos in the terminal building. Art gallery along the walkway from Security to gates were quite cool, got to see the various art pieces by the students. I also saw self-driven wheelchairs ferrying elders in the building. One chair got stucked and stopped in the middle of the walkway. It started to drizzle in Miami. The gate agent told me I am the only one at the exit row, so I should keep my seat. Turned out that only those who understand English can sit at the exit rows, so I ended up as one of the lucky few who sat there.
1. Slight turbulence experienced near Miami due to the weather.
There were biscuits and drinks served. Flight arrived ahead of time in good weather (warm and dry, tropical weather). The passport clearance was quite smooth, but custom lady asked me open up my dive bag and showed her the dive equipment. She asked me if those gear was meant for one person only. My guess was she was trying to see if I was smuggling more dive gears than I need. When I reached the arrival hall, I didn’t see anyone holding the hotel name and hence I went off with a cab driver, who charged 7 USD (normal fare was 5USD). After I reached the hotel, the reception staff told me actually the pre-arranged cab driver tried to contact me, but because his whatsapp messages (in Spanish) came late, I didn’t manage to meet up with the pre-arranged driver.
I checked into my hotel room and it was very decent. I went to sleep after a good shower.
29 Dec 2024 (Sun)
The next morning I went to check out the gym at the 5th floor. There was a sauna near the gym too. I went down to the restaurant to have some breakfast, the spread was good enough for me. After that I went to the street to look around the hotel. The streets were quiet as it was a Sunday morning. The bus stops were well fortified, one had to pay to get into the fortified station, and then get onto the bus. The church was just behind the hotel I stayed. On the way to the airport, I saw cable car linking the housing in the hill with the ground below.
2. Quiet drizzly Sunday morning in Guayaquil. The bus stops were well fortified, only those who pay can get into bus stop.
3. One of the landmark buildings in Guayaquil.
4. Beautiful landscaping outside Guayaquil Airport.
I went to the airport by the pre-arranged taxi, and I didn’t need to pay cos I have already paid for the taxi from the airport to the hotel yesterday (one complimentary ride by the hotel). After I have paid for the TCT (US$20) and get the luggage scanned and tagged, I went to collect my boarding pass. The news about the crash of Jejuair was all over the internet.
The Avianca plane reached Galapagos around 1220pm and we started to disembark. Iguanas can be seen inside the airport covered walkway to the terminal building. After we paid for the Galapagos entrance fees (US$200), we had to gather at the luggage claim hall and waited for the staff to display the luggage fully on the belt before we can each take our luggage. Even though some were out in the arrival hall earlier, they still had to wait until much later before they could take the luggage.
5. Nearly 2 hours later, we were approaching Baltra Airport in Galapagos Islands.
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7. Landed in Baltra Airport. No free snacks or drinks was served on board.
I took the Lobito bus to Itabaca Channel (10 minutes, US$5), then took the crossing ferry (10 minutes, US$1) followed by another bus to Puerto Ayora (1 hour, US$5). The bus will stop just outside of downtown, and one has to take another taxi to the destination (US$1.5). Shared taxi was so much more convenient, as the taxi will deliver you to your hotel and the fare was only US$10 per person, if only I had known. The waiting time on the bus can be quite long, as the driver needs to wait for certain number of passengers (in my case 12) before he found the breakeven point crossed and he was willing to start driving. On that day, 4 angmos bailed as they couldn’t wait for the bus to move and new passengers were needed to fill up the bus before the driver had enough and started driving. As the bus started moving up hill, we could feel chill air brushing our faces. We saw some giant tortoises near Santa Rosa.
I changed to taxi and checked into Hostel Crossman. I was the only tenant inside the 3-person hostel room. In fact, I was probably the only guest in the hostel as I didn't see anyone else. I went out to walk around town and visited Darwin’s Research Centre. Dinner was at a Chinese joint that sold fried rice and the portion was huge. The christmas tree near the jetty was huge. The Charles Darwin Avenue was well lit. There were many tourists shopping and dining on the main street.
8. I was the only occupant in the room.
10. The locals were having fun at Puerto Ayora.
11. Sally lightfoot crab.
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13. Visiting Charles Darwin Research Centre.
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21. The main trunk road in Puerto Ayora that was lined with souvenir shops - Charles Darwin Avenue.
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30 Dec 2024 (Mon)
The smoke alarm went berserk halfway when I was sleeping, and the staff helped me removed the alarm unit altogether from the ceiling. I slept like a log until 730am and had a hard time waking up, possibly due to the less-drowsy seasick medication which i took the night before. It was still drowsy to me. I dare not take the medication anymore and relied only on my seasick wrist bands to keep me from having motion sickness, and I was fine throughout the liveaboard. I managed to have some breakfasts nearby (US$5).
I misunderstood that the taxi driver who brought me from the bus terminal to my hostel yesterday will come pick me up again at 9am at the hostel, how wrong I was. After waiting for 10 minutes, I quickly had the hostel staff arranged shared taxi for me to the airport. The cab came at 930am, pick up another lady and a couple at separate locations and got us to the canal by 1010am. We crossed the Itabaca Canal and took the Lobito bus back to the airport, and I managed to get to the arrival hall by 1050am.
23. The highway linking airport and Puerto Ayora (40km) in Santa Cruz Island. Sometimes tortoises cross the highway and caused the "Galapagos traffic jam".
24. Galapagos land iguana seen at Bantra Airport, while I was looking for the cruise rep.
I was quite hungry by the time I reached the airport that I had an empanada in the airport snack shop (US$4). After my snack, I went back to the arrival hall and met up with the guide, Oscar. He missed out Ben (another diver) as he thought I was Ben since he counted the correct number of divers that he should collect. He brought us to the Lobito bus and I was riding the Lobito bus for the third time to the canal. There was a panga that brought us from the ferry point to the our boat, the Humboldt Explorer. The 6 of us (Tom, Kate, Sheon, Jan, Shiori and I) were the first to be on the boat. There would be another two boats of divers joining us. No diving was arranged for the today, so it was just lunch and dive briefing. I was assigned Room 1 with another diver David from Miami. There were only 2 rooms on the upper deck, the other rooms were all downstairs.
Together with me on the dive boat were: Sheon and Jan, the husband-and-wife team from South Korea currently doing post-grads in Pittsburg, Shiori from Japan (lucky girl who had the whole room to herself, opposite to mine), Philippe and Alex from France who had more than 1000 dives under their belt, Tom and Kathy from London (who only had 20 dives and were forced to take a private guide Angel with them even though they were strong and talented divers), Yana and Boris from Miami, Martin and Carmen from the Germany (who were veteran divers with 30 years of diving history and train other dive instructors), Steffen from Germany, Ben from Texas, David from Georgia who was currently taking a short break from his round-the-world cruise.
25. Divers assemble!
26. I was very impressed by the room. The towels were folded nicely.
The few of us who had arrived settled down for lunch first, while waiting for the 3rd boat to arrive. We can choose the dive tank docket that we like. There was a hot tub at the top deck, which will come in useful after some cold dives. I managed to try out the new gears that I brought with me, and the gear was ok. There were wifi on board, free flow of wine, beer and soft drinks.
Ben was actually on the first flight reaching Baltra that day, but he missed the group by the time he reached the Arrival Hall, as Oscar had left without him. He missed the 2nd pick up and ended up on the 3rd group, and he had no idea why, though he took one of the earliest flights to Baltra. When we finally found out from Oscar a few days later, it turned out that I was part of the reasons why Ben was not picked up. Apparently, since I reached Baltra Island the previous day, Oscar was not expecting that I showed up in the airport. He would expect me to turn up at the canal but no one email me about this arrangement at all. I was only told to appear in the airport at the scheduled time. So when Oscar counted the number of people who turned up, the number of divers were 6 indeed (cos I was part of the 6), without realising that Ben was still not out yet. This mis-communucation caused Ben an earlier opportunity to be on the boat and rest, after his long flight from Texas.
We had dive briefing followed by a safety drill, then a round of intro and welcome cocktail (blue-footed boobies prepared by Hector). Each of us mentioned our names, where we were from, and what we hoped to see on this trip. I mentioned that I would like to see whale shark even though it was not not really the whale shark season. David turned out to be our only doctor on board. He had done submarine tour in the Antarctica cruise earlier. His Antarctica cruise started from Fort Lauderdale and sailed all the way to the Antarctica, complete with submarin. The cost of the cruise was upwards of US$50k. From what he described, that must be an uber cool experience.
The divers were split into 2 groups of 7 and 8 divers each, Team Shakira and Team J.Lo. I joined Team J.Lo together with Steffen, Sheon, Jan, Martin, Carmen, Shiori and Ben. I have decided to use nitrox in place of the larger tanks.
Sheon and Jan had dive in San Cristobal the day before. They said that the visibility was poor possibly due to the quake in Chile/Peru days ago. The visibility gradually improved and it was good on their last dive day. The crew on the boat mentioned that the trip before us on Humboldt Explorer was very challenging with big swells and high waves, possibly due to the quake in Chile as well. The sunset was beautiful but cloudy outside. Jan managed to get some good photos of a sea lion resting on the panga as well as a pelican standing on the edge of the panga. Shiori also showed us her video of playful sea lions on her snorkelling trip few days ago.
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28. The ever jovial Hector. He prepared the welcome cocktail Blue-footed Boobies to welcome us onboard.
Ben led us on a prayer before dinner. I felt asleep quickly after dinner due to jet lag. I woke up really early and could not go back to sleep after, rolling on the bed. Sunrise was around 530am, and I was one of the first to go out to capture some photos before the day get busy.
31 Dec 2024 (Tue)
Check dive was carried out after the first dive briefing. I felt the that the water was cold, while the rest of the divers were complaining that the water was too warm as they were used to cold water. It was all positive entry so it was ok for me. By right all of us were supposed to do backflip at the same time, but some divers didn’t flip into water at the same time so we waited at the front of the boat for awhile. In the beginning I had difficulty descending. After my dive guide added one more weight into my pocket, I managed to do descend. I gave the extra weight back the guide halfway cos the extra weight was weighing me down too much. We saw sharks and nudibranches during check dive. Having my private guide Mauricio gave extra assurance that I needed. He also helped me with getting back to panga (zodiac/dinghy) after the dive. Most importantly, he was now taking pictures with my gopro.
After the dive, we had warm shower on the deck and a hot tub to help restore warmth. Good breakfasts after the dive to ensure that we have the required energy. the spread was amazing, I had a hard time deciding which to take. I reminded myself not to eat too much as I still have another dive.
The 2nd dive was at another nearby location North Mosquera Island. We saw hammerhead sharks, nebulas (rays) and many different types of fish, though the water was greenish and the visibility was not great.
Lunch after the dive was good (again!) and we had a good table discussion with the folks on the table, discussion on working hours, taxes, pensions in Europe and USA in general. We were all surprised to learn that certain working people in France got 17 weeks of holidays, and some university professors only need to work max 8 hours a week in France. Martin and Carmen also shared that the refugees in Germany were gaming the system to claim for child support, essentially getting paid without working.
We spent the afternoon at North Seymour Island for a land excursion to see the Frigate Birds and sea lions. Some skipped the land tour as they had done it before. Our naturalist guide was very knowledgeable and showed us the Frigate birds, land and marine iguanas and sea lions. We saw a left-over nest by the blue-footed boobies couple. One of the deck hands on the boat Jeremy (19 years old) was helping us with the trip, and showed me his pictures and photos of hunting trip, followed by BBQ of the game animal they managed to hunt.
29. Our land excursion to North Seymour Island.
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36. The characteristic bright red sacs of the male Frigate bird.
37. The strong surf was not characteristics of the time of the year. The Guide said it was probably due to the quake off the coast of Peru a few days ago which forced port closure.
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40. Godzilla-faced marine iguanas.
The surf seen on the island was very strong, which was probably due to the quake in Chile. In fact, according to the naturalist guide, the surf at San Cristobal Island was 4-5m at some parts of the island at the time we were speaking, and this was rather unusual cos it happened at the place that was supposed to be calm during this period. The surfers were all out in San Cristobal and having a jovial good time riding on strong waves.
Once the boat started to steer towards Wolf Island, the pounding started. I put on my wrist bands to ward off seasickness.
41. On our way to the legendary Wolf Island.
42. Carpe diem!
We had a New Year Party. One of the crews actually crossed dress in the new year “help a widow” prank. After dinner, each one of us selected a song and the rest of us can dance to the chosen song. Most of us went to bed early, but Boris and Ben ended up drinking and staying for the midnight.
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1 Jan 2025 (Wed)
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When I woke up at 6am, dive plan was changed as we needed more time to reach Wolf Island. We were the last boat that were allowed to do 4 dives in Wolf Island, starting our first dive at 8.10am. Our sister boat Tiburon Explorer, who was just 30 minutes behind us, would had to forgo one dive due to the later arrival than us.
45. All our gear were ready for the first dive in Wolf Island.
46. Dive briefing before we venture out.
The first dive site was "The Coral". The second dive "Shark Bay" turned out to be the highlight of our day – so many hammerhead sharks, dolphins, sea lions. Not-too-bad visibility, we couldn’t ask for more. The third dive at "The Landslide" was a meh.
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48. Sea cave seen near Wolf Island.
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As for the 4th dive on new year day, we returned to "Shark Bay" and I saw the most dolphins on that day. Mauricio and I were the last two to get on the panga as we wanted to spend more time with the dolphins. Mauricio managed to get some close up footages of the dolphins. We could hear them making high frequency whistles whenever they were around.
51. The ever-popular hot tub kept a smile on our face after the dive.
There was a local fishing boat near Wolf Island and Yana asked the captain to contact the fishing boat, to arrange for purchase of fresh fish. Tom went over with the panga and paid to get the fish. We got ourselves 2 fresh yellow-fin tunas for US$40, the fish were actually big, but looked smaller in front of Tom’s big muscles. We had the freshest sashimi on that evening after the 4th dive.
Ben had a good close encounter with the hammerhead, so were Tom and Kathy. The hammerhead came right close at them during the dives.
One of the crew decided to help other crew to get their hair cut, and Tom managed to get his cut as well.
Dinner was BBQ style at the top deck, al-fresco style. We also celebrated Alex's birthday with a birthday cake.
52. It was intense.
I could not believe it when Kate took out a chess set and started to invite the folks to a game. Chess game between Kate and the guys (Ben, Boris, Phillippe) as well as the crew (Angel) began in earnest.
2 Jan 2025 (Thu)
We did two morning dives at Shark Bay (Wolf Island) before we moved to Darwin’s Island for the dives. The boat ride from Wolf to Darwin took 2.5 hours. There were two dive boats besides ours, and Aqua was one of them. Oscar used to work with Aqua. When our panga sailed past Aqua, the staff on board made a whale shark hand sign mocking at us, and we thought it was just a joke. Little did we know we actually saw whale shark at the end of our first dive at Darwin’s Pillars. The other group saw whale shark at their 2nd dive as well. It was not whale shark season, and we were considered lucky to have bump into them.
Al fresco dining on the deck as usual, with lots of good food and sashimi.
3 Jan 2025 (Fri)
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54. Darwin's Pillars.
It was a drizzly morning but we saw whale shark in close distance on our first dive, and saw whale shark again at the beginning of our 2nd dive, as well as at the end. We saw silky sharks as well.
Darwin Island was teeming with life above and below the water. Full of birds circulating the island and at sea level.
We cruised back to Wolf Island in the evening from Darwin's Island. That marked the start of our return journey towards Baltra Island. We toasted to that and Boris gave a speech.
4 Jan 2025 (Sat)
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The next morning we had 3 dives in Wolf Island. First was at Shark Bay, then Elephant Island and ended at the wall. The dive at Elephant Island was quite fun, as one sea lion actually came over to nibble on the pink fins of Carmen. At the wall, we had one of the strongest surge, but there were sea lions playing in the light show created by the sunlight and cave walls, which was spectacular to witness. Top make the dive even more memorable, dolphins came to join us in close distance. In fact after our dive, dolphins chased our panga back to the boat, as well as stayed around the boat when the boat slowly moving towards Baltra Island. Galapagos Master boat (Deep Blue) was next to us near Wolf Island.
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57. The Elephant Island.
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Afternoon was spent watching chess game played between the folks.
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In the evening, we had a certificate presentation ceremony, and we each had to act out the sea animal assigned to us.
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61. Got our certs!
5 Jan 2025 (Sun)
The daily briefing handwritings on the white board was less legible, as it was rewritten by Ben, who lost the chess game to Kate and had to carry our the rewriting as a little punsihment.
We did two dives at cousin's rock this morning. We had a wake up time that was even earlier at 530am, and the water was freezing, colder than the water in Wolf and Darwin. We saw manta ray, eagle rays, family of nebulas, blue footed boobies, sea lions and Galapagos sharks. Ben lost his dive computer on the last dive.
62. Cousin's Rock
63. We completed 19 dives in total, and this was the last.
We had another land excursion to the giant tortoise ranch in Baltra Island in the afternoon.
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This is followed by shopping trip in Puerto Ayora. The gang was buying the souvenirs in full force and swept the shop clean. Kate got two chess sets handmade, Jan got some baby socks in nice design at a shop near the restaurant. David and I rested in the Darwin + Wolf shop while waiting for the rest to do their shopping. Wolf + Darwin shop had some nice design on clothings.
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73. A very stylish fashion shop: Wolf+Darwin.
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The excursion guide helped us booked a table at Isla Grill and we all turned up at 630pm, minus Ben, Martin and Carmen. Apparently they went the wrong way and had some detours. The 5 of us ordered Isla Grill and Huela Grill with sides and the food turned up beautifully. Martin and Carmen went to pick up some more socks from the shop that Jan picked up hers.
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The bus came for us at 840pm but Kate, Ben, Martin, Carmen and Tom were still shopping. Steffan bade us goodbye as he was going to stat at Puerto Ayora for the night. He got himself a nice house with living room reached by water taxi, near the beach.
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After two rounds of turning around in circle, we managed to pick up the 5 remaining passengers with their prized shopping bags full of souvenirs. We hopped on to the panga at the jetty. Shiori was nervous about taking the panga at night in darkness so Ben kept assuring her. The night sky was brilliant with the crescent moon. We did the stargazing on the deck and located the Orion constellation.
80. Kate got her souvernir.
6 Jan 2025 (Mon)
Sheon and Jan left early in the morning as they have a ferry to catch. There was a Galapagos shark circling the boat possibly due to attraction of food. We had breakfasts and proceed to the airport. The trip has finally came to an end.
81. A Galapagos shark was circling the boat in the morning.
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85. Adios to our home for the past 7 days!
Boarding of AV1433 was smooth. The rest were taking later flights to Quito, I was the only one taking this flight to Quayaquil. The gate agent commented how beautiful Singapore passport was when he was scanning my boarding pass.
86. Itabaca Channel.
The flight landed in Guayaquil ahead of time, and I managed to snack on empanada, before taking the pre-arranged taxi to the hotel. This time round, the driver actually held a piece of paper with my name on it. The snack bar staff thought I was an airport employee and asked for my staff pass, while giving me staff discount. I told him I had no staff pass and he laughed, and gave me the discount nonetheless.
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Once I have checked into the hotel, I wandered to Malecon2000 riverside boardwalk and also took the 444 steps to the cathedral and lighthouse up Las Penas. Before I started my little hike up the steps, I saw a Chinese chifa restaurant that advertise USD4 for a fried rice with wanton and drink. I made enquiry with the gentleman in the restaurant but didn’t dine at that restaurant cos it was too early and I haven’t hike up yet. The sunset view from the top of the hill was amazing. There were some beautiful birds there too. I can see the planes taking off from the airport not too far away.
Parque Seminario:
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91. Long queue seen outside Registro Civil Municipio de Guayaquil.
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93. Hemicicle De La Rotonda - Monument commemorating the 1822 meeting between liberators Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín.
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Santa Ana Hill
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99. The chifa restaurant that I went past before going up Santa Ana Hill. Little did I know that the gentleman at the counter that I spoke to was a stranded traveller from Malaysia. He was in good hands now taking care of the operations of this chifa restaurant, according to the lady owner that I met later in town.
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101. Each step is marked. Total 444 steps.
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104. Beautiful birds seen at the top.
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The McDonalds near Malecon has chicken sandwich meal for 2.99USD. There was a symphony concert outside the library, but I missed it.
112. Bulevar 9 de Octubre is one of the most emblematic avenues of Guayaquil. Its name pays tribute to October 9, 1820, the date on which Guayaquil declared its independence from Spanish rule.
On my way back to the hotel, I came across another Chinese restaurant that was not the simple chifa restaurant, with Chinese paintings hanging all across the walls. I walked in and ordered some authentic Chinese food, and the taste came out very good. I chatted with the lady boss who was busy preparing take-outs and settling the bills of the regulars. We chatted in cantonese as she was from Guangdong, and is a hakka herself. She told me the security situation in Guayaquil was indeed a bit concerning, so one must take extra precaution especially at night - stick to the touristy area heavily patrolled by police. There were immigrants rushing into Ecuador and caused the security situation to turn from good to bad. She was here for 2 years but her family had been doing business here longer than that.
Her mum actually got to know a Malaysian whose passport was stolen and ended up sleeping on the street and did odd jobs in Guayaquil, so she arranged for this guy to come work with the Chinese chifa restaurant that the family also owned. It was so coincidental that the restaurant she mentioned was the one I bumped into, and most likely the gentleman who answered my query was the Malaysian she told me about.
I walked back to the hotel and crashed for the night, totally exhausted.
The hotel was so kind as to prepare me a breakfast pack to bring to the airport.
V1. The video of the liveaboard experience:
V2. The video of the liveaboard experience on the same boat made by the divers Kris and Chris Henry, who did the trip just before us. The group just before ours had much tough diving conditions due to the quake in Peru.
According to the diver and the creator of this video Chris: "We had one really brutal day, and even the dive guide said he hadn't seen the conditions that rough at Darwin in his years of diving there. Those rough currents may have been triggered by an earthquake off the coast of Peru, so I'd say it was a one-time event. It was all for good memories, and I'd do it again in an instant."
My travel article was published by Singapore chinese newspapers on 19 Jun 2025, here is the article.
Notes:
1. USD is the currency in Ecuador. Sometimes the merchants will return change in Ecuador dollars instead of USD. Better to pay in exact to avoid receiving change in Ecuador dollars unless that's what you wanted.
2. There was no time difference between Miami and Guayaquil but the Galapagos Islands is 1 hour behind Guayaquil.
2. Most of the divers landed in Quito, their reasons were that Quito is supposedly safer than Quayaquil. I landed in Quayaquil as the altitude is lower, but i take precautions to stay safe in Guayaquil. There might be some truth in the perception that Guayaquil was dangerous. Just take the normal precautions if you are transiting in Guayaquil.
3. Each of us was loaned a Nautilus unit with GPS during our days in Wolf and Darwin, in case we got separated from the group due to current. So far there was never an incident of divers being separated from the group thanks to the vigilance of the guides and the panga drivers.
4. I needed more weight due to the 7mm divesuit and dive vest, as well as the salinity in the water around Galapagos Islands.
5. No night dive is allowed in the Galapagos liveaboard.
6. I was having trouble with the seasickness medication, even though it said less-drowsy, I still ended up pretty drowsy. I took the pill one time and stopped taking. I think I will just wear the wrist bands next time, as it worked for me.
7. Kia was making publicity in a big way in Ecuador. You can see the name Kia on many iron railings near the airport and the jetty.
8. The starry sky seen from the liveaboard was mesmerising.
9. Only trust the flight information displayed on screen in London heathrow Airport, audio announcements are to be taken only as a reference.
10. Shared taxi is the way to go from the jetty in Itabaca Channel to Puerto Ayora downtown. No point taking the US$5 public bus and wait forever for it to gather enough passengers.
11. We were grateful to the brilliant suggestion by Yana to buy the fresh catch from the fishermen near Wolf Island, and even more grateful to Tom who paid for the yellowfin tuna and treated us to the freshest sashimi.
12. I was glad that I took British Airways as there were hot meals served on the segment between Singapore and London, as well as between London and Miami. Luggage was sent through from Singapore to Guayaquil without the need of rechecking. Boarding passes were given at the departure point. One thing to note though, there is different PNR number for the flight operated by BA and by American Airline. If you would like to select your seat, you need to know the PNR for both. I didn't have problem selecting seats on the way from Singapore to Guayaquil, but on the way back, I could only select my seat from Guayaquil to Miami using my American Airline app, I could not select the seats on the segments operated by British Airways, the seats were assigned. the AA app and BA app did not allow any seat selection for the two later segments.
13. Our dive guide Oscar gave us an introduction of the main islands that made up the Galapagos Archipelago, also known as the Archipelago of Colon. According to him, who is a permanent resident in Santa Cruz, he cannot do business in Isabella Island as he is not a native on the island.
14. Oscar informed that the Fernandino Island and Isabella Island were not in our itinerary. We will need to top up and get everybody to agree before we can change the dived plan on the last day to visit these 2 islands. Water could be cold at 12 degrees Celcius and the condition could be less than ideal. We ended up not able to go there, as the conditions were not encouraging, strong surfs prevented any diving opportunities with the marine iguanas. The other dive boats that were supposed to dive there changed their plan to other dive sites like the Wolf Island as well.
15. I learnt that evening that my roommate David was actually on the round the world cruise and this liveaboard was his breakaway for a few days, before he reconnect with the cruise at Santiago, Chile. The cruise ship had undergone refurbishment in Belfast, and the work was delayed for 4 months. He had to time the launching date of the cruise, with the arrival date in Guayaquil so that he could catch Humboldt Explorer in the right time, and he did it. The dock went bankrupt after the refurbishment was completed, as that was the only work that helped kept the dock afloat.
16. Boris was a Jew from Russia that is now settled in USA. He told me about his friend Anatoli who is the master of Wing-chun. He watched all the movies in the Ip Man series.
17. Ben was from Texas and used to have a Chinese wife, and he got to enjoy the freshest sashimi that his wife’s uncle will keep for them in the restaurant, so naturally he loved the sashimi treat we had. He like to be identified as a Texan instead of from the USA. In his younger days, he competed in State Wrestling Championship. He has done some shore diving in Bonaire and love it.
18. During the dives, Shiori was very good at noticing marine animals with her good eyesight. She doesn’t wear glasses, which is quite rare for a Japanese. She also showed me her video of hammerhead sharks at Okinawa. Dolphins at Chiba.
19. One of the crews Jonathan showed me the video of 3 orcas devoured a hammerhead shark in Santiago Chile.
20. Accodring to Oscar, there was usually a 2-year waiting period to get on Humboldt Explorer before covid. After covid, the demand has weakened.
21. Oscar shared that he was going to have his first baby boy this year. He would name this boy Noah, same name as the character in the 2004 movie The Notebook, which i happened to watch last year, a reccomendation by a Korean drama actor.
22. The airport staff was curious about the two things I carried – my camera and my bright red Singapore passport. I got into chat with the staff in both Galapagos Airport as well as Guayaquil Airport because of these 2 items.
23. I had dinner in a chinese restaurant in Guayaquil. I happened to chat with a lady owner about the safety situation in Guayaquil. She told me there was a Malaysian who lost his money and passport after bring robbed in Guayaquil. He ended up doing odd jobs and slept on the streets at times. Her mum who ran a supermarket, noticed this poor gentleman, took pity on his plight and asked her daughter (the lady owner) to take him as a worker in the restaurant so that at least he has food and a shelter at night (sleeping in the restaurant). The lady owner told me that this Malaysian was assigned to look after a chifa restaurant near the 444-step hill. I described the outlook of the same gentleman I met in the chifa restaurant earlier, the description matched. It was by sheer coincidence that I met a Malaysian in Guayaquil without knowing!
24. 4 dives a day were quite tiring, considering the choppy panga ride to the dive sites. The hot tub and hot shower did help to relieve some of the tiredness after a day's dive.
25. There used to be coral near Galapagos Islands, but were all destroyed during the el-Nino period in 1982-83.
26. The seasick medication i took, Dramamine-less-drowsy, still made me drowsy the next day. I showed the packaging to the Korean couple. They took Dramamine, but only 1/4 of the pill to reduce the drowsiness. The ingrdients between Dramamine and Dramamine-less-drowsy was apparently different. Whether the wristbands worked or not, still hard to conclude.
27. Ecuador is large in shrimp exporting.
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