Woke up to a quiet morning. A soon as breakfast was done at 6:30 we headed for Daphne island, spent 20 minutes going round the small rock looking at the birds there and then we headed straight for the bay where we departed some days ago. Once there we left the boat with the Zodiac at exactly 8 AM as planned and then we were back on the island, including island time and island logistics. Because why have a bus waiting in the morning at the dock when all the cruise ships arrive at the same time with passengers? That would be too easy.
So we waited for the bus to arrive, did the short drive to the airport, checked in and crossed our fingers that Avianca had put us on an earlier flight just as they did on our way to Galapagos. Success, we were on the first flight and except for the annoying fact that we had to do a stop over in Guayaquil it still meant that we would be 5 hours earlier in Quito than planned. Fingers crossed.
We said good bye to the other guys that were also at the airport, waited a bit, boarded the flight and arrived in Quito on time. A bit quiet in the airport this Sunday afternoon, got a friendly taxi driver and spent 30 minutes racing through half empty streets of Quito before arriving at the hostel - which we couldn't find. So the taxi driver got out and started asking people and eventually we made it inside, got our room and a much needed shower. And some Internet.
Among the many mails was a two day old re-scheduling mail from Avianca informing us that we were on an earlier flight, except it was not the one they put us on this morning.
Other important mails included a confirmation from Astrid - the woman we've booked our two day horseback riding trip at for the next days. All set for tomorrow we headed to plaza Foch for dinner, found the cafe where we are meeting our pick up tomorrow at 9 am and then went straight to bed.
Thoughts and advice about Galapagos
And of course - a few thoughts about the last 10 days on Galapagos and on the boat. We are really really happy to have done the trip. What an amazing and unique experience. And even though this has been the most expensive part of the trip we managed to stay way below the budget. (How? Because we didn't book the cruise in advance but on the island a few days before leaving. More to follow.) At approximately USD 2000 per person including flights from Quito to Galapagos it was a lot of money on a backpacking budget. Like the same amount of money that could keep us going for two months in Bolivia to put it in perspective. On the other hand our experience has been so good, so many great snorkelling trips, so much wild life and so many beautiful places on the islands.
Everything being Dollars, Dollars and more cash-Dollars on the islands you eventually feel like a human ATM at some point. Also our banks at home must wonder what is going on because buying a cruise on the island meant daily trips to the ATM's to get enough cash to pay. When the fee on using a credit card is too high you make your daily trips to the ATM. Together with everyone else.
Would we spend our time different another time? Maybe slightly different. 10 days isn't actually that long on Galapagos. There are plenty of good places to snorkel so it would be nice with maybe another 4-5 days on the islands. Also it might have been nice to head straight for the cruise. Then it would have been possible to "fill in" afterwards with a few snorkel trips to try see certain animals you didn't see on the cruise (for Malene this being snorkelling with manta rays, dotted rays and friendly sharks!). And there would be more time for "bad weather" activities because being on the islands there might be days with wind, waves and rain where it could have been nice to just postpone the activities and go look at the land turtles or relax in town.
There isn't one right way to do Galapagos. The cruises are a great way to stay close to the wild life all day. But if you aren't keen on sleeping on a boat days trips and maybe sleeping on different islands are great options as well.
Length of cruise
A 6 days/5 nights cruise was good for us. We wouldn't recommend less because the first day can end up being very short like ours and the last day is not really a day it ends at 8 am. It possible to do 4 days/3 nights, 5 days/4 nights, 6 days/5 nights and 8 days/7 nights.
Prices for cruises
If you book in advance the prices are around $1500 to +$3000 for the cruises depending on the type of boat and length of cruise. Buying the cruises on the island was no problem, there was still lots to chose from (might be different in peak season) and the prices were more like $500-1600. Buying the cruises in Quito is supposedly more expensive. Of course they want to fill up the boats so they might try to send you to a boat which has already started the journey and ask you if you can leave within an hour. If it's the right trip and price for you definitely go, but there a plenty of other trips so just stay calm if it's not. There are plenty of agencies and they are used to people shopping around. Many of them seem to sell the same trips and the prices differ a little but not much. Of course you should always bargain and if you buy days trips in addition you might be able to get a lower price. But it wasn't a lot of bargaining they seemed pretty fixed on their prices. It's also worth asking for them to include snorkel equipment and wet suits which you otherwise pay for on some of the cruises.
Day trips
In combination with your cruise you can do day trips. You can either take the ferry to San Cristobal, Isabella or Floreana for $60 return or go on snorkelling/diving day trips. For at day trip you get to see most on a snorkelling/diving tour than just going forth and back with the ferry to the three mentioned islands. It's possible to stay overnight in San Cristobal and Isabella which is recommended if
you go there.
With day trips for snorkelling it also pays of to ask different places. The day trips are around $90-160 and the price does vary a lot for some of the trips.
Booking agents
The experience with the booking agents. Terrible. Especially when you're Mikkel (He's never allowed shopping around agencies again, only online bookings. Malene will deal with "real" people). They would sell their dead mom alive if they had the chance. Which is kind of bad given that you have to have some confidence in what they are saying before you hand over a wad of cash to "person X" you just met minutes ago. The list of broken promises for days trips and incorrect information about the cruise is too long to list here but use common sense if you ever end up on Galapagos. I.e. they would say you would be given towels, fins and stop for fishing on the snorkelling trip which didn't happen. For the cruises they didn't know the facts they would say it's a boat for 16 people when it was for 12. Maybe not a big thing but you did start to think which other surprises there would be.
Which islands to go to?
Which islands should you go to? I think we agree with "Any islands and cruises will give you unique and fantastic experiences". We went to Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, Santa Fe, Floreana, Isabella and Santiago, which were all good. And from what we've heard from everyone else and what we've seen from their pictures everywhere is great. It's not a zoo but wild animals so of course you are never guaranteed to see certain animals. It depends on the season, the currents, the weather and the animals. Five minutes later in the water you might see more than five minutes earlier....
Prices for accommodation and food
Staying on Santa Cruz in Puerto Ayora can be done pretty cheap. Hostels and hotels can be found for $15 dollars per night/person. You can get a set lunch for $5. In the food street you can get fish and langosters for $15-25.
Our cruise
The cruise - really good partially because we were lucky with the group we ended up with on the Encantada. The crew was nice and did their best to make it a great trip for us with their service minded attitude, smiles and always being helpful - except our ass hole guide, Juan, who started by welcoming 4 of us in the airport with the "you're late". Meeting time was 10, we were there at 10.15 - it had taken 3 hours to get from town to the airport! Apparently the agency guy gave us wrong information about getting the bus from town to the ferry, he forgot the detail that we had to go to a bus terminal and not catch it from the centre of town. And everything is on island time so the busses and ferry doesn't leave before they're full. Well well, we were transported to the boat, met 3 of the other passengers and slowly realising that the meeting time at 10 am was only a guidance. The last passengers flew in that same day and weren't on the boat before 2.30 pm. Finally time to leave!
At least Juan stayed true to treating us like that for the entire trip. And according to another passenger he had been like that on the previous trip so maybe it was his style. Not a good person to represent the official guides of Galapagos but we mainly ignored him when he started to make a fuss out of an otherwise harmless situation. Like people taking a swim from the boat after asking the captain for permission and 2 minutes later Juan would yell at them that it wasn't allowed. He delivered exactly the minimum effort to the trip like he had run really tired from guiding.
All in all - we had a great trip on the islands meeting some nice people, have a memorable cruise and we still have appetite to come back. If only the bed would stop moving tonight. Despite being in Quito it still feels like the floor is moving.
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| Heading for Daphne Island |
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| Last blue footed boobie this time |
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| Excellent guide to getting back to the real world |
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| Bye bye nice room |
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| Maybe another time, Encantada |
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| Tilføj billedtekst |
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| Half empty streets in Quito |
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| At the hostel, getting in touch with the world |
