Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in
Galapagos Islands/Ecuador

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Aggressor Fleet: "Incredible Galapagos", Sep, 2014, by Jim Garren, FL, US ( Sr. Reviewer 9 reports with 6 Helpful votes). Report 7937 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Our 8th live-aboard and the best so far in spite of a rocky start, the trip was planned to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We originally booked with Buddy Dive who lost their permit to dive the area. We saw notice of that on Undercurrent prior to any notification from the dive operator so we immediately filed a dispute for the deposit we had charged to our bank card. Buddy dive did not fight the disputed charges and we did not lose any money, but we had to scramble to rebook dates with Aggressor because of time lost, the best time still available was early July. Once again we paid our deposit and waited for our wonderful adventure to the Galapagos then two days prior to our flight Aggressor called saying the boat was down for repair and our trip was cancelled! As disappointed as we were, others booked for the same week had even worse luck, some had already traveled to Ecuador! To Aggressors credit they did everything possible to make it right including finding us an opening on a trip in September due to a cancellation. Aggressor reimbursed us for all charges incurred to rebook flights and hotels, paid for limo service to the airport in Miami from our home in Palm Beach county and gave us a $500 voucher for a future trip. The third time proved to be the charm, our goal for the trip was to see at least one whale shark and we saw several huge females on 4 of the 6 dives at Darwin Island, schools of hundreds and hundreds of hammerhead and Galapagos sharks at both Wolf and Darwin islands. We also saw spotted eagle rays, dolphins, mola mola, mantas, yellowfin tuna,turtles,sea lions, penguins, marine iquanas, huge schools of creole fish and black stripped salema, red lipped batfish and even nudibranchs. Diving was challenging at times with strong currents, surge, limited visibility and cold water at some sites but was well worth the effort. The boat Galapagos Aggressor III (the old Aggressor I rebuilt and upgraded) is the nicest one we have used to date, no problems with anything for the week we were aboard. Cabins are roomy with plenty of storage, private bath with enclosed shower separate from the toilet area. Food and service were excellent, crew was friendly and helpful. Two land tours are also part of the package and included hiking to the summit of Bartolome island and visits to see giant tortoises and land iquanas on Santa Cruz. Other Aggressor boats acknowledge those divers who complete all dives during the week with "Iron Diver" medals as a remembrance of the trip, this one did not. I was also disappointed that the boat did not offer any destination specific souvenir apparel, always a nice way to recall such adventures back home, small annoyances but they would be a nice touch on such a pricey destination.
Websites	Aggressor Fleet
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Florida, Hawaii, Bahamas, Roatan, Belize, Caymans, Turks and Caicos, Australia, Maldives, Red Sea
Closest Airport	Baltra	Getting There	Miami to Guayaquil Ecuador, Guyaquil to Baltra
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	choppy, surge, currents
Water Temp	59-77°F / 15-25°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	30-80 Ft/ 9-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	One hour dive time, no deeper than 110' (suggested)
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	> 2
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Large rinse tank and padded camera table, charging outlets in cabins, no facilities for viewing or copying, bring your own laptop

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in Galapagos Islands/Ecuador

Aggressor Fleet: "Incredible Galapagos", Sep, 2014,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in
Galapagos Islands/Ecuador