Just thinking about you and my great time in Ecuador this AM. Just enjoyed some cedron tea - thanks to you!! Also, thought I'd give you a link to my photographs in case some prospective guest would like to preview Galapagos, Cotopaxi, etc. I wouldn't mind if someone wanted to contact me for a reference. Loved Girisol, and the time on Angelito 1. Photos - www.pbase.com/hobbymandoc
Feliz Ano Nuevo! John Pretty
Hola Maja,
Ya hemos regresado a Francia después de las mejores vacaciones de toda mi vida !! Nos encanto Ecuador y especialmente Galapagos, ahora ya sé porque se llaman las islas encantadas :)
El crucero fué muy corto, solo 4 dias, pero nos sentimos "en familia" en el barco, toda la tripulación nos trató como princesas, siempre ayudando para subir y bajar de las pangas, preguntando si necesitamos algo, enseñandonos los fondos submarinos, cocinando la mejor comida de todo ecuador... nos toco Diego de guía, y con sus 30 años de experiencia nos explico todo lo que queriamos saber sobre la fauna, flora y historia de las islas.
Bueno, nos gusto tanto que tenemos pensado volver para ir a las otras islas que nos faltan por conocer, y puede ser que hagamos la ultima parte del crucero que nos falta (del jueves al domingo) y pasar unos dias en Isabela ya que nos dijeron que es muy bonita!
Otra vez muchas gracias por habernos organizados estos cuantos dias de maravilla en Galapagos, todo fue sin ningun problema, muy bien organizado y te agradecemos asi que toda la gente que trabajó para hacer de estas vacaciones un recuerdo unico.
Saludos desde Paris !
Nathalie, Enero 2009
Liebe Maja, liebe Bruna!
Ich sitze gerade am Flughafen in Quito und warte auf meine lange Heimreise. Die Tour auf den Galapagos war der Hammer und ich moechte mich bei Euch dafuer herzlich bedanken!!! Das Boat & die Kabine war super, das Essen super lecker und so abwechslungsreich! Die Crew ist super nett und auch unsere Truppe war gut gemischt. Leider musste ich heute von Board, waere sogerne noch geblieben. Speziell bedanken moechte ich mich bei Nelson, der extra fuer mich vegetarisch gekocht hat und bei Juan, der immer so aufmerksam und zuvorkommend war! Ich werde Euch in der Heimat auf jeden Fall weiterempfehlen.
Ecuador hat mir so gut gefallen und dieses wunderschoene Land und diese erlebsnisreiche Reise wird mir noch lange in Erinnerung bleiben!
Ich muss nun zurueck in die Routine... Ich wuensche Euch alles Gute & gruesst mir bitte die ganze Mannschaft auf der Angelito!
Kerstin (November 08)
Hallo Maja, ich möchte mich noch einmal - auch im Namen von Inge - für die Traumreise auf der Angelito 1 bedanken. Es gab nichts, was man noch hätte toppen können. Die Betreuung war super, die kleinen Aufmerksamkeiten nach den Landgängen haben den Genuss noch erhöht. Wir haben uns wie zuhause gefühlt und werden noch lange von dieser Reise zehren. Wir freuen uns schon auf ein Wiedersehen!!! Nochmals vielen, vielen Dankk für diese Traumreise in die Welt der Tiere! Heike D. Berlin (November 2008)
Liebe Bruna und Maja und der Rest der Mitarbeiter,
jetzt sind wir schon fast wieder eine Woche zu Hause.....und denken viel und gern an die Zeit, welche wir in Ecuador und auf den Galapagos verbracht haben. Wir möchten nochmals "Danke" sagen, denn es ist unvergesslich, was wir alles erlebt und gesehen haben. Es ist schwierig, dies in Worte zu fassen...... Auch der Rest der Tour und die entsprechenden Hotels, welche Du uns rausgesucht hast, waren klasse. Ich habe sogar den Dschungel "überlebt" und mir eine Tarantel angesehen,welche zur Begrüßung auf einem Bananenblatt saß ;-). Vielen, vielen Dank für die liebevolle Betreuung und die unvergessliche Woche auf der "Angelito". Wir waren nicht das letzte Mal bei Euch!
I just returned from a week cruise in the Galapagos aboard the yacht Angelito. To be helpful, I thought I'd share our experiences.
The Galapagos are fabulous. We swam with sea lions, saw orcas feeding, saw penguins, boobies, iguanas, albatross, topic birds and more.
Strengths of the Angelito included a great guide (Diego), very service oriented crew, excellent food including vegetarian choices, clean well maintained ship, adequate bunks, lots of snorkeling, free masks and fins. One problem was the rough seas on the long passages that had some passengers seasick, including my daughters.
The itinerary included Genovesaand Espanolawhich I gather is unusual so we saw both nesting blue footed boobies and waved albatrosses. We did not see Fernandinaor Isabella, nor did we see the large tortoises in the wild (we did see them at Darwin Station). We were there at a time of year to see the albatross which was great. However, the mating season of the blue footed booby, when you can see the famous mating dance, is spring, so we missed that -- a trade-off.
I booked through a broker, Guide2Galapagos. I had anxiety about wiring all that money and receiving essentially nothing to guarantee the trip in return, but is was all fine in the end. However, G2G provided minimal assistance and I'd recommend booking directly with the owner, Cometa travel. They have a web page. When I contacted them, they seemed helpful and others on my yacht had used them and thought them excellent too.
Overall a great experience and I would recommend the Angelito to others.
It was wonderful. The entire crew did a great job and had a good attitude, they worked very hard to make sure everything went smoothly.
Diego is very knowlegable and was patient with everybody.
We felt that your whole operation was very professional.
Thanks again for everything, Julie and Randy / July 2008
We just returned from our cruise on the Angelito and I thought I would let you know that we had a great time. Diego was a great guide. The crew members were all excellent. The itinerary was great. Cabins were OK. The food was very good. Two minor suggestions. (1) The vegetarian options could be improved. (2) Rather than downplaying the roughness of the passages to Genovesa and Espanola, suggest ahead of time to anyone inclined to seasickness that they take their medicine.
Overall we had a great experience and would recommend the Angelito to others enthusiastically. Thank you very much.
David D.
Wir gruessen Dich ganz herzlich, liebe Bruna, und danken Dir fuer Deine überraschende Mail!
"Aus den Augen, aus dem Sinn" trifft hier bestimmt nicht zu und auch wir sind mit den Gedanken noch gar nicht zu Hause sondern stets in Quito, umgeben von Dir und Maja und Eurer liebenswerten "Mannschaft". Ja wir hatten in der Tat eine lange Heimreise (ca. 26 Stunden unterwegs).... Jetzt kommt noch die Betrachtung und Nachbearbeitung unserer Bilder und Filme, schön aber zeitaufwendig. Wir sind schon gespannt, was und wen wir alles eingefangen haben.
Unser Abschied ging so schnell und es ist uns ein echtes Anliegen, Dir und Maja nochmals unseren allerherzlichsten Dank zu sagen für alles was Ihr für uns getan habt. Wir hätten nie erwartet, daß wir so liebevoll aufgenommen und betreut werden, ganz abgesehen von der perfekten Organisation der Landreise und dem großen, unvergesslichen Erlebnis Galapagos. Wir hatten selten eine so schöne und harmonische Reise, vor allem auch wegen des bequemen Autos, stets wohl behütet und bestens informiert durch Willy, der wirklich ein großartiger Fahrer/Führer ist und durch seine absolute Zuverlässigkeit, Freundlichkeit und Ehrlichkeit ein besonderes Lob verdient. Er ist uns ebenso "ans Herz gewachsen". Ecuador wird uns stets als ein wunderschönes und gastfreundliches Land in Erinnerung bleiben! Edgar und Heidi B.
Maja, we had such a good time with you on your boat. It was one of the best trips we've ever taken. Very well organized, and especially the timing of our group on each island, so that we felt we had the island to ourselves. And also plenty of time to walk, and stop, and look, and feel the environment---very special. Thank you for sharing your knowledge (and your humor) with us, you have a very special attitude toward life. You made it a very special trip for us. Ignacio
Well what an experience! Everything about the holiday was fantabulous the boat,the crew,the cuisine and to cap it all the experience of being priviledged to meet some of the worlds most exotic creatures:sharks, boobies, iguanas, sealions and reptiles including tortoises and turtles.The organisation was also superb from the time we stepped off of the plane to arriving back at quito.Full marks to amazing Peru and the owners of Angelito the finest boat on the Galapagos. Diego our guide was also superb, working us hard to see and understand about the animals and plants that we encountered. Well done Angelito. Tony Cox and Nadya Golovina
Hola amigos:
We just returned from the Galapagos and thought that we would share our experiences with the board.
After hearing only positive comments about the Angelito, we decided to book a one week cruise in November aboard the Angelito. We could not have been happier with our selection. The boat is very well maintained, the crew of 7 plus the guide were friendly and professional and the food was excellent. We booked our trip directly with the boat's owners (Cometa Travel). Maja, one of the boat's owners, arranged everything via email, including the flights from Quito to Balta. We were VERY nervous about depositing $3400+ into a bank account without any guarantees or the protection of a credit card transaction. As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about.
Our naturalist guide, Diego, was excellent. He was born in Puerto Ayora and has 25+ years experience. His dry sense of humor and idle threats of a test at the end of the week always kept us entertained. Our fellow travelers were from the US, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, England and France. The mix was excellent and the tours were in English. We traveled at night and the seas got rough...bring sea sickness medication if you are prone to motion sickness.
Highlights were the islands of Espanola and Genovesa, but all the islands had much to offer. We snorkeled and swam every day and we felt like the day spent in Puerto Ayora was a positive and not a negative. A one week trip felt like the right amount of time. A 3-4 day trip would have been too short.
We travel a lot and this Galapagos trip was one of our favorites.
John
We had the most wonderful 8-day cruise on the Angelito in May 2005. The crew were marvellous, the food delicious and we felt pampered the whole week. The planning was excellent and Efrain (our guide) knowledga ble and helpful at all times. The itinerary was marvellous, with something n ew, exciting and unexpected every day. I would happily recommend this boat a nd crew to all. Please extend our thanks to all.
Caroline Beresford
The trip on the Angelito was great. The peak of our tour to Ecuador! We enjoyed everything: the nice group, the welcoming crew and the wunderfull islands. Thanks to the crew and our awsome guide Maja. We will come back as soon as possible!!!
Familie Widmann, Germany
We spent a week on the angelito I. A great week. Beautiful yacht, very good guide(Hansel), amazing islands. Thank you for the most special week in our life. Thank you all. Missing all of you. Shiri and Avi.
Dr. Avi Abargel, Israel
Maja and the crew of the Angelito gave us the wonders of the Galapagos in a way that we could not imagine. We hope that many more travelers will experience the Galapagos on the Angelito. Thank you, Robert and Rhonda, California, USA
Robert and Rhonda, USA
Maja I was on the broadreach group and I had such a great time! My pictures turned out amazing! Thank you so much!
~Ann
I loved the Angelito. It was a breath-taking experience I will never forget. I hope I will get the chance in the near future to visit the Galapagos again
Garcia, USA
Thank you Hansel, William and all the crew for looking after us so well. Sarah and I have had the most memorable week of our life. The video and the photos are great thanks to a good teacher Hansel. I will eventually get round to sending a video copy as soon as possible. We are both back at work of course and I am preparing to go to Rwanda again to see the mountain gorillas and to visit an orphanage I am involved with. We cannot believe we saw so many whales! What a wonderful experience that was. Regards and best wishes to all Sylvia and Sarah Morgan
Sylvia Morgan, England
