The girls are wanting to do a Galapagos trip for Spring Break. Has anyone here tried that? It puts us on a pretty tight time schedule. It also looks like it isn't prime time for the small cruise boats. I'm looking for any ideas, land or water based.
Get some Guinee Pig on a Stick on the shore! Never been there but a good friend from Ecuador says its the bomb.... Enjoy.... One of these days....
I remember looking into it and it being very unreasonable to get there.....or maybe it was Easter Island??? Keep us updated.
Parents took me junior year of high school which was 25 years ago. We went over Christmas break but I don't think it was 2 full weeks on the boat. maybe 10 days? Can't help with planning as I have no idea what they did without the internet. But we flew into Quito a day or 2 early to make sure we caught the boat. We had a cabbie arranged from the hotel to go tour the sights. Don't remember much other than there was a high spot he took us to and some local spots for food. Flew from Quito to I think it was Isabella to get our boat. It was a pretty small boat which I suggest. Maybe 4 or 5 families including us. Boat was nice but not luxury. From what I remember the food was 1st class though. My guess is this was as 1st class as you could get for the day and destination. We would motor at night which was soothing to sleep to and wake up each day in a new spot/island. I was woken up in the middle of one night to see dolphins swimming off the bow for nearly an hour. They had some bio-luminescence organisms on them which made them glow. There is no light pollution out there so it was pretty cool. If I was on drugs it would have been epic. Star gazing was epic. In the morning a couple panaga trips would get everyone to land. There was a free lance guide that was with us the entire trip, young playboy as I remember it. Pretty knowledgeable but annoyed me. Sights and wildlife were interesting but I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have looking back. I've heard it's way more popular with a bit of overcrowding and polution/trash now. When we went, we might have come across another small group once or twice the entire time. Rules were animals could touch you but you couldn't touch them. Had a few close encounters with seals/sea lions so remember you are on their turf. I was annoyed that the brochure showed more interaction but the guide made that nearly impossible, probably for good reasons. My step-sister had a pic of her nose to nose with a small seal. Brochure level interaction, I was jealous. There were some swimming opportunities throughout and got to swim with a group of young sea lions. They were fast enough that I never got to touch one but then came nose to nose (at least thats how I remember it) with the mom. It was in pretty shallow water so I stopped swimming and slowly walked to land. I think she was just checking but I figured it was time to leave. Birds and iguanas and their poop was everywhere. Blue footed boobies (he he he). Can't say I recommend one way or another over other exotic trips but given what it cost to go to Disney World for a family for a week, this probably is better value for the money. Take a ton of pics and vids. I wish we had them in the palm of our hands back then like we do now. I might remeber more.
Bucket list live-aboard Scuba trip for me. I dont know what the non-dive trips cost but am looking at around $7k all included for 10 days.
Did this trip several years back. We did two weeks, spending one week on Isabella and one on Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is the more developed of the two. There was six of us and we rented a house on the beach (vrbo I think) on each island and it was quite affordable when split out amongst us. The place in Santa Cruz came with a housekeeper who also cooked us some great local meals. We were there in July. We flew from Miami to Guyaquil then on to the Galapagos and I don't remember it being too pricey but because of the timing of the flights, it will take two days to get there. We flew into Santa Cruz then took the ferry to Isabella but I would not do that again. There is a small flight from Santa Cruz to Isabella. If you want more specific recommendations I can give some diving that was great and some to avoid. I don't remember exact prices but I don't remember anything being too expensive except for normal extra expense of being on an island.
Also, I'm sure you already know this but the diving is incredible. On one dive, we saw giant manta, hammerheads, several other variety of sharks, sea turtles, seals, a school of barracuda, amongst other things.
Its magic, get there while it's still here. If you dive you'll prob want to go to wolf island in the far north west. I don't so we did a week long cruise around the islands on a small boat and snorkeled 3-4hrs a day, saw all things up close underwater, snakes, penguins, sea lions, rays, turtles, iguanas, sharks etc. Some places you look down and its a spin out how far down you can see and how vivid it is, just amazing. Easter Isand is a pita to get to, hard to justify in the end, but I ticked it off. What a history.
