Galapagos Islands

For those of you that are considering visiting the islands, there are three ways to book a trip:

1.Book it through a travel agency from home (North America), which is the most expensive way (list price at as much as US$400 per day).
2.Fly to Quito or Quayaquil and book a last minute trip from a tour company there (50% off list price) or,
3.Fly directly to San Cristobal Island or Santa Cruz Island and book your trip from there. This is definitely the cheapest way, especially now when there are so many vacancies as a result of the economic situation. This can be as little as 25% of the list price.
We booked an 8 day tour on the Queen of Galapagos - a 90 foot luxury class catamaran (might as well help out the economy) that only carries 16 passengers, with 10 crew members. Since a few people only went for a five day cruise, finished up the last few days with 10 passengers. We have been told by numerous people that the current economic situation has had a real impact on the island tours and many of the boats are sailing with 4 and 6 passengers only and the first boat that we had booked was actually cancelled as 2 days before it was scheduled to leave, we were the only confirmed passengers.
Anyway, we certainly haven’t been disappointed with any aspect of our tour of the islands. Our boat is beautiful and our room is fabulous (king size bed)! The windows are huge (floor to ceiling and wall to wall) and the bathroom even has a tub! Compared to the level of accommodation that we have become accustomed to – this was truly an indulgence.
The weather was excellent - just at the end of the really hot season and before the cloudy season. We saw sea lions, marine iguanas, land iguanas, sea turtles, land turtles, sting rays, golden rays, sharks, blue footed boobies, masked boobies, frigates, albatross, flamingos, oyster catchers, and many other types of birds.
Our days usually started with breakfast between 6:30 and 7:00 am – another significant change from our usual schedule – a walking tour of an area until about 10 am, snorkeling from 10 until noon, lunch and free time (reads “nap time”) until 3 pm while we change locations, another walking tour from 3-5pm, return to the boat, shower, 6:30 pm presentation and 7pm dinner. As you can tell from the pictures, just like I never tired of taking pictures of penguins in Antarctica, I never tired of taking pictures of sea lions or iguanas here…
All in all Ecuador (at least Galapagos) has grown on us…however tomorrow we head to Columbia…