Today's entry is all about food. Even our small army of 6 (5 travelers and our guide) travels on its stomach. Sadly the key picture for this entry is fuzzy -- but I include it because it has the main message. All the Time Seafood. And that's not just at Betsy's Aloha Restaurant! There wasn't a day when I didn't have fish or shrimp or lobster or sometimes all of them. The food in Ecuador is always fresh and beautifully prepared. Simple was always best: grilled lobster, grilled fish. On Santa Cruz island, fishermen were cutting and preparing seafood for sale on the dock -- attended by sea lions and pelicans waiting for handouts. Lobster season had just opened, and I actually ate one of the lobsters shown in the picture that evening at the Garrapatta restaurant.
Accompaniments to the seafood always included plantains, sometimes fried yucca, salads and soft delicious rolls and bread.
Did I mention the juices? Everywhere we went, the first thing we were offered was a glass of press squeezed juice -- mango, papaya, pineapple, orange, naranjilla (like a citrus?), and my favorite raspberry. Raspberry canes and guava plants are invasive and crowding out the native miconia plants so Oswaldo, our guide, said we were doing a service by drinking as much raspberry juice as possible!
We were taken to farms for lunch on Santa Cruz island and Isabela, shown in the pictures. Tropical breeze, soft humid air, restaurants open to the air. These places call to mind the scenes in Apocalypse Now where the French family is hosting dinner in their villa in the middle of nowhere in Vietnam. Same soft focus, otherwordly experience. On Isabela we were covered in mud from climbing Sierra Negra and I worried they wouldn't let us in! Happily the other diners had had the same experience and we were all outside. That's a story for tomorrow.
The info on the website was laid out very well. I did some comparisons with other tours and found Adventure Life met a lot of what I wanted in an Antarctica trip at the cheapest price. Requested a quote on Claudia contacted me right away. She answered a lot of questions the I had via email even though she offered to discuss via phone call. I’m more of an email person so appreciated how she accommodated that and answered all my questions. And when I was ready to book, she quickly got the ball rolling with getting our spots reserved on the trip my friend and I wanted. Thanks again, Claudia!
Hazel Araza
10 hours ago
(1) great information on the website and throughout all the "materials." (2) Jane Packer is great: knowledgeable, responsive, takes a personal interest and tone, seems to care about the customer as a person not a sale.
Larry Bethune
18 hours ago
great people doing a wonderful job to make our voyages happen.
trudy
1 day ago
For our first trip to Costa Rica, Adventure Life designed a tour that meets the interests, ecological and adventure, of our party; but also takes into account our physical limitations sine we are all septuagenarian. We are looking forward to the trip.
John Zent
2 days ago
Adventure Life is my favorite travel company due to their genuine care for their customers. They make every effort to ensure a wonderful travel experience for you. Their personal touch really gives the customer a lot of confidence with their travel plans and the trip leaders are always outstanding. They are truly consistent and accountable with the great service they provide. I can't thank Adventure Life enough for the incredible trips I have enjoyed thanks to them and their attention to detail.