Back from Ecuador & the Galapagos
 

An amazing trip! I absolutely thought the country & people were so nice & friendly and the Galapagos... well what more can i say? An absolutely magical place. We all had such an amazing time on our boat the Samba and our guide was absolutely wonderful and knowledgeable.

Here was our itinerary. I thought it was a great idea to spend a night or two at Puerto Ayora after the cruise. I think my body would have rebelled hard if I had to go back to altitude. Plus my body was still adjusting to being on land... I felt like I was swaying the first day we got back to land!

Papallacta was a great way to relax and just do nothing! And the area around Otavalo is so beautiful as well and is more than just the big market.

Day 1: Quito - day trip to Bellavista Cloud Forest

Day 2: Quito city tour

Days 3-9: Aboard the M/Y Samba

Days 10 & 11: Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island

Day 12: Puerto Ayora to Papallacta

Day 13: Papallacta to Otavalo

Day 14: Otavalo Market & Peguche Waterfalls

Day 15: Cuicocha Lake & Cotacachi Leather Village

Here are my pics... warning - lots of pictures, so grab lunch & sit back & enjoy! feel free to ask any questions, hope i can answer them.

http://web.mac.com/quimbymoy/Site_2/Home.html

We're planning our trip for next year. Did you have a lot of trouble with the altitude at the beginning when you were in Quito? Also, did you get to see all the wildlife you wanted on the cruise? I'm particularly concerned that we see the giant tortoises in the wild rather than in captivity. What was the Samba like? Any other insights would be greatly appreciated.

Ruth

Hi Ruth-

I didn't have as much problem with the altitude in Quito as much as I did in Cuzco. Quito is just under 10,000' which I think is my body's threshold. Nonetheless, you should take it slowly and hydrate when you are there. Bottled water is so cheap there too, a 2 liter bottle is around $1.

I think I saw just about everything we wanted, although we didn't see dolphins or waved albatross (which come to the islands around April). We did see giant tortoises at the private reserve, which I think, most ships go to. If not, book a couple days after your cruise and stay in Puerto Ayora and you can go to the reserves on your own.

The Samba was great. I loved our crew & our guide, Juan, was amazing, he was so knowledgeable on everything. The ship itself is nice, clean, not a fancy cruise ship. The rooms have bunked beds, with a larger bed on the bottom bunk. There is 1 room that has a double bed, but I would only stay there if I bought the single supplement or the couple is small. It's not for a tall couple! The food was really good & really hearty.

I liked the small group experience on the boat. It was nice being able to be flexible, like going on the island earlier. That was really important, esp. with dealing with the heat. Being on a small boat may be tough for those who are prone to seasickness, but my sis, who has really bad motion sickness, finally conquered it by taking the right meds.

The boat also had wet suits & snorkel gear for rent. We brought our own masks, just rented fins. The snorkeling was really amazing. I thought it was much better than the snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef!

If there is anything else I can help answer, let me know.

Thanks so much for your answer. Is seeing the giant tortoises at the private reserve like seeing them in the wild?

Yes. The reserves are privately owned farms. They allot part of their land for the native tortoises to roam freely and the rest for their own use. We only saw 2 tortoises the day we were there, so it's not like they were everywhere.

According to Barry Boyce's book on the Galapagos (if you don't already own this book, get it... lots of good info here), land tortoises are rarely seen on the other islands... maybe a sighting on San Cristobal Island. One of the goals of the Darwin Station is breeding. One day tortoises bred there will be released back on the islands from where they were originally found. But right now, other than those places, land tortoises are rarely seen.

We did have several sea turtle sightings on Isabela (several places) & Bartolomé and while snorkeling!

Hi Ruth

I recently got back from the Galapagos and it was amazing!!! Saw the Samba while I was there and it looked great. I however booked my trip on the Coral II, I was a bit concerned with getting seasick on board and decided that a motor yacht would be a good call. The service was fantastic; everything was well organized and the cabins were much more comfortable than I expected. I was particularly pleased with our guide, he was not only knowledgeable but charismatic, friendly and funny…became quite a friend :) Make sure that the boat you choose has a III level guide, I did not know this until our travel agent pointed out how important it was for us to choose a cruise with the right itinerary and a III level bilingual guide…guess not all boats have the right combination.

On our first day our guide took us to a farm in Santa Cruz Island so we could have contact with Galapagos Tortoises on the wild. The Galapagos walked around the endless fields doing whatever it is tortoises do :) …couldn’t care less about us humans! It was a once in a life time experience.

If you have the chance, you might want to contact Angeles; she helped us all through the process of organizing our trip, advised us on what the best sites, itineraries and options would work best, search the competing prices, managed all aspects of our trip with transparency but most importantly, she showed genuine interest…I would highly recommend her to anyone.

Her personal email address is [email protected] ...left her business card at home but would gladly pass it on to you, my mail is [email protected]

Good luck with your trip.

P.S. While in Quito make sure you book dinner at MARE NOSTRUM…amazing sea food!!!

Thanks for all the wonderful advice and info.

please provide details on your bellevista cloud forest cay trip-whom did you use, cost,including transport, and what was included.

we booked our trip thru our tour agent, but you can book the trip thru bellavista directly.

we had 5 people so the price was $63 per person (there's a sliding scale price depending on how many people are in your party). we were picked up at our hotel early! at 6:10AM, then had other pick ups along the way, so we can get to the lodge at 8:30. they had a nice breakfast, then we separated into groups so we could go on whatever difficulty hikes people wanted to do. it was our 1st day there so we wanted to take it easy, esp since we were in altitude. we took a trail to the research center. lots of cool plants along the way, but no toucans were spotted. most of the birds we spotted were right at the lodge where all the hummer feeders were. for our hikes, they provided rubber boots, since the hiking can get pretty muddy. if you are hard to fit, you may want to make your own arrangements.

after our hike, they provided a delicious lunch. have the fish... in fact eat as much fish as you can when you're in ecuador! after lunch we walked around the lodge on our own, then left around 3 to get back to quito around 5.

our tour op was heather at cnh tours.
http://www.cnhtours.com

i noticed she went thru andando tours while we were in ecuador, so i imagine you can go straight thru andando as well.

finally, here is bellavista's web site. lots of info here.
http://bellavistacloudforest.com/index.html

Thanks for this report and photos! We're Samba bound in May and we're excited, to say the least.

hi bbb! i'm excited for you! you will have a great time and if you have juan manuel as your guide, you will learn more about the galapagos and animals than you ever imagined. :-)

a suggestion: if you don't speak spanish, please learn a few phrases... you will engage your crew, they are really a bunch of fun guys!

Hi quimbymoy

I must say you have some great photos thanks for the slide show. I am planing to go to Ecuador in july of 2009 on an Optical Mission ( handing out eyeglasses to the locals that are less fortunate. I will be staying for at least a week after the mission and was planing on going to the Galapagos. And seeing your photos have captured my interest.
Who did you book your boat through ?

Eyeguy

hi eyeguy-

thanks for the compliment!

that's a really cool program you are involved in! what a great thing you are doing.

we booked our tour thru heather @ cnh tours, but you can also book the boat directly from andando tours, which is ecuador based.
http://www.cnhtours.com
http://www.angermeyercruises.com/

I just returned from Costa Rica and met a lady who is going there this summer. I became very intriqued.

I love reading these responses! I would love to look into going in a year or two.

Thanks.

Hi quimbymoy

Thanks for the information.
Dean

Spent a week on the Samba in May and it certainly delivered. We booked everything ourselves directly through Andando Tours. Smoooooooth sailing (except for a few nights at sea).

I've posted a bunch of photos and stuff over at:

http://www.klugusamy.com/archives/tr...rts/galapagos/

But as quimbymoy said before, the guide Juan and the Samba are a can't lose situation.

bigbrownboy,

amazing website!! I leave on saturday and this was great to see!!

hey big! glad to hear you had such a great trip!! your cool pics brought back some nice memories :-)