A great trip, but a royal screwup in Galapagos
Ecuador
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Feb 27 - Mar 17, 2023
The mainland portion of our Ecuador adventure and our guide, Christian, were wonderful and exceeded our expectations. This includes the visit to Asuni National Park and Napo Cultural Center with our guide for that area, Jose.
Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for kimkim's travel vendor in the Galapagos. Who that vendor actually is, we were unable to determine. We had carefully and intentionally scheduled a down day for our first full day on Isla Santa Cruz so that we would have a chance to rest and recover from our busy and arduous many days on the mainland, plus another rest day for after the island trip. This did not happen. We were informed on arrival to arise the next morning for a 6am departure to Isla Bartolome. The guide who met us at the airport was unsympathetic. The trip itself was great, but we were not prepared (no previous contact about a change to our itinerary, let alone agreement on our part) for a full day trip on our first day there, and suffered accordingly. Not only was the schedule changed without our knowledge or agreement, but they couldn't even get the departure time correct. We were told to be outside our hotel at 6am and we were. Our pickup was late and had to speed to catch up to the bus halfway back to Baltra. Unbeknownst to us, the bus had actually left at 5:30am from a pickup point we didn't even know about. After a full day of sun and fun, instead of taking us to our hotel, the bus took us to the pickup/drop of point we had not even been to and we had no idea how to find our hotel. Fortunately, our guide for the Bartolome tour, Elizabeth, did not abandon us. Although she didn't know our hotel, the bus driver did and amid much confusion agreed to drop us there. Thank you Elizabeth!
We paid big bucks for our private tour and an itinerary that met our needs. But instead of our carefully planned rest days before and after the Bartolome trip, we had first the taxing trip then two unnecessary rest days after. Simply unacceptable and prevents a five star review and recommendation for kimkim. We are flexible, but not that flexible. Otherwise we had a great trip, but are not likely to use kimkim again as a result.
Hotel Reviews
Wonderful people and experience! Bring an appetite - they give you enough food for an army!
A beautiful area and bed and breakfast. Very nice and accommodating hostess.
Beautiful old (but renovated) hotel with very helpful staff.
Modern and convenient.
Adequate and spacious, but funky electrical outlet locations. Adequate but unremarkable restaurant with less than stellar menu. Surrounding area appeared possibly unsafe/unwalkable for a alternative restaurant.
Wonderful old but fully renovated hotel with very helpful and courteous staff. Conveniently located in Old Town Cuenca.
This is not a luxury hotel but was comfortable and more than adequate for our needs. Very kind and helpful owner and his staff. Conveniently located to the pier area and central restaurants/activities in Puerto Ayora. The deli downstairs is one of the best places to eat that we found in Puerto Ayora.
This was by far the most luxurious hotel we stayed in during our Ecuador trip. Unnecessarily luxurious and over the top. The automated room lighting system was a constant pain with lights coming on and off unnecessarily. Hard to imagine how much the designers/architects must have been paid to design this inconvenient system.
Activity Reviews
Don't know what Mama Cuna Path is, but we had a great time in the Amazon, and all the staff and people we encountered were friendly, helpful and professional. We were well cared for.
See previous. The old weaving factory was a high light as was the amazing "Panama" hat factory where we acquired our beautiful hats.
Our Quito tour was good but a few too many churches, though they are all beautiful in their own ways. Mitad del Mundo is the worst tourist trap we visited in Ecuador.
We skipped this so can't really rate it but are forced to give one.
We were given the opportunity to skip this early early morning activity, and the staff seemed as relieved as we were. We enjoyed the cultural activities we experienced in the village on the previous afternoon.
We didn't have the free afternoon because our faithful guide, Christian, took us to a hummingbird sanctuary where we fed these beautiful creatures from a bottle cap placed in the palm of our hands. Having wild hummingbirds perched in our hands was a big highlight of our trip. Christian also took us to an amazing butterfly research and propagation station where we observed all life phases of many beautiful and fascinating butterflies.
See previous
Saw some interesting birdlife, but owing to the rainy season, we couldn't see Cotopaxi. Nobody's fault, just the season.
The waterfalls, especially the Devil's Cauldron, were truly awesome. We were looking forward to a soak in a hot pool, but this turned out to be unavailable and uninviting.
A snow and ice storm on top of the world! Again, because we were here in the rainy season, we didn't see much of the mountain, but we saw many wild vicunas including a heard running through the snowy countryside. Our local park guide, Alfredo, was a great and humble guy and local farmer who we much enjoyed meeting. The surrounding agricultural areas outside the park were a green checkerboard of fields extending to unbelievable heights up the mountain slopes. Much interesting local color and indigenous people in these areas.
Very interesting and well maintained historical area.
A beautiful, modern yet historic and cultural city and surrounding area. We can see why it's so attractive to expats. The artistry and craftmanship exhibited in nearby villages is outstanding.
Beautiful mountain and lake vistas. Many landslides on the highway due to the recent rains, but we made through thanks to Christians excellent driving. The clouds parted at just the right time for us to have beautiful vistas above Guayaquil.
The tortoises at the farm were truly amazing and a big reason for our visit to Galapagos. We would have preferred to have gone straight to our hotel for check in and refresh ourselves and gone to the farm later.
The actual trip to Isla Bartolome was fantastic and we were able to see Galapagos penguins! Screwing up our agreed upon itinerary was not appreciated.
An interesting/scenic drive to Otovalo and a great unexpected side trip to a local park and waterfall. The market itself was repetitious and of varying quality, but useful if you want to buy items to take home. I wouldn't drive all the way there just for the market, but there is much else to see.
