An absolutely amazing trip. The reason for the trip was to visit our daughter who was studing in Quito for a semester. We can't wait to go back to the Galapagos Islands. Adventure Life, great job booking everything, no problems anywhere. Beautiful place
Overlooking the city of Quito, Ecuador (Wanetta Stiers)Day 1 – 10-17-08 (Friday)
Chickie, we are on our way!!! We left home @ 5:00 a.m. Nathan was with friends and got home @ 4:30 a.m. – he is such a nut. I was dead asleep until I heard the door close. We just had him drop us off, so he wouldn’t have to stay in the airport, since he can’t go past security anyway. From Indianapolis to Chicago the flight was a little bumpy, but not to bad. We were in another one of those prop planes, two seats on one side and one seat on the other. Dad and I got to sit together, but we traded with this nice young woman. We landed about 20 minutes early in Chicago and had to sit on the tarmac for a little while. We had just over an hour in Chicago. We bought Dad a Mountain Dew and me a diet tea and spent over $6.00… airport prices.
We are on a much larger plane to Miami, three seats in the middle and two seats on each side. Dad and I are all the way to the back of the plane. We are just three rows from the end. We have TV monitors and they are playing nice relaxing music with pretty scenic pictures on them. We have three hours on this plane – time enough to read another book. Yep, I have one finished already, only four more to go.
We are on the plane for Quito; so far we are on time, good weather. Miami looks wonderful…beaches anyone? This plane is smaller, with only three seats on each side. Dad and I are across from each other, each with an aisle seat, good for his knee. We just had a burger and fries for lunch in the Miami airport. Dad about had a fit cause we had to pay $9.50 each per burger and fries. I told him that we are “on vacation”, and don’t worry about it. Next stop Quito and you. ïŠ ïŠ ïŠ There is a nice gentleman sitting next to me who is from Ecuador, he lives in the states and is coming to visit family. He is telling me everywhere that we need to see while we are here and what not to miss. He is also telling us how much to tip persons, and that Dad needs to keep his wallet in his front pocket and not in the back, because of pickpocket’s. He is very interesting and I am sure his advice will be helpful.
We got into Quito around 8:00 p.m. our time 7:00 p.m. Quito time, (I guess a good thing, we found out later from Kathryn that the Quito airport had been closed for about three hours earlier in the afternoon, because of bad storms and hail in the area. She said that it looked like it had snowed after the hail storm went through). Customs went fine, we found our representative from “Adventure Life” (our tour company) who was to take us to our hotel. Kathryn was there about five minutes later, ïŠ ïŠ ïŠ and we headed to our hotel. Hostel de la Rabida, a very nice hotel, we have a garden room with a king size bed. Kathryn is staying with us so that we are ready to hit Quito in the morning. We had them get a table for us, Kathryn hadn’t eaten, (Greg and I weren’t that hungry, they had fed us on the plane from Miami to Quito, after the $10 burgers) I just wanted desert and Greg had a sandwich. We also tried the “house” cocktails while we were waiting for our table/food to be ready.
Highlight of the Day: Getting to see my chicklet ïŠ ïŠ ïŠ
We were a group of three that initiated our research by independently searching for the best agency to help us in the somewhat complex experience of traveling to the Galapagos. We chose adventure life because they were the most responsive in the website provided the most comprehensive overview of the trip. Their reviews were also very good.
Adventure, life splits up its booking process in two parts. First Jeff, the booking agent helped us decide which experience best suited are interests. We chose a small 14 to 16 group sized yacht. Once the booking was made with Jeff, we were handed off to Coleene, who oversaw the complex process of assembling all of the necessary documents and making sure we had everything we needed to make the trip go smoothly. The adventure, life website, then becomes your personal place of reference for all things related to your trip from door to door. It’s a lot of information to assemble, especially for three travelers, but the website makes it easy and Colleen‘s gentle reminders kept us on track. In all, from the beginning, we had four months from the time we started our research till the time we departed. We felt that was, a good amount of preparation time and don’t think it would be wise to do it in less than four months. Mostly because I think you have more options with that amount of time. There were others on our trip that took six months and more from the time they started planning.
The trip itself was outstanding. We ended up on an excellent yacht (Galapagos Angel II) with a great group of guests that we were able to connect with and put together a really nice google photos album to share.
Jed
3 months ago
Great Experience! My trip planner, Jane, was available and knowledgeable. She made suggestions that suited the kind of adventure travel I like, still keeping within my physical limitations. She was very forthcoming with all of the details I requested. And she was always pleasant to speak with.
Charlene West
5 months ago
My travel consultant went out of her way to make sure everything went smoothly, everything from the flight reservations to the final booking.
johnw
9 months ago
We have told everyone we know about Adventure Life. What a great company to work with and no detail is missed. Call them for your next adventure!!
Paul Rupert
9 months ago
Clara was great to work with. She presented lots of options and always responded promptly. And she found excellent options within our price range.