The Galápagos Islands - Adventure Guide to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands - page 402

hundred travel agents lining the streets around Avenida Amazonas
in Quito and start asking questions. Give them your budget, time
frame, and quality of trip desired and you will be on a plane to the
Galápagos in the blink of an eye. Be sure to ask as many questions as
it takes to make you feel comfortable with the product. Ask to see pic-
tures of the vessel, and check with other travel agents to make sure
you get a good deal.

It is obviouslywell beyond the scope of this topic to detail the dozens of
vessels that cruise around the islands. The most important thing to
understand is that the quality of individual boats, crews, and guides
changes constantly. Yachts fall into disrepair, are given facelifts, and
are rebuilt on a regular basis. During a recent trip, for example, there
was a beautiful new tourist-superior vessel, hardly a year old, half-
underwater in the bay at San Cristóbal Island (this is not common, by
the way). And a tour is only as good as its crew. There are a few com-
panies (listed below) with consistently good reputations. Inquire
about their boats with the travel agents or check with the South
American Explorers Club ( /fax [phone], [e-mail]) for

the best and latest recommendations.

A good listing and description of operators
and boats can be found in A Traveler's
Guide to the Galápagos Islands by Barry
Boyce (Hunter Publishing).

For specials and last-minute tours from Puerto Ayora, try Moonrise
Travel Agency , along the waterfront Av. Charles Darwin across
fromBanco del Pacífico, 5-526-402/3 or 526-348, [e-mail]

or [e-mail]. Neptuno Tours , also on Av. Charles Dar-
win,

5-262-246, offers good, inexpensive tours into the interior of
Santa Cruz, as well as local snorkeling excursions. There are a couple
of other last-minute booking agencies. Inquire around.

On the mainland is Galasam (Economic Galápagos Tours) ,
Quito,

2-2507-079/080, /fax [phone]; Amazonas and Cordero,

inGuayaquil, 4-2312-447, fax [phone], office 1106, 9 de Octubre

424 and Córdova; www.Galapagos-islands.com. Galasam offers the
best and most of the economy-class tours. Tours are on simple, small,
and relatively crowded but clean vessels. All meals and drinking wa -
ter are provided. Ask about the showers, as they may be little more
than buckets of fresh water available for use on deck. Galasam also
operates a new fleet of tourist-superior and luxury-class vessels
worth looking into.