The bad news: After 17 hours of air flights and airport transfers I arrived in Quito, but my luggage did not. Drat!
The good news: Quito-based Ecuadorian Adventure Life Manager Betty Jaramillo took my luggage information and returned to the airport the following day. She worked some kind of Ecuadoriana magic and retrieved my luggage. I was in the Otavalo Valley by then and she offered to have my luggage driven up there if I wished. Talk about service! I suspect I would not have been as successful, if at all, in the luggage recovery department! She was the recipient of my two dozen roses from Otavalo Valley as a thank you!
The bad news: Due to the combination of a 6 hour ''mechanical problem'' delay for a Tame flight that resulted in us missing our small plane flight into Kapawi Lodge due to rainy season bad weather (take a breath!), we missed our first night at the Lodge.
The good news: The silver lining was a night at another Lodge, engaging dinner conversation with our 20 something hosts about Ecuadorian politics and economy, and some great Ecuadorian beer! Our flight the next morning was great.
The bad news: When we were ready to leave Kapawi Lodge rainy season weather delayed our plane. We had to make an early flight to the Galapagos the next morning and we had a big repack to accomplish. A time crunch and the real possibility of missing our Galapagos sail was looming.
The good news: When the weather broke our small plane came. We were flown to Shell and then driven four hours back to Quito. (We had long since missed our connecting large plane flight to Quito so there was no point in flying us to the larger Macas airport.) We got to see the Avenue of the Volcanoes and the scenic Banos area on this drive. We would not have seen these incredible views without this ''detour''! Kudos to the Kapawi Lodge team for being incredibly proactive to get us to Quito at 9 p.m. in time to pack for our early morning flight to the Galapagos the following morning!
Erin is great to work with on our adventure to Antartica. She gave us great choices and is very knowledgeable about the options. Her recommendations saved us from making some big mistakes.
Carla
1 day ago
A Mind Blowing Adventure!
Adventure Life kept me well informed and up to date in the lead up to my trip and Albatros delivered a once in a lifetime adventure in full. A totally awesome experience from start to finish.
Jan Price
1 day ago
Jane Packer helped us through the cancellation of our trip due to American Queen Voyages bankruptcy and then finding another cruise with American Cruise Lines.
Jane is very prompt in response, answers any questions, and makes good suggestions thereby making the process much easier!
Deb Donaldson
2 days ago
Adventure Life did an excellent job of planning, organizing and executing a great trip to Argentina. It was nice to have the trip with just the two of us which allowed for a more personable tour with excellent tour guides in all four locations visited. We learned lots of details of the beautiful sites in BA, Mendoza,Baliloche and Iguazu Falls. We want to do another trip with Adventure Life some day.
John WhartonMary Jo Catlett
3 days ago
Kassandra rocks! She had our trip planned and helped us arrange our air travel within the day we contacted her. She has helped us with our trips to Chile Argentina and Costa Rica, and she always finds us wonderful activities and accommodations. We’re looking forward to seeing what she’s planning for us this time when we go to Easter island