brink

Hi all--

Percy, Peg, Cheerful and everyone else.... thanks for all the great feedback on the Galapagos Islands. I've been reading for a couple weeks and now have a whole trip on hold. Thought I'd run it by you....and I have a couple questions... any feeback would be great!

I've been working with Robin at Sanjay... and am looking at Eden from October 7th-Oct 19th. It's 4 of us, my parents and my sister (26 yr old)... for those of you that have been on one of the smaller boats, let me ask... Are we going to kill each other??? Ha!

A funny story: Robin asked if anyone had any dietary needs and my mother, who's 57 going on 22, says "Yes! Lots of alcohol!" She was kidding, of course, but since she's more a 'pina colada on the beach' gal, than a 'let's go trek through the jungle'one...I think she just wanted to be sure there'd be something to take the edge off after a full day of hiking!

Also, does anyone know if the rates on Eden vary at all? I didn't see a differece in high/low season and with four of us traveling, I'd love to get some sort of package deal or discount. I do want to book in advance though.

Lastly, we've got 3 full days before the cruise and 1 full day afterwards (flying in and out of Quito...) Could anyone recommend an itinerary? Does it make sense to try to get to the jungle? Better to stay in Quito and perhaps overnight in Otavalo? Any suggestions?

Any other moderately priced cruise recommendations for a fun-family of 4 adults? I'm all ears....

Thanks again so much everyone.... your posts have been so helpful in planning already!

-brink

StanKase

Peggy; I hate to bust your baloon but we were very disappointed in our trip on a first rate small ship-the Rina Silvia. It was not the ship we only had 14 or 16 passengers but it
was the sights. Also, on that ship at that time 23 years agoo the cook needed leesons!!

The few large old turtles are in an open cage at the Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz. After that we saw 3-4 land turtles on one island and a few small turtles while snorkeling. We visited 6 of the islands in all I believe in our 7 days and the differences were small. The Booby birds were the same except that some had red feet, some had blue feet, some had black feet,etc. The lizards were very interesting but the noticeable differences in them from island to island were small. The see lions were very interesting but after seeing 5-10, do you need to see 20+? Lastly, the cost was $9,000 for my wife and I including the non-stop flight from NY to Quito. I must admit we took the Owners Suite because the other cabins were around 120-130 sq. ft. and that was too small for a 7 day trip. If we had taken a smaller cabin we could have reduced the cost to about $7,000.

I know this does not respond to your question but I would seek out a lot of FEEDBACK before you settle on this trip. Sorry.

peg

You are not bursting my bubble, because I had a wonderful time in the Galapagos, and I went there to see the animals, but I also chose the 5 day cruise instead of the 7, which was plenty. This forum is all about opinions, and one person's opinions are not any better than another. I just give my suggestions regarding the ship I was on, and in contrast Percy chimes in to give his insight on his ship, which was much larger. It was a once in a lifetime trip for us. What you're saying is no differnt than my opinion on Thailand, I did not like it as well as the other posters that have gone there, but it made for an interesting two sides.

Brink, to your question. I thought the Eden has a bit of a price break for October because it was low season, but I do not remember. It might be the flight that was cheaper that I am thinking of. Check out Sangays web site, if you haven't already, they have many different options 7 and 4 days. My mom went with us, and I was thinking the same thing, are we going to kill one another. We did not, because there are places to hang out on the boat where you don't have to see one another. I usually hung out on the top deck because I get seasick easily and that was the best place. Cocktails are a different story. We had beer and that was it, so if I did it all over again, I would buy cocktails ahead of time. There is a great liquor store by the mall (I know Percy, I would be the only one to know that). Unfortunately, we didn't think of stocking up until we returned.

I do not recommend Cotopaxi, we didn't like it but other people did. I would recommend an overnight trip to Bellevista Lodge. It is in the cloud forest. You can hike, relax or take a horseback ride.

As for Otavalo, it was okay for a morning visit, I did some shopping, we then went to other little villages, which I did some more shopping, should have bought more leather in Cotochi (sp)

Maybe you guys can go down to the Banos area, I wish we would have done that instead of Cotopaxi, could have seen it on the way bye.

With any luck by the end of next week I will at least, if nothing else, have my Galapagos picutes on my web site. Percy I finally got it up and running the lazy way, but it is up and running.

Patty

The Galapagos is a destination that I had always dreamed of going to and finally did this past May. A few weeks prior to our trip, I had myself worried that it wouldn't live up to the elevated expectations that I had in my head, that it had somehow been over hyped. It turned out that my worrying was totally unnecessary. I enjoyed every moment of my trip and wasn't disappointed at all. The islands lived up to my expectations and more. I also enjoyed staying a few extra days in Puerto Ayora after my cruise, it's a great little town! Without any disrespect to the previous poster, not everyone is going to be happy with every destination, but I think in this case, those that return from the Galapagos disappointed are in the minority.

Now to answer some of your questions, yes personality quirks are going to be more noticeable on a smaller vessel Do you guys usually drive each other nuts in close quarters? We were more concerned about our fellow passengers but everyone got along well.

Don't know whether the rates vary on the Eden much. I still get emails for last minute specials from various agencies, but it seems to me like the savings aren't that much (unless you're willing to take a chance and book locally). Did Robin check the Archipel for you? It's usually full, but if they have space, I think their low season rate (I'm not sure if Oct is considered low season though) is a bit less than the Eden.

We had a similar length of time on the mainland, one night prior and 4 nights after the Galapagos. We chose to spend one night at Bellavista cloud forest (about 2 hours drive from Quito) which we enjoyed, but had to skip Otavalo because of it. It really depends on what your group prefers, the jungle is more about hiking and nature and can be wet/buggy. Don't know if your mom would appreciate that. Otavalo has the market and there are supposed to be some interesting towns nearby.

Hope this helps.

Patty

I just noticed that I'd written my earlier post as Peg was posting her reply. To clarify, when I wrote "previous poster", I meant StanKase. I also have no idea why his reply was directed toward Peg in the first place, but I've been away for the past few weeks and there's obviously something more to this...

lilla

When we planned our Galapagos trip, we stayed six days in Quito prior to flying to the Galapagos. We spent four of those nights at Hosteria San Jorge in the hills outside Quito. George, the owner, was also our guide for the time there, and he took us to Otavalo for a night and to the Avenue of the Volcanoes in addition to tours in and around Quito and horseback riding and other nature activities at the Hosteria. We enjoyed our time in Quito almost as much as our trip to Galapagos.

Percy

Hi Peg
I agree with all you and Patty have said.
As for StanKase, I am wondering how he wound up paying $9000.00 for 7days from New York.!!!!!!?????

I got a very good price abd deal from Martin ( and his brother Robin) at Sangay tours.
As you all know I was on the Isabella 2 which is a lovely 40 passenger yacht but there were only 36 people because some came in three's and therefore some slept alone.

I spent 4 ful days in Quito and area prior to my trip to the Galapagos.
From the Galapagos I came to Quito at about 4 PM and since my plane did not leave until 11:45PM, I had a lovely late afternoon & evening tour of other parts in Quito.
From some of the hills the city lights are fantastic.

I cannot complain about one thing wrong with my Galapagos trip .
I saw more than I ever thought I would.
I was there in late August-early September which is when most of the birds were either nesting or hatching their brood.

Every Island had something to offer and just to be so close to nature was a lovely experience.
For example ,in Costa Rica the birds fly away and the animals run and hide or at least keep their distance , but not here at the Galapagos.

I chose to do my touring of Quito before the Galapagos , just so I could go home after the Galapagos but that was my choice.

There is lots to see and do in Quito and area.
There are three place where the centre of the Wolrd is....I saw all three.

From Otavalo,we did a huge circular tour up into the mountains and saw some beautiful scenery and many quaint little places.

The most hummingbirds I ever saw in my life was at Bellavista Cloud Forest and we spent the full day here.
You just hold out your hand and the hummingbird comes to sit on it.!!!

Cotopaxi is not for everyone.
This is the highest active snow capped volcano in the wolrd.
It is one hour drive south of Quito.
It is coooold up here so make sure you are wearing a heavy sweater and jacket.

Your tour guide will take you up as high as you want to go, up the moutain side in his 4x4.
There is a cabin way up high that you can get to by your vehicle but there is no use going that high up.
In this area there is wild horse and llamas and condors(saw them all).

If you are touring about ,then every Thurday in the town of Saquisili,is this HUGE market that is about 4 block by six block that looks like it is right out of the National Geographic.

It has those little ladies wearing the fedora hat and a baby tucked into their parka pouch...priceless!!!

If you go to Otavalo, then have your tour guide stop (it is on the way) at the original 'centre of the world site".
It is a huge very round concrete/stone with the mapof the world etched on to it.
Now of course you will want to go to Mita del Mundo which is the present "centre of the world " location.

It is like a small village here and you can have lunch and shop around ..but of course you have to do the tourist thing of placing one foot on each side of the line , have your picture taken and show friends back home thatyou wee on both sides of the world at the same time.!!!!

This is an impressive site .

Let me tell you something about this site:

About 35 years ago , the authorities erected all these very grandiose monuments that line each side of the "equator line"
These stone busts depict the European exlorers that "wisely" chose the equator line location.!!

Okay ,now I do not want to rain on anybody's parade BUT, GPS(Global Positioning System)has without a doubt confirmed that the monuments were erected in the wrong place.....sorry about that !!

The TRUE equator position is just a very short distance north of the present monuments.

This TRUE line runs right through the grounds of an oboriginal museum...
where aboriginal guides would be very happy to show you that they can balance an egg on a nail tip( yes nail tip!!)and also they will pour water down the drain to again show you that the drain reverses direction on either side of their "magic line".

They do this to show you that THEY and not the tourist attraction of Mita del Munda have the "real line"

The aboriginal are of course correct.

It is worth the visit here, and yes give them a nice tip when they balance the egg.!!!

I knew about this place BEFORE I went to Quito last year.

Gee...I am long winded but I must just add, that you really should see & tour "Old Quito", and DO NOT leave without going up to Panecillo Hill where the Winged Virgin stands..the view from here is breathless..

Okay okay enough.
Goodnight all ( bye Peg)

Percy

cheerful

Brink, you've probably got most of answers from Percy and Peg. So I will just briefly add a few things.

Eden price varies by season. We got different quotes. The internal flight has different price tag as well. However, this year there is more American tourists than usual so the price might change.

Eden does have a bar which offers cocktail and hard liquor, in addition to beer. The cocktail is $4. The common varieties are all there. Tony, the waiter and the bartender, does not understand much English but seems to have no problem taking cocktail orders. You can shop in the middle of the trip (assuming you have the same 7-day iternary) on Santa Cruz (and even use internet).

They changed the chef in the middle of our trip. We liked the first one better. He made mostly Ecuadorian dishes and we liked them. The second tried more western dishes and did not too well, except the last dinner. One reminder, don't go to the first pizza place you saw on Santa Cruz. The pizza is really bad, according to my groupmates.

Different people respond to seasick differently. Some are more comfortable in lower cabins, since motion is less there. However, noise is high there due to the engine. The upper deck cabin has bunk bed. You will have to adapt if you get the upper bed when the boat rocks 30 degrees. One guy took the mattress down to the floor to sleep. Cabins are assigned to us.

You can spend one day in Quito Old Town and Euqator, that is what we did. Can't help you on other places. Our guide told us that the momument is historically determined and is off by 200m. The local Equator museum is where the real equator is and it costs only $2 entrance fee. We did see hummingbird there (wild).

The old town is nice but not that impressive to me. I don't see myself spending a full day here.

We tends to keep our expectation low before the trip. Certainly, our expectation got higher every day during the trip. The last day, just when we though we won't see dolphins in the trip, we saw about 50 pilot whales and 20 dolphins. We are really happy about the trip. Maybe we are lucky.

We spent 7 days there and every island offered something new and exciting. So I will say don't take the 4 day short trip.

Enjoy!

peg

If we had more time, we would have done what lilla did.

Percy, you saw condors, that is just wrong. (HA) We didn't see jack on the two hour, bumy, slow moving, non-pavement drive up the volcano. Which is probably why we didn't enjoy it one bit. We really wanted to see condors. We did see llamas, but it wasn't at Cotopaxi.

Patti, Fodor's was acting funny yesterday. I am not wondering if we were trying to post at the same time. It took forever. I finally went back and copied what I wrote in case I lost it, and then hit my esc key, and my post was there.

cheerful

Forgot to mention:

Eden has Sat and Wed departure. I think you want to start Sat. We had 4 people onboard for 3+ days only and 2 coming in on Wed. The iternary is really designed for Sat departure. You will waste some time on Sat morning if you start on Wed (and less time at Darwin Center and Santa Cruz).

Octoboer might be considered a different season as far as bird courtship is concerned. You can check out the information on the web.

What Robin asked might be if anyone is vegetarian. We had one onboard and the chef made special meal for her.

manycruiser

You might take a look at Celebrity Xpedition. A 10 day package, 7 on the ship, air from Quito to the Galapagos, and three days in Quito. All tips, all drinks, all inclusive is running about $3000 on cruisequick.com

Nice small ship getting great reviews.

cheerful

Regarding the small boat. There will be quiet time on the board each day, depending the itenary. There were several books about Galapagos on board. We went through the marine life one each day to identify what saw during snorkeling. Reviewing photo will kill some time. Sunset were beautiful some days. Then you just relax and have a few drinks.

There is a small TV and a DVD player and about 20-30 DVD (all spanish though) on Eden. You can bring your own, I guess.

Percy

Peg and cheerful;

Nice to read your comments.
cheerful, I liked your explanation of your trip to the Galapagos.

I did enjoy "Old Quito" both in the daytime and then in the evening.

I only went again in the evening because I had time to kill until my plane left at 11:45PM.

Plus I had a private guide,so we drove around all late afternoon and evening until it was time for him to take me to the airport.

Martin came to see me at the airport, and we chatted until I had to leave.

cheerful,I assume of course that you were on the Eden. Your description was very good.

Peg... I am almost finished reading that Galapagos book...amazing that this really happened !!!!

Good Night All

Percy

Percy

Just another comment for those that might want to spend several days in Quito before heading to the Galapagos.

You can e-mail Martin (or his brother Robin)at www.sangay.com and ask him to get you a private tour guide.

I had Carlos Avila and he was terrific.

He will pick you up at your hotel and you just tell him where you want to go .

Carlos was with me all the time in "Old Quito" and he was explaining everyplace to me.
Without him ,I would have just been looking a nice lovely old buildings without knowing anything about them.

When it was lunch time , he would say, "I know a nice place" and off we would go.

If you are going to be in Quito for 2-4 days then you might as well see something,since you came this far.!!

On the morning I was leaving for the Galapagos,Carlos drove me to the airport and stayed right with me as I checked in.

Then took me to the area where I have to get my bags check (security).

He said something in Spanish to the lady and she just unzipped my luggage bag, glanced at the top layer of clothes
gave Carlos and I a smile and said "Okay".

As I left for the final security gate Carlos said, " will be waiting for you right here at 2:30PM next week"

What a terrific guy he was.

Percy

peg

Hi Percy:

Told you that book was good. It's wierd actually being to the island where it happened. We were asking our guide Pato about certain places on the island that we remembered from the book, and he was impressed that someone knew the story.

Percy

Hi Peg

I agree about the book .

It is almost a MUST read for anybody who has been or is going to the Galapagos.

I am still wondering what really happened to the Baroness and how the others died.!!!

It was sure written up in all the newspapers around the world at the time.
And the Ecuador Government investigated it fully..but the final mystery remains.!!

Very interesting, but I am glad that no one is living on these Islands now.

The Ecuadorian Government must have expelled people from living on these Galapagos Islands except for Baltra and Santa Cruz..

When I think of the Galapgos now I will always think of these people in the 1930's and 1940's who lived there on Floreana Island.......and of all their trials and tribulations.

Percy

StanKase

I spent 2 days in Quito and the suburbs several years ago and found it depressing considering the poverty that I could do little about. You will see 4 year olds begging even around the better hotels. Go to the jungle for 2 days toward the Amozon River.

Percy

There is poverty everywhere, more so in third world countries.

I never saw any poverty in Quito. None what so ever.
So my tour guide must have kept me away from those areas.

I have been to many places in Mexico and saw poverty in every place, no running water , no toilets , no electricity etc.

But that does not mean I should not go to Mexico.

You want to see poverty go to Cuba.

Been to Cuba several times and I load up on a suitcase full of toothpaste , soap ,asprin,tylenol ,perfume for the girls, hair spray, pens pencils notebooks etc etc.

You can come to my city and I can take you the the poverty section.
I think every city has one.

Tourist like us ,is the biggest reason many of these people have jobs.

I liked Quito and was amazed at how modern it was.
Nice hotles,restuarants, schools ,businesses etc.

They need tourist,just like any other country does.

I just got back from England ,Scotland,Ireland and Wales, and the tour guide told me that after 9/11, their tourist industry was devastated because of the reduction in travel.
You think I never saw poverty in England!!!

I think we all help each other's economy by travelling
Percy

belhr

I just got back from 2 1/2 weeks in Ecuador - including a 7-day cruise on Eden...

I don't think the four of you will kill each other on the boat! Whilst the cabins are definitely 'cosy', they are spread around the boat (ie you won't necessarily have two cabins next to each other) and there is plenty of other space in the boat to escape each other.

Eden is an ok boat - not great, not terrible. The food was good - plenty of it and good filling stuff, if nothing fancy. I don't eat red meat and they catered to that with no problem (bar a few 'interesting' substitutions on a couple of occassions). The crew were friendly and the boat kept clean. I wasn't that impressed with our guide, but chances are you'd have a different one anyway.

However, I think that if I could do it again, I would spend less time on the boat. It was far from a relaxing experience! The seas were rough and there was nothing else but to go to bed right after supper (when they start navigating to the next island) and pop a seasickness pill to help you sleep. As I said, our guide drove me up the wall and I also (and I know this goes against most opinion on this board) found the islands quite repetative - at least the wildlife on each island (the geology is remarkably different on many of them). If we could do it again we would spend less time on the boat (I think a 4-night cruise would be fine) and then a couple of days in a hotel in Puerto Ayora to do some more snorkelling/ treking but independently and to our own schedule, rather than that inflicted by the boat's itinerary (there is a certain element of them saying 'right - now you will snorkel'... or 'now you will go to sleep because the boat is moving and it's dark'.

I also have to say that of all the stuff we did and saw in Ecaudor (and we did a lot) the Galapagos was probably one of my least favourites.

Suggestions for your three days before:
- go and stay in a hacienda near Otovalo - do some walking, maybe some biking, see the market, etc (I highly recommend Hacienda Cusin)
- go down to Banos. Lively town, lots to do and see (but I don't recommend the 'up scale' hotel Luna Runtun - not worth the price in our opinion)
- you may be able to do some sort of quick rainforrest trip. We stayed at Sacha Lodge and had a really amazing time - our favourite part of our trip
- go down to Cuenca (and then to Guayaquil to pick up your flight to the Galapagos). We didn't make it down there, but wish we had and heard great things from people who had.

for your one full day after your trip - go and check out El Mitad del Mundo (monument at the equator) for the obligatory photos (about 45 mins each way by bus) in the morning and then do some sight-seeing in Quito old town in the afternoon.

some other 'eden' advice. If anyone of your party is a woman with feet smaller than a size 8 (39) - take your own flippers! They only had one pair that was a size 8 or smaller, which left most of the women on our boat with no flippers.
- we rented wetsuits from Sangay and were glad of them! The water was cold! Although most people on our boat didn't have them and went in the water, they got pretty cold though
- take plenty of Bonine with you. We took it and staved off motion sickness. Others on our boat were sick.
- Try for a cabin upstairs. The ones down below smelt quite badly of petrol/ engine fumes. One woman in a downstairs cabin had a real problem with it and spent the first two nights sleeping out on the deck!

Good luck!

peg

Bonine is my friend that is for sure.
We took the four day tour, and I think that is why I didn't find the islands all that repetative. Again, the four night was enough for us.