Galapagos: Santa Cruz Review
Liz & Ken Meadley of Australia spent 4 days from 5th July 2004 touring the Galapagos islands as part of a 28 day trip to South America...
We booked our trip with Adventure World - whom we heard about through our travel agent at Travel World.
As there was only 4 of us we had no guide BUT arrangements all went well and performed to our expectations.
I would definitely recommend them.
The flight to Galapagos was great - on time and good service.
Coming home we had a slight dilemma - there was another plane on the airstrip when we were about to land - but all care was taken, passengers were kept informed (when we did a sudden rise upwards after descending slowly) and we landed safely.
Our days on the Galapagos cruise were typically:
- up early - with a friendly wake up call, breakfast - don't eat too much or you will sink;
- onto the rubber pangos (dinghy) then walking on the islands with an expert guide
- back to the ship lunch (more food - huge smorgasbord)
- then back onto the pangos to be dropped at the snorkeling site for that day. All snorkeling gear is provided and was surprisingly quite good.
 We had our cruise on the M/V Santa Cruz.
Separate cabin - small cozy with own bathroom - not much room to swing a cat - but doable. We had room service every day.
The food was FANTASTIC - so much of it and all sorts - catered to all needs. (In our diary we note FOOD get mentioned every day FOOD, FOOD and more FOOD!)
Each day on the ship we had different guides - this depended on the activities we were undertaking - walking, climbing, snorkeling, and animal watching! They were all great!
Internet was available during our trip and there was power on the boat to charge batteries etc.
The weather was great: warm but not too hot, great for swimming, no rain.
I didn't get seasick (my husband has in the past been sea sick and after being a little queasy on the 1st night - was fine).
Galapagos weather information »
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The snorkelling was fabulous, fantastic, breathtaking, out of this world, surreal - the animals are wonderful - you can get so close - you feel humbled and privileged to be amongst them.
We saw blue footed boobies, fur seals (play and swam with them - this was SO good), frigate birds, iguanas, sea lions, turtles (swam with them), penguins, finches and the list goes on - the Galapagos is renowned for its wildlife.
The highlights were snorkeling with a huge variety of fish, swimming with the fur seals, walking amongst the birds and visiting lonesome George!
Stay longer - do some snorkeling before you go to get accustomed to it (the snorkeling was very safe and not demanding).
Eat nothing for 3 days prior to the trip as you will leave 5 kilos heavier.
The most useful items in my luggage were sunburn cream and swimmers - my naked body is not a good look!
9.5/10 ... Go Go Go - although expensive it is worth every penny (cent, dime, peso etc).
The only regret - not enough days - we should have stayed longer.
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