We went on the SCUBA diving trip of your dreams, to Charles Darwin’s playground circa 1831. Some 900 km west of Ecuador are islands sprinkled on either side of the equator. These islands and their weird and wonderful inhabitants helped forge over a century of understanding on how life on this planet evolved. Las Islas Galapagos, so sacred in the history of science, is a place of scarcity and abundance. The cold waters of the Humboldt Current feed one of the most productive fisheries on earth, and the islands’ isolation gave rise to species found nowhere else. We chased the big ones and the oddballs both above and below the surface – schooling hammerheads, whale sharks, Mola mola, marine iguana, red-footed boobies, giant tortoises. This is our second guided trip to The Galapagos, and Sumer and the Lacadives team could not wait to adventure in this SCUBA wonderland again.