Kim, maybe we should get a dual leash for George and Alice, sort of like people use when walking multiple dogs. Then you and I could trade off on holding the other end.

Kim, maybe we should get a dual leash for George and Alice, sort of like people use when walking multiple dogs. Then you and I could trade off on holding the other end.

Kim, we went in early December and the weather was quite pleasant during our trip - there's less humidity then than right now, so your November trip will probably be more comfortable.

The naturalists will be reigning in George and Alice for sure on land - they are quite insistent on the group following park regulations and sticking together and on the designated paths. In the water they will most likely have more freedom.

I didn't think that the water was very cool - definitely take a snorkel shirt - we didn't think to do that.

Thanks Leslie! Good points, as usual!

Wow I am trying to get my pea brain around the vision of George and Alice in tandem anything since there is a ginormous size differential: think the Russian wolfhound and the Yorkie leashed together!
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Helen

Yeah. I think we should just keep them separate so that at least we have a good chance of bringing one of them home!

Wednesday. There was rain, but we seemed to be avoiding it. We awoke to humid, 79 degree weather causing my nice straight hair to immediately frizz. Off we went to the tortoise nature reserve. Everything on this ship is ah zodiac landing with some being dry and some being wet landings.this was art one. On the way, we passed old rowboats and fishing boats with seals in all sorts of states of recline on them. Once in town, we hopped a bus for a 45 minute ride to the reserve. You are correct. They are strict about who goes where on land. We tried to get in Javier's group and were sent back to our group. Strict counts are managed. You must stay with the group. Exceptions are granted for health reasons, but these folks are escorted. I really don't have a problem with their system. They do it nicely and without embarrassment.

Tortoises (as opposed to sea turtles) are not really incredibly interesting. They don't do too much. There are about 3000 tortoises on San Cristobal. The breeding center raises them and the tortoises enjoy three regular meals peer week, 100% survival and a pretty good life before being reintroduced to the wild to live out their 100-175 years. Upon close examination, they really do look prehistoric and very reptilian. Their necks extend very long distances giving them a creepy snake like image. You get to see babies, which look like pet shop turtles. It was truly buggy and, even though I slathered up with bug spray, I found about 6 bites. We were instructed to not touch certain noxious plants, epically the poison apple, which infuses necrotic elements into your skin which are disfiguring. Not great for humans, but fine for tortoises. They eat these apples but, checking their feces, these apples appear totally intact. Hmmm....

Some folks took the island bus tour and found it rather interesting. No negative comments.

Once back in town, we wandered a bit, in and out of overpriced souvenir shops with hats and shirts that say "I love boobies." There were a fair number of purchases, but I easily controlled myself. Sea lions, marine iguanas and crabs were everywhere.

Many folks have found themselves under the weather. Some have colds, others have queasy stomachs or worse. I seem to have been stung by some creature on the back of my legs. I thought it was just sunburn, but interesting designs in the shape of a sea creature are now forming.

It is really prudent to cover up. This afternoon is a power Rambo walk...more walking, less talking tour... Or a snorkeling trip. Well, we've anchored ...it's about 3:30 and we are off for snorkeling.

I understand the power walk was very good. It began with a very steep incline and lots of Mosquitos. However, I was told the views made it all worthwhile.

Just back from snorkeling and out from the shower. What a fun afternoon. Today was another beach snorkel. We were met on the beach by a sea lion family...a mum and dad and two little pups. After some photo ops we began snorkeling. There were the typical fish...giant parrot fish, angel fish and very murky water. However, the sea lions decided to swim with us. They darted around and came right up nose to nose with us. At the end a tiny little pup came ashore with us looking for its family and was bitten for its efforts. Off he went into the ocean bleeping looking for his family.

We loved that "power walk" - the only real hike of the week. I thought that they way overstated the difficulty in the briefing. George will be happy with that one!

I don't remember many bugs though? Probably has something to do with the wet vs dry season part of the year - mosquitos LOVE Brad and he doesn't remember being bothered by them either.

We didn't encounter any insects when we were there with xpedition, so it probably has to do with time of year. I think this is the end of the rainy season. When we were there before, it was July..

And yes, George loves death marches. He thought most of the hikes were pretty lame activity wise, but loved the wildlife.

Thursday. Only one day left. Today was our last water sports day. Boo hoo.

We were out by 7:30 for kayaking. The ship is really great and added a second time at 8:30 for those who didn't wasn't to get up that early. They really try to accommodate everyone. They'll even take folks who don't want to exert themselves on trips on the zodiacs instead, so folks will have an opportunity to do things.

You must be able to walk up and down the steep stairs to the zodiac agnd get in and out. That's all.

We've really enjoyed the peaceful kayaking trips. We saw a few sea lions swimming and sea turtles bobbing up and down. Not strenuous and relaxing. Came back to the ship at 8:30 and quickly changed for the beach. We were on a white sandy beach by 9 and were surrounded by tons of lounging sea lions, with one or two joining us in the water. At 10:30, I boarded another kayak for deep water snorkeling. The snorkeling started out as boring with not much in the way of fish. Then, we turned a corner and there were 4 sea lions playing. They played with us for about an hour. We watched them hunt and eat and play underwater, coming up to stare us down.

This afternoon offered three walks. Two were 2.5 mile walks, one fast and one slow. The third walk was a 1.5 mile walk. It was hot, even at 4pm. We came back drenched. While the walk isn't steep, it requires balance over uneven Bolders. Walking sticks are provided for more stability. They even took folks who couldn't walk to the shore to just see the animals. We were met with tons of sea lions, marine iguanas, lava lizards, boobies, and albatrosses. Lots of good, solid info but a tricky walk. I am exhausted.

Tonight is dinner with the staff captain. He was a charming man who has been with Silversea a year. Most of the crew prefers the Western itinerary to the one we are on. They say you get much better snorkeling, whales, dolphins and more deep water snorkeling. We are signing up for this. As far as time of year, the seas are rougher at night and the water cooler in September.

What to bring on this trip? Socks, hiking boots, sneakers, reef shoes, a couple of pairs of sandals for day and evening. 4 Safari pants for evening attire and some walks, changes of shorts and tops for 2-3 times per day, lots of extra underwear, , 2 bathing suits, a couple of long sleeved Columbia sun protection shirts, a couple of snorkeling tops, sun tan lotion, bug repellent, hat with string. No sweater, sport jackets, dress clothes, pashminas. You can wear sneakers or sandals to dinner.

I commented that the lecturer was not so great. I found out she is really fantastic but was told to stifle on this trip since she wasn't Ecuadorian. The rest of the staff was a bit uneven. Some were very green but others very good.

Service levels were very good. The staff was cheerful and friendly. You are given a badge with your key on a rope to wear. I like this better than the key wallets. It seems the back office has some issues. We got a ship board credit from AMEX but Clay had to intervene to get it for me. Others who booked directly with a SilverSea got no Amex credit even though they used the platinum card.

Tomorrow am is tortoise time. If I had realized, I would have taken the city tour yesterday. Otherwise, all good! So sorry that this trip is coming to an end.

Final day...

Of the two tortoise trips, the highlands trip to see the tortoises in the wild was very nice. The Darwin Center tour was not good from what I hear. This tortoise in the wild tour was better than the first tour we took, but some folks liked them both equally. The town was hot, humid and had lots of souvenir shops. The fish market was fun, with sea lions and pelicans stealing food. Leslie has posted some fun pics from her trip.

This afternoon, I chose to sit on board, drink mohitos (this was autocorrected to monitors) and Doug went on the hike. He loved it and said the yellow land iguanas were special.

All in all, a great cruise. If you book with Amex platinum, it will pay for your laundry. No store on board so we struggled using it up, but I hear the masseuse was great.

Folks told us more about the Western itinerary in case you want to do both or compare. The other itinerary allows for swimming with sea turtles and penguins, watching shark feeding, seeing whales and dolphins. There are no beaches, no long hikes, more zodiac rides. So, if you have a walking issue, this may be a better trip for you.

Trip summary. It seems more than half the folks have contracted a stomach bug. Not sure if a virus or food issues. Imodium was being shared liberally. We had to have our bags out by 6 am and have to vacate rooms by 7:30 and sit around until 9:30 when we are shuttled off to our flight. We seem to spend all today traveling, arriving home by morning tomorrow. This 24 hour travel day is not nearly as civilized as the less than 12 hour travel day arriving. Some folks opted to do a post trip to prevent horrid travel plans. I think a post trip makes sense. Stay a day or two and make sure you get decent connections.

Silversea back office screwed up a bit. The most egregious seems to have been with a Macchu Pichu pre cruise. Evidently, SS outsources to Abercrombie and Fitch and they didn't communicate properly. Connections were missed because of lack of appropriate scheduling and SS and A&F pointed fingers at one another. There was also lack of appropriate follow through by SS direct booking. The TA from SS was with her family on board and did nothing to correct the issues...no AMEX platinum credit, no plane reservations, etc. I'm sure this will be rectified as the person in question has the most SS days on this cruise, but I was amazed that this woman did not attempt to correct her mistakes as she didn't want it to interfere with her trip, which was an award. Hmmm....

We went down to breakfast this am and when we came back they had already cleaned our room. The rooms were always cleaned nicely. They made the room look nice without messing up your things. Cute towel animals were left each day. The only issues folks discussed were lack of replenishment of supplies like shampoo. The butler services were a bit uneven. No butler ever came by to introduce himself. It was Leslie who told me about storing bags. Some days we got a fruit bowl, some days hors d'hoevres, some days nothing.

Service levels in the dining rooms and bars were excellent. They really tried to please and worked so hard. Food for lunch was always good. I was never impressed with dinner. The menus didn't grab me. Things tasted ok but not exciting. There is no ginger on board, so bring your own if you need it. The food quality was not of the SS Explorer quality.

There were minimal lectures. They were ok.the expedition team was uneven. The men were good...Erich, Jario, Dies in particular. The women solicited more negative comments for differing reasons. You were assigned to 2 groups and then got into zodiacs by arrival time and got whoever was assigned to your zodiac. While just fine by my standards, they were not the quality I have had on my last two SS expeditions.

Activities were well run and were very good. No group was larger than 14. I was really satisfied with everything offered. A lot of us got stung by jelly fish, so you may want to get a long stinger suit.

The ship was incredibly informal. It was much more informal than the Explorer or Paul Gauguin. You needn't bring any jewelry or nice shoes. Safari pants, sun dresses or capris work for dinner with a T-shirt. Shorts, safari pants, sun shirts and tshirts by day. Bring lots do casual shoes, especially hiking shoes. Bring multiple changes of clothing or use the laundry. It is expensive, but a fine way to use up Amex credit. The surprise was free internet...3300 minutes per suite and that was fine.

Thanks for all the info and for taking the time . Safe trip home, Andi.
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Helen

Thanks, Helen. We have already had a long day. We left ship at 9:30 by zodiac in groups of 10. It was very efficient . Got on busses for a quick ride to airport. There is no AC at the airport and it was miserably hot and humid. We boarded at 12:15 and took off promptly. Guayaquil is 1 hour ahead , so we landed at 3:15. Luggage collection was easy and we boarded a bus for a quick trip to the Oro Verde hotel.we were met with cold towels and drinks and quickly given room keys and had our luggage immediately. We were able to print out boarding passes and take showers in a very nice room. We were given two free drink passes and they are opening the French restaurant early for us. Almost everyone has an 11pm flight to Miami and we are leaving the hotel at 8:30.

Lovely people on this trip. I haven't had a 7 day trip in a long time. I remember why I don't like them...they are over too fast and you just start making nice acquaintances and it is over.

I was going to say, but you did already, over way too quick.

Enjoyed the review, Andi!:)