N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 | S P O R T D I V E R . C O M 47

B Y L A N D A N D B YS E ADo you love exploring

underwater and topside

on your dive vacation?

Here are four liveaboard

itineraries that pack both

into a single week.

Some liveaboard destinations are designed to get you in the water and happily blowing bubbles as often as your dive computer will permit. And while you’ll still have to find

your land legs after a week of diving, these four live-aboards — Four Seasons Explorer in the Maldives, M/V Chertan in Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay, Sun Dancer II in Belize, and Galapagos Aggressor III — offer land-based excursions that are as much fun as the diving. In fact, the topside and underwater experiences combine to make these among the most memorable dive vaca-tions you’ll ever have.

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“I heard we don’t even need to give you a tank,” says Angela Gitaprakasa, manager of the dive center at the Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru, when I arrive to check in. She’s already talked to the week’s divemasters about my air consumption, and while the compliment is incredibly kind, I’m not one bit surprised they’ve

been discussing my personal preferences and dive habits — at these sublime resorts, it’s all about personal attention to every single guest.

I’m on day six of a weeklong trip to the Maldives, a country of 1,192 islands — only 200 of them inhabited — strung like sparkling white Christmas lights across the expanse of the Indian Ocean. I’ve just arrived at Landaa Giraavaru, my third of three destinations this week: the first was the Four Seasons Kuda Huraa, then Four Seasons Explorer, and finally I’m here at Landaa. My villa here is the most spectacular yet — the private pavilion with an upstairs hammock with a sunset view is calling my name — and the staff already knows of my allergy to goose down, which has been re-moved from my bed before I even check in.

My trip begins at Kuda Huraa, where, after checking into my villa — complete with pri-vate plunge pool — I’m anxious for my first foray into Maldivian waters, which will be at a current-heavy site called the Aquarium. We giant-stride into a sea filled with turtles, rays and reef sharks, which are marked-ly better than I am at holding their place in the swiftly moving water. Once we give in to the current, we float along amiably together. My two days here pass in a blur of dives, private surfing lessons, a massage and beach-front canapés at sunset — in my mind, I’m daring Four Seasons Explorer to top this.

Dare accepted: To call Explorer a dive boat is to do it a grave injustice. My stateroom has a bathtub bigger than the one in my house. It’s a floating yacht, and the perfect

L I T T L E L U X U R IE SCountless small touches add up to one decadent week of diving (and indulging) at the Four Seasons in the Maldives

mode of transportation to our final stop — many Four Seasons’ guests put together similar itineraries, begin-ning at Kuda Huraa, spending three days on Explorer, and finishing their trip at Landaa. We dive three times a day from a dhoni; my favorites are a day and night dive at Embodhoo caves: a wall site where we see batfish, tangs, cleaner shrimp, nudis and tons of clownfish, ever on guard if we venture too close to their anemones. The star of our night dive is a lone undulating sea krait, the first I’ve ever seen. The next day we dive Muthafushi — my first thila, or pinnacle — where we drop down to around 90 feet, and circle our way up past schooling jacks, turtles, batfish and tons of tangs.

Our days on the Explorer end with a beach picnic on a private island (of course), where the crew has dug a long table and benches for us … out of the beach. We sit upon draped sarongs while they bring course after course. My main dish is a perfectly prepared asparagus risotto. On a deserted island. In the Maldives. It’s better than most I’ve had at Italian restaurants back home, and I say so when asked how I like it. “We just want you to be happy,” says cruise director Areef Ali Usman. Mission  accomplished. fourseasons.com

BY REBECCA STRAUSS

THE BOATFour Seasons ExplorerTotal passengers: 22 // Cabins: 11 // Total crew: 25 // Length: 129 feet // Number of decks: 3

Mantas feast in Hanifaru Bay (top), and hard corals glow at sunset (bottom). Spotted eels and soft coral complete vibrant reef scenes (opposite).

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50 N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 | S P O R T D I V E R . C O M N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 | S P O R T D I V E R . C O M 51

Our all-inclusive dive menu doesn’t start with the famous Blue Hole, but rather with the obscurely named Site Y. My boyfriend and I are stoked as we learn from the dive briefing that the wall starts shallow — which in diver-speak means we get more bottom time. As we descend, we spot the shadows of two blacktip reef sharks. Upon approach, they tail us like a pair of friendly grou-per. One comes in tight to my lens, where I’m granted great close-up shots accompanied by my own

heart-thumping theme song. And while I play it cool, I’m starting to think these guys are hanging around a little too long. But in the ocean, they are the cool kids. It doesn’t take much time for them to grow bored with us and move on to find something more exciting. As for me, it’s only the first day and I couldn’t be more in awe.

The seven-day trip of our all-you-can eat, sleep and dive extravaganza is aboard Aggressor and Dancer Fleet’s Sun Dancer II. And they don’t skimp on the

D I V IN G W I T H T HE C O O L K ID SAdrenaline-pumping adventures can be found in, around and outside Belize’s iconic Blue Hole

service: The only thing we have to do is jump in and dive. (They even provide valet fin service.) Surface in-tervals are diver’s choice: eating fresh-baked banana bread, reading on the deck or, my favorite, taking a nap.

Averaging four to five dives a day (night dives included), our trip is bookended with a dive at Sandy Slope. Our finale seems almost orchestrated: a bold green moray eel, curious grouper, a gliding spotted ea-gle ray and a perfectly poised pink seahorse. As we head to the hang bar for our safety stop, a cloud of horse-eye jacks circles under the 138-foot boat. My camera can take only so much excitement.

When we surface, I’m thankful for the last juice left in my batteries, then we hear the screams: “Dolphins!”

The divers who have already surfaced are now snorkeling with a pod of 12 dolphins. Dumping our gear on the dive platform, we join them. I resist the urge to swim back to the boat for fresh batteries — it’s not every day your dive ends with an impromptu dolphin swim.

While that might be a tough act to follow, Belize doesn’t disappoint when it comes to land adventures either. The natural beauty of its waters is mirrored by the wild freedom of its jungles — and it’s the perfect place to get your land legs back in gear.

THE BOATSun Dancer IITotal passengers: 20 // Cabins: 10 // Total crew: 7 // Length: 138 feet // Number of decks: 3

ESSENTIAL ITEMS FOR LIVEABOARD DIVING

Light SaberThe Ikelite Gamma LED Dive Light delivers a 220-lumen beam you’ll want on-reef and in the rainforest. MSRP: $120 CONTACT: ikelite.com

Protection PotionKeep sunburn and bug bites at bay with Erbaviva’s organic skin-care line. MSRP: $20 (bug spray); $22 (sunscreen)CONTACT: erbaviva.com

Water LegsPost-dive slip on some Crocs. Lightweight and comfy, the only thing better would be your fins. MSRP: $120 CONTACT: crocs.com

Diver DudsMade of ultrafast-drying nylon, Uzzi’s shorts are available in a variety of styles. MSRP: $29 (dive style); $25 (basic style) CONTACT: uzzi.com

Jungle GearExplore topside with LOWA’s Renegade GTX Mid boots made water-proof and breathable. MSRP: $225 CONTACT: lowaboots.com

CLOCKWISE: Belize’s famous Blue Hole; Atlantic nurse sharks peruse the waters; a giant Caribbean anemone dances in the current.

Places like Maruba Resort Jungle Spa, 45 minutes outside Belize City, offer excursions that range from mud massages and Mayan-ruin tours to zip-lining through the canopy and tubing through the rainforest. We opt for the latter but decide to throw a horse into the mix; before long I am breathless on the back of a gallop-ing mare on the fastest jungle tour one can experience outside of a zip-line. We stop occasionally in search of a

toucan or howler monkey. There’s even talk of a prowl-ing jaguar. It’s only when we are in full throttle heading back to the property that I realize I could easily fall off. Playing it cool, I hold on a little tighter, but I know I haven’t fooled anyone. From the jaguars to the black-tips, there’s no need to try and play it cool here. These guys have it covered. And it sure is impressive watching them do it. aggressor.comC

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52 N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 | S P O R T D I V E R . C O M

STORY & PHOTOS

BY BRANDON COLE

The urge to submerge is strong in me. But there’s one place I find myself just as amazed over the wildlife above the waves as below: the Galapagos Islands. Do I choose a dozen species of sharks and rays or the iconic giant land tortoises? What about superb marine macro critters, or nesting blue-footed boobies; massive schools of fish, or piles of sunbathing iguanas? I wonder if Charles Darwin would have been similarly conflicted — albeit in reverse order — if he had access to scuba? Luckily the modern-day naturalist doesn’t have to choose.

A 600-mile flight from Ecuador’s coastal city of Guayaquil to San Cristobal — one of 13 major islands in the Galapagos Archipelago — begins my surf-and-turf adventure. I kick things off with a weeklong liveaboard diving expedition aboard Galapagos Aggressor. We drift along Cousin Island’s terraced wall in 30 to 80 feet to see green sea turtles napping amid bushes of yellow-black coral, king angelfish, barracuda, and puppylike Galapagos sea li-ons. Giant mantas wing past us at Cape Marshall. Braving cold upwellings off Punta Vicente Roca, we’re rewarded with mola molas, seahorses, frogfish, horn sharks, red-lipped batfish, and even a penguin flying through a school of salema. Wolf Island’s Landslide overwhelms us with bold (and beefy) Galapagos sharks, spotted eagle rays, and free-swimming moray eels.

But no “world’s best dives” list is complete without Darwin Island. Remote and re-markable, it’s the northernmost in the Galapagos chain. Strong currents sweep over its one site, where advanced divers cling to barnacle-covered boulders between 60 and 100 feet deep, and are witness to an astonishing ar-ray of pelagics. I spot bottlenose dolphins, silky sharks, a tornado of bonito tuna, walls of jacks, six whale sharks (including two bus-size behemoths more than 40 feet long), and hundreds of scalloped hammerhead sharks.

Y O U R W IL D E S T D R E A M SNowhere else on Earth offers the abundance of wildlife — both above and below the waves — you’ll find in the legendary Galapagos Islands

THE BOATGalapagos Aggressor IIITotal passengers: 16 // Cabins: 8 // Total crew: 9 // Length: 100 feet // Number of decks: 3

But the underwater riches are only part A: Part B of the ultimate liveaboard nature expe-rience is a multiday naturalist cruise specializing in Galapagos National Park land excursions. There are dozens of cruises available, from budget to luxe — just pick an itinerary that suits you. On North Plaza Island, I laugh at the fuzz-ball fledglings and comical courtship dance of blue-footed boobies; Fernandina is a stronghold for marine iguanas, my favorite diminutive dinosaurs. Like most Galapagos wildlife, these lizards are fearless, unfazed by humans hunkering down right beside them. I ascend Bartolome Island for a spectacular view of Pinnacle Rock and a harsh, otherworldly tableau of volcanic craters and tuff cones.

At the Darwin Center on Santa Cruz Island, I read up on the evolutionary forces at work on the famous Galapagos tortoise, then it’s off into the misty highlands for an afternoon with dozens of the gentle giants.

My favorite terrestrial site is Espanola, far to the south and the oldest island in the archipelago. It’s home to thousands of waved albatrosses, huge, state-ly birds that engage in ritualized beak fencing during their breeding season. And on a perfect powdery beach, sea lions snooze in the sun and pose for pictures. If only underwater photography were this easy. aggressor.com

Topside life such as marine iguanas and blue-footed boobies (above) competes with schools of mobula rays, colorful walls and sharks (opposite) for divers’ attention.

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While anchored at a dive site called Gona Bara Bara, iconic Milne Bay dive explorer Rob Van der Loos warned us of a difficult choice to come: We’d either have to use a macro lens to capture some of the region’s smallest indigenous subjects or one suitable for shooting reef mantas at a cleaning station — all on the same dive.

“Thanks, Rob — we’d better do this dive twice,” I mumbled in mock annoyance through my regulator as I rolled in with my macro rig to discover a muck-diving wonderland. It was indeed replete with a big bommie, which lures majestic mantas to a salon staffed by wrasse,

L E G E ND A R Y M IL NE B AYWith well over 800 distinct languages, Papua New Guinea’s diversity isn’t limited to its waters

who enthusiastically tend to their visiting clientele.In response to my lens choice, the local divemasters

Junior and Seba exhibited some uncanny critter-finding ability, and seemed on a mission to impress me. The mantas were soon forgotten once they showed me rare nudibranchs no bigger than my fingernail but every bit as resplendent as New Guinea’s spectacular forest-dwelling birds of paradise.

Also hidden in that verdant greenery, which runs from mountain to shoreline, are the numerous villages of Milne Bay, where the drum of life still beats to an ancient rhythm. The area has long been considered one of the world’s top 10 diving destinations, but to come all the way to PNG and explore only beneath the waves would be to forgo a cultural experience that’s rap-idly vanishing elsewhere. This island nation has more unique cultures scattered around its rugged terrain than any other place on Earth — the 850-some distinct languages and tribes hint at a diversity unknown else-where in the world. The region near Milne Bay offers a wonderful introduction to this nation and a few of its many fascinating peoples.

A visit to the local markets and at least one village is a must. I’m on a special mission to obtain one of the re-gion’s most prized possessions, a necklace called a bagi, made of a string of hand-cut, smoothed and drilled shell pieces of different red tones. The adornment can grow quite elaborate from a simple start, and since these bagi are used as dowries and to signify status in life, they are not taken lightly. Using respectful interaction and hand gestures, I found a woman who was willing to barter for just such a treasure. We both came away very proud of our bounty, and I was quite sure I wouldn’t see anyone else wearing my bagi back home.

Back aboard M/V Chertan, our afternoon was replete with warm tea and fish tales of the nudi that got away. This 60-foot purpose-built liveaboard is almost as fa-mous as Milne Bay itself. With only five double cabins and several dive guides, it’s small enough to feel like I’ve hopped a private charter but big enough to be comfy. Countless divers have stared out at mist-shrouded islands from these decks and dreamed of the dives to come: Little China, Tania’s, Deacon’s Reef, Samurai Wharf and so many more. These are the hallowed names of a near-mythical place and, just by being here, these dives are part of my myth now. chertan.com

Lettuce corals (top) and territorial spinecheek anemonefish (bottom) are common in Tufi; red whip coral in Milne Bay (opposite top); a local fisherman heads out for a day on the reef (opposite bottom).

STORY & PHOTOS

BY TANYA G. BURNET T

THE BOATM/V ChertanTotal passengers: 10 // Cabins: 5 // Total crew: 8-10 // Length: 60 feet // Number of decks: 1