From Guayaquil to Galapagos - History and Wonder at every site
Ecuador
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Dec 25 - Dec 31, 2022
Our Guayaquil guide, Corina and our driver, were amazing in their historical knowledge of the city and country, flexibility in the moment based on our interests, and steadfast in ensuring our safety. We had an amazing time looking at all of the effigies across the city in preparation for Ano Viejo. Our walk up the 444 steps to Diego Noboa y Arteta was finished w a lovely and delicious lunch. The rest of the week in the Galapagos was equally fun and interesting. Viviana, our guide, met us in Balstra and escorted us to Santa Cruze, all the while explaining the history of the islands, the economy, the differences between the mainland and islands, and of course introduced us to many amazing animals and sites from land iguanas to gigantic tortoises in their natural habitat. Seeing the evolution of various tortoises who come from other islands where they have different vegetation was spectacular. Thank you to the whole team for a truly eye-opening trip!!!!
Hotel Reviews
This is a lovely, modern, clean hotel with all of the amenities, including almond milk for those dairy-free concerned. There are different restaurants and a cafe to choose from. We actually switched hotels to stay here because it was so nice.
Very basic, but clean if you need somewhere to stay and you arrive late at night and don’t want to pay for amenities that you won’t use. The artwork in the halls is a bit overwhelming though and it’s a bit dark.
This was an unfortunate experience. The hotel appeared dirty and not well maintained so as soon as we checked in, we asked our guides to transfer us somewhere else.
This was a clean and family friendly hotel, but very basic. Appears to cater to the Ecuadorian mainland guests because nobody spoke English. But it was absolutely clean! And they were friendly so if you are ok w bare bones, it is just fine and very authentic.
Activity Reviews
The tour of the effigies was amazing. Corina’s knowledge about the history of the city and country and the economics of both, was really helpful. We loved the whole tour!
Viviana was amazing! The tortoises, the Charles Darwin center, it all was terrific.
The speedboat was fine though it would have been a little nicer on a larger boat where we could have walked around or had lunch. The guide and tour of Las Tintoreras was fine though I think it would have been better as a private tour instead of a large group. Also, the guide was very nice but didn’t appear to understand English very well as she couldn’t answer questions as much as tell us information.
This might have been better if we had not been snorkeling the day before and it wasn’t the 7th boat ride we had taken.
Our guide Julio was terrific!
Hello Michelle!
Thank you so much for your kind review, I am so happy that you loved the Galapagos Islands. and I truly appreciate the feedback, since it is the perfect chance to tweak and better the services that local providers offer for all of our travelers!
I wish you all the best!
Warm hugs from your local friend,
Alvaro