Ecuador & Galapagos testimonials

Dear Laura,
now we are back home. The boat (yacht Eden) startet around 2.00 pm to a first stop at Santa Cruz and to one of the best weeks of my life. Such a lot attraktions on the islands and every day one or two times snorkeling with sea-lions, rays, sharks and all those coloured fishes all around. One day the orcas dived three meters behind our boat under the pangas. The group was international (Italy, England, France, Germany) and everybody was kind and friedly. The crew and the guide were top. Good meals, good informations and always the first group on the islands in the morning. When we decided to go to Galapagos we expected a lot. And we get much more than that.

So I thank you a lot for your help to realise this trip. It was my first time to use the internet for organizing a difficult and expensive projekt like this and it is good to know that it works so perfekt.

Greetings from Berlin and thank you for a perfekt job

Hello!

Everything was practically perfect! The crew on the ship was really nice and the activities was amazing!

Here are my pics.

Thanks for everything.
Camilla

Hi Laura,

We enjoyed the trip very much - this beautiful landscape and all these animals. The most surprising was that the animals were not afraid at all and we could get really very closed to them! The boat, the cabin- everything was very good, the stuff very friendly and the guiding excellent - we would repeat the trip! 

Dear Laura,

We spent a wonderful time on the Galapagos and were very satisfied with our guide and the crew. Meals our cook prepared were simply fantastic. We were also very satisfied with the organisation of the trip from your part.

Thank you very much for your services.

Kind regards,
Birgit

Dear Mauricio,

My son and I had a wonderful trip to the Galapagos. Our ship, the Coral 1 was comfortable. The crew and our naturalists were excellent and very accomodating to our needs. I would highly recommend this trip to anyone who wants to visit the Galapagos.

Thank you for the attentiion with our trip details

Sincerely yours,
Ellen Daniels

Thank you LatinDiscover and Mauricio for arranging our fantastic and memorable trip to the Galapagos Islands in March 2011. The Islands themselves exceeded our high expectations, with stunning geology, white sand beaches, clear waters and fauna that would inspire anyone to become a naturalist. The experience was very much enhanced by the excellent organisation of the crew and guide (Esteban) aboard the M/V Galapagos Odyssey.

Each day was very well planned, with guided walks and opportunities to snorkle once or twice each day (sometimes with penguins and sealions, others with sharks and stingrays). Generally we toured the islands at times when the sun was not too hot and when the birdlife was at its most impressive. The Frigate Birds and Boobies on Genovesa were a real highlight - it was incredible to see how they had not developed a fear of man and would even accept sticks and twigs from our guide to feather their nests.

The boat was also lovely, fantastically spacious (we had an upperdeck twin cabin) and very comfortable even when motoring at night. The food was also excellent and there was more of it than we could possibly have eaten. The boat accommodates 16 passengers and this was an excellent size for socialising with the other guests on board, all of whom were very interesting and came from a variety of different countries. There weren''t any children on board, but I suspect in any case that this type of trip is better suited to adults and older kids.

Unfortunately on the way out to the Galapagos Islands, the airline made a booking error and as a result we lost a day in the Galapagos and our first night on the boat. However, Mauricio at LatinDiscover did everything he could (whilst on his day off) to find us a new flight and to get us to the boat as quickly as possible. LatinDiscover also made sure that the airline paid for the flights and gave us compensation for the first night missed on the boat - this is testiment to the fact that if things do go wrong on your trip, LatinDiscover will do their best to look after you until you can rejoin your original itinerary.

All in all, despite the error by the airline, we had an extremely enjoyable and memorable trip and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone that has even the slightest interest in nature.

Thanks once again for your help.
Kind regards,

Victoria Noble

Hi Laura,

Good Morning,
Sriram family had wonderful trip and everything was in order as suggested in itinerary. Thanks for all your help.

Thanking You
Dipal Dave
EastWestTravel Inc.

Estimada Laura,
Quiero informarle que nos fue muy bien en el viaje a Galapagos. Todo estuvo magnifico! El yate muy bueno y comodo, la tripulacion muy amable y diligente, la comida deliciosa y la guia estupenda. Estuvimos muy contentas y llenamos las expectativas que teniamos. Muchas gracias por todo!!!

Laura,

You did a great job, thanks. Rerouting our flight to the islands was a big help after we had to land in a different city in Ecuador.

Explorer II was great. Food super, guides good, staff helpful. Cabin was great (balcony). Would not have wanted a smaller ship, size was great.

Hi Laura!

The trip I booked went very fine. Everything happend like we arranged it: The flight tickets waited for us in our hotel, someone waited for us at the airport in San Cristobal - even though our plane was late - the 2 islands-trips per day were well organised and of course very interesting. And also our 2 days on our own were perfect.

The land trips were very well organised by the crew and the naturalist guide. I really liked the briefing and the white board with our day''''s schedule. Everybody was nice and friendly. We had 5 varied days - with a good combination of walking, snorkeling, listening to interesting facts and other activities in freetime.

The long trip to Galapagos was definetly worth it!
Thank you for your help arranging this unforgetable trip!

Best regards,
Nicole

Laura, Michaela and Fabricio (our naturalist/guide),
 
I wanted to follow up on our recent trip to the Galapagos. As expected upon my return to Alaska, many people have asked me about our vacation.  My consistent response has been that “it exceeded our expectations, and we had high expectations at the time we planned the trip.”  The Nemo II was a very comfortable boat, with an attentive crew and comical (though thoroughly knowledgeable) guide.  Our guide, Fabricio Carbo, indicated this is the first time he has worked with Latin Discovery and asked to be included in my email to you.
 
To start, the overview of the tour was accurate.  Laura, I also want to thank you for your add-ons as a result of the changes in the tour dates.  Our day in Puerto Ayora gave us an opportunity to see other aspects of Santa Cruz island later in the trip.  As it turned out, my wife and I met a friend from Canada while walking on a path as part of the “Bay Tour” before our boat cruise.  It was a total and pleasant surprise.  The hotel in Puerto Ayora was also very nice and accommodating.  We truly appreciate all that you did for us. 

Pluses: Number 1 is the fact that we had a small group on board and all (loosely) connected.  This gave us the private, personal touch that really distinguished our trip from other boats in the vicinity. Fabricio also did a wonderful job of timing our landings to not coincide with other tours.  Although this meant some early morning departures (which was as difficult for our guide as it was for the guests….), the privacy on the islands was much appreciated.  Part of the success of the trip was that it was a learning experience as much as a fun adventure.  I even made the guests learn some Spanish (in presenting facts about Alaska to the crew).  The food and drink were plentiful, and there was always fresh fruit. 

Overall, it was an incredible trip.  I have already told several people who are interested in (and have the ability to visit) the Galapagos that I strongly recommend the same team we used for our trip.  I would be very surprised if you do not get a couple more bookings as a result of this trip. 

In closing – Laura, you came through and not only corrected the problems that occurred, but you went the extra mile (or marathon) to more than make up for it.  In the end, your work and help truly enhanced our vacation (we would not have met our friend on the beach if not for the early arrival). 

Fabricio did an exemplary job of leading our group and ensuring that all details were taking care of (except for finding the flamingos). He truly became part of our group, and we became part of his family.  The US Holiday, Thanksgiving, occurred during our trip and Fabricio worked with other boats to procure a Turkey for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  Often, it is the small things that mean the most.
 
Thanks to all.  Each of you helped make our trip positively one of our highlights.  I hope to have the pleasure of working with each of you again.
 
Tom Newins