No place on earth has as much history with travelers as the Galapagos Islands. This is not a destination you accidently hit with a dart on a map when deciding where to go next—Galapagos is at the top of everyone’s bucket list. In 2005 I set off with my young teenage daughter to scuba dive and explore this underwater and topside ecological paradise. I can recall like it was yesterday my daughter and I being tucked in behind a rocky outcropping out of the current at Wolf Island, watching an unending massive school of hammerheads slowly swim by just feet from us. I felt like we were living inside a National Geographic Emmy-winning episode.

Getting to experience the wonders of our underwater world with your children beside you is a situation I wish on everyone. Seeing the huge smile around their regulator when they harvest their first lobster, the wide, surprised look when a rare sawfish unexpectedly swims by or the appreciation of snorkeling with majestic humpback whale mothers and their calves will remain some of our fondest memories for the rest of our lives.

The land tours of the Galapagos Islands, with species found nowhere else, make for an epic family expedition that raises more questions than answers. Why do Galapagos boobies have blue feet? Why are the Galapagos tortoises so massive? Why do the Galapagos iguanas dive to eat algae instead of finding a land source of food? As a curious teenager, my daughter peppered me with multiple questions much harder than why is the sky blue!

At the end of our wondrous week aboard the Galapagos Aggressor, I realized that providing my children with the necessary skills to explore the world with me is one of the greatest gifts I could give them. As all divers know, there is something to see on every dive, even in a location you’ve already been to, and you and your children should be there, together, to experience it

Wayne B. Brown

CEO Aggressor Adventures

PADI Instructor 174820