Six hundred miles off the coast of Ecuador you’ll find the Galapagos National Park which encompasses 97% of the land mass of the Galapagos Islands and the surrounding waters.  This is one of the most bio-diverse places on earth.

Our first extended trip following our retirement was to Ecuador for a little shy of 3 months.  We left the US on Christmas Day 2010 and returned in mid-March.  We flew into the capital city of Quito and immediately went shopping for a trip out to the Galapagos.  We booked through a local office for one of the tour groups which saved money compared to booking from the US.

I have included links to two of the articles we posted for the Galapagos tour.  The first is an overview of the trip and the second gives our detailed itinerary.

https://coopsecondact.com/2011/01/28/galapagos-overview/

https://coopsecondact.com/2011/02/06/galapagos-itinerary-and-landscapes/

Something I didn’t dwell too much upon at the time…near the end of our time on the boat, a mechanical failure required the captain to seek assistance.  We ended up being towed for the final 2 or 3 days which required some modification to our itinerary.  However, due to the quality of the experience and the crew, this didn’t significantly detract from our enjoyment of the tour.  Once were were back in Quito near the end our Ecuador trip, the tour company refunded about 20% of our fee which we felt was more than fair.