Monday, January 7, 2019: Review of our Quito and Galapagos Adventure.

Monday, January 7, 2019:  Review of our Quito and Galapagos Adventure.

To wrap up the trip, we had a wonderful time exploring Quito and the Galapagos with our family and friends.  We enjoyed our tour in Quito, which is a great example of Spanish colonialism without some of the more severe poverty we have seen in our journeys around South America.  Ecuador seems to be enjoying the benefits of the old and new orders with a balance that maintains cultural heritage while embracing modernization.  

The NH Collection hotel was comfortable and offered a good breakfast the morning after our arrival.  We would have enjoyed that breakfast again, if our flights to the Galapagos weren’t so obscenely early.  The location was walkable to the artisan market and there were plenty of restaurants and shops within walking distance, including pharmacies and grocery stores.  It was nice that there was bottled/filtered water available in the employee stairwell and in the fitness center so that we could refill our water bottles.  The tap water seemed fine to brush our teeth and bathe with, but we’re not sure if it would have been safe or advisable to drink it.  

Some of the GI issues encountered by some in our party may have been related to exposure to tap water, but it’s hard to be certain.  There were lettuce greens in some of our meals that might have been rinsed in tap water.  I personally tried to avoid eating any uncooked or peeled fruits and vegetables, and had no GI issues.

When we arrived in the Galapagos, we were very pleased with Nadine’s energy, enthusiasm, friendliness, and knowledge, despite not being a professional biologist or naturalist.  She certainly had a fund of local knowledge well beyond our own, and shared it with us in an easily digestible manner without overwhelming us at any point.  

There were a few questions from the wildlife biologist in our group that Nadine couldn’t answer with certainty, but she was very honest and straight-forward with what she knew, and didn’t confabulate or try to make things up.  She was very comfortable in her role of sharing her passion for the Galapagos with us.  

Nadine related well with all the members of our party, young and not-so young. Her French-Ecuadorian accent took just a little time to adjust to, and was not an impediment to our enjoyment.  The only situation where communications needed improvement was on the dinghy ride tours because half of our party was always on the dinghy that she wasn’t on.  We would raft the two boats together several times to point out key features of each tour, but it was always an advantage to hop on the dinghy that Nadine was on.  

The captain and crew of the EcoGalaxy were excellent and well trained.  They maintained a high level of professionalism, but it was also nice to see them let their hair down on New Years’ Eve, when their party was clearly more lively than ours (so many of the “grown-ups” retired before 10:00PM) and they let us all join in on their party, which included dancing, games, and jumping overboard off the fantail at the stroke of midnight.  We were a bit disappointed not to see Squidward and his little companion torched, but National Park rules didn’t allow that.  Tom, Ciara, Riley, Drake and Konrad even got to go ashore to play some soccer and cheer in the Galaxy crew vs locals soccer rivalry when we anchored near the military base on Baltra island by the Seymour passenger ferry dock. They even learned some cheers in Galapagasian.  

The level of cleanliness and order was high, and our staterooms were well maintained, despite the tendencies of the younger members of our party to scatter their belongings all over the floor, like at home.  We were greeted with towel animals on the bed- something we weren’t expecting on such a small boat, but some of the crew may have had experience on larger cruise ships, which they brought onboard with them.

The bedding was adequate, but not particularly nice. The pillows were springy polyester fill, but we would have liked some extra pillows. The sheets and towels were basic, like Quality Inn or other inexpensive motel fare.  We missed the much nicer bedding, sheets, towels and pillows on our Princess cruises, but this was certainly a huge step up from roughing it in sleeping bags and cots in the Grand Canyon.  

The one peculiarity that took the most to get used to was not putting toilet paper in the toilets. There was a tiny flip top bin next to the toilet for anything that didn’t pass through our colons or bladders.  The marine toilets on the boat used a macerator pump in the base, but if you didn’t hold the flush button down long enough, or frequently enough, bits of the macerated material would reflux into the toilet bowl, leaving an unpleasant surprise for the next person to lift the lid and find.  It didn’t take long to figure that out though.  

There was always  plenty of hot water and a nice waterfall shower head, as well as a huge shower enclosure that was large enough to don and doff your wet suit and swim suits in.  

The sun deck on the roof was a very nice place to take in the views as the boat was underway, although in rough sea conditions, it was a challenge to walk across the floor without looking severely inebriated.  We fortunately didn’t loose anyone overboard.  It was a big bonus that frigate birds seemed to be attracted to the radar arch, and liked to hover in the air currents made by the bridge structures around the sun deck.  It was easily possible to get eye to eye with the frigates.  It was also possible to see sharks, manta rays and even sun fish in the water from the high vantage point.  

The meals were adequate and well prepared, but not fancy.  If you could imagine an Ecuadorian equivalent to Denny’s, that would describe the quality and variety of food.  The fruits were delicious- papaya, pineapples, melons and avocados were perfectly ripe every time.  We also were exposed to a lot of Ecuadorian local items made of sweet plantains, red and yellow peppers in abundance, and choclo corn, a giant Peruvian grain that is a South American staple.  Terri, our vegetarian, was pleased with the variety of protein alternatives and meatless dishes that were offered.  We all ended up a bit healthier than we would have on a typical large cruise ship buffet diet. 

The one thing we missed were snacks, rice, and junk food.  There were some jars by the coffee service that contained local toffee-like candies. These were delicious with coffee and tea after meals, but once they were discovered, the jars were soon empty. They were never refilled. We encountered the same thing with the selection of teas at the coffee service area.  It didn’t take long for all the caffeine free herbal teas to be depleted, and they were not restocked.  In the evenings, after dinner, we would have really enjoyed some potato chips, nachos or popcorn while playing cards and dominos in the dining area, but there was nothing available, other than what we had brought onboard as airline snacks.  And Ben missed his late night soup runs- a hard to break habit he picked up from our cruising experiences.  

They did serve popcorn twice on the last two days.  Interestingly  enough, in Ecuador, popcorn is used to float on soups and in ceviche, not as a stand alone snack.  Everyone was so excited to see that popcorn, it was pretty funny.  The first time it was served with a pea soup, and the second time was with ceviche. In our travels around South America, we have heard repeatedly that South Americans eat rice with every meal, and if there is no rice, there is no meal.  However, rice was only served once on the last dinner of the cruise.  There wasn’t even any rice with the beef stroganoff, or shrimp dish that really would have benefited from a scoop of rice.  That peculiarity was hard to understand. That was probably mentioned many times in the end of the trip evaluation forms.  Jack was floored that there was no bread with any of the dinners.  Starches came mostly from potatoes, pasta and plantains.  We were also introduced to melloco (pronounced meh-zshoco), a vegetable that looks like a tiny potato, but tastes more like a turnip or parsnip.  This little tuber grows in the Andes from Venezuela to Northern Argentina.

Our Galapagos excursions certainly kept us busy with twice daily land walks and snorkeling in most places. The selection of landing sites is clearly curated by the National Park service to expose us to different environments and wild life each day, so while the routine of landings and snorkeling didn’t change much, what we saw at each site did.  There was always some sort of surprise at each site, and every day revealed new aspects of the Galapagos that we hadn’t seen earlier.  If we hadn’t spent 8 days and 7 nights, we shudder to think of all that we would have missed out on with a 3 or 4 day cruise, or land based tour from Santa Cruz.  Our guide in Quito said it right that half the wildlife lives below the surface of the water, and if you don’t get in there with your mask and fins, you’ll be missing out on half the fun.  This experience has made us all more confident snorkelers.  The rental snorkeling equipment was in pretty good shape, although some troubleshooting is inevitable.  Most of the rental wetsuits were full length, and a little harder to get into.  The 2.5mm shorties that we brought were certainly adequate to keep us warm and comfortable for the snorkeling we did.  Terri, Riley and John ended up forgoing the wetsuits for the most part because it was easier to make the transitions, and the water wasn’t that cold that you couldn’t snorkel for 30-45 minutes before getting cold and tired.  Those in wet suits always grumbled “is it time to go already?” at the end of the hour, and begrudgingly climbed back into the dinghy exhilarated, but tired. 

The Galapagos is all about the wildlife, and you didn’t really need much to get exposed to more interesting and weird animals than just an open set of eyes.  Binoculars were indispensable to get a really good look at the Galapagos hawks, and penguins, who tended to keep a distance of at least 50 feet, but the iguanas, tortoises, crabs, lizards, flycatchers, mocking birds and finches had no issue with coming right up to us. You had to watch your step on the trails, so as not to accidentally step on something or somebody.  The Galapagos Islands are a wildlife lover’s fantasy come true, so long as you aren't craving a cuddly furry mammal.   

I brought a 55-300mm zoom lens, which came in handy for getting up close to the birds, but a lot of good photos were taken with iPhones.  I didn’t really end up needing to bring the tripod at all, but I did end up fashioning a knee pad after cutting my knee kneeling on the lava to stabilize the telephoto lens for long shots.  A monopod would have been handy both as a walking stick on some of the lava, and to stabilize some of the longer shots.  I was the only one to bring a point and shoot underwater camera, an Olympus TG-4, and that sure came in handy while snorkeling.  A quick holster and nylon web belt to keep it around my chest were indispensable for easy access while snorkeling.

So for an overall rating of this tour, I would give it 4.5 stars out of 5.  I think we got a good value for what we paid for this First Class tour.  Paying a lot more for Luxury Class tours would not have allowed us to bring so many of our children along, and sharing this experience with our children was worth every dime.  We did end up saving a significant amount of money by booking the EcoGalaxy as a charter. This also had the advantage of us being surrounded by friends and family.  As a whole, our group got along very well. There is no better way of cementing friendships than sharing experiences like this.

For the NH Collection and our Quito Guide Anna Maria, I would award 4.5 stars.  Providing complementary bottled water in our rooms and nicer sheets and towels would have bumped it up to 5 stars.  We did appreciate Anna Maria’s flexibility in allowing some of us to be dropped off at the artisan market on the way back to the hotel.  We would have liked to have enjoyed another full breakfast, but Avianca has to share the blame for that criticism.  

Avianca Airlines gets 3.5 stars.  The service was fine, but the planes are a bit dated, with no onboard entertainment, and the business of randomly assigning seats to our group, and forcing many to relocate in Guayaquil seems entirely avoidable with minimal effort.  Their retention of Tom on the outbound leg was also mysterious and stress inducing.  Thankfully, everyone made it to the Galapagos and no luggage was lost in either direction.  

American Airlines gets 3 stars.  Their decision to cancel our direct Miami to Seattle flight, and mix ups regarding paid for premium economy seats are big negatives for American Airlines.  We paid twice for premium economy seat upgrades but ended up in only preferred seating, not premium economy.  Changing planes in Phoenix was also an inconvenience that we had paid a premium to avoid when we first booked the Miami to Seattle flight.  The only compensation for that was Ciara and Price got moved up to preferred seats without charge. 

Miami International Airport gets a 2.5 stars.  You would have to average 4 stars for their nice facilities with 0.5 star for their bungled handling of customs, immigrations and luggage transfer.  

Max at IdealSouthAmerica Travel gets 4 stars for excellent initial service followed by a moderate degree of unresponsiveness as the trip date approached and last minute questions arose.  Confusion regarding wet suit rentals also caused some grumbling, but he kept his promise to refund our wet suit rental fees.  He was able to find the perfect boat for our charter group, and was quite knowledgeable and easy to work with while booking and making payments.  

The EcoGalaxy Galaxy II and crew get 4.5 stars.  Late night munchies and nicer quality pillows, sheets and duvet would bump that up to 5 stars.  

And Nadine, our Galapagos guide, gets 4.5 stars.  Using a Quiet Vox system (such as is provided on Viking Cruises) to provide narration to everyone during dinghy rides, and even on land excursion would make that a 5 star review.  

I would highly recommend this trip to anyone who loves wildlife, natural history, action and adventure, and who is physically fit.  I would not recommend it for older mobility limited people, especially with all the transfers from the dinghy to irregular and moving surfaces, or for younger children who are not accomplished swimmers with plenty of snorkeling experience.  It was nice that none of us had to worry about any of the “children” in our group, who were 16-27 years old, and all swimmers.  This was a perfect time for them to do this trip.