Peru & Ecuador. Machu Picchu and a Galapagos cruise with a side of southern USA

[Seat0B]

Thanks for the TR and your honest opinions. I appreciate this as I too like to use the experiences of others to guide my travel plans.

 

[smckay]

I’ve enjoyed reading about your trip to Machu Picchu, thanks for the tips. We have planned a similar trip next January to MP, Galapagos followed by a South American Cruise.

If you want any tips on MP hit me up. I found the data on line didn't really relate to the physical experience. The way we did the circuits was really easy, and I have no doubt you can do all 3 in the one day if that was your bent. But a relaxed tour like we did made it enjoyable and less stress worrying about times.
Peak season has double the visitors of low season so it may be a bit squeezy, where we found plenty of room to move and view, except the view point on Circuit 2 where *everyone* was pushing in to get that photo.

 

[smckay]

I guess this your cruise and vessel?

Natural Paradise Luxury Yacht

Natural Paradise offers travelers a variety of accommodation options that suit everyone's needs.

www.royalgalapagos.com

Very unfortunate experiences for you, esp the crew noises. My cruise was on a 50 pax vessel

Yes, that is it. As a compariosn, the NP is this one


And as comparison, Infinity is this one

So a bit bigger in size.

I really think the larger size vessel will improve the experience immensely and worth the extra cash.

And the itinerary was certainly busy. Not sure if it was a result of the new-to-NP Gustavo learning the system and not booking slots or poor time management.

 

[smckay]

Ecuador issues permits for Galapagos cruises of 16 passengers hence why 16 pax boats are common. the first of the larger ships cruising the Galapagos where 96 passenger boats. That was because they bought 6 16 pax licenses. I do note that now some ships are not multiples of 16 so it probably has changed.
We went with Haugan cruises. They generally lease their boats to travel companies. back in 2006 they ran their own cruises in August as that is low season and often more swells. When we went it was as smooth as. The other advantage back then was that Haugan in August used National park guides. Ours was fantastic.
Out TA sells Haugan cruise which is why we went with them.

I would disagree with the 4 day cruises as yes you can see all the wildlife but not every sort of interaction. When we went I had a pair of blue footed coughies do their mating dance right at my feet. I thought that was going to be my highlight but later a pair of albatross did the same thing at my feet. theirs was much more spectacular. Found out that August is the mating season.

The permit scheme all makes sense. Infinity is 20 pax with 2 guides so that deal must still be in place.

The 4 day comment is valid. I'm sure there are trips where the animals don't make an appearance until day 7. But, we saw a lot of animals doing animal things and we were happy with it. We were lucky, and we know it.

But it was only on Espanola on the last full day that we also saw coughies courting/mating right next to a Albatross pair sitting on their nest. basically 3 metres off the walkway. 100 metres away an eagle was sitting on a nest whilst her mate sat in the classic pose on a rock. With nothing behind him. And blue skies. It was at that point I wish I took my 600mm lens.
But in defence we had seen numerous Albatross in Antarctica so the experience was not as great as the 8 or so pax who stood for 10 minutes on a cliff edge waiting for an Albatross to lift off to get a photo. (The Gustavo took off for the Next Best Thing and missed the second one taking off). Grasshopper here, who is patient with wildlife, got a nice shot thank you.