Aggressor II – the boat

We were impressed with our live aboard diving Galapagos boat of the interiors of this 100 ft long fleet with 4 decks to address every need of discerning passenger. Our Deluxe State Room at the Lower Deck, equipped with flat screen, headboard light and safety vault was well maintained, efficiently designed and cleaned by the Crew everyday.

At the Main Deck, houses the main Salon and the Dining Area where we spend most of our time mingling with other divers (whom eventually we became friends with), whilst we share varied, sumptuous and delectable dining experience.

The Dive Deck also at the Main Deck, where all modern, well maintained and new dive equipment & gears were kept and organized and even numbered for each diver’s safe keeping of personal gears et. al. mask, gloves.

The sun deck remains my favorite part though. It gives me time to chill and recollect the past dives I just had while sun basking and sharing a drink with a fellow diver or two. Sunsets over the deck are gorgeous! In the afternoon where breeze is at its best, it’s the best place to take nap between dives too! Crew is very helpful, attentive and respectful of us. I particularly like a crew who willingly and cheerfully does everything to help the divers. From the dining area, to hopping on the dingy to cleaning our rooms, he does things like he was tailor-made to do it. It’s not a cheapest fleet among the liveaboard dive yachts in Galapagos, but we are pleased of its quality service and sophisticated built.

 

The Drama Before the Trip

By Lilliane
And so The Big Day arrived, June 14, 2012. We were to meet the Aggressor representative at the cafe of Casablanca, opposite the pier. Excitedly we hauled both our asses to the San Cristobal malecon promptly at 1:30pm. The cafe is closed. No Aggressor representative. Hmmm.

I looked at my watch for the hundredth time in 5 minutes. I realized this is South America but surely there should be other divers?

When Vangie arrived 2 days before, she met a couple from Spain at the airport who were to be on the Aggressor with us, who were staying in Casablanca but right now, are nowhere to be found. Vangie went to the pier to ask around while I tried calling Leslie. The number you dialed is not valid, it says in Spanish. Wtf??

As my heart threatened to jump off my chest, I took a deep breath and scanned my brain recalling my relationship with Leslie. I found her on scubaboard.com on Galapagos Diving and have seen her post on the forum recently. We were communicating since 2010 and had about 20 email exchanges. I occasionally receive Galapagos promotions from her. Surely she can’t be a scammer?

Could this be a long con? It involves about USD 9,000 and what do I know about her? She has a website, a bank account, a paypal account, no physical address, a phone number that doesn’t work, and who coincidentally not in Ecuador when I was. And what about the couple, were they planted? I wanted to ask Vangie if she talked to them first of they talked to her first. If this is a con, I’d feel really stupid because I insisted on booking with Leslie. There is an Aggressor agent in Manila, though hardly a friend, but whom Vangie knows personally. And I’d be so guilty dragging her into it.

I’ve always been thankful that in over one year of traveling, nothing valuable has been lost or stolen. And the only time I was scammed was by the tram controller in Budapest for 20 euros. Could this be my episode of “Holiday from Hell”?

Oh yes, I can be a tad dramatic. But at the speed of thought, these only went on for about 10 seconds. And then of course we found the Aggressor representative Nelson, who will be the boat manager and our dive master. And we will become really good friends with the Spanish couple, Marina & Edu.

 

Conclusion

by Vangie

Diving Galapagos can be done land-based or live-aboard. We did both. But doing it live-aboard is the best way to really explore the islands and the only way to reach our favorite spots – Darwin & Wolf. We took the trip at the beginning of the peak season and thus price comes in premium. And because of Galapagos National Park’s objective to limit tourists ruining the beauty of the islands, they restricted direct flights that land in Galapagos – thus again, giving us a limited choice for fleets, flight schedules and not to mention prices.  It sure made a dent in our savings but every cent we shelled out for this trip is worth it! Underwater we were presented with amazing and teeming marine life – both pelagic and macro, and on the surface rugged yet awesome beauty of the island landscape and creatures only found in the Galapagos!

It’s difficult to imagine not doing it the way we did. Away from cares of our day to day grind, from the polluted city life, right there at the far flung part of the Pacific, we are fortunate to have such incredible experience in Galapagos!  Again I was reminded of how small I am and how vast the beauty is around me! It’s been almost a month since we did that one great dive trip, but the novelty has not faded. I am still thrilled (and sometimes having those little chuckles) every time I talk about it to family and friends. Galapagos, no wonder, is every diver’s dream!

 

Watch this video where a lifetime of dive compressed into a week! Or in this case, into 5minute video =)

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