Galapagos Wildlife Cruise (Archipel I)

I completed my 16 day cruise on the 22nd December and although I had to self isolate over Christmas, missing out on the family gathering, I still had the smile on my face. I had never snorkelled before but am now hooked and have bought my own gear. December was a good month to visit as it is the breading season with lots of cute chicks and sealion pups about. Having playful sealion pups swimming around you and nibbling at your fins has to be experienced to truly know the fun of it. Also got to swim with White Tipped Reef sharks, but the icing on the cake was swimming with Hammerhead sharks in Darwin Bay, Genovesa. The land scape changes from island to island and there is always something different to see either on the islands or while navigating to them. Our ship the Cachalote Explorer could accommodate 16 and although the cabins were not particularly spacious they met our needs. Only 2 of us stayed on for the entire cruise of west and east islands and I think those who only did one week missed out in many ways. The food was served as a buffet and was generally very good and you certainly weren't going to starve. Definitely worth the money.

a brilliant holiday, unfortunately cut short through no fault of Exodus.In the circumstances they handled everything well and re-arranged flights to our complete satisfaction,the itinerary was great, the boat amazing and you couldn't want for a more amiable and knowledgeable guide. We visited all the islands in the east and were fortunate enough to see all the wildlife on our wish list, and although we were offered the chance to return and do the western Isles, I decided to take a full refund for the lost week and arrange another holiday with Exodus in the future. In summary I would say it was not just a great holiday but a lifetime experience

a brilliant holiday, unfortunately cut short through no fault of Exodus.In the circumstances they handled everything well and re-arranged flights to our complete satisfaction,the itinerary was great, the boat amazing and you couldn't want for a more amiable and knowledgeable guide. We visited all the islands in the east and were fortunate enough to see all the wildlife on our wish list, and although we were offered the chance to return and do the western Isles, I decided to take a full refund for the lost week and arrange another holiday with Exodus in the future. In summary I would say it was not just a great holiday but a lifetime experience

The two-week wildlife cruise was the holiday of a lifetime. We both enjoy science and wildlife, we are also sailors and have our own boat. Most days the itinerary was full on and wonderful, and we were delighted with the amazing wildlife both on land and in the sea. The crew were very friendly and worked amazingly hard. There was a generous amount of good food for every meal, including much fruit, vegetables and salads. Unfortunately several of us had stomach upsets for 1 or 2 days. The boat was the main cause for concern. The A/C in the dining room failed for a couple of days, and dripped water on the seating so we had several wet seats for a few days. The Dining room ceiling also dripped water on several occasions. Our A/C also dripped on the carpet, or anything that was on the carpet nearby, and also on the shelves under it. Many things were wet or smelled musty. We had room 1 and our toilet was often malfunctioning from the start, and then blocked completely for a whole day (happily the crew worked very hard and managed to repair it by bedtime). There were no other toilets except the ones in other guests cabins. Exodus gave us only 24 hours to decide whether to abort the holiday as the original boat the Cachalot was out of commission but we were told that the substitute boat was also a “first class boat”. We now discover that according to Galapagos Islands.com the ‘Astrea’ or ‘Pinguino Explorer’ is down as a “mid-priced boat” and costs 650 dollars per week less that the ‘Catchalot’ did, so we are not amused as no refund was offered for this cheaper accommodation. Exodus were unable to give us useful information regarding laundry (they said there was none) or the ability to wash things ourselves and hang them out. Also, they were unable to answer queries about the flight from Quito to the islands or the baggage allowance for that flight. We therefore took far too much luggage! We were only told about the need for US dollars to pay the bar bill within the last week when we had already ordered and collected our dollars.

I thought long and hard about booking a this trip as it is not cheap! However it proved to be the best holiday that I have ever taken and well worth the money. We snorkelled twice a day on most days, with the turtles, sea lions, penguins, marine iguanas and great shoals of multicoloured fish. Every island that we visited was different and the naturalist guide that accompanied us was a fount of information. On land we saw the giant Galapagos tortoises, land iguanas and a myriad of different birds. The boat that we were based on was first class with excellent food and attentive and friendly crew