- CHILDREN
DISCOUNT: 20% [children 4 to 11 years of age]
- SINGLE SUPPLEMENT: 70%
Prices do not include
(unless otherwise specified):
Round trip
Galapagos airfare (reserved in conjunction with cruise);
Galapagos
National Park entrance fee [$100 per adult / $50 for children];
INGALA
(Tourist Migratory Control Card) [$10 per person];
Alcoholic
beverages & soft drinks;
Wet suits
(aprox. $5
per day)
Tips/gratuities;
Personal
expenses.
REVIEWS
We've been back from
Ecuador for nearly two weeks now--trying to catch up (and keep up) with
the galveston daily routine.
I wanted to
tell you how much we enjoyed our
week aboard the EDEN, and the
itinerary. The crew was wonderful, the food superb, and the
accomodations were sufficient (I put it like that because Bill and I
somehow got the only single-bed cabin, and the bed was larger than a
twin but smaller than a double, and the whole cabin width was just
about as big as a queen-size mattress. Sufficient but very
cozy. We all called it the Honeymoon Cabin.) Despite the 2nd
degree burns Bill got to his ankles and the tops of his feet about the
second day out (we kidded him and called him the Red-footed Boobie
until the huge horrible blisters appeared!), we loved every minute of
the trip. I was glad I wore a scopolamine patch and took a jug of
meclazine with me for nighttime travel. I had no trouble with the
rough passages, but I gave away a fair amount of meclazine early on.
We were glad that we
opted for a guided tour instead of trying to do it ourselves. We
were able to get to places we never would have seen on our own.
And I repeat: the itinerary was excellent. Small is the way to
see the Galapagos. And we met great fellow travelers too, from
all over the world. For part of the trip we were the only
Americans.
The one, very
significant, weakness to the trip was Gandy, our tour guide.
Although his knowledge was certainly acceptable and his spoken English
intelligible, his people skills left much to be desired. It did
not occur to hm to make introductions of the passengers or the
crew on the first day--he finally did that on the LAST day!
He appeared not to care at all about the welfare of his
passengers, or their abilities, apparently not seeing that as part of
his job description. For example, one of the passengers in our
Thursday to Thursday group had multiple sclerosis and needed to go a
bit slower through rocks, etc, because of balance and coordination
problems. And of course Bill was moving slower because of his
burned feet. Gandy forged ahead, keeping a good pace, would
tell the information about what we were seeing and then
stand around for long periods without saying anything and let us
wait--for what, we could never discern. On the last morning
at the Darwin Research Center, he totally left Bill (and me) and
the MS gentleman behind, to the point where we had no idea where they
had gone. As it is a maze of trails, it was about 20 minutes
before we found them. He did the silent waiting routine even when
we all could keep up perfectly well. We noticed other guides
chatting about interesting information during the wait time when
several groups were at a site and we had to wait our turn. Gandy
never had anything to say except his little script. We really
seemed to cramp his style. This was not just our opinion. I
am pretty sure he got very little in the way of gratuities from any in
our group, although the rest of the crew was the best--and
appropriately rewarded for it too!
We could certainly
recommend Sangay Touring and Guide2Galapagos.com to anyone we know who
is
interested in Ecuador and the Galapagos Isls. We just hope that
you might have some influence with the company that owns the fleet that
Eden is part of, so that no one else has to be subjected to Gandy's
poor guideship.
Pat & Bill B.
Just
a quick note to
thank you for your assistance during our wonderful
holiday in Ecuador. Everything went according to plan but the
driving
was a nightmare at times because of the state of the roads; I’ve never
seen so many potholes – and deep too! But I got the hire car back in
one piece (Japanese reliability).
We
broke the journey in two sections with a stop in Santo Domingo which,
incidentally has a wonderful hotel “Zaracay” this is highly
recommended. We called in at the “Tinilandia” but
were not impressed by the accommodation and it cost $85 pn so we went
on to the Zaracay. There is no way I could do the whole trip to Puerto
Lopez in one go. The Mantaraya Lodge was superb but not many guests
when we were there.
The Eden was fine
albeit a little cramped with a small double bed but the
guide, crew and the food were wonderful. The islands are fully up to
their reputation; incredible.
We
have been recounting our experiences with friends and will have no
hesitation in recommending the services of your company to potential
travellers.
Hasta
Luego.
John
and Margaret T.
Hi
again,
Just a quick note from me. We really enjoyed
our trip with the Eden,
the guide was good, the cabin(5) was nice, but the double bed very
narrow, maybe for a young loving couple, the food was good, the staff
was very nice. Tangara was very nice with Lidia and Antonio extremely
helpful.
Only one
thing
was a bit confusing. When we arrived in Galapagos we
looked for our luggage but didn´t find it because there was a
plane that had landed before us. Nobody said anything about this but I
asked and told other people.Maybe a sign telling the flight number so
people knew. We also went to Kapawi
with Canodros and really enjoyed
that to, a great project!
As you can
understand we will definitely recommend your agency in the
future.Thanks!
Greetings from
Margareta L. 
