Ecuador: Wonders of the Galapagos Islands and Quito
Final Details
February 8th – 17th, 2022
Tourist Visas: You do not need a visa to visit Ecuador. You simply need your passport and you will receive a free entry stamp upon arrival at the airport.
Immunizations: Apart from the COVID-19 vaccine, Ecuador does not currently require any immunizations in order to enter the country. If you are interested in getting other immunizations before you travel for your own comfort and safety, you can find suggestions on the CDC website.
IMPORTANT! COVID-19 Testing:
With rules and regulations regarding Covid testing constantly changing, our team will ensure that you have all the information necessary to properly prepare for your entry into Ecuador and return to your home country. You can expect additional communications specific to Covid-19 and travel testing as the tour gets closer.
Currently, a health declaration must be filled out prior to travel to Ecuador. We will be sending you a link to this declaration form at the appropriate time. In addition, a negative PCR test is required in order to enter Ecuador and this test must be performed within 72 hours of your departure from the US. A PCR test is also now required before flying to the Galapagos as well. *A rapid Antigen test is NOT accepted.
Depending on your day of arrival in Ecuador, please follow the below instructions:
If you are arriving in Ecuador on February 6th or 7th: We will arrange a PCR test for you on the morning of February 8th. This test will be done in the hotel lobby at 10am. Please meet your tour leader, Dara, in the lobby at this time. The cost of the test is approximately $75 USD and will be payable directly to the nurse.
If you are arriving in Ecuador on February 8th: While you will be obtaining a PCR test at home on either February 5th or 6th (as it typically takes 1-2 days to get the results), you will need to obtain a second PCR test at home on February 7th as well. This will ensure that you have one PCR test taken within 72 hours of your arrival into Ecuador and one PCR test taken within 72 hours of your arrival to the Galapagos. If you are able to take a PCR test that provides quick results, you could take only one PCR test on February 7th and use those results to enter Ecuador and also the Galapagos.
Before returning to the US, a negative Rapid-Antigen test is required and must be performed within 24 hours of your departure from Ecuador. We will arrange for these tests to be taken at our hotel in Quito and the cost will be approximately $50 USD for the Antigen test.
Packing: Packing lightly will make it easier to travel to/from the Galapagos and will also give you more space inside of your cabin on the boat. Also, keep in mind that you are only allowed to check-in 1 suitcase that weighs no more than 20kg (42 lbs). This suitcase cannot be an oversized suitcase and must be less than 60 inches in combined dimensions.
Tipping: Tipping culture in Ecuador is very simple. Tips are greatly appreciated but not required. At restaurants leaving 10% of your bill as a cash tip is plenty and simply rounding up for taxi rides will suffice. For the staff on the Galapagos yacht, tips average $10-$15 per day and you may also tip your naturalist guide as well.
Currency: Ecuador’s official currency is the US dollar, making it very easy in terms of money. There are ATMs throughout Quito where you can take out USD. In the Galapagos, while there is an ATM on one island, it is highly recommended to bring enough cash with you for small purchases and tips. Credit cards are accepted at most restaurants and shops in Quito and also on board the yacht for any alcohol that might be purchased.
WhatsApp Group A couple of weeks before the trip starts, we’ll send out details for you to join a WhatsApp group that will only be for members of this tour. This group will include your incredible tour leader as well. This way, we can all start communicating, get to know each other, answer any questions and keep everyone in the loop at all times. Please provide us with your Whatsapp phone number at your earliest convenience so that we can set up the group and begin chatting!
Airport Arrival & Pickup Please follow the below instructions upon arrival at Quito’s International Airport:
After exiting the plane, walk through the terminal building to the immigration inspection.
Once through immigration, follow the signs to the luggage area. Collect your luggage from the correct carousel and then pass through the customs inspection.
After you exit the baggage/customs area through the sliding doors, you’ll enter the Arrivals Hall where you will find all kinds of booths offering various transportation. You will find your driver waiting for you right on the other side of the sliding door with a sign that has your name on it.
If you are unable to find your driver, you can call your tour leader, Dara, at +1 (480) 330-9934.
Please note: When arriving into Ecuador, you are sometimes required to fill out a landing card or tell the immigration officer where you will be staying in Quito. Here are the details:
Hotel Patio Andaluz, García Moreno N6-52 entre Olmedo y Mejía, Quito – Ecuador
Itinerary
February 8th: Quito (Arrival Day)
Arriving in the capital city of Ecuador, you’ll be transported from the airport to our hotel located in the historic center. Our staff will be on hand to check you in and ensure you get situated. Once the entire group has arrived, we’ll gather for a tour orientation in the evening and a delicious welcome dinner in town.
Accommodation: 4* Hotel Included Meals: Dinner
February 9th: Quito (Quito)
Today we’ll explore the laid-back colonial heart of Quito on foot. We will walk down quaint cobblestone streets lined with brightly colored colonial houses and architectural masterpieces roofed in old tiles and decorated with flower-laden balconies. We’ll also walk along the Street of the Seven Crosses, an Incan route which is thought to have been a center of worship to the Sun and Moon gods, and spend time in the main square, Plaza de la Independencia. Gorgeous cathedrals, bustling plazas, colorful markets and more will all be part of the experience as we get our first glimpse of life in Ecuador. We’ll return to our hotel mid-afternoon so that we can have a proper rest before our journey to the Galapagos the following morning.
Accommodation: 4* Hotel Included Meals: Breakfast, dinner
February 10th: Quito / Galapagos Islands
Morning – Arrival We’ll have an early morning transfer to the Quito Airport for our flight to Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos. Upon arrival, our naturalist guide from the Galapagos National Park will be waiting for us. We’ll be transported to our luxury yacht, settle into our rooms and have an orientation.
Afternoon – Bachas Bachas gets its name from the remains of two large barges (mispronounced by locals as ‘bachas’) left by Americans during WWII. At low tide you can still see the iron skeletons of the barges buried in the white sand. From November until May, this place is also one of the most important sea turtle nesting grounds in the entire Galapagos Islands. There are also several small saltwater lagoons where we often see flamingos, herons and other aquatic birds.
Snorkel: You’ll have the option to swim or snorkel from the beach. The area is rich in fish species of the Galapagos, but you can also find white-tipped reef sharks and rays.
Highlights: American flamingos, white-cheeked pintails, lava gulls, blue-footed boobies
Walking distance: 1.6 km / 1 mi
Accommodation: EcoGalaxy Yacht Included Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
February 11th: Galapagos (Santiago and Bartolome Islands)
Morning – Sullivan Bay This hike is a journey into understanding the birth of these volcanic islands. You will walk in a very well preserved flow of Pahoehoe lava, which will give you endless opportunities to see the delicate textures of this type of lava which only appear in a few places throughout the world. At first sight the barren landscape looks completely deprived of life, but look carefully for pioneer plants, lava lizards and small birds. By the shore, you can find penguins, pelicans and oyster-catchers.
Snorkel: You will have the option to swim or snorkel from a coral sand beach or from the dinghies. This underwater region is like traveling to another world as the sea is teaming with life, including large schools of fish, Galapagos penguins, reef sharks, turtles and rays.
Afternoon – Bartolome One of the most iconic places in the Galapagos and one of the few where you can easily see penguins. We’ll enjoy great views of Pinnacle Rock, on the northern side of the island, just beside a beautiful sandy beach. Hike to the top of the island for incredible views of lunar landscapes and scattered volcanic cones. Many islands are visible from this outlook, as well as beautiful Sullivan Bay.
Snorkel: Swim or snorkel from this beach which holds a well-deserved reputation as one of the best snorkeling spots in the Galapagos known for its clear, calm water, incredible diversity of fish, colorful invertebrates, sea lions, turtles, rays and reef sharks and penguin population.
Accommodation: EcoGalaxy Yacht Included Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
February 12th: Galapagos (Santa Cruz Island)
Morning – Highlands Arriving in Puerto Ayora, a bus will take you into the highlands, stopping along the way at one of the lush forest reserves where you will look for Galapagos giant tortoises in their natural environment. This is the best place in the Galapagos to see these gentle giants (reaching over 300 kg / 600 pounds!) casually grazing and resting in freshwater ponds. This is also the home of a great diversity of birds rarely found in the lowlands, including finches (tree, woodpecker and vegetarian finches), flycatchers and several species of water birds.
Highlights: Giant tortoises, Darwin finches, barn owls, white-cheeked pintails, Galapagos flycatchers, Lava tunnels
Walking distance: 1 km / 0.6 mi
Afternoon – Charles Darwin Station
The Charles Darwin Station is a nonprofit organization that has been working for decades together with the Galapagos National Park to preserve the biodiversity of these unique islands. During this visit you will learn about the projects that both institutions carry out together to protect the native species and eradicate the invasive ones which are threatening the Galapagos’ environment. One of the most important and emblematic projects has been reproducing giant tortoises in captivity. The visit is mostly outdoors in a beautiful dry native forest with giant cactus and many other interesting native plants. It is also a fantastic place to find several endemic Darwin finches, as well as flycatchers and mockingbirds.
Highlights: Galapagos giant tortoise, land iguanas breeding program, Darwin finches, Galapagos mockingbirds, Galapagos flycatchers, yellow warblers
Walking distance: 2 km / 1.2 mi
Accommodation: EcoGalaxy Yacht Included Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
February 13th: Galapagos (Floreana Island)
Morning – Cormorant Point / Devil’s Crown Punta Cormorant is located in the north of Floreana and is known for its large coastal lagoon with American flamingos, white-cheeked pintails, black-necked stilts and other shorebirds. There’s a beautiful white sand beach which is an important nesting ground for green sea turtles. And we can also see rays and reef sharks. In recent years, a small group of blue-footed boobies has started to breed right by the trail. Interested in endemic plants? There’s a great trail for that!
Snorkel: You’ll have a chance to snorkel at Devil’s Crown, a heavily eroded little volcano right by Floreana island. This is considered by many as one of the best snorkeling sites in the entire archipelago as the current funnels plankton through the Crown, attracting huge schools of snapper, Creole fish parrot fish, angelfish, reef sharks, sea turtles, rays and a phenomenal amount of marine life.
Afternoon – Post Office Bay Floreana is famous for the tales of German settlers and a baroness during the late 1920’s and 1930’s. Assassinations, disappearances and other unsolved mysteries are the ingredients of this fascinating story. Post Office Bay was often used by whalers to anchor their ships and go up to the highlands to get fresh water and tortoises.
Most boats visiting the Galapagos had to come to this place sooner or later, so a system of mail was established more than 200 years ago: a barrel near the beach became the way to leave messages for other ships and also to the outside world. This mail system is still in use and will allow you to send postcards from the Galapagos to the outside world.
Aside from a small beautiful beach and a lava tunnel, the area is great for dinghy tours to look for sea lions, green sea turtles, shorebirds, small sharks and, with some luck, Galapagos penguins.
Snorkel: There is great snorkeling from the beach, as you can see lots of sea turtles, rays, a wide variety of fish and, if we’re lucky, penguins.
Accommodation: EcoGalaxy Yacht Included Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
February 14th: Galapagos (Espanola Island)
Morning – Suarez Point This rocky trail is one the most amazing nature walks you can do in the Galapagos Islands. From the moment you set foot on the island the amount and diversity of fauna is truly spectacular. Sea lions and marine iguanas will be the first ones welcoming us, followed by large colonies of sea birds, including Nazca and blue-footed boobies, gulls and tropicbirds. At the end of the trail we will visit a colony of waved albatross, the largest bird in the islands and one of the most interesting due to its powerful flight and elaborate courtship. Waved albatross only nest at Española, so this is the only place where you will see them at close range.
Afternoon – Gardener Bay/Beach Gardner Beach is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and interesting beaches to visit in the Galapagos. Its fine coral sand and turquoise water give it a completely tropical appearance, which contrasts with the presence of sea lions basking on the beach.
You will have the opportunity to walk along the beach and learn about the biology of sea lions and other endemic species, such as the Española mockingbird, marine iguanas and Galapagos hawks.
Snorkel: There are several great snorkeling places at Gardner Bay. It is a fantastic site to swim with sea lions, reef sharks, rays and many species of fish, including angelfish, parrotfish, damselfish, surgeonfish and many others.
Highlights: Coral-sand beach, sea lions, Galapagos hawks, Española mockingbirds, Darwin finches, marine iguanas
Walking distance: 0.8 km / 0.5 mi
Accommodation: EcoGalaxy Yacht Included Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
February 15th: Galapagos (San Cristobal Island / Quito)
Morning / Afternoon – Interpretation Center + Flight to Quito Located on the outskirts of Puerto Baquerizo, this center is dedicated to the history of human presence in the Galapagos. From the times of the early Spanish explorers to the present times, including illustrious visitors such as Charles Darwin, this permanent exhibition will take you through the dangers and struggles of the first settlers trying to survive the harsh Galapagos environment.
After our visit to the interpretation center, we will head to the Galapagos airport in time for our flight back to Quito. Upon arrival in Quito, we will check in to our hotel and enjoy a relaxing evening in the capital.
Highlights: Endemic plants, exhibition on human history, return to Quito
Walking distance: 0.2 km / 650 ft
Accommodation: 4* hotel Included Meals: Breakfast
February 16th: Quito / Otavalo
From Quito, we head down the temperate valley of Guayllabamba, where cherimoyas (custard-apples) and avocados grow in abundance. Here, the road opens out into the Andean highlands.
Our first stop will be at QUITSATO sun-dial, located near the town of Cayambe at latitude 0. This independent, non-profit project is dedicated to sharing crucial facets of astronomical knowledge, specifically that of pre-Hispanic cultures in the region.
We then continue to the Imbabura province, named after the imposing volcano that towers over the San Pablo Lagoon, before arriving in Otavalo.
Otavalo is the biggest and most important indigenous market in all of Latin America. This remarkably colorful handicraft and textile market spills into the streets from the central Plaza de Ponchos. The produce section of the market also impresses with the sheer number and color of locally cultivated fruits and vegetables. The friendly Otavaleños are always more than happy to talk about their crafts and traditions as we tour the market. It’s an excellent place to shop for locally made crafts and textiles.
After the market, we’ll continue to the town of Peguche where we’ll visit a textile and handicraft workshop to learn, from the owners themselves, the ancient techniques and secrets used in making their wonderful pieces. A good example is the use of an insect for dyeing wool. In this town, we will also stop by an Andean musical instrument workshop, where the musicians, who also build the traditional instruments, will welcome us with a short performance.
From here, we’ll drive back to Quito for a rest before our final meal together as a group on this incredible adventure!
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