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Cruising the Galapagos - February 2023
Looking for recommendations for our Feb 2023 Cruising the Galapagos Tour.
-Underwater digital camera recommendation that won't break the bank
-Recommended footwear for the trip
-Any recommended clothing
-Are wet suits and snorkeling gear available on board?
-Anything else you with you brought/had know before your trip?
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We are going next May and really looking forward to it. I would suggest that you google Mike Henderson as he has a wonderful blog about his experience and a lot of good suggestions regarding this trip. The website is: https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com
Here are my comments:
1. I got a clear plastic dry bag for my iPhone and took pictures with that. You can't zoom with that, all you can do is press the side button to take a picture.
2. You will make some wet landings from the zodiacs, so some plastic beach shoes are good to have. Pack a towel and your walking shoes in a backpack.
3. I'll leave clothing recommendations to others.
4. Wet suits, a face mask and snorkel are provided. You can take the mask and snorkel home, if you want.
5. A walking stick is valuable on some of the walks. The terrain can be very irregular with lots of small boulders.
Answers to other questions- tennis shoes with good, non-slip soles for walking on wet rocks and lava. Watershoes for wet landings. Shoes for dinner.
Cloth- safari clothes with Tilley type hat work well in the Galapagos segment.
Snorkel gear is provided- mask snorkel, shorty wetsuit. I brought my own mask and snorkel. Consider what you will do if you wear glasses or contacts.
As to U/W camera- Unless, you will be taking photos in shallow (< 5'), VERY clear water, are good taking photos of moving subjects on land, and are good at swimming and snorkeling, expect to get few decent underwater photos. So, don't waist your money on an underwater-specific camera or and U/W housing for a land camera. You could spend a lot of money and have little to show for it.
I am an experienced SCUBA diver, snorkeler and have used a variety of /W cameras, but I was woefully out of practice when we did P&G in 2017. Why do I say what I said above?
First, starting in the top few inches and increasing the deeper you go, water absorbs most of the color spectrum except blue/greens. Also, the amount of sunlight decreases the deeper you go, so without a decent high power flash, fish will appear gray/green at depths than about 10' . That leaves you taking photos in very shallow water of the small, fast moving fish. Even that is go guarantee. During one session we snorkeled in a tiny,shallow cove filled with green sea turtles. Unfortunately the water was very turbid. Even with a special U/W LED array light it was difficult to get a decent exposure with my GoPro. Visibility can change from over 100' to less than 30' from location to location and from day to day, as a result continuous small variations of the three major ocean currents that converge in the Galapagos. Due to the inability to zoom you will need to get up very close to your subjects which is hard because the fish are always dashing about. Only the very expensive U/W camera allow you to use.
So, as Mike suggests, if you still think you may want to try to take U/W photos, get a waterproof phone bag good for 10' - 15' and use your phone and give it a try (make sure your bag seals well!!
Do to the rapid, and continuous motion of the fish, I mostly shot video and very little of it from the surface. Unfortunately my old GoPro 4 did not have image stabilization. After we got home, I extracted the stills below from some of my videos. Most of them were taken from less than 10" from the subjects. Most illustrate some of the issues I mentioned.
That is me wearing my black and chartreuse warm water suit. I had to wear a weight belt to help overcome the buoyancy of the suit (which is much less buoyant than the wetsuit you will be provided.) I'm holding my light array. The GoPro is mounted to the top of the light.
The most important clothing is closed toe good grip and ankle supporting shoes for the various terrains you will encounter from sand to sharp volcanic rock depending on which islands you visit. After that it’s a hat and then plenty of sunscreen. We have been with Tauck twice on the Isabella ll and that is a very casual expeditions boat, I’ve no idea about the Sllverseas boat, but on our boat there was no need to dress up in the evening.
Ditto on the shoes vs terrain and sunblock. The equator goes right through the Galapagos so the sun can be very strong.
The walking sticks provided by Isabela are ok ;we took our own that we bought for our previous trip to
Antarctica .They are much better ; foldable;also adjustable to your height so when you hold them the elbows are at right angle to avoid stress.Does not weigh much.We bought them at REI store.Very casual trip;no time to change to formal attire;morning and afternoon excursions are busy.
As far as a waterproof camera, years ago I bought a fuji camera which still works great. Also bought for about 40.00 an underwater case for my iphone. tested it out and works great if you are interested amazon carries several. Let you know when we return.
Questions: for those that went in February, was that a “good” month based on viewing wildlife—land and marine? No mention of ship providing swim fins for snorkeling—are they provided? Husband’s are long and heavy to pack!
Can’t answer about February; we went in May. Isabella did provide fins with snorkel gear and shorty wet suits.
We just returned from our trip a few weeks ago. There were thirteen of us with Tacuk on Silversea. The only dress code for the evening was no shorts but other than that everyone just wore comfortable clothes. No need to dress up on Expeditions cruises. Silversea provided all snorkeling equipment as well as walking sticks. No need to bring your own. The ship is absolutely beautiful and very luxurious.