Ecuador Galapagos

[smmast]

Looking for any recent trip reviews? Couldn't find anything on the sticky. TIA

 

[DCPhotoGal]

I went last April. My whole family loved it. I guess I never got around to writing a report. Happy to answer any questions you have.

 

[RhiannonGator]

I went last April. My whole family loved it. I guess I never got around to writing a report. Happy to answer any questions you have.

Which one did you go on? The one with the Amazon cruise I believe is land-based for Galapagos, while the other is cruise-based for the Galapagos. I'm looking for some insight about land-based itineraries. It appears most people favor cruise-based because they seem to maximize time seeing different things.
I made the mistake of taking my husband on a whale watching excursion. He got so seasick and cemented his 'no boat trips' rule. He thinks he would be ok with the riverboat cruise in the Amazon.

 

[DCPhotoGal]

I did Ecuador and the Galapagos (the cruise-based one). I was originally booked on the Amazon and Galapagos, but changed it looking closely at the Galapagos portion. The land based tours of the Galapagos tour the islands mid-day when it is hotter, and the cruise-based tours do the touring early and late in the day, with snorkeling and lunch/free time on the boat in between when it is more unpleasant. On any Galapagos tour you will have a lot of boat time getting from place to place. Even getting from the airport to the island with the hotel is a boat trip. The yacht cruise is on a larger boat than the one that the land-based tour will take. We did not have any trouble with seasickness on our tour, and the water was very smooth. The river cruise looked fun as well, but we figured we would do the Amazon as a separate trip, and take the trip that focused more on the Galapagos.

 

[abbyjt]

We went on the Jan 19, 2016 adults only Amazon and Galapagos trip. It was fantastic. I also didn't write a trip review, but I can answer any questions. On the Amazon portion of the trip you travel by many different modes. In terms of sea sickness, no one on our trip was sea sick. The river boat moves mostly at night and pretty slowly. You do get off the river boat onto small boats every day multiple times. Again, no one got sea sick in the small boats. Sometimes they were motorized and sometimes they were rowed (not by us). In the Galapagos portion of the trip, there was a day when we took a 2 hour cruise to Santa Fe island and then a 2 hour cruise back (I think that's the name) and that was a little rocky and a few people took meds to deal with the motion sickness. You also have to get into small boats every time you leave or return from the resort.

 

[Cousin Orville]

We went on the Jan 19, 2016 adults only Amazon and Galapagos trip. It was fantastic. I also didn't write a trip review, but I can answer any questions. On the Amazon portion of the trip you travel by many different modes. In terms of sea sickness, no one on our trip was sea sick. The river boat moves mostly at night and pretty slowly. You do get off the river boat onto small boats every day multiple times. Again, no one got sea sick in the small boats. Sometimes they were motorized and sometimes they were rowed (not by us). In the Galapagos portion of the trip, there was a day when we took a 2 hour cruise to Santa Fe island and then a 2 hour cruise back (I think that's the name) and that was a little rocky and a few people took meds to deal with the motion sickness. You also have to get into small boats every time you leave or return from the resort.

Could you discuss a bit about the Amazon portion of the ABD? How were the rain forest treks and canoe trips?
Did you have a preference between the Amazon part or the Galapagos part of the trip?
Did you spend any pre/post nights in Quito?

 

[abbyjt]

Hi Cousin Orville. We didn't spend any pre/post nights, but many in our group did and I think there's plenty to do in Quito for an extra day or two. The Amazon portion was really amazing, mostly because I'd never been anywhere like that before. The Anakonda is small. The rooms are minimal, but fine. You leave the ship onto smaller motor boats that get you to where you are going. There are many treks in the rain forest. We did not have much rain and the water level in the rivers were quite low. They give you these big rain boots to wear off the ship to protect you from the mud, but there wasn't much mud for us and mostly it keeps the ship clean. Bring thick high socks to wear with the boots. They also provided rain ponchos. It is very humid and I changed my clothes pretty much every time we boarded the ship. We came back for lunch all but one day when we ate at a lodge. Prepare to rinse your things in the sink. I think there was laundry available, but didn't do it.(ABD collected our laundry in Quito and the guides took whatever we gave them to a Laundromat and returned it all that evening, so it's clean to wear in the Galapagos, you don't need to double pack) Mosquitos were not a problem in the Amazon. I'm sure I got a few bites, but I usually am the one covered and scratching and I was fine with some bug spray, and I don't think I needed it much.
Every day we boarded the large canoes, about 1/2 of the group in each canoe. Some times we were in the canoes for a few hours looking at birds and other wildlife that are not easy to spot. The guides can see them and point them out. Always bring the binoculars. They gave us one set per cabin, I used an old pair I brought with me. Many people brought giant (HUGE) camera lenses and so they could zoom in. It was amazing the way in the course of an afternoon, the scenery could change drastically from thick trees to lowland scrubs. Sometimes we disembarked and walked into the forest. We were busy almost all the time. There was one small shopping opportunity in the rainforest at a village we visited. There was limited internet at night when the ship was stopped and with 30 people trying to use it, it wasn't that good, but you are in the middle of the rainforest, so why were we all on the internet anyway (if I woke up at like 5 am and hit retrieve mail on my phone, it worked fine while everyone was sleeping).
We only saw other tourists a few times and even then not too many. We saw two guys at the village I mentioned. When we went to the parrot clay licks there were some other boats there too and when we went to the bird blind to see macaws, there were lots of other hikers, but that was it. You do see really large barges going past carrying big trucks or other things that look weird to see them in that setting. We also saw school kids in a small boat on their way to school and many people on the banks of the river just doing their thing.
We were adults only, so I don't know how children would do on the longer canoe rides, but I think ABD probably has that down, so I wouldn't worry. The hikes could be pretty long sometimes, but everyone did them, even one woman who had just had hip surgery and used a cane to walk. The only thing she didn't do was climb the canopy tower. It was about 15 flights of stairs straight up and definitely worth the climb. When we returned to the ship in the evening, there would be time to shower and then we would all meet in the lounge for a briefing of the next day's activities and then all go to dinner. By the time dinner was done and I wrote out my diary, I was done too.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Thanks for the great info. It sounds like a great trip. The Amazon portion definitely has my interest peaked. Between the two Galapagos ABD's it's tough call.