This morning we bid farewell to the Grand Odyssey, leaving our new friends on board. We disembarked on Santa Cruz, boarding a small bus for the highlands. We drove up out of the cloud cover, past fincas and small homesteads into dense forest. We finally pulled into the Charles Darwin Research Center, a sanctuary for the famed Galapagos Tortoise! A light rain created mist and fog throughout the grounds, making our surprise even greater when an enormous, lumbering tortoise made it's way out of the foliage. When startled, the tortoises retract their lanky necks into their shells, emitting a loud hissing noise as the air inside their carapaces escapes. After seeing nearly 15 tortoises and taking several rain-soaked photos, we climbed back into the bus for our final ride to the airport. Upon arrival back in Quito, we were met by Adventure Life Ecuador's Coordinator, Betty Jaramillo. It was so great to finally meet her, after two year's of only email correspondence! Betty took us to have traditional 'helados de paila', ice cream made in a copper pot. I immediately chose the Guanabana flavor, my favorite fruit in South America! After enjoying our helado we drove up the Pinchincha volcano to Betty's house, also the home to the Adventure Life Ecuador office. We met the rest of the crew, and John was invited to join a soccer game between Adventure Life and another local tourism competitor. After two hours at 10,000 feet, of course he was ready to play soccer!
The agent had great response to questions and coordinated well to create an itinerary that met our expectations.
Bob Sunshine
1 day ago
Very responsive to all questions
Teresa Cardoso
2 days ago
Kelly and Rhenee were excellent to work with on planning our trip. The logistics all worked smoothly and everyone was friendly and on time. Our accommodations were very good, particularly the incredible Patagonia Camp in Torres del Paine! Our guides on every excursion were outstanding and made the hikes memorable! Overall we had a wonderful trip with incredible memories!
Scott Gibson
2 days ago
Adventure Life is definitely a first-class safari tour company, and our representative was Franny Friesz. First of all, she responded immediately after we contacted Adventure Life. We told Franny that we had never been on a safari, and she was more than eager to offer a mountain of information about the trip. She informed us fully about all the ups, downs, and all arounds! She even prepared a number of packages for us to review -- even after we made changes to the areas we wanted to explore. Friendly, helpful, professional, and extremely knowledgeable -- these words describe Franny, and what a wonderful trip she prepared! We couldn't have asked for better service than Franny of Adventure Life. We HIGHLY recommend her and her outstanding company! Bon Voyage!
Prima Burke
3 days ago
The staff at Adventure Life made planning my family's trip to the Galapagos Islands as easy as possible. They listened to what we were hoping to experience and made thoughtful suggestions about how to accomplish our vacation goals while meeting the needs of travelers ages 17-76! They patiently answered questions and follow up questions in the months leading up to the trip. They helped us trouble shoot and customize the trip in every way possible. The logistics involved in traveling from Boston to the Galapagos are innumerable. The Adventure Life staff helped us arrange every detail and the team they assembled in the Galapagos was tremendous. I have never done a trip this big before and after working with Adventure Life this time--would not hesitate one second in working with them again.