The two-week wildlife cruise was the holiday of a lifetime. We both enjoy
science and wildlife, we are also sailors and have our own boat. Most days
the itinerary was full on and wonderful, and we were delighted with the
amazing wildlife both on land and in the sea. The crew were very friendly
and worked amazingly hard. There was a generous amount of good food for
every meal, including much fruit, vegetables and salads. Unfortunately
several of us had stomach upsets for 1 or 2 days.
The boat was the main cause for concern. The A/C in the dining room failed
for a couple of days, and dripped water on the seating so we had several wet
seats for a few days. The Dining room ceiling also dripped water on several
occasions. Our A/C also dripped on the carpet, or anything that was on the
carpet nearby, and also on the shelves under it. Many things were wet or
smelled musty. We had room 1 and our toilet was often malfunctioning from
the start, and then blocked completely for a whole day (happily the crew
worked very hard and managed to repair it by bedtime). There were no other
toilets except the ones in other guests cabins.
Exodus gave us only 24 hours to decide whether to abort the holiday as the
original boat the Cachalot was out of commission but we were told that the
substitute boat was also a “first class boat”. We now discover that
according to Galapagos Islands.com the ‘Astrea’ or ‘Pinguino
Explorer’ is down as a “mid-priced boat” and costs 650 dollars per week
less that the ‘Catchalot’ did, so we are not amused as no refund was
offered for this cheaper accommodation.
Exodus were unable to give us useful information regarding laundry (they said
there was none) or the ability to wash things ourselves and hang them out.
Also, they were unable to answer queries about the flight from Quito to the
islands or the baggage allowance for that flight. We therefore took far too
much luggage!
We were only told about the need for US dollars to pay the bar bill within
the last week when we had already ordered and collected our dollars.
So hard to decide as most days exceeded our expectations. I loved the seals,
so amusing and entertaining, as were the Penguins but the Hammerhead sharks
took my breath away. We saw about 100 Mola mola (sunfish) I also was blown
away by the Siera Negra Volcano – so huge.
Very knowledgeable about so many things, but not easy to get a straight
answer from, and also rather creepy.
Find out who the local agent is and check their website, it answered many of
our outstanding questions. You can wash for yourself, a plug is useful, and
hang out clothes on the rail outside.
Show more