Absolute must in 3-4 days in Galapagos
 

Hi,
We are planning a 10-day trip to Equador this June with my parents (around 70, generally healthy), and teenagers. Contrary to normal advise to travel for 7-10 days at a minimal, we are unable to do that. I hope someone can help me with pointers based on our following interests.

We have been to around 30 countries, including some in S. America, but for my parents this would be the first time in the continent. Besides Galapagos, we are quite interested in visiting rainforest, town markets, and other things on mainland. We are not avid birders, snorkelers or photographers, though we like to spend most of our time outdoors. We have been to Ballastas Islands (Peru), and found the populations of sea-lions, jelly-fish and millions of birds on hilltop, quite surreal to watch, and enjoyed it very much. At the same time, we are not necessarily on the look out for the most elusive plants, birds or animals.

In my research, it appears that non-cruise based travel requires spending a long time on the back and forth, sea travel. I haven't looked at smaller itineraries available with cruises. Moreover, I am not sure which islands/ activities are a must for their uniqueness.

A lot of our past itineraries have been fine-tuned thanks to experienced travelers who have given valuable advice. Any help would be appreciated.

I can't give you a good answer but when I was doing research I found that Angelito splits their A itinerary into two parts, one will visit Genovesa and the other Espanola. Those were the two islands I was most interested in.

I used a couple different websites to research itineraries, one was sangay.com and another Happy Gringo. However I booked with Cometa directly, but if you do that you will have to do international wire transfers.

I found some of the Ecuador companies not the best with communication. You might try Holbrook or Adventure Life.

You have to decide which animals you most want to see and then which islands have those animals.

For me, I really enjoyed watching the interactions between the blue-footed booby couples. I could spend the whole day watching them if that was possible. For snorkling seeing the big spotted rays and large sea turtles was an amazing experience. If you get the chance to snorkle at Kicker Rock then you should do it.

The albatross on Espanola was nice, but I wasn't wowed by them. I think I would have preferred to see the penguins on Isabella instead.

The Albatross dance on Espanola was my favorite thing!

The other thing is that the animals are either behaving or locating differently depending on the season. So we probably saw fewer turtles in June than in April or May, but more sea lions, for example.

Not an easy question.