Dive Site - Darwin's Arch
| Dive Site - Darwin's Arch | |||
| Dive Location: | City / Island: | ||
| Darwin's Arch | Darwin Island, Galapagos | ||
| Country: | Rating: | Max. Depth: | Difficulty: |
| Ecuador |  |
30 m | Advanced Open Water |
| Aquatic Name: | Water: | Altitude: | |
| - | Salt | 0 m | |
| GPS Latitude: | GPS Longitude: | GPS Datum: | |
| 1° 40.290′ N 1.6715° N 1° 40′ 17.4″ N |
91° 59.438′ W 91.990633° W 91° 59′ 26.28″ W |
Google Map | WGS84 |
| 6 dives at this location: | |||
| 348 | 349 | 350 | 351 | 352 | 353 | |||
| Map: | |||
 |
|||
| Comments: | |||
| Darwin's Arch, aka Darwin's Towers, is a natural rock arch located less than a kilometre from the southeast corner of Darwin Island, Galapagos, Ecuador. The famous arch itself is a natural rock formation, now collapsed due to erosion, that once rose 15 metres above the ocean. It sits atop a wide, flat rock platform. The area is now known as Darwin's Towers after the arch's collapse. This is the only site we dived at Darwin Island and it's rated as the best dive site in the Galapagos, and by many as one of the best dive sites in the world. Strong currents from the south split as they hit the plateau and wrap around the dive site. Minor variations in the direction of the currents cause a big difference in where they split and thus where the dive guides will start the dives. A popular site to the east of Darwin's Arch is called 'The Theatre'. You quickly descend to about 15 metres and cling to the rocks in the current as you look out into the blue. Typically there will be thousands of fish of al shapes and sizes everywhere, totally filling the water column. Anywhere else in the world you'd be totally amazed and blown away by this. But at Darwin's Arch, these thousands of fish just become back scatter. Your attention is totally consumed by the passing parade of large schools of hammerhead sharks, galapagos sharks, silky sharks plus eagle rays, dolphins, green turtles, yellowfin tuna and other pelagics. You have to be careful about where you cling on to the rocks. There are large fine-spotted moray eels everywhere. many come out and swim openly around the dive site. a reef hook and line would have been handy. Whale sharks are supposed to be often around in the summer months, from early July through November, but we didn't see any. Of course, they were there the week before! We were told that during the 'whale shark season' you can see fove or so on a single dive. When we headed out into the blue at the end of the dive it was common to have hammerhead sharks on the sands below. often the siky sharks would come and circle around us. Location GPS coordinates from Google Earth. Approximate location only. |
|||