Has anyone been on the Galapagos Legend before and when is the best snorkeling in the Galapagos?

[consmatt]

Starting to plan a Galapagos cruise and wondered if anyone have been on the Galapagos Legend and when is the best time of year for snorkeling there?

[ColdCruise]

@consmatt

I have not been on the Galapagos Legend, but did quite a bit of snorkeling on our B2B cruise on a 20 pax ship (boat?). The Galapagos park authorities designate which sites ships are permitted to offer snorkeling (or diving if on a dive boat), as well as hiking, swimming or “just” rib-boating, so it’s unlikely you will be able to choose your own snorkeling sites. The ship will tell you which stop allows snorkeling and your choice is do it there or not do it.

 

The park authorities have the whole thing well regulated and choreographed  to limit number of ships/boats and total number of passengers/ tourists are a given site on any specific day and thus minimize adversely impacting wildlife or the environment. You could think of it as good stewardship of natural resources, or good business management by making sure guests ( who bring in dollars) have a good time and maintain the good PR about the natural wildlife. We saw a wide range of SeaLife on our snorkel spots. If there’s specific wildlife (land or sea) you want to see, research what’s common at the spots on your desired or chosen itinerary and if that wildlife isn’t listed as common, pick a different itinerary. For instance hammerheads are common off 1 spot on St Cristobal (more of a dive spot if I recall), our itineraries didn’t go there, so we didn’t expect to see hammerheads (& we didn’t). We did snorkel with sea lions and iguanas almost everywhere, white tip sharks a few times, but penguins only twice, and pretty fish everywhere!

 

we went late October into early November and visited every island except Floreana, Wolf and Española islands

Edited May 13, 2023 by ColdCruise
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