www.ecuadors.org

[Vonier]

We are booked on a cruise on the Encantada starting December 10th ¡V thanks to all the great reviews on this site. Hope they live up to it ƒº Eva ¡V at happy gringo was also very helpful in setting this trip up.

I have two questions ¡V

Surfing Galapagos ¡V I know it can be done, but since this is part of a much larger journey for us, we do not plan on dragging our boards around with us. Is there a way to hire a guide and some boards for a day of surfing ¡V we plan on staying a few days before or after our cruise.

We also both are planning on diving while on the cruise, with hopes of Gordon Rocks, etc.

We would love to dive with whale sharks and wanted to know if it is possible to get to wolf/Darwin islands without taking a 10 day cruise dedicated exclusively for diving. Is it possible to hire an overnight boat?

Thanks

[Mark]

Surfing: Check out Tortuga Bay 5 km (walking) west from Puerto Ayora on the Santa Cruz Island (the main centre and where you'll most likely stay and take the cruise from). Waves weren't high enough when we were there, but plenty of people on body boards etc. There's also supposed to be good (better?) surfing on San Cristobal. I'm pretty sure you can rent surfboards in Puerto Ayora and probably on San Cristobal too, but you would want confirmation from someone who knows better on this one.

Diving: You can do day trips to Gordon Rock and other nearby places from Puerto Ayora. Ask around with different dive centres so that you can puzzle in the dive sites you want to do (they go to different places every day), make sure to include Gordon. You can also do day trips from San Cristobal, should you end up there. Gordon Rocks is a must-dive. Absolutely fantastic!

Check with your cruise company, it might be that you can pre arrange so that you can go diving during your actual cruise. Even if they don't have diving onboard, they may anchor with dive boats on day trips or cruise ships with diving. Don't do this if it means missing some of the site visits though. Better then to dive on day trips after or before the cruise.

From all I know you cannot reach Wolf and Darwin unless on one of those long and expensive liveaboards. They're very far from the rest of the islands. Don't think you're guaranteed to see whale sharks, but the diving in general there is supposed to be very good. This being said, if you've got the cash, perhaps you can hire a boat. Sounds very, very expensive though.