Biodegradable Soap/Shampoo Bar
In the Galapagos, it is requested that biodegradable soap, shampoo and conditioner are used. Even though the dive live-aboard boat supplied these, I wanted to take some with us for our land portion. We had carried a Tea Tree soap bar with us to India and Bhutan and it worked well. Unfortunately, it is not labeled as biodegradable.
I found a bar made by Knotty Boy called “All Purpose Shampoo Bar” made with 100% Olive Oil that stated it is “100% biodegradable and mountain-stream friendly”. It tested well as both a shampoo and body soap at home. So the bar went to the Galapagos with us.
After using the bar for a few days on the islands, I noticed that even right after a shower, my arm pits still smelled. (It was rather hot and sweaty there!). Not acceptable. The soap may clean but it wasn’t getting rid of the odor. It was much nicer on my hair than the Tea Tree soap.
So, after trying this bar, it got left in the garbage on Santa Cruz. If a soap is needed for a good clean, especially for odor, I would not recommend this one.
Rain Ponchos
We took light rain jackets with us to the Galapagos. We quickly found out that they were not the best rain gear to deal with the torrential downpours that can happen on the islands. My jacket got soaked through and my shorts still got wet as they showed below my jacket.
We would recommend light weight rain ponchos that cover a person down to the knees or below. I saw some vendors that sold very very thin almost see through, ponchos and was tempted to buy one if we had stayed longer.
“It’s Not Free”
The scuba diving in the Galapagos is hard. We work hard before, during and after a dive. “It’s not free” is the comment most heard on the dive live-aboard and I must agree with it. It was NOT free.
